Swimming with the Sharks: Daymond John and Barbara Corcoran

Get ready for a masterclass in entrepreneurship and resilience as we dive into the minds of two of the most iconic business moguls! In this power-packed episode, join me with Daymond John and Barbara Corcoran as we navigate the turbulent waters of business and life. This episode is all about mastering the art of turning adversity into advantage. We're unlocking the secrets to entrepreneurial success, straight from the sharks themselves. Here’s what you’ll gain from this electrifying conversation: Discover the power of the hustle and how Daymond John built FUBU from the ground up, transforming a simple idea into a global brand. Learn Barbara Corcoran’s top strategies for identifying and seizing opportunities, even in the face of rejection and failure. Uncover the critical importance of branding and how to create a powerful personal and business brand that stands out. Get insider tips on negotiating deals and making the right decisions in high-pressure situations. Hear firsthand experiences and lessons on resilience, grit, and the mindset needed to thrive in the competitive world of business. We're not just talking about surviving; we're talking about thriving and dominating your space. This episode will give you the tools and inspiration to push beyond your limits and achieve extraordinary success. Prepare to revolutionize your approach to business and life by learning from two legends who've been in the trenches and come out on top! Follow The Ed Mylett Show: Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/edmylettshow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19TdDBlFkqh7uevYO0jFSW?si=d4ce5631a961441e YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EdMylettShow Or Wherever, you listen! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

  So hey guys, are you frustrated with where you're at right now? Maybe stunted in your progress? Well, if you are, I want to recommend a place for you to go called Growth Day. GrowthDay.com/Ed. It is the number one personal development app on the planet. It's got all kinds of high-performance techniques in there. Courses, accountability, journaling, live speeches from some of the top influencers in the world, including me. It's an overall environment to change your life. GrowthDay.com/Ed. I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 a.m. to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 p.m.

• 0:43Ed Mylett?

  And my third day, 6:00 p.m. to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time too. And you definitely can't afford to waste it waiting weeks on a big bank for capital. Your best bet's to work with my friends at Cardiff. They know how to compress time for entrepreneurs. They get your business approved in minutes and funded the very same day. They're America's favorite small business lender, and for good reason. Over 20 years in business, over $12 billion deployed to small business across America. Stop letting bank delays slow down your momentum. Head to Cardiff.co/Ed. That's Cardiff.co/Ed. Cardiff.co. Real growth, fast funding.

• 1:28Ed Mylett?

  Cardiff, borrow better.

• 1:35Speaker 01

  This is the Ed Mylett Show.

• 1:40Ed Mylett?

  Hey, everyone. Welcome to my weekend special. I hope you enjoy the show. Be sure to follow the Ed Mylett Show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. You'll never miss an episode that way. Here's our first guest. Welcome back to Max Out, everybody. This is going to be a great show today. Wanted to do it for a long time. The gentleman needs no introduction. Five bestselling books, 12 years on television. He's uh, my favorite shark of all the sharks and a few of them are my friends. So I say that with some, some bias. He's also, in my opinion, one of the greatest motivational and business speakers on earth. He's one of my favorite people to listen to. Took like forty bucks, turned it into billions of dollars in FUBU, and he's one of the great entrepreneurs of all time too. So Dana John, welcome to Max Out. Good to have you here.

• 2:22Daymond John?

  Thank you, Ed. I mean, I think the, the, the um, feeling and the respect is mutual. Thank you for the kind words and I appreciate being here.

• 2:29Ed Mylett?

  Thank you, brother. If I met you young, I'm just curious, would I have known this was gonna happen for you? I mean, was there something about you that had I met you as a young man that would have indicated all of this would happen for you?

• 2:42Daymond John?

  You know, it depends on the time you met me during my life. You know, at, at the time when I was super naive and I thought it was just easy, you'd have met me, I'd have been like, not a problem. And then that would have been probably around sixteen or seventeen. I think that's when, you know, they like to induct people into the armed forces because that's the smartest and the dumbest time of your life. At that time, I thought I would have been it. And then right around twenty-one, twenty-two, I realized that I took that one year off of school, off of college, you know, to, you know, to pursue other things. That one year became forever. I laughed at all the other kids who searched to hire a education and around twenty-two, twenty-three, I was broke as a waiter in Red Lobster and all those kids that I laughed at was coming back from college and I said, maybe I'm the idiot. So it all depends on the time that you met me in life and how naive I was and if,

• 3:27Daymond John?

  if life had kicked me in the teeth properly, the way it should have.

• 3:31Ed Mylett?

  The thing I noticed when we met, the reason I ask you that is that, and we'll go to you a little bit, you know, about your upbringing a little bit, but when I met you, one thing that struck me, and we both met lots of people, is your personal presence. So I've heard you say before, I'm, I'm short, I'm black and I'm dyslexic, you know, and that's, you, you described yourself that way. When I met you, I met a man with a ton of personal presence, almost. Bordering on almost intimidating, but certainly a lot of confidence. That's why what I ask, have you always had that? Or is that something you developed as you became more successful? Or were you conscious like I need to develop this air of confidence about me? Because all these entrepreneurs are listening to this. And one of the things I think a lot of them lack is just some personal presence and self-confidence. Did you always have it? Or did you work on it?

• 4:17Daymond John?

  I I think it was a learned trade, you know? And being the short black or whatever, but let's just say in my neighborhood, I was short, I uh, you know, a lot of kids, you know, at that time were tough and they were drug dealers or fighters. I never really knew how to fight really well. Could I hold my own? Yes, but there's always somebody with a bigger wallet, bigger winky and a bigger fist than you in the world. And I always realized that. I think that it was then when I was able to manipulate my surroundings by knowing that the bigger kids respected me because I was smart or because some of the other cool kids or the drug dealer friends of mine respected me because I had a moral standard. And I said, listen, if you got something in the car and I know we're good friends, just let

• 4:55Daymond John?

  tell me to get out, man. Don't put me in that situation. And as I started to, um, you know, gain respect in various different areas of various different people. Um, I found that I gained the confidence to walk into a room and know that I'm all I got, right? And I'm not going to overplay or disrespect you and I never played smarter than I was. So I love, you know, when you and I, when we speak to uh, colleges or VCs or whoever, it's a lot of people in the room often with the big brains, you know, like especially when I speak at big, huge schools, I make sure I go in the room and I say, listen, I'm only going to tell you my story and this is my story and this is what I have retained from my story. However,

• 5:37Daymond John?

  the people here, the professors, they can teach me a lot of things on a PhD level and I, so I, uh, uh, I don't even want to take away from them because I value what they do. And then all of a sudden you see the professor sitting up in the audience, looking around because they know that I could have came in and said, well, I missed the so forth and so on. And this is the way it is. And so when I, when I, uh, walk into a room, I appreciate the other person's positioning. I know where I stand and I think that that makes us, and I try to bring that other person up if they, if they not feeling like they're there. I think that's what gives me the confidence because I know. I'm exuberant in confidence as well as I'm trying to bring the confidence out of the person in the world, uh, of the room and I respect them and I hope, hopefully that, that is, that is what you, you will witness it.

• 6:18Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, I did. I go, uh, and it's, uh, when I, people have asked me about, I've described it and I think there's this balance with successful entrepreneurs of it. Obviously they have to have a great idea. They have to be able to execute. They have a really unique balance that I see in you of, of really a presence and a self-confidence, yet humility to learn and to grow and to be open. You seem to have like that ma- major combination. Go back to the upbringing and just cause I want people to understand you're one of the most well-known, obviously because of Shark Tank entrepreneurs too. But like you've written five books and, uh, but you're, are you, you legitimately dyslexic like?

