THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Swimming with the Sharks: Daymond John and Barbara Corcoran

Episode Date: July 13, 2024

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 podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Growthday. Growthday.com forward slash 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 forward slash ed the wait is over Dell Technologies Black Friday and July deals are live check out incredible savings on select laptops and more like the XPS 15 powered by Intel core processors the XPS 15 brings you the perfect balance of power and

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Here's our first guest. Welcome back to Max Outt everybody. This is gonna be a great show today. I've wanted to do it for a long time. The gentleman needs no introduction. Five bestselling books, 12 years on television. He's my favorite shark of all the sharks and a few of them my friends. So I say that with 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 40 bucks, turned it into billions of dollars in FUBU. greatest motivational and business speakers on earth. He's one of my favorite people to listen to. Took like 40 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 Outt. Good to have you here.

Thank you, Ed. I mean, I think the feeling and the respect is mutual. Thank you for the kind words and I appreciate being here. 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? You know, it depends on the time you met me during my life. You know, at the time when I was super naive and I thought it was just easy,

you would have met me out of my not a problem. And then that would have been probably around 16 or 17. 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 and at that time I thought I would have been it and then right around 21, 22 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 kids who searched a higher education. And around 22, 23, I was broke as a waiter and 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 life had kicked me in the teeth properly the way it should have. The thing I noticed when we met, there's not ask you that is that it will go to your little bit, you know, about your upbringing a little bit. the way it should have. The thing I noticed when we met, the reason I ask you that is that, and we'll go to your a little bit, about your upbringing a little bit, but when I met you, one of the things that struck me, we both met lots of people, is your personal presence.

So I've heard you say before, I'm short, I'm black, and I'm dyslexic. You know, and that's, you describe 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 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 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? 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, you know, a lot of kids, you know, 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 are the drug dealer friends of mine respecting me because I had a moral standard.

And I said, listen, if you got something in the car and I know what good friends just tell me to get out, listen, if you got something in the car and I know we're good friends, just tell me to get out, man. Don't put me in that situation. And as I started to, you know, gain respect in various different areas of various different people, 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 what I got, right? And I'm not going to overplay or disrespect you and I never played smarter than I was. So I love when you and I, when we speak to 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 gonna tell you my story and this is my story and this is what I have retained from my story. However, the people here, the professors,

they can teach me a lot of things on a PhD level. And so I don't even wanna 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'm Mr. Soforth and so on, And this is the way it is. And so when I, when I 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 break that other person up if they, if they're 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, the room room and I respect them. And I hope hopefully that is what you will witness. Yeah, I did.

And it's what people have asked me about. I've described it and I think there's this balance with successful entrepreneurs. 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 really a presence and a self-confidence yet humility to learn and to grow and to be open. You seem to have like that major combination. Go back to the upbringing, just because 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 but you're are you legitimately dyslexic like that? How's that impacted you as an entrepreneur? I mean, how'd you write books doing that? Well, you know, believe it or not, eight out of the 12 sharks are dyslexic. So Richard Branson, myself, Kevin O'Leary, Barbara,

I think Rohan and two others don't come to mind at the moment. So it's fascinating. And I didn't really find out that I was dyslexic until years on in life. I didn't find out I was dyslexic until two way pages came out. Because you got to remember as a dyslexic kid, I'd write a love note or I read a letter to my mom, you know, my mother, you know, Damon, hey, and she'll say, you need to fix this. I write it to my teacher, she sends back the really nice, you know, D minus. And I write a love letter to my girlfriend, she sends back the really nice, 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? 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 had just started getting a staff at the time and people would start getting those emails going on to a page and

going, Oh, and you know what, a couple of them with 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 said? So either way, I started 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 if I had to read a book and I didn't retain anything as much as I should, I'd read it 10 times to make sure I retain things.

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. I also veered away from school, from history and English, but I really loved math and science and started trying to build the areas I was good at, numbers, you know, embarrassing things. So listen, it is what I was born with. 20% of the world is dyslexic.

