June 25, 2025 • 41 mins
I’m so excited to be re-releasing my conversation with Joy Mangano to celebrate Joy: The Musical, now on stage in New York City! I was thrilled to go see the show, a vibrant retelling of Joy’s extraordinary journey from single mom to superstar inventor. Known for creating the Miracle Mop and portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence in the hit 2015 film Joy, Joy Mangano is a true trailblazer. But her path to success started with a simple idea, a big risk, and relentless determination. In this episode, Joy sits down with Emily to share her earliest invention (a fluorescent flea collar for pets!), how she got the Miracle Mop off the ground while raising three young kids, and the pivotal decision to sell her company to HSN.
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She Pivots was created by host Emily Tisch Sussman to highlight women, their stories, and how their pivot became their success. To learn more about Joy, follow us on Instagram @ShePivotsThePodcast or visit shepivotsthepodcast.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Joy Mangano (00:00):
So welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Joy Magano.
Emily Tisch Sussman (00:13):
Welcome back to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk
with women who dare to pivot out of one career
and into something new and explore how their personal lives
impacts these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Today we're re releasing one of my all time favorite
conversations with Joy Mongano for a very exciting reason. The
new musical Joy is now on stage in New York City.
You know Joy as the inventor of the miracle mop,
the author and the inspiration behind the movie Joy, starring
Jennifer Lawrence, and of course.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
A previous She Pivots guest.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
As a lifelong theater lover, I couldn't pass up the
chance to help bring Joyce story to the stage. It
felt like a full circle moment to come in as
a co producer of this show. Her journey is everything
we celebrate in She Pivots, Resilience, reinvention, and the magic
that happens when women bet on themselves. Now, Joy, the musical,
(01:17):
starring the phenomenal Betsy Wolf, is out this summer. Seeing
Joy come to life on stage has only deepened my
appreciation for the conversation that you're about to hear. She's funny, fierce,
and deeply honest about the highs and lows of building
a life and a business as a single mother of three. So,
(01:38):
whether you're discovering Joy through the musical or revisiting her
incredible story, I invite you to listen with fresh ears.
This episode is a powerful reminder that the most extraordinary
pivots often begin in the most ordinary moments. So let's
jump back into Joy's story.
Joy Mangano (01:58):
So, my name is Joy Mangano, and I am first
and foremost a mom and an inventor.
Emily Tisch Sussman (02:06):
I think I'm going to ask you this question now
at the beginning of the podcast and actually again at
the end. I'm interested to hear how it may change
once we go through many various steps of your career
in life. But the premise of this show is that
I'm trying to change culture, and particularly the culture around
the way we think about our careers and even within
that the interplay of how our personal decisions impact our
(02:30):
professional lives. And I think that's happened to you over
the course of your career, Like I feel like there's
so many pieces that I could point to, how do
you think your personal decisions have impacted your professional choices?
Joy Mangano (02:44):
Well, my personal decisions guided everything in my career. They
were so intertwined. I always said, my life, my family life,
my personal life and principles are the same as they
are in business. It's not you know how You'll hear
people often say, oh, it's just business, don't worry about it.
(03:06):
So for me, you know, my growing up being a
caretaker so to speak, with my family going through the
various stages. You know, I grew up in an Italian family,
and of course you you know, they say, you grow up,
you get married, you have children, and you cook, and
(03:27):
so you know, I started to follow that pattern rite
and things in that way kind of didn't go exactly
as it was supposed to. So I had to make
very hard personal choices and actually find the courage in
me to discover who I was and what I actually did.
(03:50):
Going back to not knowing, you know, I didn't start
my career, so to speak, in my mind until I
was in my thirties.
Emily Tisch Sussman (03:58):
When you were young, did you think you would have
a career at all? How did you envision yourself as
being a grown up?
Joy Mangano (04:05):
Right So when I was young, I always I loved animals.
I always thought I wanted to be a veterinarian, and
I was very, very studious person. So I graduated high
school a year early and I went to work in
an animal hospital and the doctor was creating a healthy
pet food before everybody was focused on that, and designing
(04:30):
the packaging and creating the recipe for that was fascinating
to me. So I ended up realizing the business aspects,
the creation aspects in my brain took over everything else,
and that started me in the direction of product and
I actually invented my first product.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
Then.