• 6:53Daymond John?

  Yeah.

• 6:55Ed Mylett?

  How's that impacted you as an entrepreneur? I mean, how'd you write, how'd you write books doing that?

• 6:59Daymond John?

  Well, you know, um, believe it or not, eight, eight out of the 12 sharks are, are dyslexic. So Richard Branson, myself, Kevin O'Leary, Barbara, I think Rohan. And, uh, two others don't come to mind at the moment. Um, so it's fascinating and I didn't really find out that I was dyslexic till, uh, years on in life. I didn't find out I was dyslexic until, uh, two-way pages came out. Because you gotta remember as a dyslexic kid, I'd write a love note or I'd write a letter to my mom, you know, my mother, uh, you know, Damon Hay and she'll say, hey, you need to fix this. I write it to my teacher. She sends back the really nice, uh, you know, D minus and I write a love letter to my girlfriend and she just leaves me and I never knew why. I didn't understand what the hell I was saying, right?

• 7:45Daymond John?

  But when communication started to come out to write to other people, emails and two-way pages, I would start sending stuff out and I was, I probably just started getting a staff at the time and people would start getting those emails going or, or two-way pages going. Ooh. Wow. And you know, one, a couple of them was, a couple of them would say, hey, do you know this? Or if it was a really angry one to somebody, they'd write back, you dumb motherfucker. You know what you sent me? So either. Either way, I started to to understand that there was an issue there and then I went and got tested and realized that I had dyslexia. But when I reflect on growing up as a child with dyslexia, I think the gift of dyslexia is the fact that um if I had read a book and I didn't retain anything as much as I should, I'd read it ten times to make sure I retained things.

• 8:30Daymond John?

  I would also go out and try to execute things that it said to do because I wasn't certain if I retained it the right way. Um I also veered away from school from um history and English, but I really love math and science and uh and started trying to build the areas I was good at, numbers, uh you know, embarrassing things. So so listen, it is what I was born with. Um twenty percent of the world is dyslexic, seven presidents were dyslexic, Einstein was dyslexic, and eighty-five percent of personal professional chefs are, and over forty percent of entrepreneurs are dyslexic. So I don't think it's a problem. I think it's just a different form of uh absorbing information.

• 9:07Ed Mylett?

  Wow, I had no idea that was the data. The reason I go there is like, I think we're all really aware of our deficiencies. Like, for me, it's one of the things you said, I walk into most rooms, and I know I don't have the highest IQ in the room, you know, and I but I didn't allow that thing I was aware of that was my one of my deficiencies to make me believe I couldn't be successful or win. I think a lot of people listen to this. They're like, well, you know, you all winning, but you don't know this thing about me. Like, I've got this divorce, or I had this bankruptcy, or I'm dyslexic, or, you know, my dad's been locked up, or whatever the thing is. And they start using that thing as the thing in their mind that will cause them not to succeed. And then I'm reading about you because

• 9:49Ed Mylett?

  I wanted to do this justice because I have such respect for who you are and also the your message. When I heard you talk, I'm like, I love what he has to say. So you're building FUBU, you literally, because I want entrepreneurs to hear this, because in COVID, this is happening a lot. You had to shut it down a couple of times.

• 10:05Daymond John?

  Yeah.

• 10:06Ed Mylett?

  I mean, I want everyone to understand this. Take us through that a little bit, because I think most people think it's over, game closed, door shut, I'm out. Well, that didn't just happen once with you, right?

• 10:16Daymond John?

  Correct, so I shut it down three times from eighty-nine to ninety-two. It did not happen once, but I was always able to recover from the shutdown because I was taking affordable steps, right? I was acting, I was learning, and I was repeating the act. Um, so I would lose five hundred dollars, a thousand dollars. And honestly, I didn't know, I didn't know if I wanted to start over again. Again, it was another hustle, another passion that I had. Well, this one was more passion, all the ones, all the ones were due purely to make money, and I didn't love what I was doing, so I ended up quitting or, or closing up whatever shop it was and not wanting to go further. But when I would close this business and people would say, man, I wore this shirt, I've been looking for you at the mall, or at the, at the kiosk, you, where were you? I, I can't, it started to call

• 11:00Daymond John?

  me back, and I found more reasons than the business that called me back. I was, I found, well, I felt like a place of belonging. I felt like I was adding value to other people. You know what? I got shirts, I got my ten little shirts, but I'm going on video sets where rappers like LL Cool J, Salt and Pepper, Run DMC are performing. I would have paid to go on that set to watch the greatest artists, as, as far as I'm concerned, of all times, my time, perform. But yet, when the security is kicking all the kids off, I'm like, yeah, I'm here to, uh, dress the artist, uh, you know? So they would kick me off last. Plus, I was hollering at all the video vixens, and I was getting free food from the craft services, so it was a win-win for me. So even if I went to forty video sets and only

• 11:42Daymond John?

  five put my stuff in, thirty-five of the video sets, I would have, I couldn't wait to be there. So it was a win all around, and that's what a lot of times when entrepreneurs see that they're challenged, they find ways to figure it out because there are so many more things than just the monetary. Usually, the monetary reward is an afterthought of your actions and the lessons you've learned and the drive and your dedication. Um, and then that's what I found it to be. Did you have to get a job in between? Like, you shut it down, you went and got a regular old job? Oh my God. So um I I worked at Red Lobster for five years as I did FUBU um because you know at the end of the day, don't let Shark Tank sp- uh you know fool anybody here when Kevin O'Leary says, well, I want my partner to work full time on the business. Okay, if you're doing

• 12:27Daymond John?

  a half a million, a million, or whatever the case is, but you know, I worked at Red Lobster for five years and I slept three, three hours a night. I rented out my house that I had to strangers, so I had three bedrooms. I rented that out for twenty five dollars apiece each bedroom. I slept in the sleeping bags next to the sewing machines as we were sewing clothes. In the morning from six to eleven AM, I would answer the, at that time, a, a, a voicemail machine and, and sew and deliver hats. I'd go to Red Lobster from twelve to ten o'clock at night, work a double shift, come home and, and then, and then sew more hats and answer more things from twelve to three and then get back up at six in the morning. I repeat it all over, but I was hopefully taking care of the mortgage by renting out the house at twenty five dollars a room. So I was getting seventy five dollars a week there. I had insurance

• 13:12Daymond John?

  uh at Red Lobster. I was taking all the fried shrimp home, all the food home, and I was making thirty thousand dollars a year, which is not a lot, but you equate that to, you equate that to five years, that's a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I would have to do two million dollars in business at uh FUBU to do that. Um and I was able to, I was able to last until I was able to now, you know, increase my time from, you know, twenty percent on FUBU to eighty percent on FUBU and twenty percent of Red Lobster and then, and then hopefully take it to where I wanted to go.

• 13:40Ed Mylett?

  This is exact, this is the real entrepreneur story. This is why I wanted, thank God you just said that. Like, I'm so glad because like I, just so everybody knows, like, same with me. I had a house, I was doing well. I did well enough, so like I quit my job. I was full time, my first big business. I bought a house, then I went broke, then I was stocking shelves, and I did the same thing. I rented rooms out in my house, so I didn't lose the damn house as I built my business. I just hope all entrepreneurs get a little hope when they hear this, and also they hear the hard part in there, which is like, hey, I slept three hours. I was psycho. I was psycho. So and by the way, when people seem really smart, like Damon does, or I have something to say, a lot of it is experience.