Seven presidents were dyslexic. Einstein was dyslexic, and 85% of personal professional chefs are, and over 40% of entrepreneurs are dyslexic. So I don't think it's a problem. I think it's just a different form of absorbing information. Wow, 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, y'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 I wanted to do this justice because I have such respect for who you are. also your message. When I heard you talk, Mike, 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. Yeah. I mean, I want everyone to understand this.

Take us through that a little bit because that's, I think most people think it's over game closed doors shut. I'm out. Well, that didn't just happen once with you, right? Correct, so I shut it down three times from 89 to 92. 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. So I would lose $500, $1,000.

And honestly, 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 than all the ones that other ones would do purely to make money. And I didn't love what I was doing. So I ended up quitting 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 will. Where are you? I can't. It started to call 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 10 little shirts, but I'm going on video sets where rappers like LL Cool J, Salt and Pepper, Run DMC performing. I would have paid to go on that set to watch the greatest artists as far as I'm concerned of all times, my time performed. But yet when the security is kicking all the kids off, I'm like, yeah, I'm here to address the artists. 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 40 video sets and only five put my stuff in, 35 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 are 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. 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 wouldn't get a regular old job. Oh my God. So I worked at Red Lobster for five years as I did FUBU because you know, the end of the day, don't let Shark Tank 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 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 hours a night. I rented out my house that I had to strangers. So I had three bedrooms.

I rent that out for twenty five dollars a piece 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 a.m. I would answer at that time a voicemail machine and sew and deliver hats. I'd go to Red Lobster from 12 to 10 o'clock at night, work a double shift, come home and then, and then sew more hats and answer more things from 12 to three and then get back up at six in the morning.

I repeated all over, but I was hopefully taking care of the mortgage by renting out the house at $25 a room. So I was getting $75 a week there. I had insurance at Red Lobster. I was taking all the fried shrimp home, all the food home, and I was making $30,000 a year, which is not a lot, but you equate that to five years, that's $150,000. I would have had to do $2 million in business at FUBU to do that. And I was able to last until I was able to now increase my time from 20% on FUBu to 80% on Fubu and 20% on Red Lobster and then, and then hopefully take it to where

I wanted to go. This is exactly, this is the real entrepreneur story. That's why I wanted, thank God you just said that. Like I'm so glad because like, just 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 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, lot of it is experience.

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You'll never miss an episode that way. Now on with the show now I want to ask you this on shark tank How many event 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 money's what percentage of the ones you've gone in on have been winners? And losers, so I say 30 percent of winners. I always say 30. Well, 30 percent of winners, 30 percent of losers and 30 percent

of still trying to figure their way out. And we happen to have, of course, you know, we have to have 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 to 20 percent, excuse 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 happens so that's why 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 best thing in the world, but I know that the entire world are watching them. And if I invest in them, I can potentially bring them to somebody else that may be more specialized in their area and give them more help that they need. And a perfect example of that, and I don't want anybody to 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 9-11 related causes.

And normally that couple probably would not have went where it has gone, but we licensed this as a Williams Sonoma, the entire world got behind it. And it is one of the best selling products in Williams 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 country and around the world.

So anyway, to answer the question, 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. Yeah, I wanna figure out a little bit from you what the winners and losers have. One of my favorite ones you did is Bomba Sox.

And I want people to hear about this because I had Blake Mikosky on, Mikosky on, who did Tom Schuze, kind of a similar concept, right? Yeah. But I feel like maybe these guys taught me something too. I'm learning, you know, I'm turning 50 this year. I'm learning more about what I think the consciousness of the world is now

in terms of the businesses people wanna 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 wanna be a part of something else. So tell me about Bomba Sox, be a good commercial, but also like why it's working and the fundamentals of it

so that entrepreneurs listen to this may need to sow some of these seeds in there. 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 Bomba Sox. So by the way, Bomba Sox 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 Bomba Socks. 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. 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 gonna 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. 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 at the two organizations,

