July 27, 2021 • 48 mins
On mops and why if you want something done, you have to do it yourself.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
So I talked about social media a lot and how
I don't think I'm particularly good at it. I don't
particularly love it, or it doesn't come that naturally to me.
I remember having an assistant who said I had to
get on Twitter. It was in the beginning when really
just Ashton Kutcher was talking about what he was eating
every day, and it wasn't what it is now, and
(00:34):
I thought the craziest thing in the world would be
to tell everybody what I was doing, where I was
an oddly private and it's never come totally naturally to me.
So I've been public about my confusion and lack of
comfort when it pertains to social media. I sometimes I
don't understand what I'm supposed to post, and things that
(00:57):
do well are not necessarily things that I want to post,
and things that I really like posting then don't do well.
And are we doing it to do well and get likes,
because then it's sort of just looking for approval and
it's just a strange thing. I would just assudent not
do it at all. I mean, maybe once in a
while a picture of something that's funny to me, or
(01:17):
my dogs do something cute, but I just don't love it.
It's just not natural to me. It's something that I
do strictly for business. Even if I'm not posting about business,
it's something I'm ultimately doing strictly for business. I was
never on Facebook posting pictures of things that I found interesting.
It's just not something I'm inclined to do. So I
(01:37):
don't follow a lot of people I know and a
lot of my friends on social media because I talked
to them or I text them, and most of the
things that are posted on social media are what people
want people to see their lives as. So I have friends,
I mean real friends, people that I've spent time with recently,
(01:58):
and I see their social media and it's sort of
this picture perfect Christmas card. It's like the Christmas card
that comes every year of their family or what they're doing.
But I know that they're going through personal issues, or
they're having trouble selling their home, or they got fired
from their job but they can't have kids, or something's
going on. So I don't find social media to be
an accurate portrayal of what's going on in people's lives. Therefore,
(02:22):
I don't really follow all of my friends, and I
don't follow the people that I work with either, because
I talked to them every single day. So if you're
doing it because it's sort of like you have to
do it because you have to be on the list
of their likes, then it's sort of phony and it
reinforces everything that I hate about it. So recently I
(02:44):
started seeing all these different press articles coming up because
Kyle Richards, who I've known for years, was asked, I'll
watch what Happens Life by a viewer quote unquote. But
those those questions are always vetted by producers and you know,
people at the show. So she was asked why she
unfollowed me on Instagram and I didn't know that she
(03:06):
unfollowed me on Instagram, And she said, because she unfollowed me,
And I don't want to keep up with someone who
doesn't want to keep up with me. I don't know
when that's tracked, and I don't know when I n
followed her on Instagram. It certainly wasn't recently. It could
have been a long time ago. I remember a long
time ago, I was following hundreds of people and I
was like, oh my god, I just don't want to
(03:26):
look at all this, And so I had myself down
to like fifty people I was following, and then I
like home design and jewelry and watches, so I'm sure
I've I've taken that back a lot more, and I
arbitrarily followed some people and I just haven't gotten around
to on following them. It's not a science for me.
I don't really care. I don't look at my phone
all the time. When you look and it says how
long you're on your phone, mines really low on social media.
(03:48):
It's high on texting people I work with about the
thirty categories I'm in business, but it's low on just
like browsing around what people are doing. So I was
asked why she unfollowed me on I guess it was Instagram.
This was all over and all the press. Now. The
thing is, I didn't realize she was gonna talk about this.
How could I? I I didn't even know I had followed her,
(04:08):
she had followed me. No one has to follow me like.
But it's not like I don't buy people birthday gifts
because they bought me a birthday gift. I buy people
birthday gifts because I know it's their birthday and I
want to buy them something, and if one year I
forget their birthday or I don't buy them something, then
that's what happens. But I don't follow people because they
followed me. In fact, this past week, after seeing this
in like ten different publications, I realized that Katie Kirk
(04:31):
follows me and I don't follow her, but I followed
her back, you know, but she doesn't seem to care.
There was a time I think with Kelly Rippo followed
me and I didn't follow her, and then I realized
because I saw it, says follow it back, like, but
this all seems like a bunch of bullshit, and talking
about it on a TV show that is designed to
create conflict between women meant that I had to read
about this all week. But I have very good friends
(04:55):
that I don't follow on Instagram or text because I
can call them a text and Kyle, I texted her
to say Happy Mother's Day. That's less interaction we had
because I wanted to say happy Mother's Day. But also,
if it doesn't have to mean your friends are not friends.
For example, Kyle's uh working on the Housewives, and maybe
she posts uh a lot of stuff about the show,
(05:16):
or just everyone looking perfect and promoting stuff, and maybe
maybe I don't need to see that. So it's not
that I'm not keeping up with her. I if I
want to talk to Kyle, I'll talk to her herself,
and the same thing with many of my friends. So
that's something that has been in a lot of press,
and I want to clear things up here so I
could give you a real perspective instead of just sort
(05:39):
of pull quotes. I think that's a very interesting part
of social media, Like I'm following you because you're following me, Okay,
so who starts it? It's weird. I don't think about
this kind of stuff. Like the way I feel about
it is like who has time to think about who's
following and not following them? Maybe that's why I don't
have so many followers. And listen, for those of you
(06:00):
listening to this podcast, if you're not interested and what
I'm posting, maybe you shouldn't follow me. And if you are,
then you should. And if you want me to post
different things, or if you'd like to hear about different
parts of my life, then maybe I'll post them. You know,
if I get more feedback about what should be posted.
It's sort of like when I write a book. I
write a book based on what people have said they
want to hear about. So now I'm writing about really
(06:22):
granular like a business memoir, like with a bunch of crazy,
crazy business stories that have happened to me. I may
call it mention at all, and may be called the
Bethany clause. But yeah, I don't just I don't spend
a lot of time and energy thinking about who's following
and I'm following me And I don't follow people because
they follow me. And who I follow and who I
(06:44):
don't follow is absolutely no indication of who I'm friends
with and who I like or who I don't like.
That's the thing too. I don't really follow my friends
because my friends I talked to all the time. So
what am I gonna do? Go look at what my
friends are doing on social media? Just seems weird. What
(07:05):
do you all think about this? What do you at
home think about this? Are you finding out from your
good friends through social media? Are they posting things that
are so shocking to you that you wouldn't find out
by just texting or talking to them? Or are you
your friends posting the picture perfect Christmas card version of
themselves and you're sort of just rolling your eyes because
you know the real then. Bernie Jenner, no idea why
(07:27):
you know. I'm following him because I watched The Hills
reboot or whatever that was. I thought it was interesting.
David Lasher and Jill Lasher. I I know David Lasher.
He's an actor and I know him from years ago
when I think he asked me to do something about
a movie. Yeah, it's like all random, totally random. A
lot of watch people, right, Okay, I'm following Hillary Clinton.
I follow Hillary Clinton. I bet she doesn't follow me.
(07:48):
I'm not gonna unfollow her because she doesn't follow me.
I'm not following her because she's following me. I'm following
her because she was on my show and I'm interested
in the throwback pictures she sent last week. La La
La la vast was his followed in me. We're not
friends at all. She came up my talk show years ago.
She probably followed me years ago just because she was
on my talk to Christina Aguilar, I doubt she's following me.
She's ten billions of follow back. Oh okay, Christina Aguilar,
(08:11):
I don't know you were following me. This is funny,
Nicki minag. There's no fucking way Nicki majags following me.
See she's not. I'm still following you, Nicki Minaj. It's
okay if you're not following me. You may not be
interested in the bag of bullshit on peddling, but I'm
interested in your long ponytails, so I'm following you. It's
okay if you don't follow me. I'm not gonna un
follow you because you're not following me. You're also Nicki Minaj.
(08:31):
But still, that's how I roll. Let me know what
you guys think. My guest today is Joy Mangano, the
famous inventor known for such products as Miracle Mop and
Forever Fragrant. So you may know of her and you
(08:52):
don't even know you know of her things that you've bought,
the huggable hangar, that mop that you know doesn't get
your hands dirty, that rings out the dirty and clean water.
Joy and Gone is basically synonymous with hs N for
many people. She was frustrated with household mopping. She invented
the Miracle Mop, which served as a launchpad for success.
(09:14):
After she appeared on hs N, she didn't perform at all.
It didn't do well at all until she got on
and did it herself. So you know what they say
about if you want to get something done and done right,
do it yourself. She went on to invent several other products,
and she sold her company, which has hundreds of millions
in sales, to HSN. And we talk about why a
(09:36):
no is not a know, the importance of trusting your
instincts and pursuing products that are timely, how you need
to have the courage to shift your skis, and why
you need to lean into your natural skills. She is
incredibly inspiring and aspirational and I have wanted to talk
with her for ages. I think you're going to love
this one. Um. I'm just fascinated and excited to talk
(10:07):
to you. And I don't know how much you know
about this show, but we've had some pretty major game
changers on here. So I usually start by figuring out
what your parents were like, and what was instilled in
you as it pertains to work, and if you thought
about money Like as a child, I didn't think about money.
I experienced different things about money and having and not having,
(10:28):
but I didn't really think about money. And I think
that kids now think about it. Yes, I agree. I
agree with you. Well, as a child, UM, I felt
like I was always the parent from the very beginning.
It's a very interesting thing. I had an older brother
that was three years older, and both my mother and
father were interesting. You know. My father ran a business
(10:51):
he and he aspired to run Long Island bus company
at the time, and my mother us coming from an
Italian family, very Italian family. My mom was home cleaning, cooking,
you know whatever. But it was very interesting because I
always had the role of kind of pulling the family together.
(11:15):
So even as a young girl, UM, whenever there would
be a fight between them, or they didn't get along,
or my father would get mad at my brother, I
was the protector of my brother and I was the
one who kind of pulled it all back together. So
as long as I can remember, I was kind of
always the parent of the family. And as well, as
(11:39):
long as I can remember, I've always worked, no matter
what I did, even if it was at school and
I ran the raffle. I mean, I always ran things right.