• 14:20Ed Mylett?

  Experience is one of the best teachers, man, and that's why he knows so much about being an entrepreneur, because he's done so much of it. This episode is sponsored by Ro. A lot of people assume GLP-1's a cost of fortune, and that assumption keeps them from even looking into treatment. Ro helps people find a more affordable path to FDA-approved GLP-1 treatment. Ro wants to help people lose weight. That's why they have more affordable GLP-1 options, whether you're paying with insurance or cash. Ro's free insurance checker makes it easy to see if you're covered for GLP-1 injections. Just submit your insurance card and Ro handles the rest. No paperwork, no waiting on hold, no confusing phone calls. And if insurance doesn't cover treatment, there are still options.

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• 16:32Ed Mylett?

  Just want to remind you all that you can subscribe to the show on YouTube or follow the show on Apple or Spotify. We have all the links in our show notes. You'll never miss an episode that way. Now on with the show. Now, I want to ask you this. On Shark Tank...

• 16:47Ed Mylett?

  How many have been that you've invested in percentage wise roughly winners losers what you would consider a winner loser what would you say of where you put your your efforts and monies what percentage of the ones you've gone in on have been winners and losers?

• 17:01Daymond John?

  So I say thirty percent of winners I always say thirty well thirty percent of winners thirty percent of losers and thirty percent are still trying to figure their way out and we happen to have of course um you know we have to happen to have a little bit more of an upside on Shark Tank because you look at traditional venture it's probably one and a half to two percent uh to two twenty percent excuse me or one out of ten or winners we happen to have a five million dollar commercial on that product and or that company when it happened so that's why I get I got a little bit more of an upswing however my downside is a little bit more also because Shark Tank sometimes I will emotionally invest in people that may not have the the word the the best thing in the in the world but I know that the entire world are watching

• 17:46Daymond John?

  them and if I invest in them I can potentially bring them to somebody else uh that may be more specialized in their area and give them more help that they need um and a perfect example of that and I don't want anybody say well that's a charity a perfect example of that is the three kids that came on with a cut board product that their father had passed away and their mother passed away but their father passed away to nine nine eleven related um causes but and normally that couple would probably would not have went where it has gone but we licensed this as William Sonoma the entire world got behind it and it is one of the best selling products in William Sonoma so you got that healthy balance of people that really need that stage that really need help but simultaneously they're inspiring a lot of people around the

• 18:28Daymond John?

  country and around the world so anyway to answer the question um I got I got it I got a little bit of a stacked deck when it comes to the successes but I got a little bit more of the challenges when it comes to the challenges.

• 18:39Ed Mylett?

  Yeah I want to figure out a little bit from you what the winners and losers have one of my favorite ones you did is Bamba socks and I want people to hear about this because I had Blake Mikowski on Mikowski on who did Tom's shoes kind of a similar concept right?

• 18:52Daymond John?

  Yeah.

• 18:53Ed Mylett?

  But I feel like maybe this these guys taught me something too I'm learning you know I'm turning fifty this year I'm learning more about what I think. The consciousness of the world is now in terms of the businesses people want to support. Maybe it's a little bit different than when I was a kid, you wanted to be like Mike. It was almost like you wanted to be like this hero. It seems to me now, people want to be a part of something else. So tell me about Bombasox, it'd be a good commercial, but also like why it's working? And the fundamentals of it, so that entrepreneurs listening to this may need to sow some of these seeds in there.

• 19:22Daymond John?

  Yeah, I think you hit a fantastic point. So Blake is a guest shark this year and he definitely is the pioneer of the social causes behind things. And there's so many different things we can learn from Bombasox. So by the way, Bombasox is the number one invested product in Shark Tank history. Number one, right? So I get those bragging rights because when you ever see those other underachievers, I call my fellow sharks. Just remind them that I shared that great information with you. Now, here's a couple of things you can look at from Bombasox. Number one, when they came on, they were pitching socks. And the last person they should have been pitching was me because I had 10 clothing brands and eight of them were already dead. The last thing I wanted was another clothing brand. So I was the last one they should be pitching.

• 20:06Daymond John?

  But often when you're pitching somebody and or a customer, they don't know what you want until you present and package it in the right way and show a unique way of a selling proposition. But what they realized was I was doing business the old way. I was making clothes and hopefully a retailer will buy them and hopefully the retailer will put it on the shelf and hopefully somebody will buy it. And if they didn't buy it, I didn't know who they were to even follow up. So they were showing me that number one, I'm going to show you how to go direct to consumer, which we're seeing during COVID is especially critical and that's separating a lot of people and companies. Number two, they had a social cause to it. Every time they give a pair of socks away, they would also buy, sell a pair of socks. They would give a pair away to the homeless.

• 20:48Daymond John?

  Now, I'm a person that grew up in business where traditionally you gave at the end of the year or you gave to organizations. And even when I gave to organizations, I never advertised it. I never marketed it because why? Make a profit off of the hardship of others, kinda like the people you see giving away food or a sandwich to a homeless person and they got a camera shoved right in their face going, "Look at me!" And they're forcing this person not only to take a sandwich, not forcing them, but to even feel lower because they're on camera, right? So I never wanted to do that. However, that was how I worked 20 years ago. Today, with user-generated content and people wanting to be get behind something, they wanna look through the layers of what you're doing and they wanna tell people, not you.

• 21:32Daymond John?

  They wanna tell people your story, right? And they feel that they can buy from anybody. So if I'm gonna buy from you, what are you doing for other people? I could buy socks from anybody. So what I found is that not only they make a good pair of socks, they're very focused on what it is, but I found that, you know, when people on Zoom or the dinner table or Thanksgiving, they say, "Hey, what you do?" "Oh, man, you know, I gave away this year, you know, to this organization." They'll be like, "Yeah, well, I gave, I gave to 30 organizations this year." "Wow, you rich?" "No, but every time I bought this, I helped clean up the ocean. Every time I bought this, I helped stop human trafficking. And every time I bought this, I helped give a pair of socks to the homeless." And you know what? That is the marketing and that's good marketing, it's cause-related and, you know, it's really important.

• 22:14Daymond John?

  And so people also can get penalized if they're not doing something for you. And by the way, don't just, don't just put a rubber stamp of something that you think is good. People will also find out if you're not, you know, really true to what your core values are and what you're saying you're doing. So be, be honest about it, change the world and people will definitely appreciate it.

• 22:34Ed Mylett?

  That's legit. Any of you that are entrepreneurs, it's given you such remarkable advice. You gotta find a way that there's some social viral aspect of what you, it's gotta be genuine. You can't, I don't think anywhere, I don't think, I think, I think people smell bullshit a mile away. And like, there's gotta be transparency. You can't transfer to people that what you're really not feeling and experiencing. It's gotta be something you really have a passion for. But if you can find a way to sow those seeds into whatever your business is, I don't care if it's a dry cleaners. If there's something that you do that extends beyond just cleaning clothes, you're special in this day and age. What to the, I'm curious, is there some commonality that we can learn from, from the ones that you said were the 30% that lost, let's just say? Was there commonality in lack of effort of the entrepreneur, lack of execution?

• 23:18Ed Mylett?

  What would you say there's a common tread between the ones that have, I guess, failed?

• 23:23Daymond John?