I never advertised it. I never marketed it because why make a profit off of the hardship of others? Kind of 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 want to

look through the layers of what you're doing and they want to tell people, not you, they want to tell people your story, right? And they feel that they can buy from anybody. So if I'm going to 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 do you do? Oh, man, you know, I gave away this year, you know, to this organization, they'd be like, yeah, well, I gave, I gave the 30 organizations a zero. 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. 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, cause-related and you know, it's really important. 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. If people also find out if you're not, you know, really true to what your core values are, what you're saying you're doing. So be honest about it, change the world and people will definitely appreciate it. That's legit. Any of you that are entrepreneurs, he's giving you such remarkable advice. You got to find a way that there's some social viral aspect of what you've got to 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 got to 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 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 did 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, what would you say there's a common thread between the ones that have, I guess, failed? 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 or 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 pickups. 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 I knew everything, then Fubu would be called Nike, right? And it's not, right? So they use a shark as a crutch. Those are the ones who say, well, the reason if I had more advertising dollars out there, then I would or I had more money 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're not moving enough product

and 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 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. And those are the ones who drown in opportunity, as you wanna call it, or they say, if you have too many options, you don't have enough information. Really good. You guys know why I wanted them on now? By the way, 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 it's 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. 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 it's so convinced of it. So he's one of the real that you could learn from that creates content and by the way like is the power of

broke is that the one I just read? Is that the title? I have power broke. I have rise and grind. The one is just out now is called power shift. Yeah, I try to put power somewhere in something, you know, I try to fix it and put it in there, yeah. I just finished reading the power of broken,

by the way, you should get all five books. Guys, it's so good. 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. Yeah. 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? There's so many things that, you know, and I think that you're right, right? What separates us from the people who are successful? It's really what you have negotiated.

And like you said, there are so many different forms of negotiation. 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 in 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, you know, and so here's a couple of things in the 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 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 Ed Milett or Damon John in the elevator, you say, Damon, okay, cool. How would I build

influence with you in 90 seconds in an elevator? I didn't know I was gonna speak to you. Well, I remember a young woman, I was in an elevator, she told me her business and she had the perfect pitch. It was simple. Here's my business. 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 30 days, 60 days, a month, whatever the case is, give me a contact over your company. 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 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 going to 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 pictures, she looks great. I keep seeing this guy next to her. 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 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 is not like shark tank Like you just said the world is not eight minutes of high sharks and then you either leave with a deal or not 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 got to realize that person has obligations hopes hopes and dreams, ask the right questions. You see, even when I was writing that book, Power Shift, I was 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 him,

I want to get this interview together and the deadline is coming up. He would not get on the phone and he would not 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 much smarter and much better looking than Mark. And you know, there's 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?

This show is sponsored by better help. And I'm grateful that it is. I got to tell you, you know, I get asked all the time, what's the one thing that most of the guests that have been on this show have in common? I could tell you they're all from different backgrounds. Some of them are tall. Some of them are short. Some of them are from the U S some of them are from abroad, different ethnic

backgrounds, religious backgrounds, you name it. But I gotta tell you, most of them been to therapy and I'm a big believer in therapy. I think that whether you've got some real trauma you got to work through in your life or you know you just got a problem you want to work on right now, maybe you just want to talk out loud about some issues you got or find a better quality of emotions. Big believer in therapy and I love better help. I love better help because number one, it's done online. Number two, if you get a therapist you don't vibe with them, you can switch at any given time that you want to. It's a wonderful way to go to therapy and I love BetterHelp. I love BetterHelp because number one, it's done online. Number two, if you get a therapist, you don't vibe with them, you can switch at any given time that you want to.

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You're probably not asking Mark the right question. Mark is somebody who publicly gives out his email. He only he loves texting 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 somebody said, Oh, it's because I'm black, isn't I? No, it's not because you're black, because you got a damn booger hanging out of your nose

while I'm looking at you weird. 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 or not, how is that person going to call Ed and say, Damon's a decent dude, or Damon 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 much further, but a lot of people mess up in those processes. 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 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. Thank you so much. And all your compliments are a little bit premature, Ed. Why don't you wait a little bit on it? Well, at the end of the interview, if it's not very good, I'll amend my remarks, but I'm pretty sure we're gonna crush. I'm reading about it, 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 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.