So you know, I think I've been working since I
have a history of memory. But that's not something that
someone said to you to do. It's who you are.
You're saying, this is who you are. Absolutely absolutely so
(12:02):
I guess, you know, if we're talking about childhood that way.
I was very studious, very meticulously studious. I was always
either you know, in classes and helping other children. I remember,
you know that I had a girlfriend that remained a
girlfriend through life, and she said, I'll never forget when
I couldn't understand my math in elementary school and everybody
(12:25):
went out to play, you stayed in there and help
me with my math. So I always felt like, you know,
I feel like there are caretakers in life, and I've
always been kind of one of those people. So I
was very studious and very into sports. I've been skiing
since some five. I even went to high school in
Vermont to train for the Olympics. I always loved sports
(12:49):
and academics. So um competitive, that's yeah, but with a
lot of empathy, right, I don't. I think if you
don't have empathy in life for for the people around you,
when you're in business, for for everything, there's a lot
lost there, right, So I do everything with that heart
and mind. The customer even today and always is in
(13:12):
my heart. I think of them first I dream about
them when I'm inventing a product. So nonetheless, going back,
I you know, I always worked. I worked through college.
I was in the personnel office. You know. It was
I never stopped working, and when I graduated kind of,
you know, I was always kind of making things and
creating things and working at things as I was growing up.
(13:34):
But I never had a traditional job like working in
a fast food place or anything. I was always part
of something creative. When I was training for skiing in Vermont,
I went to um a place that did woodworking, and
I was helping them do woodworking with doors. I was
this whole creative thing. But it never registered in my
brain that that's the kind of thing I was doing,
(13:56):
because remember I come from this Italian family, and all
I thought about ultimately in life is that I was
going to grow up, get married and have children, right
and cook. Well, that makes sense, that makes sense. I
worked in a bakery in high school just to be
able to pay for this big party I wanted to have.
I was a hot walker at the race track, walking horses.
I wanted to do every cupcake lemonade stand. I've always
(14:19):
been a worker, but like you, the word entrepreneur started
ten years ago. I mean, no one talked about themselves
as an entrepreneur. The word brand was not around the
same way, and it was just not used. So you
just were working and successful or not, or you were
a millionaire, you were rich, or you weren't. But as
a kid, same as you, I never thought about that.
I was just always hustling, and I grew up with
the racetrack, so I'm familiar with that, but not familiar
(14:42):
with how academic you are. How because being so academic
and being such an athlete is very structured, and it
sounds like you are structured, but it usually doesn't sound
like someone who's such a sort of entrepreneurial, fearless Maverick.
That's like an interesting intersection that's different. You're absolutely right.
Therefore when I you know, I never in my mind,
you know, associated the things that I created growing up,
(15:04):
and even at sixteen years old, went to work at
an animal hospital and saw that the most serious injuries
were dogs and cats being hit by cars. So at
sixteen years old, I invented a fluorescent flea. Color didn't
exist then, so it was I said, what do animals
have to have on all the time it was flea colors,
(15:25):
and then I said, let me make it reflective so
they won't get hit by a car and they would
be saved. I had veterinarians meat, and I presented the
idea sixteen years old and never followed through with it
because it was then, of course, raising money. I wasn't
savvy enough. A year later, Hearts Mountain came out with
the first ever fluorescent flea color. So I moved past
(15:47):
that and graduated college, and I said, well, now what
am I going to do? So I went to work
for Eastern Airlines at Kennedy Airport and I worked there,
I met my husband and got married, and I had
three children. One year after the other. I had my daughter.
Then a year later I had my son, and then
(16:08):
a year later I had my other daughter. Because you know,
like anything else, if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna
do this. So you know, it was very interesting because
my husband, who I had met in college, and if
you've seen the movie Joy, Uh, he was kind of
I was ready and I was focused, and I knew
the road that I wanted to be on, but he
(16:28):
was kind of behind that a few steps. He wasn't
quite ready for that. So it wasn't on the program.
I call that the program. You had a program and
you this was your program, and he wasn't on the
program right exactly so, and you kind of don't even
really absorbed that fully when you're going through it and
you're young and you're almost following this kind of life
(16:52):
path that your grandmother and great grandmother and mother always
said you should be on. Right quite frankly, after my
third child, I was so I had, you know, one
right after the other, and in between that I was
nursing them. Me joy, my body just said time out.
This is like way too much. You're not sleeping, you're
not eating, you have no help. You've had three children
(17:12):
in three years, and your body needs a time out.
So I got really sick. And at that time I
said to myself, I'm never going to let myself be
that vulnerable again, risk my own health, you know, my
own well being, you know, and risk my family's well being.
So it was really that point in time that I think,
(17:34):
you know, I call it the courageous Joy, that the
courageous joy came out and said, what is it you're
doing with the life? You know, what is it you
want to do. You have to be strong. Is this
the life you want? And you know, at that point
I realized, you know what, it might be easier for
me to raise them on my own and not have
(17:57):
to worry about when is this person and coming back
home and all, you know, the nonsense of that kind
of marriage. So I think really the biggest pivotal decision
in my life with three little children was to break
up that family. For me to make the decision, this
can't be anymore. You know that the guilt and the
(18:20):
ingrained upbringing that I had, you know, it's family is
everything standby no matter what. So that was the beginning
of the courageous joy. And then I sat back and
I said, what is it that I really do? And
it was at that point in time, you know, that's
really the time that I started to create and the
miracle mop. And you know, it wasn't even until years
(18:45):
later when I stepped on stage at QVC and launched
this mop and had it just the phones broke down.
It was just so wildly successful. So I'm thirty something
and it finally dawned on me that I create product.
(19:05):
I had been doing it my whole life. But you know.
It's like if somebody had said to one of my children,
what does your mom do, and they said, oh, she's
an inventor, they would have thought that I was not
so the jo we're crazy. But wait, wait, I want
to slow this down because you said a lot of
things that are perceived that so more importantly than that
to me, which is the recipe for that is that
you were effectively saying you had this box that you
(19:27):
were supposed to be in with this tradition of your mother,
your grandmother, etcetera. And you ended up leaving a marriage
where you had a quote unquote partner. Whether he was
away a lot or not, you still had a partner.
So you had somebody to quote unquote Lena to help
you with the lawn or whatever it is when you
need something or you know. But the courage that you
had to walk away from that and become a single
(19:49):
mom made you stronger, which is when women feel the weakest.
That's when they feel like, oh God, I'm alone, no
one's gonna love me, who's gonna help me? I have
friends at saying to me, you're lucky you have someone
will help you when you have a problem in the
house or something's broken, or you gave yourself this courage
to jump and then you flew. So I feel like
that's even before all of this, Like you you went
with your gut and you did what you felt that
(20:10):
was just propelling you. It feels like you just had
to do it. There was nothing in your body that
was going to not do it. Yeah, you know that's
very insightful of you, by the way, because I always
say that until you discover your own strength. Right. You know,
there's so many people that go through life and not
I'm not saying that one is good one is bad.
(20:31):
But for me, you know, to have had this thought
that I always have to depend on somebody else for
my happiness, for my success, for any kind of validation,
a validation thank you for me to get to a
point in life and really dig deep and find the
sense of I love myself. I have to be able
(20:54):
to depend on myself. I have to learn how to
depend on myself because I'll make a better the person
for anybody that I would be within the future. Right,
But you also believed it. You believe that when other
people didn't believe it, it was in your body. And
I feel like it sounds like an unshackled you like
(21:21):
once you know, we stay with people, stay with jobs,
we're afraid and it seems like the logical idea and
not until you jump, Like I always say to people,
you fly, you're gonna it's gonna work out, like you
gotta just but if you feel it in your body,
So people listening, if you're an entrepreneur, if you have
an idea, if you just are feeling uncomfortable, sometimes a
little discomfort is good. It's like yoga. A little discomfort
is okay, but like pain is not. You know, when
(21:43):
you have to just have the courage to do it.
But you've felt it in your body and it like,
let's set you free. It sounds like that's right. And
for anybody listening, I think the most important thing is courage.
You have to be realistic, right. I don't want anybody
selling their house and you know, giving up, right, But
if you believe in something, and I don't care what
it is, because when I look at life, I look
at life through product. I mean our families a product
(22:06):
of products, a product, our job is a product. Everything
is product to me. That's how I view life before
anything else. And you have to have the courage too.
I say, shift your skis sometimes, right, you know, being
a skier, That's what I say. You have to be
able to shift your skis. There's nothing wrong with that.
If you are somebody that's driving by the beach every
(22:29):
day and you are I'm gonna make it up doing accounting,
and every time you pass by that surf shop you say, gosh,
I I would love to have a surf shop. I mean,
that is my dream in life. I say, stop what
you're doing, or try to figure out how you go
and become your passion, because I think they're one thing
(22:52):
my life and who I am is what I do
and for me, that's the recipe for success. It has
nothing to do with money, It has nothing to do
with anything else except if you are living your passion.
There's nothing better. The only thing better is that I'm
living that passion with the people I love. Right, So
(23:12):
my children work with me, and in the past when
I was starting, my best friends but you know who
were brilliant at this and that would work. You know,
I say that that there's everything okay about that. To
to lean on people around you and for me to
do what I love with people I love it doesn't
get better than that, right, But let me ask you
(23:33):
a question, how do you control yourself? Because I'm an
idea hamster, so people around me have to say, but
do you want to be, you know, own a frozen
yogurt store for example. Let's say there are different places
that I know would kill it with something. That doesn't
mean I'm supposed to be doing that. There are five
inventions I can tell you right now, but I think
are amazing ideas, but like that's not really People have
(23:54):
to have an r o I on their time and
their money. Meaning I call it the bucket theory. I
want six buckets full, twelve half full, because then your
asses in forty two places, and you know that better
than anyone. So I want to hear your perspective. But
you've got to pick the things where it's like, Okay,
I'm gonna kill myself on that one thing, but that's
gonna have a big r o I personally, professionally, it's
going to save lives. But then people get sucked into
all these different things you probably do with your plans
(24:15):
with your friends. So we have to sometimes also know
what things to do and not do and how to
pick them so I want to hear that from you.