  The commonality in the winners and the commonality in the ones that didn't get where they should be are pretty much similar in some sense. There are many losers who, there are many that lose and then they start over more wisely in a different area. So that means that maybe the product and or the service, the thing they had was too soon, too early, or they hit some hiccups. However, just like Damon closing three times, they were able to do it, you know. But the ones who lose and generally lose and stay and stay in that area unfortunately are the ones who believe. Well, the shark is, the shark got, the shark knows everything and now that I got a shark, my problems are over. And if, if I knew everything, then FUBU would be calling Nike, right? And it's not, right?

• 24:06Daymond John?

  So they, they, they use a shark as a crutch. Those are the ones, the ones who say. Well, the reason, if I had more advertising dollars out there than I would, or I had more money. Um, and, and they don't have the orders, they don't have those things, then I would do better. Well, money highlights your weaknesses as well. You know, if you got, if you're not moving in a product and you know, um. You know, you have a shitty advertising campaign, well, a million dollars more in a shitty advertising campaign just means you spent more money on a shitty advertising campaign. Or the product is inferior, or you don't know how, who your direct customer is. Those are the people that tend to fail, the ones who put big bets on the areas they don't know.

• 24:51Daymond John?

  Um, and those are the ones who drown an opportunity, as you want to call it, or they say if you have too many options, you don't have enough information.

• 24:58Ed Mylett?

  Really good. You guys know why I wanted him on now? By the way, if you go to Damon's site too, he's got a lot of different programs. Look, here's the deal, you guys. Most really successful entrepreneurs, here's just a rare combo. That you're a successful entrepreneur, I mean a real one, and you create content. Because the truth is, someone like Damon, and I'd like to think even myself. The return on creating content and helping entrepreneurs financially isn't as good as just executing in the businesses that we have.

• 25:26Daymond John?

  Right.

• 25:27Ed Mylett?

  So the reason we do it is out of a sincere desire to serve people. That's what I've sensed from Damon and now I'm listening, I'm like so convinced of it. So he's one of the real that you could learn from that creates content. And by the way, like, uh, is it the power of broke? Is that the one I just read? Is that the title?

• 25:44Daymond John?

  Uh, I have power broke. I have rise and grind. The one is just out now is called power shift. Uh, yeah, I try to put power somewhere in something, you know? I try to fix it, put it in there, yeah.

• 25:54Ed Mylett?

  I just finished reading the power of broke. And by the way, you should get all five books. Guys, it's so good. Like, like there's books you read and you're like, I'm gonna highlight three or four things in here that I'm gonna remember. The problem with his book is like, there was very few areas I wasn't highlighting. Like, the book was highlighted. And one of the things you talk about a lot is negotiation. So when you watch Shark Tank, that's a highlighted negotiation taking place, right? But like, almost everything's negotiation.

• 26:22Daymond John?

  Yep.

• 26:23Ed Mylett?

  Like, that's sales, communication, persuasion is negotiation. What are some of the nuances you could teach us? The fine points of negotiation that most people are unaware of?

• 26:35Daymond John?

  There's so many things that, you know, and I, and I think that you're right, right? What, what separates us from the people who are successful? It's really what, what you have been negotiating. And like you said, there is so many different forms of negoti- Listen, trying to get the remote control away from your significant other or getting your child to get on the school bus or getting into the bathroom before your roommate is a negotiation, right? But you've got to negotiate with yourself first in the mirror in the daytime, you know, when you get up, right? Am I worth it? Can I do this? You know, why, why, you know? And so here's, here's a couple of things of negotiation. First of all, know your why. Why are you getting into negotiation? And know also in the negotiation, what are you trying to accomplish? What, what is your bottom line and what is your top line? Right? Also, how do you build influence in the negotiation? If you see somebody like an Ed Mylett or Daymond John in the elevator, you say, Damon, okay, cool.

• 27:20Daymond John?

  How would I build, uh, influence with you in 90 seconds in the elevator? I didn't know I was gonna speak to you. Well, I remember, uh, a young woman, I was in the elevator, she told me her business and she had the perfect pitch. It was simple. Here's my business. Um, I know that I can have value to cause here because this is where I think you need. And you know what? I'm gonna put some skin in the game and do this for thirty days, sixty days, a month, whatever the case is. Give me a contact over your company. And you know what? If nothing comes out of it, at least I tried. And you know what? No harm, no foul. She made the barrier of entry extremely easy for me. She had a name on her card, very easy to follow up. And she said, let me speak to your people. I'm not gonna even bother you. Right? And she knew where I could potentially go in business. I go out of the elevator, I look up on social media. Every time I see her picture, she looks great. I keep seeing this guy next to her.

• 28:04Daymond John?

  He keeps having the Confederate flag on. I keep looking at who this guy is. It's her husband. I go further into his page. I, I see that, you know, there's some things that are very questionable in my life about what I would do. She'll never know why I didn't call her. Right? She didn't have to put all that information on there. You know what I mean? I mean, listen, whatever your political beliefs are, whatever your religious sexual beliefs are, that's totally up to you. But you know, what, what our parents tell you, tell you? If you ain't got nothing nice to say, don't say it at all. And when you're putting up stuff like that, you don't know who's washing the entire world. She lost her influence after she had already had the negotiation with me. So build influence with people. Then when you go in the room, when you discuss with, don't let Shark Tank fool you. Shark Tank, the world does not like Shark Tank. Like you just said, the world does not eight minutes of, hi Sharks, and then you either leave with a deal or not.

• 28:49Daymond John?

  You almost never leave with a deal when you first meet somebody. It's a dating process. And when you are talking to them, what's in it for the person you're talking to? Not you. You gotta realize that person has obligations, hopes and dreams. Ask the right questions. You see, even when I was writing that book, Power Shift, I was a, a Mark Cuban. He's in the book, he's highlighted. A lot of people in the book, right? Billie Jean King, Pitbull, Kris Jenner, huge people. My guy who sits next to me every day on Shark Tank, I keep telling my team, contact, I wanna get this interview together. And the deadline is coming up. He would not get on the phone and he would not, um, uh, meet with people, with the writer. And my team was looking at me like. Hey, you know, Mark is not doing that. Now, I said to myself, obviously, it's because I'm

• 29:33Daymond John?

  much smarter and much better looking than Mark. And, you know, he's intimidated, or I can internalize it as this guy's an asshole. He sits next to me, but is this some Hollywood stuff he's on? But you know what I said?

• 29:46Ed Mylett?

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• 30:31Ed Mylett?

  Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to quince.com/ed for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK, too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com/ed. So you know, I've been trying to take my health and my morning routine to the next level, and I used to do a whole bunch of different stuff, tons of different supplements. And then I found all-in-one in a drink with IM8. IM8 is the way to simplify your supplement routine, finally, once and for all. 16 supplements replaced 90 ingredients across nine major organ systems in one drink. You can have all these supplements for $2.61 a day. I've changed my mornings. The whole IM8 routine has changed my mornings. I feel great, and

• 31:15Ed Mylett?

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• 31:46Daymond John?

  You're probably not asking Mark the right question. Mark is somebody who publicly gives out his email. He only, he loves texts and, and, and whatever the case is. He's not dyslexic. Did you ask him, can he do it over text? They said, we never asked. That's stupid. I said, ask him if he could do it over text. Interview was done in 24 hours. Now, I could have internalized that, been offended. It's just like you walk in the room and, you know, and like I said to you earlier, you know, where I came from, I could have walked in the room and said, oh, it's because I'm black, isn't it? No, it's not because you're black. You got a damn booger hanging out, you know, as well. I'm looking at you weird, right? You know, so it's all about what's in for the other person. And then the final part of negotiation is, how do you nurture the relationship after that and let it keep paying dividends? Whether you close the deal

• 32:27Daymond John?

  or not, how is that person going to call Ed and say, Damon's a decent dude. If Damon's going to call about Ed and say, yeah, he's a good guy, or, or do more deals after. And those are the processes of negotiating and we can get way into it, uh, much further, but a lot of people mess up in those processes.

