#725: Barbara Corcoran — How She Turned $1,000 into a $5B+ Empire: PR Stunts, Sales Techniques, Critical Early Wins, Fighting Trump, and Becoming a Real Estate Mogul

Barbara Corcoran has been an investor/Shark for the past 15 seasons on ABC’s four-time Emmy-award-winning show, Shark Tank. She is also the founder of an eponymous real-estate company, which she started with a $1,000 loan after leaving her job as a waitress in New York City. Over the next 25 years, she would parlay that $1,000 into a $5 billion real-estate business. Barbara is the host of the top business channel on Patreon, Barbara in Your Pocket, which provides exclusive content created for entrepreneurs at every level.

Please enjoy!

Timestamps for this episode are available below. Resources from this episode: https://tim.blog/2024/03/06/barbara-corcoran/

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Timestamps:

[00:00] Start

[05:56] Barbara’s fake funeral.

[08:23] Where Barbara’s knack for PR originated.

[10:02] Storytelling.

[11:25] Early business wins.

[14:29] What Barbara learned about competition as one of 10 kids.

[17:27] Early jobs: Barbara’s real education.

[20:04] Dyslexia and dodging the victim mindset.

[22:50] Barbara’s first company.

[26:47] Why Barbara didn’t begrudge her first business partner’s romantic betrayal.

[28:41] The value of enthusiasm.

[29:44] From almost-evicted to exclusive agent.

[33:29] Early recruitment gimmicks.

[35:36] Being the only woman in the room.

[39:14] Rules and systems.

[41:46] Experiments, innovations, and mistakes.

[44:17] Homes on Tape and puppy sales.

[49:06] Esther Kaplan’s persuasive purse.

[51:23] Sales 101 with Barbara.

[57:37] How Barbara stays active.

[59:37] Butting heads with Donald Trump.

[1:05:21] Picking battles.

[1:08:00] How Barbara fell in love with trailer park life.

[1:14:14] Why Barbara only hires happy people now.

[1:15:36] Barbara In Your Pocket.

[1:17:47] What gives Barbara the most energy these days?

[1:18:51] Barbara’s billboard.

[1:19:58] Parting thoughts and proposals.

*

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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.

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