Barbara Corcoran Recalls Starting Out With Only $1,000

Barbara Corcoran wears many hats in her successful career and whenever she stops by The Bobby Bones Show she answers all kinds of questions.

When she first started her career, Corcoran only had $1,000. She recalled the events that led her to be successful from the start telling Bobby Bones, "fear is a great motivator." She knew that she only had that $1,000 and it was never going to happen again. So she calculated everything to find out the cost of each particular part of her business. In her calculating, she found she only had 7 weeks to be in business before she ran out of money. She came out of the gate hard and made her first sale that propelled her to have another few weeks, and that continued her on. She noted that everyone is always focused on seeing the finished product of successful people, but no one wants to see the nuts and bolts of how people got to that success.

For Corcoran, she loves to see how people's success story first started. Which she gets to explore through her Business Unusual Podcast. Corcoran's podcast is all about having people share their stories, and helping them uncover their fears so she can give them honest advice. She admitted she's surprised how people on a hotline are "so ridiculously open and won't hide anything." One of her most asked questions is about how to get the money to get started on a new business, which she often also helps people address on her podcast.

Well known for her role as a shark on ABC's Shark Tank, Corcoran touched on the worst investment she's ever made through the show. She wouldn't mention it by name due to legal issues she's had with them, but noted it was an exercise product. As for her most successful investment, Corcoran said the most surprising and dramatic success came from the company Comfy. When they came on the show, it was just two guys with no business experience, but they knew they had a product people would go crazy about. They were right, after being in business for 4 years together, they've had over $400 million in sales.

When it comes to job interviews, Corcoran helped the show address one of the hardest questions "What's your biggest weakness?" She told them that answering the question is easy for anyone in interviews, people just need to choose a weakness that fits within the job description. Her example was that if the job was looking for someone to work on a team, the interviewee should say something like "I don't like working by myself, I like to be part of a team."


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