Joy Mangano (04:51):
It was a fluorescent flea collar because at the time,
the most common thing that happened in an animal hospital
where dogs or cats hit cars, and there was there
was no such thing at the time. So I said,
what does every animal? What does every owner put on
their animals? And it was a flea collar. So I said,
if I can get one, that's make one that's reflective. Now,
(05:12):
remember you have to reel back how many years it
didn't exist. So I got a lot of veterinarians together
and I started it, but I never followed through with it,
and a year later, a major, major company came out
with the first ever fluorescent flea collar. So I said,
next item, I'm going to follow through with. So I
was doing that my entire childhood. I was transforming things
(05:37):
into other products because I see the world through product.
That's how I view the world. And so when we
went to build a treehouse in the back, you know,
my brother was like, you know, help me build a treehouse.
And I built a seven story treehouse with slides and
this and that. And even before I even knew what
organic gardening was, I ripped up my parents back lawn
(05:59):
and was planted vegetables and things. I always tried to
create a better, better, a better mouse trap, so to speak.
It was just something I did naturally, and I never
really thought about it. It just happened organically. I would
see something and I'd say, I'm going to do this
in a bigger, better way so that it helps the
(06:21):
person or helps people in a better way.
Emily Tisch Sussman (06:25):
Still, Joy did what was typical at the time. She
got married straight out of college and had three children.
And as someone who had three kids in four years,
I know how overwhelming that can be.
Joy Mangano (06:38):
It shifted everything I did, and much like you, I
just you know, when I decide things, I decide to
do them. So I had three children in three and
a half years, and it obviously was the life change.
That is, it's what I live for today. But it really,
you know, that's hard and it's you know, as everybody knows,
(07:00):
it's a parent. If you put your heart and soul
into it, it's all consuming. So I was at the
time the miracle mop was in my brain. So I
would just be in my bedroom at night with them
and I'd be sketching and I'd be trying and I
and I kind of was almost like in a holding pattern,
knowing I was headed in a direction, you know, at
(07:23):
the time. So yes, that you know, that was a
time where I took a little bit of a time out.
I still, you know, because I didn't have a lot
of money or anything. I still was working doing things
here and there. I was making grapevine reafs and selling
them where I could at you know, fairs and flea markets.
I always I was always working in some form or fashion.
You know, It's just something I did. But it was
(07:45):
inclusive now of children. You know, I was pretty much
in a very short period of time doing it on
my own. But what I find more than anything having
had the children was that I learned this capacity of
love that I never had even knew I had, And
it just for me opened up a different kind of world.
(08:08):
It wasn't you know it was it was about me
and what I could do to make them have a happy,
healthy life.
Emily Tisch Sussman (08:17):
Eventually, all her scheming and sketching led her to her
breakthrough idea, the Miracle Mop. By this point, Joy was divorced,
a single mom, working tirelessly to make ends meet while
raising her kids.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
When we come.
Emily Tisch Sussman (08:31):
Back, Joy talks about what it took to get the
Miracle Mop off the ground. Well, you put so much
at stake to bring the Miracle Mop to the market
and mortgaging your house, going into debt. You know, you
put so much in there. But you had had a
number of ideas. What made you so sure that this
(08:54):
was the product that you should go for?
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Broken?
Joy Mangano (08:56):
Well, because I was broke. No, that's what you were true.
It was in my instincts. And I say, you have
to follow your instincts right, because you know it's some
people think they have a great product, but you know
their instincts are wrong. It's it's not right. But I
hate to say that, but nonetheless I knew that this
(09:18):
was a great product. It was a different mop. There
was a whole story behind it, And at this point
in my life, I said, you're either you know, you
don't know you're brave until you have to be brave, right,
So you know, I had really what were my choices,
and I said, I'm going to go for this, and
I am going to go for this. So it was
(09:39):
I put everything on the line. But it wasn't even
that simple. It was one obstacle after another. It was
it just from discovering something about the patent to discovering
that the people who I ended up you know, my
father actually ended up having make it were not reputable.
There was just every rediscovery along the way. And I think,
(10:02):
you know, that's why I say to somebody, just don't stop,
because my if I stopped one hundred percent, I would
have failed. But if I tried to keep going and
figure out another way to get there, my odds were
still better than zero.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
She had risked it all and it was paying off. Soon.
Emily Tisch Sussman (10:23):
She had hit her goal of selling to Kmart and
had a huge order in from QBC.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
She was getting her legs under her or so she thought.
If you've seen the movie, you'll know that.
Emily Tisch Sussman (10:34):
Joy soon realized that her manufacturer was taking steps to
steal the product, idea and freeze her out, all because
she didn't have proper guidance on her patent.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
In fact, she had no guidance at all, just her father.
Joy Mangano (10:48):
So my father was a kind of father like, listen,
we'll do a deal. I'll take care of it. Don't
worry about it. So that's a lesson you learn right
away after you know anyway, find out that there was
a gentleman we were paying royalties to for the patent
to make the mop, the mop that I thought I designed.