You're exactly right, you say it in a great way
as well. So that's why I say, you have to
be realistic about it, right, And I often say you
can't even look at the whole picture. You're right, you know,
if there are three projects, right, or there are three
(24:38):
things that you're looking at doing, you have to have
it be in your mind. What is the one that
I really want to do that's number one? But what
is the one as well that makes sense to bring
to enable me to do the other two? Right? So
you know, so like right now. For example, I was
(24:58):
with HSN and QBC for thirty years, right, and I
picked this moment in time to step back and create.
My dream was to be laser focused on best in
class health and wellness products that I literally saw an
immediate benefit to the consumer. So for me, I started again, right,
(25:21):
So I shifted my skis and I started a line,
a product line called clean Boss right, the world's most
powerful botanical disinfectant and cleaner and odor eliminator, among other products.
And it is, you know, so satisfying to me. Again,
I dream about that customer and actually when I talk
about that product, and this line. I was thinking about
(25:44):
it and started working on it, like ten years ago,
and what's happening in our lives the last two years, right, well,
my god, now that's crazy. So it was like a foreshadowing, right,
So ten years ago I was thinking about this, but
I was I said, I must focus on it because
I must bring it to fruition right now. And so
I took and I shifted all my energy into that
(26:07):
so I could impact in my own way as an
inventor of products the world as it is today, because
like everyone else, I want to send my family back
out into the world in the safest way that I can.
You know, so you do have to weigh and you
have to be able to lean into the things that
are timely. I might have not been doing that right
(26:28):
now if it wasn't for what happened. But because I
had started a history with that, I knew I had
to finish that. And the world slowed down so you
had a minute to process it a minute a minute.
But um, so you're obviously successful. You've made money. It's
not about the money. Afterwards, I want to talk about
managing people and finding good people and keeping it together.
(26:50):
But have you ever cracked, Have you ever wanted to
get off the ride? Or has the pressure ever been
too great? You know that's interesting. The honest answer is no.
And I'm gonna tell you why, because I have this philosophy.
I have a book by the Way, Inventing Joy that
and one of one of the principles of that book
is a no is not a no. And I still
(27:11):
to this day here no several times a week. The
no can be in the form of all sorts of forms.
And so a lot of what I do in life
is sit back and say, Okay, why is that a no?
Why is that an obstacle? And how do I turn
that into a yes? Or what do I have to
do to change that to make it become possible? And
(27:33):
so I am a glass half full person. And when
even you know, even what seems insurmountable, I will wake
up in the morning and I will have solved it
in my brain. I really I will. You know, I
really don't believe you may not you know, what you
start out with may not be what you end up with.
(27:55):
But still I don't mean that way. I mean, I
don't mean the idea that you can't getting made Because
I have the same philosophy place of yes. But I
mean when things get bigger, you've got a bigger infrastructure,
You're managing so many things, You're being pulled in different directions.
I mean, did you ever feel at certain points like
is this worth? It? Is this crazy? I have enough money?
It's too much going on like that way? I mean,
like just life balance. So remember go back to my
(28:19):
first statements at my lowest point, when I was after
three kids and really my body said time out, you
got to take a break. I said, I would never
get vulnerable like that again. So what did I do? So?
I built this business up in many forms. I took
my family with me in it, right, So I'm surrounded
by my children every day. So my business and my
(28:40):
family is all one, and I always look forward. I
never look behind me, and I never sit and wallow
because you know, I cannot tell you, Bethany, you have
to be able to relate, and how many people listening
can relate to this. I can start off a day
and get the worst news, and then through the course
(29:04):
of the day they'll be like fifteen other inputs and
it ends up being the best day. There you go, right,
every every day is like a different path, right, or
the day can start off with the best news and
it could go downhill. And I will tell you there
are sometimes when I say I'm not taking one more call.
That's it. I have enough for today and we'll deal
(29:24):
with it tomorrow. Right, every day literally has ups and downs,
and really, you know, I think the thing that you
have to be a depth at among many things, but
is where you take the risks and where you don't,
what you act upon and what you don't, what you
pay attention to, what noise you pay attention to, and
(29:45):
what you don't because eventually some noise will go away,
some noise you have to address, you know. So it's challenging,
But then I'm gonna go back again and make full circle.
If you love what you do and you're surrounded by
good support, like who do you trust? You know? Who
do I trust more than my children? And I you know.
(30:07):
My son's a lawyer. He used to work for Caret
Swain and more. I stole him from one of the
best law firms. My daughter is a brilliant product sourcer
for me for fifteen years. My son in law as
a producer who talked in my ear for twenty years.
I mean, I have all this talent around me now,
it's amazing. Are you in the weeds? Um? So I
(30:27):
get thrown out of the weeds by the people around
me all the time, but I I managed to find
my way back in there. I've gotten better. I have
to say I've gotten better because you know, now we
have a lot of things going on. And by the way,
congratulations on the big Shop. Congratulations because we are starting.
You know, we are launching a TV show this fall,
(30:52):
America's big deal with NBC Universal, and I know the
work involved is amazing, is an amazing They call it
production because it is a production. So so congratulations, Bethany,
thank you. So you still have the hunger, that's clear.
So what's your how much on air selling do you
(31:14):
do now? Actually that's a great question. So I took
a break to develop Clean Boss. Right, So for thirty
years prior, ten years on QBC, twenty years on h
s N. Why that shift? Why QBC? I've been on QVC.
I'm I'm like an hs N person now and it's
a totally it's the same big company as you know,
(31:35):
but for people listening, there are two different brands, different customers,
different shopping styles, it's psychologically different, and I'm fascinated by
the patterns and the psychology of the bye. So tell
me about moving from QBC to hs Well, let me
tell you so the historic story and then we'll get
into exactly what you're talking about. So I started on QBC. Obviously,
(31:56):
first time I ever stepped on stage was with the
Miracle mop. The only class that I ever cut in
college was public speaking, so go figure. So nonetheless, I
was there for ten years, and it was when Barry
Diller was CEO and running QVC. When he left, and
(32:17):
you know, he had Ticketmaster, Expedi dot com, he bought
Home Shopping Network at the time, and other entities. He said, Joy,
I want you to come to HSN and I said, no,
very loyal person, Barry, you know, and he said, well,
I'm going to buy your company. So he bought my
company and brought me to hs N. I became an
executive there. I was an on air personality. I was
(32:40):
the only UH division that sourced product literally make created
and sourced product. And I as well, aside from being
on once or twice a month for an entire day,
we started to get requests to design and manage other hands.
(33:00):
You're saying you were doing two ts is a month,
Is that what you're saying. Yes, for those listening, when
I do a T S nhs N, it's Today's special
and you're on all You start at night, which Joy's
favorite time going on is midnight, and that's why she
was a darling there and I'm always kicking and screaming
and then you're you're selling the whole next day. And
not until I realized how this whole thing works and
the machine of people buying at those hours. Am I
(33:23):
now you know, really leaning more into this. You know,
cult life I'm living. But I have to speak to
you about this. This is unbelievable. So go ahead. You
were working twice a month doing ts IS selling all
day for thirty years. No, God, that's you're talking about
a very long time. But add to that. Now, I
took on Iman so I. We designed with Iman for
(33:44):
ten years. We designed for Chef taught English. I launched
the first non stick ceramic non stick cookware in the world,
in the world so Um, I designed product with Randy
j Accon, Keith Urban, Serena Williams, Paula Abdul so this
(34:05):
was some machine. Yeah, it was so. And I was
there for every one of their t s is as well.
So it was a very big education in the culinary world.
We'll think about that right now though. In the pandemic,
how amazing it's been for home shopping in general. And
for those of you who haven't watched those types of shows,
like you have to understand it is so intense. Joy
(34:29):
knows way more than I do. But you'll do one
of those ts is and you'll be talking about your
products for two hours, three hours. You're like, I could
have been on a plane to Florida by now. I'm
still talking, Like my mouth is still moving. What am
I talking about? You? You zone? You can't even believe
you're still speaking right, No, It's true three hours for me.
A lot of times it was a launch was from
eleven to two am. But let me give you a
(34:51):
nice big secret here. I will be going back to
hs N to launch the clean Boss line and as
other things on July one, right around the corner here.
So it's midnight Friday night, Saturday morning, July one, and
I'll be on all day. You can see what Bethany's
talking about. So having been there for thirty years. I
(35:15):
feel like I'm going home. I love it. I love it,
and I've always loved being able to talk to the
consumer and explain member. I'm an inventor, so what better
thing for an inventor to explain the product? You know,
features and benefits. And you know, Gayle King once said
to me, she said, you're not selling me. You're just
telling me all the details I need to know to
(35:35):
make a decision to buy. And that's what it is.
You know, it really is that true because you love
the product. So I was launching swim I'm not under
skinny Girl because I did not think skinny Girl was
the right name for a swim line, and I wanted
(35:55):
it to be an elevated line and I wanted to
be called Bethany. And w w D did an article
on me and all of this stuff with a big, big,
multibillion dollar partner, and it goes on and on, and
I was on a Zoom months ago and there were
some problems with it that it wasn't correct for me.
And then a couple of weeks ago I tried on
the product and it wasn't correct for me. The day
of I'm going on to an Instagram live. Five minutes
(36:17):
before I put the bathing suit on. It's it's it's
ill fitting, it's not doesn't fit right, like it's out
to here. Now you know this, We're it's millions of
dollars that goes on here, crazy stuff. It's here. So
I start freaking because I can and your reputation because
it's you. But you know, I'm doing a bigger deal
with ag said, I'm getting into multiple categories. You're trying
to think of fifty things at the same time while
you're like you're building a plane, while flying, going on
(36:39):
the air, launching, swim w W D article Yippi. So
fine minutes before I try this on and it just
doesn't fit me right. But I'm not everybody, so I
have to degrade my whole staff and say to every
single person, all shapes and sizes, please do me a favorite.