• 32:45Ed Mylett?

  That was a great conversation. And if you want to hear the full interview, be sure to follow the Ed Mylett Show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. Here's an excerpt I did with our next guest. I'm so thrilled to have this woman here today. I don't think I've ever enjoyed preparing for an interview more than I did this one because we had not met before. Yet we have all these very mutual friends who have just, they just love her so much. I was telling that before we went on. And then as I'm reading about her and learning, I'm falling more in love with her. So you would know her best probably from Shark Tank, which airs on Friday nights. She's got an awesome podcast called Business Unusual. And I think she's one of the most fascinating guests we've ever had on the show. So Barbara Corcoran, welcome to the show. Thank you for being here.

• 33:26Barbara Corcoran?

  Thank you so much. And all your compliments are a little bit premature, Ed. Why don't you wait a little bit on it?

• 33:31Ed Mylett?

  Well, at the end of the interview, if it's not very good, I'll amend my remarks, but I'm pretty sure, I'm pretty sure we're gonna crush. I'm reading about you. I gotta confess, I've watched you on TV all these years. And I'm thinking, she's got so much confidence and presence. This is like an Upper West Side, New York, raised with a silver spoon. That's what I'm thinking, right? I, I just, and then I start to read and I'm like, oh my gosh, she's one of us. And she's had to overcome this tremendous adversity. She's one of 10 kids. She's New Jersey. She's, it's, you know, your dad wasn't the richest guy in the world by a mile. I was just fascinated by your upbringing and what you've turned your life into. Then I read, you couldn't read her right.

• 34:09Barbara Corcoran?

  Well, eventually I did.

• 34:11Ed Mylett?

  Eventually, but as a child, you had dyslexia. I didn't know any of this about you. So let's just start out there just for a second because I want everyone who sees this finished product, this, you know, one of the top entrepreneurs, well-known ones on the planet. Take us all the way back to little girl Barbara.

• 34:27Barbara Corcoran?

  Well, after that introduction, I'm gonna get myself a bottle of whiskey and start drinking at this time of the day. So I could talk about it.

• 34:33Ed Mylett?

  You're two behind. I've already started, so go ahead.

• 34:35Barbara Corcoran?

  Okay, good, good. But you know what? All of that kind of background stuff puts a lot of emphasis on money and what money brings. And I've learned as an adult, I was very lucky having that background, being one of 10 kids, you know, having worries all the time about how we would make do in our little house. You know, we had 10 kids in two bedrooms, boys' room, girls' room. My mother and father made those kids on the couch. And we had one bathroom. But you know, when you're that young and that's what you know, I never felt like I was short on anything because I had a mother and father who really loved us and cared for us. And I have met so many people with my hats way off to them because they didn't even have that. And if you don't have that love when you're younger, it's a hard one to get over.

• 35:20Barbara Corcoran?

  So I was doused with love. And so I think of myself as a privileged child in a, in a real way. If you can get rid of the usual stereotype that money makes difference. And you know, I found that in my life, not having money made the difference. It made me desire to have a better life. Not that that was such a bad life. It made me dream about maybe one day having a beach house or having a nice car that didn't have, you know, Denson or whatever, like my dad's blue beauty that went on for 20 years, as I recall. It made me get lots of jobs. What an asset that was. I worked since the time I was 11, as did all my brothers and sisters. We all worked to contribute to the house. And I learned what I was good at, what I wasn't good at.

• 36:03Barbara Corcoran?

  And by the time I was 23 and started my business, you would swear I was 53 inexperienced in the, in the real world of living. I could go on and on, but those are meaningful ways that, that I got very, very lucky early.

• 36:17Ed Mylett?

  I feel like I had that too. Our backgrounds aren't that different. Tons of love. But there's also things that happen when you're a child, I think. That's why I respect you. Not because you came from, you know, low income means to obviously you've done incredibly well. But I think sometimes when we're a kid, there's experiences where our, either our parents or people that we admire around us kind of project their limitations onto us or say things that they don't know. Might be limiting us long term and our identity or our self-confidence that end up affecting us later. And for you, for me, I had an alcoholic dad who's ended up being sober and became my best friend, loving father. But there was always be careful. He always before we'd hang up the phone, be careful, be careful. You know, there's always this

• 36:58Ed Mylett?

  very cautious sort of thought process in our family. And for you in school, you were sort of labeled not so smart because of this reading and writing issue that you had with the dyslexia, right? Did you think that ever impacted you? Did you have to consciously overcome that? Or did you just work your way through with all these jobs and just the hustle?

• 37:18Barbara Corcoran?

  You know, that that in my life, even to this day, is the largest challenge. Because you said you had an alcoholic dad when you were younger. I mean, if you had an alcoholic dad when you were 25, it's very different. Than when you ate and feel so vulnerable, 14, and wonder if you're gonna grow up and be like that guy. It can be the most painful and cutting experience in into the depth of your heart and your confidence and your shake of faith in life itself. They're big injuries. Okay. So my big injury wasn't the same as your own. My big injury was I was a dumb kid and made fun of. And I can feel that pain to today, you know, I, God forbid,

• 38:02Barbara Corcoran?

  somebody acts like a bully to me in business. I turn into that kid getting even. I hate to say it, but it's like, I'll kill you. I'll kill you, you know, it comes right. It's not just a theory or a dream I have, but it's like, comes from all those old cuts around there, you know. So I think the choice of two ways you could go, okay? You could like feel sorry for yourself, which is totally normal when you're a child. Who teaches you not to feel sorry for yourself? Most of us are raised by parents who are pretty good at feeling sorry for the situation, right? So we learn that. But who teaches you not to feel sorry for yourself and instead get even in your life? And what I've chosen to do, and it didn't come early, didn't come so fast.

• 38:44Barbara Corcoran?

  It came out of duress, being on my feet in circumstances that I didn't envision. But as a young twenty something year old, I got over it. And not totally over it because I'm still an over preparer. I'll prepare fifty hours for some, what someone else will prepare fifteen minutes for, because I don't want to ever be thought of as stupid again. I don't want to embarrass myself. I don't want anyone to think my IQ is not up there or whatever. I go through all this insecurity. So my great asset I got from that is I'm an over preparer. And the other asset I got from that of growing up with that injury card, my biggest card. Every kid's got something. Nobody grows up happy as could be, okay? But my big injury card on that is I'm out to prove to the world for my entire life that I am not stupid.

• 39:27Barbara Corcoran?

  Because I was written off as stupid, reinforced that I was stupid. And I'm still, of course, I know I'm not stupid, but somewhere a piece of me still is scared about it. And that's what makes us bunny hop, you know? So you can get your strength from your greatest weaknesses if you have the strength to realize it, you know, and find it somewhere.

• 39:49Ed Mylett?