(11:09):
He said, somebody already designed it, which okay, so then
they started to manufacture it. He did a deal. I
discovery one night after, to make a long story short,
that the patent we were paying royalties to was not
the mop I created at all. It was the mop
we were making, but it was my design, was an
(11:31):
original design. My father mistaken lee a very long story,
said oh, there's already a patent. We'll just pay him
a royalty. We'll make the mop. So this gentleman in
Texas knew it was not the mop we were making.
That he was getting a royalty on a patent that
was very different. So, to make a very long story short,
(11:52):
Eye and the people in California, what had happened is
I had been on QVC, it had been successful, and
they ordered sixty thousand mops. So the manufacturers in California said, oh,
we'll make the mops for you, but we're going to
raise the price, which would have meant we were going
to lose money. So my father said, and his girlfriend
at the time said, that's it. We're at a business.
(12:14):
We can't do this. And I said, Okay, I am
going to figure this out, and if I do, I'm
going to run this company, and so on and so forth.
So I flew to Texas. I literally showed him the
patent and what he had been getting royalties too, and
in a very serious way, I told him that that
(12:37):
was unlawful and that he had to sign a letter
to say that he would not get the royalties, and
that I could go directly to deal with the manufacturers.
So when I went to California, he did. When I
went to California, and I'm minimizing this whole thing because
it was really very like I could have been you know,
(12:59):
it was just amazing how I was shaking when I
came out of the hotel room that I met him in.
When I went out to California claim the mop molds
because you have to make the mops from a mold,
I went there, landed there and they said, oh no, sorry,
we don't have the molds. We're not giving you the molds.
We own them. And I said no, no, no, you don't, Mike,
(13:22):
cause my father never did contracts with anybody. He never
signed contracts. So I said, no, here is the money
that's owed for the parts. I'm going to pay you.
Those are my molds. And I'll never forget. This guy
was not a good guy. And I was sitting there
and he had a can of Pepsi on his desk
and he said, little girl, go away. He literally said,
(13:45):
little girl go away. You just don't. We're going to
do this and you're out of it now. I'll never forget.
I took the can of pepsi and I slammed it
on the desk and the Pepsi just flew all over him.
And I said, you're going to see me in court
That night. I got the lawyer because I had brought
my lawyer with me. We met with a California lawyer
(14:08):
and it was an entire night of going through everything.
They said, you can't go to court with this. No
judge will ever give you because I needed the mop
mold back to make the mops to make the order.
And I said, no, we're going to go to court
because the judge is going to know with all this
information that I have, he's going to know who's in
the right and who are the bad guys. So they
(14:30):
were like, okay, we'll go to court, but there's they
never will hand these molds over to you. You're in California,
give them to you to take back to New York.
It's going to take years to make a long story longer.
We went into court the next day, you know, and
the lawyer said to me, don't say a word, just
sit there right. So they walk in unbeknownst to me.
(14:52):
I think they had been in front of this judge before.
So everything you know. They're saying, we have manufactured them,
we have no contract that she owns them. And I did.
I said, judge, here is the money that we know
she owes me money. I said, here's the money, here's
the you know the evidence that we paid for the mold,
so therefore we should own them, even though we don't
have a contract. And everything was done, and I hadn't
(15:16):
talked yet that they were showing all this information. And
the judge said, is there anything else? I said yes,
and I got up, and the lawyers were like, oh
my god, Oh my god, what's she going to say?
And I said, you know, this is my whole livelihood.
And I talked earnestly to the judge. He sat back.
I sat down, and he said, I'll never forget. He
(15:37):
slammed down the gavel and he looked at them and
he said, tomorrow at noon, I'm going to have the
sheriffs at your manufacturing plan and Joy will be there
as well. Joy. You're going to you have a truck
to take the molds. I'm like, yes, of course, I
had no truck and I had so and he said,
and if you don't hand over the molds to Joy,
(15:58):
I'm going to have the sheriff's arrest you. So the
lawyer at the time had never it's called a certain
kind of injunction. He had never seen it happen, and
he's never seen it happen. After that and he wrote
serious law briefs about this. It was the most incredible thing.
And so the next day there was a truck there.
(16:22):
The molds were on the truck. They were headed back
to New York. I flew back to New York and
had to create a fine molders to mold them, create
a business to make the mops. And then the last
day that the sixty thousand mops had to be on
their way to QBC, sixty thousand mops were on their
(16:44):
way to QBC.