Put a bathing suit on. Everybody put a bathing suit on.
They're like, uh, they put the big and I could
tell no one wants to tell me, but no, because
they all don't want me to like blow up my
(36:59):
thing with h send. Five minutes before, called my business manager, etcetera.
I say, I'm not doing it. I'm not selling like
this has been the law, this is the launch like,
I'm not doing it. I emailed ahead of hs N
while I have to do an Instagram Live. I said,
get me something else. I'll wear my jeans and wear
my glasses. And I told the people on Instagram Live
there's a product I don't feel comfortable with it. I'm
not selling it. I will not sell you something that
I don't like. So long story short, it just I
(37:20):
was like, of course, yes, of course, yes, we never
want you to sell something that you don't actually love.
And I wasn't worried about the money or anything or
the problems. I just it made me feel good. It
made me feel strong because my business manager was yelling
at me, and I was like, I don't care. I'm
not going on. I'm not selling this thing. I cannot
tell you how not only proud I am of you, Bethity,
(37:41):
but you so did the right thing, because you know,
as well as I know, to the customer today is
the smartest customer ever ever, and they know when something's
not right. And that's why you know you absolutely did
the right thing. And I certainly hope did. You're gonna
fix it and launch it because now I want to
(38:03):
see what this is all about. No, we're gonna launch
it in the fall and it's gonna be great. But
I was like, yeah, but I felt good, good, thank you.
I felt strong. I felt like everyone screaming at me
and I'm like, effort, I'm not selling. No. I heard
from the people at hs N that the people in
the back, the models and the stylists, I don't you know.
(38:24):
I've met them all, but I don't know what goes
on back there. They all applauded me because they were like,
look at how she protects her brand. Like it ended
up seeing the story. Yeah, so anyway, I just needed
to tell that story. But you were the perfect person.
And that's so important because when you stand up there,
you a person are representing your brand. It's not like
(38:44):
it's you know, a company. You are that authenticity and
the trust factor. You know, for thirty years, I built
a foundation to have that, you know, that brand trust
people by product before they even know what it is,
they just know it's a new product. Well, because you've
built that one at a time, one brick, you can't
(39:04):
be like, here's this other crappy thing don't never buy
another thing. You go to a restaurant, you have a
bad meal, You're never going back again. Yep, yep. There
isn't anything to second guess. You pented the right thing,
thank you, But you know how brutal that was. You know,
Oh yes, oh yes, trust me, trust me. I've been there.
I've been there. So what about being so successful, so strong?
(39:30):
And is there a price in relationships like for you
personally and maybe even family relationships. You're all talking about business.
You're all in the business. You've given a lot of
people a lot of success. But I talked to a
lot of people on here are the guy Jamie Simonov
who created the ring And if there's no one I
haven't talked to about relationships, what about successful relationships? And
how do you wave that into this whole equation. Yeah,
(39:52):
So it's interesting because I just recently had this conversation.
You know, we are so busy now with most franchise,
the there's a musical, the TV Network show on USA,
with NBC Universal, you know, um, just everything going back
to hs N now and you know, everything that's going on.
(40:13):
I have grandchildren and my family works with me, were
with each other every day. And it was interesting because
I said, I just don't know what kind of person
could be come in and be part of this whole
life hurricane of life. Right. And it's funny because you know,
(40:34):
I got to a point and this is what I
talked about. It's almost like we're circling back. When you
feel the security and the love for yourself and you
don't have to have somebody else to define you. That's
a place that I hope everybody can get to because
it changed my life. So now will I tell you
(40:56):
that it wouldn't be phenomenal, you know when you put
your head on the pillow at night to say, you know,
what do you think about this? Or you know? Then
it to have a beautiful relationship is fantastic. I mean
that would be like the complete candles on the cake, right.
But it has to be right and it has to work,
and if that happens, that would be wonderful. I have
(41:18):
no idea where i'd even meet somebody, because I have
no social life. I'll tell you where to go. I
met my fiance who is Prince Charming online. Yes, congratulations
on your own engagement, My goodness, thank you. So two
more questions one is you have the hunger, you have
the drive. It's undeniable. For people at home, in the
(41:39):
simplest way possible, what's your process? Now, you, like me,
can tell five people to befind me someone to make
this or test this and get that. I p and
we know that. But like for someone at home, from
idea to execution, what should be the process? And I
guess what is your process? Maybe it's not that different.
The first thing you have to sit back and think
is there's something that I have been saying to myself
(42:01):
that I wish I could do that, I'd want to
do that I'm not doing right. Whether it's a product,
whether it's opening a stand, uh, making you know, veggie drinks,
it doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter what
it is. If there's something that really ignites you, I say,
you have to begin that process. You have to begin
(42:23):
it and you may not end up doing it, but
you you're never going to do it if you don't
begin it right. And I think that for me everything
was a learning process. So two more questions. One is
are you ever called tough or a bit? You know, tough? Yes,
a bitch? No? No? Good good no? Because do you
(42:46):
think that if you were a man, you would be
called tough or you just be a man? It's a
successful I think I am. And I don't mean what
it was. I mean I I always laughed. I always said,
you know, I always thought when I was younger that
I thought more like a man, right, you know, I
approach things in that way. Now today's a different day.
But that's because the way where you were programmed, living
in an Italian family. But that's exactly. But you're you're
(43:08):
a woman, and it's okay to be strong as a woman.
But I've had friends say to me, you're basically a man. Now.
I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm a woman exactly. And
I think for me, the most beautiful thing that I
have seen throughout my career is not only women, but
young people in the industries and people from everywhere in
(43:32):
the world. My biggest you know aids in the sense
of you know, brain power, have been somebody right out
of college having my female workforce, male workforce, people from
around the globe saying we do it this way. What
do you think about? And I'm like, I never thought
of that. That's great. So when you get input from everywhere.
(43:54):
You know. It's so funny. Somebody was talking to me
about how do you view your customer. I love everybody.
My customer is everybody. I never you know, I never
decipher about anything, so you know, and that's what I
talk about when I say empathy. You have to have
empathy for everybody, and you know, and it's just I
(44:15):
just feel so fortunate because you know, when you give
that energy out, it certainly comes back to you. And
I say another thing I say about a principle. I
surround myself with light, bright people, people that are good thinkers,
that look at how can we how can we do this?
Not oh we can't do this, it's how can we
do this? So for anybody out there, I don't care
(44:37):
if it's you make the best amazing knitted scarf in
the world or the best pie or whatever it is,
or you want to open, you know, a little shop
or a business or a digital site, you absolutely can
do it. You can do it. You just start. You start,
(44:57):
you know, because if you don't start, you'll never do it.
But at LEAs if you start, you will learn along
the way, and you things may change and you may
not end up with what you exactly what you started
to do. But you know what that will be the
better thing? Well, that was Stacy's Pea chips here because
she was running a sandwich card and she ended up
selling the Peter Chip business in two thousand and six
(45:19):
two and fifty million dollars. So there you go. And
that's why I didn't know if the mop was really
your biggest idea or just the one that popped off.
That and the hangar you made even did was more successful.
So I'm sure you had fifty things in between that
you were equally as passionate about, but those are the
ones that popped off, right, Yeah, exactly. This was amazing.
(45:41):
I've been wanting to have you on for a long
time and connect with you. It's fascinating. You created a
world and industry and you're a successful woman by anyone's standards,
in your own right, on your own terms. So I'm
so grateful for your time, for the conversation and the
education for people at home, and I thank you and
you as well. I'm proud of you. One day we
(46:01):
will have some coffee. I drink coffee so well, I'm
in awesome. Have a great day. Thank you so much.
You do by Bethany. Something occurred to me while I
was talking to Joy and why I think people are
having a different experience on this podcast because Joy was
(46:22):
telling her story and it was jumping ahead to the
mob when I realized something how she had left a
relationship which was very courageous for especially with the way
she's been raised, with the sort of morals and imprint
on what she's supposed to be doing. That was a
big deal. But her unleashing and unshackling herself was what
ended up giving her the courage to do what she
(46:43):
needed to do and to be successful. So that's what
the show is sort of about. It's not really about
oh and I went on stage and I sold millions
of dollars of mops. It's really like who are you?
What choices did you make? What changes did you make?
What courage is moves did you make along the way
that really made it happen. So I think that the conversation,
(47:04):
as you know, they're always different, but there's a lot
to take away. She's a strong woman who, of course,
like myself, has thought of herself as being more like
a man, which is the problem. You know that I'm
not more like a man, I'm just a strong woman
like her. That was a great conversation. I think there's
so much a take home. And you know, it's funny
because I do reading about people and then I write questions,
(47:26):
and today I really only had like five questions because
I just knew it would go on forever, and this
would have gone on the longest. This and Kelly Ripple
went on forever. I'm finding that there's just more and
more I want to talk to these people about. And
even Cheryl Sandberg, who was running Facebook, had to be
pulled with the hook off because she's got to go
run Facebook. But we couldn't stop because people want to
tell their story and share it with you, like what
(47:47):
who they are? They're forgetting who they are. They forget
all these things that have happened. I forget half the
things that have happened. You know that make me why
I am. I had a conversation today with a staff
today about how I used to work and like literally
worked twenty four hours a day and never sleep and
kill myself to get here. So it's great. I thank
you for listening. Please remember to rate, review and subscribe,
and have a great day. Just Be is hosted an
(48:15):
executive produced by me Bethany Frankel. Just be as a
production of the Real Productions and I Heart Radio. Our
managing producer is Fiona Smith and our producer is Stephanie Sender.