  It's absolutely perfect. I relate to it and I, it's one of my favorite things someone's ever said on the show. Because you watch you, you have this presence, you have it now, yet, I don't know. I, I meant what I said. I'm reading about you and I'm falling in love with this little girl. And I'm watching, I could just picture this little girl not being told she wasn't the smartest one. And she's just accomplished these amazing things in her life. And to know that, you know, that happened for you and not to you. One of the worst things that could happen is being labeled with a limitation like that. Your whole life, Barbara, to some extent, maybe not the last, I haven't been with you the last twenty years, it's all the winning and all that. But prior to that, I'm like, this woman takes a thousand dollar loan from a boyfriend, turns into a five billion, five billion with a B, real estate business. But then I'm, I'm picturing this scene.

• 40:33Ed Mylett?

  I just, I don't know, it made me emotional as I'm prepping.

• 40:35Barbara Corcoran?

  You're an old softie. Look at you, Ed. You're an old pushover, softie type of guy. I'm disappointed in you.

• 40:42Ed Mylett?

  I thought there was this. Well, I think that I think that I am a little bit. And the reason is that I

• 40:47Barbara Corcoran?

  I love it. I'm kidding with you.

• 40:49Ed Mylett?

  I know I root for people, you know, I root for I'm I'm thinking, I don't know, maybe people knew this. I'm watching you on the show thinking, man, if everyone knew this woman's story, I want to have her on so badly because it's remarkable. And I'm picturing you, you're like, all right, you're in the early twenties. You're with this boyfriend who gives you the thousand dollar loan. I want everyone to hear this.

• 41:08Barbara Corcoran?

  Yeah.

• 41:09Ed Mylett?

  You're with your boyfriend, he gives you the thousand dollar. You guys have built a really good business. You're doing most of it. You're doing the work, but you build a pretty good business. His funny name, you like Simone Lamone or something like that, right?

• 41:19Barbara Corcoran?

  It wasn't that funny. It was Corcoran Simone, my name first. That was a battle.

• 41:22Ed Mylett?

  What was his name, though? Wasn't it like Ramon?

• 41:25Barbara Corcoran?

  Oh, Ramon Simone.

• 41:27Ed Mylett?

  There we go. Ramon Simone. That was good. I remember. That was what I remembered. And I and he comes home and just tell them what happens. You're cooking dinner for his kids, right? And what happens? And then what do you turn it into? Tell us that.

• 41:39Barbara Corcoran?

  Well, of course, he came home to announce he was marrying my secretary. I just couldn't believe my eyes. I mean, my ears, rather, I guess, is what I couldn't believe. But she was almost eight years younger than I. She was prettier than I. She had long blonde hair. I'd already made mine short. I got it in hindsight, but he told me I could take my time moving out. I took about a minute. Grabbed my toothbrush was out of there. You know, that was my family. I was raising those kids. That was our our family. We also built a 14 man shop renting apartments in the city. So we had the family at work together. We had the family at home. I thought we were buds, you know, da da for life. But it took me a year of of a little bit feeling sorry for myself on the front end, I guess, because I thought, how could he do that to me? How could he take me by surprise? How could he?

• 42:22Barbara Corcoran?

  That's the pity pity party. That's so dangerous in life. But then I tolerated that for a year. She moved into my office. They giggled together. That's what broke my heart. The giggling. He liked her so much more than me. I was like the girl in the So I finally, one Friday, I just walked in and said, we're ending the business today, Ramon. We're gonna chop the people in half. You pick the first person, I'll pick the second. I think that was the day I grew up.

• 42:45Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 42:46Barbara Corcoran?

  I remember having presents. Like, I knew what we were doing that day. We divided that business, seven, seven people, in probably eight minutes. We divided the bank accounts, the receivables, the whole thing. I think it was seventy-six thousand we chopped up. And then I announced to my people we were going to be in a new office on Monday. I didn't give them much time. "Where are we going?" they said. And I said, "It's a surprise."

• 43:09Ed Mylett?

  You didn't know where you were going. Did you know?

• 43:11Barbara Corcoran?

  No.

• 43:12Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 43:12Barbara Corcoran?

  But I went immediately up that afternoon on Friday to my landlord and asked if he had any other space, because we always paid our rent on time. And he said, "Yes, I have the eleventh floor above the eighth floor." Same space. I knew the space. And I rented it that day. I had phones installed on Saturday. When you could do that, you could call and get business phones installed the next day. And I bought fourteen desks down on Forty Second Street, and those guys ran them up to Midtown. And I had everything packed that weekend. And they came into a boat box with all their possessions on their desks. Welcome to the Corcoran Group. And that was the first day of Corcoran Group. And it happened two days after the last day of Corcoran-Samone, you know. But, you know, the spirit of core in that business, the old business was a great spirit of core. They had a mom and

• 43:54Barbara Corcoran?

  a dad at home. Nobody knew we had marital problems. All of a sudden, Dad was gone, Mom was running it, you know. And we worked with passion, because I had so little money. And also, my security, I didn't know it then. But I realized on that Monday how insecure I felt without my boyfriend and partner. He was eight years older than me, a man of the world. I just, he found me in my little town of Edgewater, took me out of the diner, you know, told me I'd be a good person in sales. Everything that was, like, mature and positive about me, first time hearing things positive about me in my life, was from him. So I thought without him, I was really nothing. But even that was quickly

• 44:35Barbara Corcoran?

  turned into an asset, because I was running scared. And you know how helpful it is when you run scared. You run hard, you know. And so that couldn't have been a better start. And also, I forgot to mention, which I always like to mention, is that Friday when I left, he called me back, because he was really shocked that I moved so fast. And he called me back and he said, "Oh, Barbara..." I said, "Yes, Ray?" I said. He said, "I could call him Ray after a few years." I said, "He said, 'You'll never succeed without me.'" I couldn't believe he said that to me. I would rather kill than let him see me not succeed. And I can't tell you, Ed, how many times that came into my head at the tough times when you're, when all of us build businesses, you know, you go forward, you go back, you go forward, you go back,

• 45:19Barbara Corcoran?

  you think you're gonna go out of business and you stay in business, you save your neck for the, it goes on and on. But each of those worst moments, I would think about him laughing at me. It's terrible. He wasn't gonna laugh at me, I doubt it. But I picture him go, ah, ah, ah, and I, whoa, whoa, whoa, and shake me up. And I think of another new idea to try or something else to do, or something, something. And that would always like, just get me around that next corner. So I really had the gift of insult walking out that door. And I think if he had been lovely and mature and said, you know what, you're phenomenal, you're gonna do fine without me. And that was asking too much, because I had just hit a broadside, as you know.

• 45:56Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 45:56Barbara Corcoran?

  I think I maybe wouldn't have stayed in business. I think it would have made the exit in the beginning a little bit more graceful versus vengeful. And I realize I'm very good insulted. I also discovered my strength, you know?

• 46:10Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, well, I think finding like the leverage that gets you going. I think sometimes even when we start to have some success, I mean, why, why do you keep climbing? You know, some of you that are achieving, that are doing pretty well too, it's can you still find the reasons? We were talking about the football helmet behind me from Brady before we went on. She's got an Emmy behind her, I have a football helmet from another guy.

• 46:29Ed Mylett?

  But someone like him that he's keep finding. Yes, I would, tomorrow.

• 46:34Barbara Corcoran?

  If the football player comes with the football, I'll do a swap.

• 46:37Ed Mylett?

  I can't, I can't throw that one in, unfortunately. I could throw in lunch with me. But, but I gotta tell you, I, I, it's finding that leverage you get on yourself. It's hearing those things that you're, you're not smart, you're, you're going to fail. It's, it's feeding it to you in a way that it energizes you and not taking those things to bury you in your life that I think a lot of entrepreneurs go the other direction, like, ah, they were right, they were right. Every time there's evidence that something negative happens, rather than getting that bowing your spine, so to speak, and, and battling through. I also see this competition thing with you, like shines through you. The thing I wanted to ask you about, kind of as a little side road. Because you're a woman.