Emily Tisch Sussman (16:46):
You were so young when you started. Do you remember
what was going through your mind when you not just
walked into QBC and said take my product, but then
you went back and said it has to be me.
Joy Mangano (16:57):
So at the time, as we know, you know, the
miracle mop was something that I did bring to fruition
and I thought the perfect place for that because I
used to go to fairs and flea markets and demonstrate
it and people loved it. Everybody who watched the demonstration
would buy it. So for me going to QVC being
(17:19):
able to replicate that, but on TV, I said, this
has got to work. And of course, at the time,
so it's interesting, you know, I was the only female
at a table with men. At the time, this was
an industry that loved celebrity, so there was you know,
I was like nobody again, you know. So they put
(17:42):
the miracle mop on the first time with one of
the hosts because they said, you know, you don't go
on to you. You know you're not who are you?
And it failed and I was I that was it.
I had everything to lose. So I said, you have
to put me on with that miracle mop and it
will work. So they did. You know, there was an
(18:03):
executive there who I could see. He saw the determination.
He said, okay, we're going to give her a shot.
I'm forever grateful for that. And it was unbelievably successful,
so successful at the time, it was probably out of
all the thousands and thousands of products they had. It
became their single biggest success. Not only did we sell
(18:24):
twenty thirty forty fifty sixty thousand in a day. At
a time, they created a commercial on TV and at
the time, if you remember direct Response, it's very interesting.
It was always a commercial with a male voice talking
through the commercial. Always. It was never any different. So
(18:47):
this same executive, I was like his thorn in his
side he said, we're going to make a commercial. It's
so successful. We're going to make a short form commercial,
two minute commercial with the miracle Mop, and we're going
to have a gentleman talking over it. And I said, no,
it's going to fail. I said, I want to do
it this way with me demonstrating it with another this
other female host. And he said, okay, well we'll let
(19:08):
you do that, but we're only going to put a
budget of very little into it, but we're going to
film it the other way with a voiceover, and we're
going to test both. So they did, and the one
with myself and Jane demonstrating the mop, you know, naturally
organically right, was like through the roof compared to the
(19:30):
other one, and it became the number one direct response
TV product in its time at the time and first
time ever it was in the forum where you were
watching two women talk about a product. So it was
pretty cool. Hi, I'm Joymangano, and I invented the Miracle Mop.
It's the original cotton self ringing mop, therefore the most absorbent.
(19:51):
It will clean that mess again and again and again.
And I'm daingered All Tracy host on QVC where we
have sold over three hundred thousand mops.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
To people all across the just like you.
Joy Mangano (20:01):
In fact, let's hear from some of them. I love
your mop. It's been a lifesaver. This moth is wonderful.
I would tell anybody to buy it. I am Joymangano,
and I invented the Miracle Mop. It's the original content
self bringing mop. You've seen it, seen even the toughest
nets again and again and again. Hundreds of thousands of
satisfied customers have ordered their Miracle Mop and love it.
(20:24):
And now the Miracle Mop has earned the Good Housekeeping seal.
It's quite easy.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
I mean it really changed the industry, Like it changed
the way that we thought about women marketing, women being
the face of something but also giving value, like business
value to a product that really only in this case
it was women because they were doing the majority of
the housework, could understand like considered a real serious business category.
Emily Tisch Sussman (20:51):
Did you have those kinds of conversations at the network, Yes,
very much so.
Joy Mangano (20:56):
So then at the time became this big aware that
you know, the story telling, the authenticity behind a product
is more important than just somebody talking about it or
a celebrity endorsing it. It's all about the authenticity. And
it's a funny thing that for now twenty five years
(21:20):
probably I do. I've always done the most business out
of any I just it's something that I do, right.
I can't sing or dance, but this I do. And
I've been creating product, you know, And it's an interesting
thing because you know when you create something new. Example,
for the first time, I launched the first non stick
(21:41):
ceramic cookware in the world before anybody was taught. Now
the whole industry is nonstick ceramic cookwaar. But I was
like possessed because I knew that the traditional nonstick was
not healthy when it got to high temperatures. And I
even with a chef. I got chef because they were like,
(22:01):
you know, you know you have to cook and everything.
I'm like, fine, I'll get a chef and so we
for two years. I fought the battle to launch this
product because it's a healthier alternative to the traditional nonstick.
And I mean batteries of lawyers saying we're going to
get sued because there was only one major company that
(22:21):
made the nonstick in cookwear. And you can't say this,
and you can't say that, and they said they're not
going to understand it. The consumer isn't going to care.