Our EP is Morgen Levoy. To catch more moments from
the show, follow us on Instagram and just fee with
Bethany
So I talked about social media a lot and how
I don't think I'm particularly good at it. I don't
particularly love it, or it doesn't come that naturally to me.
I remember having an assistant who said I had to
get on Twitter. It was in the beginning when really
just Ashton Kutcher was talking about what he was eating
every day, and it wasn't what it is now, and
(00:34):
I thought the craziest thing in the world would be
to tell everybody what I was doing, where I was
an oddly private and it's never come totally naturally to me.
So I've been public about my confusion and lack of
comfort when it pertains to social media. I sometimes I
don't understand what I'm supposed to post, and things that
(00:57):
do well are not necessarily things that I want to post,
and things that I really like posting then don't do well.
And are we doing it to do well and get likes,
because then it's sort of just looking for approval and
it's just a strange thing. I would just assudent not
do it at all. I mean, maybe once in a
while a picture of something that's funny to me, or
(01:17):
my dogs do something cute, but I just don't love it.
It's just not natural to me. It's something that I
do strictly for business. Even if I'm not posting about business,
it's something I'm ultimately doing strictly for business. I was
never on Facebook posting pictures of things that I found interesting.
It's just not something I'm inclined to do. So I
(01:37):
don't follow a lot of people I know and a
lot of my friends on social media because I talked
to them or I text them, and most of the
things that are posted on social media are what people
want people to see their lives as. So I have friends,
I mean real friends, people that I've spent time with recently,
(01:58):
and I see their social media and it's sort of
this picture perfect Christmas card. It's like the Christmas card
that comes every year of their family or what they're doing.
But I know that they're going through personal issues, or
they're having trouble selling their home, or they got fired
from their job but they can't have kids, or something's
going on. So I don't find social media to be
an accurate portrayal of what's going on in people's lives. Therefore,
(02:22):
I don't really follow all of my friends, and I
don't follow the people that I work with either, because
I talked to them every single day. So if you're
doing it because it's sort of like you have to
do it because you have to be on the list
of their likes, then it's sort of phony and it
reinforces everything that I hate about it. So recently I
(02:44):
started seeing all these different press articles coming up because
Kyle Richards, who I've known for years, was asked, I'll
watch what Happens Life by a viewer quote unquote. But
those those questions are always vetted by producers and you know,
people at the show. So she was asked why she
unfollowed me on Instagram and I didn't know that she
(03:06):
unfollowed me on Instagram, And she said, because she unfollowed me,
And I don't want to keep up with someone who
doesn't want to keep up with me. I don't know
when that's tracked, and I don't know when I n
followed her on Instagram. It certainly wasn't recently. It could
have been a long time ago. I remember a long
time ago, I was following hundreds of people and I
was like, oh my god, I just don't want to
(03:26):
look at all this, And so I had myself down
to like fifty people I was following, and then I
like home design and jewelry and watches, so I'm sure
I've I've taken that back a lot more, and I
arbitrarily followed some people and I just haven't gotten around
to on following them. It's not a science for me.
I don't really care. I don't look at my phone
all the time. When you look and it says how
long you're on your phone, mines really low on social media.
(03:48):
It's high on texting people I work with about the
thirty categories I'm in business, but it's low on just
like browsing around what people are doing. So I was
asked why she unfollowed me on I guess it was Instagram.
This was all over and all the press. Now. The
thing is, I didn't realize she was gonna talk about this.
How could I? I I didn't even know I had followed her,
(04:08):
she had followed me. No one has to follow me like.
But it's not like I don't buy people birthday gifts
because they bought me a birthday gift. I buy people
birthday gifts because I know it's their birthday and I
want to buy them something, and if one year I
forget their birthday or I don't buy them something, then
that's what happens. But I don't follow people because they
followed me. In fact, this past week, after seeing this
in like ten different publications, I realized that Katie Kirk
(04:31):
follows me and I don't follow her, but I followed
her back, you know, but she doesn't seem to care.
There was a time I think with Kelly Rippo followed
me and I didn't follow her, and then I realized
because I saw it, says follow it back, like, but
this all seems like a bunch of bullshit, and talking
about it on a TV show that is designed to
create conflict between women meant that I had to read
about this all week. But I have very good friends
(04:55):
that I don't follow on Instagram or text because I
can call them a text and Kyle, I texted her
to say Happy Mother's Day. That's less interaction we had
because I wanted to say happy Mother's Day. But also,
if it doesn't have to mean your friends are not friends.
For example, Kyle's uh working on the Housewives, and maybe
she posts uh a lot of stuff about the show,
(05:16):
or just everyone looking perfect and promoting stuff, and maybe
maybe I don't need to see that. So it's not
that I'm not keeping up with her. I if I
want to talk to Kyle, I'll talk to her herself,
and the same thing with many of my friends. So
that's something that has been in a lot of press,
and I want to clear things up here so I
could give you a real perspective instead of just sort
(05:39):
of pull quotes. I think that's a very interesting part
of social media, Like I'm following you because you're following me, Okay,
so who starts it? It's weird. I don't think about
this kind of stuff. Like the way I feel about
it is like who has time to think about who's
following and not following them? Maybe that's why I don't
have so many followers. And listen, for those of you
(06:00):
listening to this podcast, if you're not interested and what
I'm posting, maybe you shouldn't follow me. And if you are,
then you should. And if you want me to post
different things, or if you'd like to hear about different
parts of my life, then maybe I'll post them. You know,
if I get more feedback about what should be posted.
It's sort of like when I write a book. I
write a book based on what people have said they
want to hear about. So now I'm writing about really
(06:22):
granular like a business memoir, like with a bunch of crazy,
crazy business stories that have happened to me. I may
call it mention at all, and may be called the
Bethany clause. But yeah, I don't just I don't spend
a lot of time and energy thinking about who's following
and I'm following me And I don't follow people because
they follow me. And who I follow and who I
(06:44):
don't follow is absolutely no indication of who I'm friends
with and who I like or who I don't like.
That's the thing too. I don't really follow my friends
because my friends I talked to all the time. So
what am I gonna do? Go look at what my
friends are doing on social media? Just seems weird. What
(07:05):
do you all think about this? What do you at
home think about this? Are you finding out from your
good friends through social media? Are they posting things that
are so shocking to you that you wouldn't find out
by just texting or talking to them? Or are you
your friends posting the picture perfect Christmas card version of
themselves and you're sort of just rolling your eyes because
you know the real then. Bernie Jenner, no idea why
(07:27):
you know. I'm following him because I watched The Hills
reboot or whatever that was. I thought it was interesting.
David Lasher and Jill Lasher. I I know David Lasher.
He's an actor and I know him from years ago
when I think he asked me to do something about
a movie. Yeah, it's like all random, totally random. A
lot of watch people, right, Okay, I'm following Hillary Clinton.
I follow Hillary Clinton. I bet she doesn't follow me.
(07:48):
I'm not gonna unfollow her because she doesn't follow me.
I'm not following her because she's following me. I'm following
her because she was on my show and I'm interested
in the throwback pictures she sent last week. La La
La la vast was his followed in me. We're not
friends at all. She came up my talk show years ago.
She probably followed me years ago just because she was
on my talk to Christina Aguilar, I doubt she's following me.
She's ten billions of follow back. Oh okay, Christina Aguilar,
(08:11):
I don't know you were following me. This is funny,
Nicki minag. There's no fucking way Nicki majags following me.
See she's not. I'm still following you, Nicki Minaj. It's
okay if you're not following me. You may not be
interested in the bag of bullshit on peddling, but I'm
interested in your long ponytails, so I'm following you. It's
okay if you don't follow me. I'm not gonna un
follow you because you're not following me. You're also Nicki Minaj.
(08:31):
But still, that's how I roll. Let me know what
you guys think. My guest today is Joy Mangano, the
famous inventor known for such products as Miracle Mop and
Forever Fragrant. So you may know of her and you
(08:52):
don't even know you know of her things that you've bought,
the huggable hangar, that mop that you know doesn't get
your hands dirty, that rings out the dirty and clean water.
Joy and Gone is basically synonymous with hs N for
many people. She was frustrated with household mopping. She invented
the Miracle Mop, which served as a launchpad for success.
(09:14):
After she appeared on hs N, she didn't perform at all.
It didn't do well at all until she got on
and did it herself. So you know what they say
about if you want to get something done and done right,
do it yourself. She went on to invent several other products,
and she sold her company, which has hundreds of millions
in sales, to HSN. And we talk about why a
(09:36):
no is not a know, the importance of trusting your
instincts and pursuing products that are timely, how you need
to have the courage to shift your skis, and why
you need to lean into your natural skills. She is
incredibly inspiring and aspirational and I have wanted to talk
with her for ages. I think you're going to love
this one. Um. I'm just fascinated and excited to talk
(10:07):
to you. And I don't know how much you know
about this show, but we've had some pretty major game
changers on here. So I usually start by figuring out
what your parents were like, and what was instilled in
you as it pertains to work, and if you thought
about money Like as a child, I didn't think about money.
I experienced different things about money and having and not having,
(10:28):
but I didn't really think about money. And I think
that kids now think about it. Yes, I agree. I
agree with you. Well, as a child, UM, I felt
like I was always the parent from the very beginning.
It's a very interesting thing. I had an older brother
that was three years older, and both my mother and
father were interesting. You know. My father ran a business
(10:51):
he and he aspired to run Long Island bus company
at the time, and my mother us coming from an
Italian family, very Italian family. My mom was home cleaning, cooking,
you know whatever. But it was very interesting because I
always had the role of kind of pulling the family together.
(11:15):
So even as a young girl, UM, whenever there would
be a fight between them, or they didn't get along,
or my father would get mad at my brother, I
was the protector of my brother and I was the
one who kind of pulled it all back together. So
as long as I can remember, I was kind of
always the parent of the family. And as well, as
(11:39):
long as I can remember, I've always worked, no matter
what I did, even if it was at school and
I ran the raffle. I mean, I always ran things right.