• 47:15Barbara Corcoran?

  I think so. Last time I looked down, I was. Yep.

• 47:18Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, but I'm stating the obvious for this reason that you were one of the first women, really. Women were already doing well at sales and right now they dominate the sales space.

• 47:27Barbara Corcoran?

  Yes, they do.

• 47:28Ed Mylett?

  But you were a woman owner also of a business. I'd just like you to speak to maybe women right now that are out there that are on the fence a little bit about should I start a business? Should I move into ownership in my life? What does, do you think there's anything unique that a woman brings to the table? And do you feel like there's still a shortage of female entrepreneurs out there?

• 47:47Barbara Corcoran?

  Listen, being a female, for me anyway, when I was building my business was an asset. Or at least I saw it that way. So it was. I was in a male dominated business. Every shop was owned by men, the development field, the brokerage field owned by men, usually second, third generation wealthy guys. Okay, and there are big companies, so it seemed insurmountable. All right, but it was worked by women and that wasn't lost on me. Ninety percent of the sales force were female. We didn't even have the gay population yet as part of the New York real estate scene, which today in brokerage is their very tremendous force in brokerage. Okay, so we had it worked by women owned by men. Okay, I could see the asset of that.

• 48:29Barbara Corcoran?

  I could see that if I was a girl telling the girls what to do, why would they object to that? Would I have more empathy for them wanting to spend, go home with their kids, being spread thin, having four jobs when the husband had one? I understood that because I was of them. Okay? So I was able to build a spirit of core that I'm not saying couldn't be done by a man, but no one really did it because they weren't cut out of the same cloth. So they were, they were part of me. I was their mom. They were my kids. And that was my attitude and feeling from day one at that business. They were my kids that I would kill for them in the same way I would kill for my own kids today, my real kids. And that gives you a big calling card.

• 49:14Barbara Corcoran?

  Now, to your other aspect of your question, lest I forget it. You said, what do you say to a woman who's working like particularly in a man's field, pulling ahead? You have no idea what you're missing until you start your own firm. If you were to be an entrepreneur, no idea what you're missing when you're not free to make the walls your color, to choose the people, to make the policy yours, to decide what stick is in the sand, which mountain you're gonna climb. When you're in charge, anyone, any individual in the world, put them in charge and you will see what they're made of. I remember my business, I was it, running the company, but I knew where I wanted to

• 49:56Barbara Corcoran?

  go, I knew I would need top management eventually, even though I couldn't afford it and didn't have enough size to have other people running offices. But I remember from almost the get-go, I would go away for two days, say, "Don't call me, there are no cell phones, don't call me, you're in charge." I would choose a salesperson, "You're in charge." "What do you mean I'm in charge? Whatever you decide is okay with me, don't call me." Make any decisions you want. "Mary's in charge, everybody, Mary's in charge." What I discovered in the first twenty-five, thirty-five people I had, I had potentially five or six phenomenal leaders, good managers, they didn't know they were managers, but I test drove them all the time, throwing people in charge, throwing people in charge.

• 50:41Barbara Corcoran?

  So if you can take charge, not only of your office as a manager, you usually find, find your gifts that way very often, but if you could go the extra step and be in charge of your destiny, what you do with your life, nine to five, every day you decide what power and what a delicious, delicious luxury it is in life, to be able to make your world what you want it to be, it's magic-making, you know? So you can't get me to, too badly, because I wish everybody could be entrepreneurs, I think there are certain traits that are dominating entrepreneurs, if you don't have them, you're not gonna make it. But I do believe if you are so inclined to have those traits, that ability, you're like missing so much by working for the next guy.

• 51:24Barbara Corcoran?

  I, I would rather kill myself than work for somebody. That's how I feel, that's how dedicated I am.

• 51:28Ed Mylett?

  You can see it on your face when you talk about, you said wired earlier, and then you said these traits, and I, I think that's, I get asked this too, and I don't know that I answer it very well, so I'm curious what your answer is. What are some of those traits? I'm sitting here, I'm driving in my car, I'm on a treadmill, I'm watching this on YouTube, wherever I am, listening to this, I'm like, you know, I wanna be an entrepreneur, or I am one, but I'm still not totally sure I should be. What are a couple of those traits in your mind that are just, you must have these or you shouldn't be one?

• 51:52Barbara Corcoran?

  I believe front and foremost is competitiveness. Wow, I have invested in a lot of businesses. I have to tell you, there's not one really successful one where the principal isn't fiercely competitive. You know, and I don't mean competitive like I want like Saban and Jim of Cousin May and Lobster, they're equally competitive. It's not like I don't want to be the biggest lobster brand in America. Not that kind of competitive, but Luke's did what? Luke's Lobster opened up a shop. The horns come out. Whether they wanted the shop there, whether they wanted the city there, whether they even had an interest, but their competitors there? It's like a fast fuse. My most successful entrepreneurs are sickly competitive.

• 52:34Barbara Corcoran?

  I know for myself, I used to compete for things in my field that I had no interest in, just to show them that I could get it. That's sick. I needed a shrink, not a job, right? But it's a wiring that you, you, that growl in you, you know, that you want to be competitive. And I think that's the number one trait. I think the number two trait, and if I only had narrowed to two, and there's so many things you tap into when you're an entrepreneur. You've got all guns ablaze, but the second one, I would say, is that you have to be able to get back up fast. Everybody, you know, gets a hit and feels badly, and you have a lot of excuses to rest a bit and stay low or make yourself right. He told me he was right, whatever.

• 53:16Barbara Corcoran?

  But I think it's the ability to, just like, get in the habit of getting up. I am such in the habit of getting up. I'm almost, not really, but almost at the point now where somebody slaps me around, I don't feel it. Because I'm so much in the habit, the good habit of getting back up. And interesting, if I could add, even though that wasn't your question, I'm going to throw it in here. It's interesting how often I'm asked by parents how to build a child's confidence, if only they find something they're really engaged in, if only they're really, if only. You know, I believe parents can very much help children find their thing by getting them in the habit, trying things, failing and getting back up. And you can control that. Force your kids to go back out and try. Back up at that, try at that sport if you're not

• 53:58Barbara Corcoran?

  good, try at that sport. Or you can't do your homework, try harder, go do it again. I think that kind of building a habit of trying is where all children get their, get their confidence from. And as dumb as I was in school, man, I was not allowed to coast. I was shoved out back and back and back and back and back. So I, I didn't think that lying down was an option. I got in the habit. And what an asset that was as an adult to have all that practice as a kid. I had an advantage, you see? So that's, I think I answered your question. Maybe not. You asked it again. I think I dropped a piece of it on you or something.

• 54:32Ed Mylett?

  It's so good. And it's interesting, I have to tell you, because I've asked that, I, I don't, I would like to have a different answer. I got asked that a couple of months ago at a speaking engagement I have, and I said the word competition.

• 54:43Barbara Corcoran?

  Oh, there you go.

• 54:45Ed Mylett?

  Because when I was done though, I wasn't so sure I, that that was the one thing. But I actually, I just, we just did this new podcast deal on a, you know, starting new businesses and somebody asked, I asked the other day to my friend, I said, why am I still, I'm like, I'm doing all these things. I said, what, what is, do I need a shrink? Like what you said.

• 55:02Barbara Corcoran?