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 or write. Could you tell us? Well, eventually I did. 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. 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. You're too behind. I've already started. So go ahead. Okay, 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 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 where my hat's 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. So I was doused with love.

And so I think of myself as a privileged child in a real way, if you couldn't get rid of the usual stereotype that money makes difference. And 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. And by the time I was 23 and started my business, you would swear I was 53 in experience in the real world of living.

I could go on and on, but those are meaningful ways that I got very, very lucky early. 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, and that's why I respect you. Not because you came from low income means to obviously you've done incredibly well,

but I think sometimes when we're a kid, there's experiences where 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 was always before we hang up the phone, be careful, be careful.

You know, there's always this 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? You know 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 going to 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 you shake a faith in life itself. The big injuries, okay. So my big injury wasn't the same as your own. My big injury was I was a dumb kid who made fun of. And I can feel that pain to today. You know, I, God forbid 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. So I think a choice of two ways you could go. You could feel sorry for yourself, which is totally normal in your 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 this situation, right? So we learn that. But who teaches you not to feel sorry for yourself and instead get even in your life? And when I've chosen to do, and it didn't come early, didn't come so fast. It came out of duress,

being on my feet in circumstances that I didn't envision. But as a young 20 something year old, I got over it. And not totally over it because I'm still an overpreparer. I'll prepare 50 hours for someone, what someone else will prepare 15 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 overpre 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, it 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 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 this 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. 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 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 time I've been with you, the last 20 years, it's all the winning and all that. But prior to that, I'm like, this one 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 picturing this scene. I just, I don't know, it made me emotional as I'm prepping. You're an old softy. Look at you, Ed. You're an old push over softy type of guy. I'm disappointed in you.

I thought there was this. Well, I think that I am a little bit. And the reason is that I- I love it, I'm kidding with you. I know I root for people. I root for, 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,

I don't know, you're in your early 20s. You're with this boyfriend who gives you the thousand dollar loan. I want everyone to hear this. You're with your boyfriend. He gives you the thousand dollar loan. 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 because it's a funny name. You like Simone Lamone or something like that, right? It wasn't that funny. It was Corcoran Simone. My name first. That was a battle. What was his name though? Wasn't it like Ramon? Oh, Ramon Simone. There we go. Ramon Simone. I 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. 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 had 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 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-dum for life, you know. But it took me a year 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? 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. So I finally, one Friday, I just walked in and said, we're ending the business today. We're going to chop the people in half. You pick the first person. I'll pick the second.

I think that was the day I grew up. Wow. 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, man, I think was 76,000. We chopped up and then I announced to my people we were going to be in new office on Monday. I didn't give him much time.

Where are we going? They said, and I said, it's a surprise. You didn't know where you were going. Did you know? No, but I went immediately up that afternoon on Friday to my landlord and asked if he had And I said, it's a surprise. You didn't know where you were going. Did you know? No. 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 11th 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 14 desks down on 42nd 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 desk, 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 Simone, 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 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 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.

And 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, you think you're going to 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 going to laugh at me, I doubt it. But I pitch him. And and shake me up. And I think of another new idea to try to something else to do a 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 broad side as you know. 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 realized I'm very good insulted.

I also discovered my strength. 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 do you keep climbing? You know, some of you that are achieving, that are doing pretty well too, can you still find the reasons?

We were talking about the football helmet behind me from Brady before he went on. She's got an Emmy behind her. I have a football helmet from another guy. Right? And I, but someone like him that he keeps finding. I'll do a swap. Yeah, I I would tomorrow.

If the football player comes with the football, I'll do a swap. I can't throw that one in, unfortunately. I can throw in lunch with me. But I got to tell you, it's finding that leverage you get on yourself. It's hearing those things that you're not smart. You're going to fail. 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 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 and one of the things that... I looked down I was yep. I'm stating the obvious for this reason that you were one of the first women really that's women were already doing while it's sales and right now they dominate the sales space. You were the woman owner also of a business. I 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? 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. And there are big companies, so it seemed insurmountable.