So you know, I think I've been working since I
have a history of memory. But that's not something that
someone said to you to do. It's who you are.
You're saying, this is who you are. Absolutely absolutely so
(12:02):
I guess, you know, if we're talking about childhood that way.
I was very studious, very meticulously studious. I was always
either you know, in classes and helping other children. I remember,
you know that I had a girlfriend that remained a
girlfriend through life, and she said, I'll never forget when
I couldn't understand my math in elementary school and everybody
(12:25):
went out to play, you stayed in there and help
me with my math. So I always felt like, you know,
I feel like there are caretakers in life, and I've
always been kind of one of those people. So I
was very studious and very into sports. I've been skiing
since some five. I even went to high school in
Vermont to train for the Olympics. I always loved sports
(12:49):
and academics. So um competitive, that's yeah, but with a
lot of empathy, right, I don't. I think if you
don't have empathy in life for for the people around you,
when you're in business, for for everything, there's a lot
lost there, right, So I do everything with that heart
and mind. The customer even today and always is in
(13:12):
my heart. I think of them first I dream about
them when I'm inventing a product. So nonetheless, going back,
I you know, I always worked. I worked through college.
I was in the personnel office. You know. It was
I never stopped working, and when I graduated kind of,
you know, I was always kind of making things and
creating things and working at things as I was growing up.
(13:34):
But I never had a traditional job like working in
a fast food place or anything. I was always part
of something creative. When I was training for skiing in Vermont,
I went to um a place that did woodworking, and
I was helping them do woodworking with doors. I was
this whole creative thing. But it never registered in my
brain that that's the kind of thing I was doing,
(13:56):
because remember I come from this Italian family, and all
I thought about ultimately in life is that I was
going to grow up, get married and have children, right
and cook. Well, that makes sense, that makes sense. I
worked in a bakery in high school just to be
able to pay for this big party I wanted to have.
I was a hot walker at the race track, walking horses.
I wanted to do every cupcake lemonade stand. I've always
(14:19):
been a worker, but like you, the word entrepreneur started
ten years ago. I mean, no one talked about themselves
as an entrepreneur. The word brand was not around the
same way, and it was just not used. So you
just were working and successful or not, or you were
a millionaire, you were rich, or you weren't. But as
a kid, same as you, I never thought about that.
I was just always hustling, and I grew up with
the racetrack, so I'm familiar with that, but not familiar
(14:42):
with how academic you are. How because being so academic
and being such an athlete is very structured, and it
sounds like you are structured, but it usually doesn't sound
like someone who's such a sort of entrepreneurial, fearless Maverick.
That's like an interesting intersection that's different. You're absolutely right.
Therefore when I you know, I never in my mind,
you know, associated the things that I created growing up,
(15:04):
and even at sixteen years old, went to work at
an animal hospital and saw that the most serious injuries
were dogs and cats being hit by cars. So at
sixteen years old, I invented a fluorescent flea. Color didn't
exist then, so it was I said, what do animals
have to have on all the time it was flea colors,
(15:25):
and then I said, let me make it reflective so
they won't get hit by a car and they would
be saved. I had veterinarians meat, and I presented the
idea sixteen years old and never followed through with it
because it was then, of course, raising money. I wasn't
savvy enough. A year later, Hearts Mountain came out with
the first ever fluorescent flea color. So I moved past
(15:47):
that and graduated college, and I said, well, now what
am I going to do? So I went to work
for Eastern Airlines at Kennedy Airport and I worked there,
I met my husband and got married, and I had
three children. One year after the other. I had my daughter.
Then a year later I had my son, and then
(16:08):
a year later I had my other daughter. Because you know,
like anything else, if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna
do this. So you know, it was very interesting because
my husband, who I had met in college, and if
you've seen the movie Joy, Uh, he was kind of
I was ready and I was focused, and I knew
the road that I wanted to be on, but he
(16:28):
was kind of behind that a few steps. He wasn't
quite ready for that. So it wasn't on the program.
I call that the program. You had a program and
you this was your program, and he wasn't on the
program right exactly so, and you kind of don't even
really absorbed that fully when you're going through it and
you're young and you're almost following this kind of life
(16:52):
path that your grandmother and great grandmother and mother always
said you should be on. Right quite frankly, after my
third child, I was so I had, you know, one
right after the other, and in between that I was
nursing them. Me joy, my body just said time out.
This is like way too much. You're not sleeping, you're
not eating, you have no help. You've had three children
(17:12):
in three years, and your body needs a time out.
So I got really sick. And at that time I
said to myself, I'm never going to let myself be
that vulnerable again, risk my own health, you know, my
own well being, you know, and risk my family's well being.
So it was really that point in time that I think,
(17:34):
you know, I call it the courageous Joy, that the
courageous joy came out and said, what is it you're
doing with the life? You know, what is it you
want to do. You have to be strong. Is this
the life you want? And you know, at that point
I realized, you know what, it might be easier for
me to raise them on my own and not have
(17:57):
to worry about when is this person and coming back
home and all, you know, the nonsense of that kind
of marriage. So I think really the biggest pivotal decision
in my life with three little children was to break
up that family. For me to make the decision, this
can't be anymore. You know that the guilt and the
(18:20):
ingrained upbringing that I had, you know, it's family is
everything standby no matter what. So that was the beginning
of the courageous joy. And then I sat back and
I said, what is it that I really do? And
it was at that point in time, you know, that's
really the time that I started to create and the
miracle mop. And you know, it wasn't even until years
(18:45):
later when I stepped on stage at QVC and launched
this mop and had it just the phones broke down.
It was just so wildly successful. So I'm thirty something
and it finally dawned on me that I create product.
(19:05):
I had been doing it my whole life. But you know.
It's like if somebody had said to one of my children,
what does your mom do, and they said, oh, she's
an inventor, they would have thought that I was not
so the jo we're crazy. But wait, wait, I want
to slow this down because you said a lot of
things that are perceived that so more importantly than that
to me, which is the recipe for that is that
you were effectively saying you had this box that you
(19:27):
were supposed to be in with this tradition of your mother,
your grandmother, etcetera. And you ended up leaving a marriage
where you had a quote unquote partner. Whether he was
away a lot or not, you still had a partner.
So you had somebody to quote unquote Lena to help
you with the lawn or whatever it is when you
need something or you know. But the courage that you
had to walk away from that and become a single
(19:49):
mom made you stronger, which is when women feel the weakest.
That's when they feel like, oh God, I'm alone, no
one's gonna love me, who's gonna help me? I have
friends at saying to me, you're lucky you have someone
will help you when you have a problem in the
house or something's broken, or you gave yourself this courage
to jump and then you flew. So I feel like
that's even before all of this, Like you you went
with your gut and you did what you felt that
(20:10):
was just propelling you. It feels like you just had
to do it. There was nothing in your body that
was going to not do it. Yeah, you know that's
very insightful of you, by the way, because I always
say that until you discover your own strength. Right. You know,
there's so many people that go through life and not
I'm not saying that one is good one is bad.
(20:31):
But for me, you know, to have had this thought
that I always have to depend on somebody else for
my happiness, for my success, for any kind of validation,
a validation thank you for me to get to a
point in life and really dig deep and find the
sense of I love myself. I have to be able
(20:54):
to depend on myself. I have to learn how to
depend on myself because I'll make a better the person
for anybody that I would be within the future. Right,
But you also believed it. You believe that when other
people didn't believe it, it was in your body. And
I feel like it sounds like an unshackled you like
(21:21):
once you know, we stay with people, stay with jobs,
we're afraid and it seems like the logical idea and
not until you jump, Like I always say to people,
you fly, you're gonna it's gonna work out, like you
gotta just but if you feel it in your body,
So people listening, if you're an entrepreneur, if you have
an idea, if you just are feeling uncomfortable, sometimes a
little discomfort is good. It's like yoga. A little discomfort
is okay, but like pain is not. You know, when
(21:43):
you have to just have the courage to do it.
But you've felt it in your body and it like,
let's set you free. It sounds like that's right. And
for anybody listening, I think the most important thing is courage.
You have to be realistic, right. I don't want anybody
selling their house and you know, giving up, right, But
if you believe in something, and I don't care what
it is, because when I look at life, I look
at life through product. I mean our families a product
(22:06):
of products, a product, our job is a product. Everything
is product to me. That's how I view life before
anything else. And you have to have the courage too.
I say, shift your skis sometimes, right, you know, being
a skier, That's what I say. You have to be
able to shift your skis. There's nothing wrong with that.
If you are somebody that's driving by the beach every
(22:29):
day and you are I'm gonna make it up doing accounting,
and every time you pass by that surf shop you say, gosh,
I I would love to have a surf shop. I mean,
that is my dream in life. I say, stop what
you're doing, or try to figure out how you go
and become your passion, because I think they're one thing
(22:52):
my life and who I am is what I do
and for me, that's the recipe for success. It has
nothing to do with money, It has nothing to do
with anything else except if you are living your passion.
There's nothing better. The only thing better is that I'm
living that passion with the people I love. Right, So
(23:12):
my children work with me, and in the past when
I was starting, my best friends but you know who
were brilliant at this and that would work. You know,
I say that that there's everything okay about that. To
to lean on people around you and for me to
do what I love with people I love it doesn't
get better than that, right, But let me ask you
(23:33):
a question, how do you control yourself? Because I'm an
idea hamster, so people around me have to say, but
do you want to be, you know, own a frozen
yogurt store for example. Let's say there are different places
that I know would kill it with something. That doesn't
mean I'm supposed to be doing that. There are five
inventions I can tell you right now, but I think
are amazing ideas, but like that's not really People have
(23:54):
to have an r o I on their time and
their money. Meaning I call it the bucket theory. I
want six buckets full, twelve half full, because then your
asses in forty two places, and you know that better
than anyone. So I want to hear your perspective. But
you've got to pick the things where it's like, Okay,
I'm gonna kill myself on that one thing, but that's
gonna have a big r o I personally, professionally, it's
going to save lives. But then people get sucked into
all these different things you probably do with your plans
(24:15):
with your friends. So we have to sometimes also know
what things to do and not do and how to
pick them so I want to hear that from you.