  You do need a shrink. Yes. Don't get one. You won't be as profitable.

• 55:06Ed Mylett?

  That's what he said, almost verbatim. He said, he goes, Eddie, listen dude, here's the deal. You're competitive. You want to, you just, you want to, and also you're competitive with yourself. You want to see how much you can expand, how much you can contribute. And he said, you'd be dead just sitting around, man. I told him, I said, I live here on the ocean. I'm looking at the beach. I said, I have not put my feet on that sand in like four weeks. He goes, you get out there, you, you find a way to do it, but you're competitive. And I actually enjoy doing this more than I do just sitting there. It doesn't mean I don't like to rest. It doesn't mean I don't like to, you know, you know, recuperate, but I like expanding. I like contributing. I like growing. I want to compete. And so I completely agree with your answer. And this has been a trend with you. So now I'm like, okay, how's she got on Shark Tank? You have the exit in 2001, bunch of money.

• 55:52Ed Mylett?

  And then you're, I think you think you're gonna get the show.

• 55:55Barbara Corcoran?

  Yes, I had the show. They hired me. Yeah, I signed the contract.

• 55:59Ed Mylett?

  They hired you and then it was like, hmm, maybe not. You got it. This is amazing. I mean, think about this. What's happened to your brand, to your reach, to your influence? I mean, this one decision, we're one decision away from altering our life, right? One little competitive psycho streak in you. So tell them what happens. You get the show and then what?

• 56:20Barbara Corcoran?

  Then I get the call from the Mark Burnett's assistant. And same one who called me in the first place saying, I'm sorry, we've, the show's changed its mind. They've hired another woman for the lone female seat. I couldn't believe my ears. You know, you have to remember at this point I had already bought Hollywood outfits. Just gonna sign autographs. Oh, I had done my movie going. I had new, new leather luggage. Wasn't gonna be plastic in Hollywood. It's gonna be leather matching luggage. And so I, I was already there. Told my friends, I'm going to Hollywood. I'm going to Hollywood.

• 56:52Barbara Corcoran?

  Uh, so I was mortified more than anything. I honestly, the first thought I had is what will my, what will my friends think? What will I explain? I hate to be that shallow, but I really thought of that. And then I hung up the phone. I couldn't believe it. I had to shake my head. But then I did the thing that's more important than anything else in life, which I had learned to do. Get back up. So I got back up and I typed out a very brief email to Mark Burnett, whom I hadn't met. And called the assistant to promise, she promised she would deliver it to him. Cause I didn't think he'd read it, you know? And she said she'd walk it over and promise that he'd read it. And I told him, I consider him to be my lucky charm. All the best things in my life happened on the heels of rejection.

• 57:35Barbara Corcoran?

  When Sister Stella Marie told me I'd never learn to read it right, she was wrong. I learned when the big boys in New York said I couldn't compete, I became the number one rival. When Donald Trump said I'd never see a penny of the $4 million commission. I collected every penny in federal court. I just went right like that. And I said, I'd like you to invite both women out to compete and I expect to be on that plane on Tuesday. And what do you think happened? He invited us both out and thank God that was thirteen years ago. To pointing again to the power of not being so smart and not working so hard or all the rest of the stuff you have to do in life, but the power of getting back up, you know, just take another swing. By the way, Ed, what was shocking to me, well, I was not so shocked, I turned it around because I was

• 58:19Barbara Corcoran?

  used to turning things around, but what was shocking to me is my Clay, my producer, two weeks after that we were on Shark Tank, he said to me, you know, we hired four times more business owners than we needed and we rejected three out of four, he said, and not one wrote an email. I was like, what? No one objected? So I got the seat purely for writing that email, not because I earned it or I had good luck, but that email got me that seat, no doubt.

• 58:46Ed Mylett?

  That is just amazing story. And by the way, not only did you respond, I was gonna give you a little, everyone, just a paragraph of the email, not only did you respond, but you did it in such a way that just had a level of certainty. I think certainty.

• 58:58Barbara Corcoran?

  I was making it.

• 59:00Ed Mylett?

  I love that though, but see, but certainty is influence. This is, she says, Mark, I understand you've asked another girl to dance instead of me.

• 59:08Barbara Corcoran?

  Yeah, great opening line, even I laughed at that one.

• 59:11Ed Mylett?

  It's so good, it would get your attention, you would laugh at it, and he says, although I appreciate being reserved as a fallback, she says, I'm much more accustomed to coming in first.

• 59:20Barbara Corcoran?

  Yeah, that's another good line, I might say so again.

• 59:24Ed Mylett?

  It is, it's so, it's just, I gotta say, guys, I mean, these, there's moments that define our lives and do we get back up? You know, do we compete again? You know, do we dig deep? And these things may seem sort of hokey, they're real world things that end up deciding whether or not you've had a pretty successful life, or you're one of the most influential entrepreneurs on the spinning earth, which is what Barbara's become. Isn't that amazing? And it's just, I think it's just remarkable. Now, someone pitches on the show, I'm curious. What are you looking for? In other words, is it the, is it the business model itself? Are you evaluating the, the jockey or the horse or is it both? And how do you end up reaching a determination like this is at least one I may be in on?

• 1:00:08Ed Mylett?

  Or can they say one thing and you're like, I'm out? Is there something in particular you'll notice where you're like, I'm out?

• 1:00:14Barbara Corcoran?

  A few hot buttons. First of all, I really form a first impression before they ever say a word based on how they look. They're standing in front of the sharks lower than us. They're intimidating, come through the doors, they're standing there. They had told not to talk until they're asked to start. So there's this long silence while they set, just set the camera shots up close in their face. Very intimidating. And I watch how they handle the pressure. Okay, so when somebody's falling apart, looking at the ground, shifting, don't, can't handle that pressure. I just am out right away. I mean, I can't say I'm out, but I know I'm out. No matter what they say, that it would be digging out of a hole. I just can't really believe that this would be a strong business partner. Okay, that's one.

• 1:00:55Barbara Corcoran?

  I do pay attention to the model to the degree that I say, hey, will enough people buy this service or product? Is there a need for it and will enough people buy it? And if it seems, yeah, reasonable, I'm okay with the business model. All the details that we go into, the margins and blah, blah, blah. I'm honest to God, as a dyslexic, I'm asleep on the wheel. I'm often making a shopping list while it's going on because I can't hide in there to pay attention. Okay, but I already have formed my opinion on the very important piece. Hey, does it make sense with enough people buy it? Now I'm just watching at the person and just thinking to myself, could I picture them as my business partner? Do I like them? Do I trust them? And if I do, there's one last question. Do they have enough energy to make it to the finish line?

• 1:01:39Barbara Corcoran?

  Because I've never met a successful entrepreneur who didn't have a ton of energy. So if they don't have that energy, I don't, I think they're going to run out of gas. Now, I could be wrong, who really knows? But I know in hiring people my whole life, thousands of people, when people don't have high energy, they're never great. So that's like a breathing test almost. So that's kind of the summation of it. And then you have to hang in there for another 45 minutes before you can say I'm out and make up another reason why they're out. Because you don't want to say to everybody, I don't like your energy. You're not competitive. You know, I don't like the way you look. You have to come up with something more business-y. And I spend the rest of my time trying to come up with something more business-y that makes sense for the show, you know?

• 1:02:20Ed Mylett?

  Business-y. I love that. I do that all the time on this show. Let me sound more business-y so I can just fit in. I know exactly what you're talking about.

• 1:02:26Barbara Corcoran?

  Yeah.