But it was worked by women and that wasn't lost on me. 90% 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. So we had it worked by women owned by men. Okay. I could see the asset of that. 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. 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 going to 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 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 25, 35 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. So if you can take charge, not only of your office as a manager, you usually find your gifts that way very often, but if you can 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 dominant in 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.

I would rather kill myself than work for somebody. That's how I feel. That's how dedicated I am. You can see it on your face when you talk about it. You said wired earlier and then you said these traits. I think that's an important, 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 want to 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? 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 principle isn't fiercely competitive. You know, and I don't mean competitive like, I want like Saban and Jim of Cousin May and Lofts to be 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? Oh, they're out of the shop. Their horns come out. Whether they wanted the shop there, whether they wanted the city there, whether they even had an interest, but their competitors, it's like a fast fuse. My most successful entrepreneurs are sickly competitive.

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. Sick. I needed to shrink, not a job, right? But it's a wiring that you're growling, you know, that you want to be competitive. And I think that's the number one trait. I think the number one trait. I think the number two trait, and if I only had an hour or two, and there's so many things you tap into when you're an entrepreneur, you've got all guns blazing,

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. 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 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 the interesting, if I could add, even though that wasn't your question, I'm gonna 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 bat, try at that sport, if you're not gonna 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 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 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. It's so good. And it's interesting. I have to tell you, cause I've asked that I don't, I would like to have a different answer.

I got asked that a couple months ago at a speaking engagement. I have an, I said the word competition. Oh, there you go. 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 want to, you know, start new businesses and somebody asked, I asked the other day to my friends, why am I still, I'm

like, I'm doing all these things. I said, what is, do I need to shrink? Like what you said, you do need to shrink. Yes. Don't get one. You won't be as profitable. That's what he said.

Almost verbatim. He said, he goes, because Eddie, listen, dude, here's the deal. You're competitive. You want to, you just, you want to, dude, here's the deal. You're competitive. You wanna, you just, you wanna, and also you're competitive with yourself. You wanna see how much you can expand, how much you can contribute. And he said, you'd be dead just sitting around, man.

Like 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 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, 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. And then you're, I think you think you're going to get the show. Yes, I have the show. They hired me. Yeah, I signed the contract. They hired you and then it was like, 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 happened. You get the show and then

what? 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, 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 was already there told my friends I'm going to Hollywood I'm going to Hollywood I'm going to Hollywood, I'm going to Hollywood, I'm going to Hollywood. 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 because I didn't think he'd read it. 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. When sister Stella Marie told me, I'd never learned to read or write, 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 of them and have 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 13 years ago. To pointing again to the power of not being so smart and not working so hard or all the rest of stuff you have to do in life, but the power of getting back up, you know, just take another swing. By the way, and what was shocking to me, well, I was I was not so shocked. I turned it around because I was used to turning things around. But what was shocking to me is my claim, 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 C purely for writing that email, not because I earned it or I had good luck, but that email got me that C, no doubt.

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 respond but you did it in such a way that just had a level of certainty I think certainly certainly thinking it I love that though but see but certainly is influence this is she says Mark I understand you've asked another girl to dance instead of me I agree opening lie even I laughed at that one. 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. Yeah, that's another good line. I might say so again. It's so it's just, I gotta say guys, I mean, these 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? It's just, I guess, just remarkable. Now, someone pitches on the show, I'm curious, what are you looking for? In other words, is it the business model itself?

Are you evaluating 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 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? A there something in particular you'll notice where you're like, I'm out? With these documents. 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 are told not to talk until they're asked to start. So there's this long silence while they set the camera shots up close and they're very intimidating. And I watch how they handle the pressure. So when somebody's falling apart,

looking at the ground shifting, 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. That's one.

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 get as a dyslexic, almost sleep 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 when enough people buy it? Now I'm just watching at the person and just thinking myself, could I picture them as my business partner? Do I like them? 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? 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 think they're gonna 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 on us. 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 businessy. And I spend the rest of my time trying to come up with something more businessy that makes sense

for the show, you know? Businessy, I love that. I do that all the time on this show. Let me sound more businessy so I can just fit in. I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the Ed Myron Show.