You're exactly right, you say it in a great way
as well. So that's why I say, you have to
be realistic about it, right, And I often say you
can't even look at the whole picture. You're right, you know,
if there are three projects, right, or there are three
(24:38):
things that you're looking at doing, you have to have
it be in your mind. What is the one that
I really want to do that's number one? But what
is the one as well that makes sense to bring
to enable me to do the other two? Right? So
you know, so like right now. For example, I was
(24:58):
with HSN and QBC for thirty years, right, and I
picked this moment in time to step back and create.
My dream was to be laser focused on best in
class health and wellness products that I literally saw an
immediate benefit to the consumer. So for me, I started again, right,
(25:21):
So I shifted my skis and I started a line,
a product line called clean Boss right, the world's most
powerful botanical disinfectant and cleaner and odor eliminator, among other products.
And it is, you know, so satisfying to me. Again,
I dream about that customer and actually when I talk
about that product, and this line. I was thinking about
(25:44):
it and started working on it, like ten years ago,
and what's happening in our lives the last two years, right, well,
my god, now that's crazy. So it was like a foreshadowing, right,
So ten years ago I was thinking about this, but
I was I said, I must focus on it because
I must bring it to fruition right now. And so
I took and I shifted all my energy into that
(26:07):
so I could impact in my own way as an
inventor of products the world as it is today, because
like everyone else, I want to send my family back
out into the world in the safest way that I can.
You know, so you do have to weigh and you
have to be able to lean into the things that
are timely. I might have not been doing that right
(26:28):
now if it wasn't for what happened. But because I
had started a history with that, I knew I had
to finish that. And the world slowed down so you
had a minute to process it a minute a minute.
But um, so you're obviously successful. You've made money. It's
not about the money. Afterwards, I want to talk about
managing people and finding good people and keeping it together.
(26:50):
But have you ever cracked, Have you ever wanted to
get off the ride? Or has the pressure ever been
too great? You know that's interesting. The honest answer is no.
And I'm gonna tell you why, because I have this philosophy.
I have a book by the Way, Inventing Joy that
and one of one of the principles of that book
is a no is not a no. And I still
(27:11):
to this day here no several times a week. The
no can be in the form of all sorts of forms.
And so a lot of what I do in life
is sit back and say, Okay, why is that a no?
Why is that an obstacle? And how do I turn
that into a yes? Or what do I have to
do to change that to make it become possible? And
(27:33):
so I am a glass half full person. And when
even you know, even what seems insurmountable, I will wake
up in the morning and I will have solved it
in my brain. I really I will. You know, I
really don't believe you may not you know, what you
start out with may not be what you end up with.
(27:55):
But still I don't mean that way. I mean, I
don't mean the idea that you can't getting made Because
I have the same philosophy place of yes. But I
mean when things get bigger, you've got a bigger infrastructure,
You're managing so many things, You're being pulled in different directions.
I mean, did you ever feel at certain points like
is this worth? It? Is this crazy? I have enough money?
It's too much going on like that way? I mean,
like just life balance. So remember go back to my
(28:19):
first statements at my lowest point, when I was after
three kids and really my body said time out, you
got to take a break. I said, I would never
get vulnerable like that again. So what did I do? So?
I built this business up in many forms. I took
my family with me in it, right, So I'm surrounded
by my children every day. So my business and my
(28:40):
family is all one, and I always look forward. I
never look behind me, and I never sit and wallow
because you know, I cannot tell you, Bethany, you have
to be able to relate, and how many people listening
can relate to this. I can start off a day
and get the worst news, and then through the course
(29:04):
of the day they'll be like fifteen other inputs and
it ends up being the best day. There you go, right,
every every day is like a different path, right, or
the day can start off with the best news and
it could go downhill. And I will tell you there
are sometimes when I say I'm not taking one more call.
That's it. I have enough for today and we'll deal
(29:24):
with it tomorrow. Right, every day literally has ups and downs,
and really, you know, I think the thing that you
have to be a depth at among many things, but
is where you take the risks and where you don't,
what you act upon and what you don't, what you
pay attention to, what noise you pay attention to, and
(29:45):
what you don't because eventually some noise will go away,
some noise you have to address, you know. So it's challenging,
But then I'm gonna go back again and make full circle.
If you love what you do and you're surrounded by
good support, like who do you trust? You know? Who
do I trust more than my children? And I you know.
(30:07):
My son's a lawyer. He used to work for Caret
Swain and more. I stole him from one of the
best law firms. My daughter is a brilliant product sourcer
for me for fifteen years. My son in law as
a producer who talked in my ear for twenty years.
I mean, I have all this talent around me now,
it's amazing. Are you in the weeds? Um? So I
(30:27):
get thrown out of the weeds by the people around
me all the time, but I I managed to find
my way back in there. I've gotten better. I have
to say I've gotten better because you know, now we
have a lot of things going on. And by the way,
congratulations on the big Shop. Congratulations because we are starting.
You know, we are launching a TV show this fall,
(30:52):
America's big deal with NBC Universal, and I know the
work involved is amazing, is an amazing They call it
production because it is a production. So so congratulations, Bethany,
thank you. So you still have the hunger, that's clear.
So what's your how much on air selling do you
(31:14):
do now? Actually that's a great question. So I took
a break to develop Clean Boss. Right, So for thirty
years prior, ten years on QBC, twenty years on h
s N. Why that shift? Why QBC? I've been on QVC.
I'm I'm like an hs N person now and it's
a totally it's the same big company as you know,
(31:35):
but for people listening, there are two different brands, different customers,
different shopping styles, it's psychologically different, and I'm fascinated by
the patterns and the psychology of the bye. So tell
me about moving from QBC to hs Well, let me
tell you so the historic story and then we'll get
into exactly what you're talking about. So I started on QBC. Obviously,
(31:56):
first time I ever stepped on stage was with the
Miracle mop. The only class that I ever cut in
college was public speaking, so go figure. So nonetheless, I
was there for ten years, and it was when Barry
Diller was CEO and running QVC. When he left, and
(32:17):
you know, he had Ticketmaster, Expedi dot com, he bought
Home Shopping Network at the time, and other entities. He said, Joy,
I want you to come to HSN and I said, no,
very loyal person, Barry, you know, and he said, well,
I'm going to buy your company. So he bought my
company and brought me to hs N. I became an
executive there. I was an on air personality. I was
(32:40):
the only UH division that sourced product literally make created
and sourced product. And I as well, aside from being
on once or twice a month for an entire day,
we started to get requests to design and manage other hands.
(33:00):
You're saying you were doing two ts is a month,
Is that what you're saying. Yes, for those listening, when
I do a T S nhs N, it's Today's special
and you're on all You start at night, which Joy's
favorite time going on is midnight, and that's why she
was a darling there and I'm always kicking and screaming
and then you're you're selling the whole next day. And
not until I realized how this whole thing works and
the machine of people buying at those hours. Am I
(33:23):
now you know, really leaning more into this. You know,
cult life I'm living. But I have to speak to
you about this. This is unbelievable. So go ahead. You
were working twice a month doing ts IS selling all
day for thirty years. No, God, that's you're talking about
a very long time. But add to that. Now, I
took on Iman so I. We designed with Iman for
(33:44):
ten years. We designed for Chef taught English. I launched
the first non stick ceramic non stick cookware in the world,
in the world so Um, I designed product with Randy
j Accon, Keith Urban, Serena Williams, Paula Abdul so this
(34:05):
was some machine. Yeah, it was so. And I was
there for every one of their t s is as well.
So it was a very big education in the culinary world.
We'll think about that right now though. In the pandemic,
how amazing it's been for home shopping in general. And
for those of you who haven't watched those types of shows,
like you have to understand it is so intense. Joy
(34:29):
knows way more than I do. But you'll do one
of those ts is and you'll be talking about your
products for two hours, three hours. You're like, I could
have been on a plane to Florida by now. I'm
still talking, Like my mouth is still moving. What am
I talking about? You? You zone? You can't even believe
you're still speaking right, No, It's true three hours for me.
A lot of times it was a launch was from
eleven to two am. But let me give you a
(34:51):
nice big secret here. I will be going back to
hs N to launch the clean Boss line and as
other things on July one, right around the corner here.
So it's midnight Friday night, Saturday morning, July one, and
I'll be on all day. You can see what Bethany's
talking about. So having been there for thirty years. I
(35:15):
feel like I'm going home. I love it. I love it,
and I've always loved being able to talk to the
consumer and explain member. I'm an inventor, so what better
thing for an inventor to explain the product? You know,
features and benefits. And you know, Gayle King once said
to me, she said, you're not selling me. You're just
telling me all the details I need to know to
(35:35):
make a decision to buy. And that's what it is.
You know, it really is that true because you love
the product. So I was launching swim I'm not under
skinny Girl because I did not think skinny Girl was
the right name for a swim line, and I wanted
(35:55):
it to be an elevated line and I wanted to
be called Bethany. And w w D did an article
on me and all of this stuff with a big, big,
multibillion dollar partner, and it goes on and on, and
I was on a Zoom months ago and there were
some problems with it that it wasn't correct for me.
And then a couple of weeks ago I tried on
the product and it wasn't correct for me. The day
of I'm going on to an Instagram live. Five minutes
(36:17):
before I put the bathing suit on. It's it's it's
ill fitting, it's not doesn't fit right, like it's out
to here. Now you know this, We're it's millions of
dollars that goes on here, crazy stuff. It's here. So
I start freaking because I can and your reputation because
it's you. But you know, I'm doing a bigger deal
with ag said, I'm getting into multiple categories. You're trying
to think of fifty things at the same time while
you're like you're building a plane, while flying, going on
(36:39):
the air, launching, swim w W D article Yippi. So
fine minutes before I try this on and it just
doesn't fit me right. But I'm not everybody, so I
have to degrade my whole staff and say to every
single person, all shapes and sizes, please do me a favorite.
Put a bathing suit on. Everybody put a bathing suit on.
They're like, uh, they put the big and I could
tell no one wants to tell me, but no, because
they all don't want me to like blow up my
(36:59):
thing with h send. Five minutes before, called my business manager, etcetera.
I say, I'm not doing it. I'm not selling like
this has been the law, this is the launch like,
I'm not doing it. I emailed ahead of hs N
while I have to do an Instagram Live. I said,
get me something else. I'll wear my jeans and wear
my glasses. And I told the people on Instagram Live
there's a product I don't feel comfortable with it. I'm
not selling it. I will not sell you something that
I don't like. So long story short, it just I
(37:20):
was like, of course, yes, of course, yes, we never
want you to sell something that you don't actually love.
And I wasn't worried about the money or anything or
the problems. I just it made me feel good. It
made me feel strong because my business manager was yelling
at me, and I was like, I don't care. I'm
not going on. I'm not selling this thing. I cannot
tell you how not only proud I am of you, Bethity,
(37:41):
but you so did the right thing, because you know,
as well as I know, to the customer today is
the smartest customer ever ever, and they know when something's
not right. And that's why you know you absolutely did
the right thing. And I certainly hope did. You're gonna
fix it and launch it because now I want to
(38:03):
see what this is all about. No, we're gonna launch
it in the fall and it's gonna be great. But
I was like, yeah, but I felt good, good, thank you.
I felt strong. I felt like everyone screaming at me
and I'm like, effort, I'm not selling. No. I heard
from the people at hs N that the people in
the back, the models and the stylists, I don't you know.
(38:24):
I've met them all, but I don't know what goes
on back there. They all applauded me because they were like,
look at how she protects her brand. Like it ended
up seeing the story. Yeah, so anyway, I just needed
to tell that story. But you were the perfect person.
And that's so important because when you stand up there,
you a person are representing your brand. It's not like
(38:44):
it's you know, a company. You are that authenticity and
the trust factor. You know, for thirty years, I built
a foundation to have that, you know, that brand trust
people by product before they even know what it is,
they just know it's a new product. Well, because you've
built that one at a time, one brick, you can't
(39:04):
be like, here's this other crappy thing don't never buy
another thing. You go to a restaurant, you have a
bad meal, You're never going back again. Yep, yep. There
isn't anything to second guess. You pented the right thing,
thank you, But you know how brutal that was. You know,
Oh yes, oh yes, trust me, trust me. I've been there.
I've been there. So what about being so successful, so strong?
(39:30):
And is there a price in relationships like for you
personally and maybe even family relationships. You're all talking about business.
You're all in the business. You've given a lot of
people a lot of success. But I talked to a
lot of people on here are the guy Jamie Simonov
who created the ring And if there's no one I
haven't talked to about relationships, what about successful relationships? And
how do you wave that into this whole equation. Yeah,
(39:52):
So it's interesting because I just recently had this conversation.
You know, we are so busy now with most franchise,
the there's a musical, the TV Network show on USA,
with NBC Universal, you know, um, just everything going back
to hs N now and you know, everything that's going on.
(40:13):
I have grandchildren and my family works with me, were
with each other every day. And it was interesting because
I said, I just don't know what kind of person
could be come in and be part of this whole
life hurricane of life. Right. And it's funny because you know,
(40:34):
I got to a point and this is what I
talked about. It's almost like we're circling back. When you
feel the security and the love for yourself and you
don't have to have somebody else to define you. That's
a place that I hope everybody can get to because
it changed my life. So now will I tell you
(40:56):
that it wouldn't be phenomenal, you know when you put
your head on the pillow at night to say, you know,
what do you think about this? Or you know? Then
it to have a beautiful relationship is fantastic. I mean
that would be like the complete candles on the cake, right.
But it has to be right and it has to work,
and if that happens, that would be wonderful. I have
(41:18):
no idea where i'd even meet somebody, because I have
no social life. I'll tell you where to go. I
met my fiance who is Prince Charming online. Yes, congratulations
on your own engagement, My goodness, thank you. So two
more questions one is you have the hunger, you have
the drive. It's undeniable. For people at home, in the
(41:39):
simplest way possible, what's your process? Now, you, like me,
can tell five people to befind me someone to make
this or test this and get that. I p and
we know that. But like for someone at home, from
idea to execution, what should be the process? And I
guess what is your process? Maybe it's not that different.
The first thing you have to sit back and think
is there's something that I have been saying to myself
(42:01):
that I wish I could do that, I'd want to
do that I'm not doing right. Whether it's a product,
whether it's opening a stand, uh, making you know, veggie drinks,
it doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter what
it is. If there's something that really ignites you, I say,
you have to begin that process. You have to begin
(42:23):
it and you may not end up doing it, but
you you're never going to do it if you don't
begin it right. And I think that for me everything
was a learning process. So two more questions. One is
are you ever called tough or a bit? You know, tough? Yes,
a bitch? No? No? Good good no? Because do you
(42:46):
think that if you were a man, you would be
called tough or you just be a man? It's a
successful I think I am. And I don't mean what
it was. I mean I I always laughed. I always said,
you know, I always thought when I was younger that
I thought more like a man, right, you know, I
approach things in that way. Now today's a different day.
But that's because the way where you were programmed, living
in an Italian family. But that's exactly. But you're you're
(43:08):
a woman, and it's okay to be strong as a woman.
But I've had friends say to me, you're basically a man. Now.
I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm a woman exactly. And
I think for me, the most beautiful thing that I
have seen throughout my career is not only women, but
young people in the industries and people from everywhere in
(43:32):
the world. My biggest you know aids in the sense
of you know, brain power, have been somebody right out
of college having my female workforce, male workforce, people from
around the globe saying we do it this way. What
do you think about? And I'm like, I never thought
of that. That's great. So when you get input from everywhere.
(43:54):
You know. It's so funny. Somebody was talking to me
about how do you view your customer. I love everybody.
My customer is everybody. I never you know, I never
decipher about anything, so you know, and that's what I
talk about when I say empathy. You have to have
empathy for everybody, and you know, and it's just I
(44:15):
just feel so fortunate because you know, when you give
that energy out, it certainly comes back to you. And
I say another thing I say about a principle. I
surround myself with light, bright people, people that are good thinkers,
that look at how can we how can we do this?
Not oh we can't do this, it's how can we
do this? So for anybody out there, I don't care
(44:37):
if it's you make the best amazing knitted scarf in
the world or the best pie or whatever it is,
or you want to open, you know, a little shop
or a business or a digital site, you absolutely can
do it. You can do it. You just start. You start,
(44:57):
you know, because if you don't start, you'll never do it.
But at LEAs if you start, you will learn along
the way, and you things may change and you may
not end up with what you exactly what you started
to do. But you know what that will be the
better thing? Well, that was Stacy's Pea chips here because
she was running a sandwich card and she ended up
selling the Peter Chip business in two thousand and six
(45:19):
two and fifty million dollars. So there you go. And
that's why I didn't know if the mop was really
your biggest idea or just the one that popped off.
That and the hangar you made even did was more successful.
So I'm sure you had fifty things in between that
you were equally as passionate about, but those are the
ones that popped off, right, Yeah, exactly. This was amazing.
(45:41):
I've been wanting to have you on for a long
time and connect with you. It's fascinating. You created a
world and industry and you're a successful woman by anyone's standards,
in your own right, on your own terms. So I'm
so grateful for your time, for the conversation and the
education for people at home, and I thank you and
you as well. I'm proud of you. One day we
(46:01):
will have some coffee. I drink coffee so well, I'm
in awesome. Have a great day. Thank you so much.
You do by Bethany. Something occurred to me while I
was talking to Joy and why I think people are
having a different experience on this podcast because Joy was
(46:22):
telling her story and it was jumping ahead to the
mob when I realized something how she had left a
relationship which was very courageous for especially with the way
she's been raised, with the sort of morals and imprint
on what she's supposed to be doing. That was a
big deal. But her unleashing and unshackling herself was what
ended up giving her the courage to do what she
(46:43):
needed to do and to be successful. So that's what
the show is sort of about. It's not really about
oh and I went on stage and I sold millions
of dollars of mops. It's really like who are you?
What choices did you make? What changes did you make?
What courage is moves did you make along the way
that really made it happen. So I think that the conversation,
(47:04):
as you know, they're always different, but there's a lot
to take away. She's a strong woman who, of course,
like myself, has thought of herself as being more like
a man, which is the problem. You know that I'm
not more like a man, I'm just a strong woman
like her. That was a great conversation. I think there's
so much a take home. And you know, it's funny
because I do reading about people and then I write questions,
(47:26):
and today I really only had like five questions because
I just knew it would go on forever, and this
would have gone on the longest. This and Kelly Ripple
went on forever. I'm finding that there's just more and
more I want to talk to these people about. And
even Cheryl Sandberg, who was running Facebook, had to be
pulled with the hook off because she's got to go
run Facebook. But we couldn't stop because people want to
tell their story and share it with you, like what
(47:47):
who they are? They're forgetting who they are. They forget
all these things that have happened. I forget half the
things that have happened. You know that make me why
I am. I had a conversation today with a staff
today about how I used to work and like literally
worked twenty four hours a day and never sleep and
kill myself to get here. So it's great. I thank
you for listening. Please remember to rate, review and subscribe,
and have a great day. Just Be is hosted an
(48:15):
executive produced by me Bethany Frankel. Just be as a
production of the Real Productions and I Heart Radio. Our
managing producer is Fiona Smith and our producer is Stephanie Sender.
Our EP is Morgen Levoy. To catch more moments from
the show, follow us on Instagram and just fee with
Bethany
Host
Bethenny Frankel
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.