And I said, oh no, they're really going to care,
because remember, you have to have a heart for that
consumer and know how smart they are. And we launched
it and the phones literally blew up. I mean literally,
(22:44):
the whole system went down. People were so excited about this,
and obviously we changed an industry, totally changed in industry.
So it was It's been an amazing path.
Emily Tisch Sussman (22:57):
So you've told the story of your life yourself in
your own book and then became a huge blockbuster movie,
Academy Award nominated, Golden Globe winning, and now a Broadway musical.
How involved were you with those retelling of your life
stories in different mediums?
Joy Mangano (23:16):
So the movie, you know, is interesting because I'll go
back to the story where Barry asked me to go
out to California and make this show with him. The
producer of that show a very amazing, brilliant man. At
the end of this series, he said, come on, let's
go out to dinner because I'm always working, right No, no, no,
no no. Everybody used to go out to dinner and
I would go home to bed at the hotel. So
(23:37):
we went out to dinner and I don't know how
he got me talking about my life, my path. And
he got up from dinner and he said, one day,
I'm going to write a movie about your life. Five
years later, I get a phone call from him. Joy's ken,
I'm in here with a bunch of Hollywood producers. We're
going to write your movie. And they did. So, you know,
(23:58):
I feel blessed that David o'russell was the writer and
you know, director and producer and everything. And obviously it
goes without saying Jennifer Lawrence was amazing. She's just I
love her, love her, love her way beyond her years.
And everybody else involved, obviously, Robert Genio, Bradley Cooper. I mean,
(24:19):
he just couldn't pick a better family than meet in Hollywood, right. So,
but David o'russell, he is like a saffon. He just
you know, he he would talk. He'd call me like
at dinner time and we'd still be talking at three am.
So he really wanted to, you know, to really understand
and go even deeper into things I had already therapy
(24:41):
in life. I mean, that was it, you know, it
was really incredible but you know, at a point, you know,
I you have to trust people, right, I trusted him
and he's like, whatever he did, I had to entrust
in him at that point. So I really at the
end of the day, he was the creative of artist
(25:01):
for the movie. But I will tell you the story
is true. I mean there are little tiny aspects of it,
you know, like I had three children in life. There
were two in the movie. They thought Jennifer was too
young to have three children. So I'm like, wait a minute,
I was young. But it was very surreal. They flew
(25:22):
me to Hollywood. They put me in a studio and
actually I was with my son, and I was like,
they didn't think I really knew, but they said there'll
be people watching, you know. For the first time I
was watching it. They were all the executives. Everybody was
like worried about my reaction, and I was watching it
and I was like, this is amazing. It was so
(25:44):
surreal and to see like his interpretations of things, and
you know, obviously different people being me and my father
being you know, it was just you know, and everybody
was still alive, right, So it's a very touchy thing.
So oh my gosh, so I just to to this
day consider it to be an honor. I'm not like
the Hollywood type, you know. I'm like, you know, in
(26:05):
the sense of like I went to the Oscars and
I looked at my daughter after it were over, I said,
let's go back to the hotel and have cheeseburgers and
thick shakes, you know, so, you know, instead of all
the parties we were supposed to go to, but it
was I think people have told me that it's inspired them,
and to me, that's what matters. I you know, I
(26:25):
just recently, I hear it all the time. I watched
that movie every year, and it just inspires me to
keep doing what I'm doing. And if that's the result
of that movie, that's a beautiful thing.
Emily Tisch Sussman (26:41):
After the break, we dive into how Joy became a
leader both in her own company and to entrepreneurs around
the world, and she talks about her second pivot, selling
her company to HSN, the direct competitor to QBC, all
that and more. When we come back, something that I'm
(27:04):
noticing as we're talking through you as a manager and
as a boss, is that it seems like, not only
do you have a talent for inventing, coming up with
the ideas.
Joy Mangano (27:12):
But you also have a talent for putting people in.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
The right roles.
Emily Tisch Sussman (27:16):
Has that been something that you've always had a natural
talent at doing or has evolved as a manager.
Joy Mangano (27:21):
Yeah, well that's something I think that evolves because in
the beginning, you know, when I started this, it would
be like, Okay, my girlfriend Jan, she used to be
a graphic artist, so we need packaging, Jan, do you
want to work for me? And so over time, you
know that those are the resources I had at the time, right,
(27:42):
you know. And then over time as the business grew,
you know, and I mean I think I'm now nearing
you know, four billion dollars worth of product in homes
across America. It's important to get the right people doing
the right thing so that, you know, so that you
don't have to worry about it. But I still am
(28:04):
one of those people that still gets involved in you know,
I can't help myself sometimes because I love it right,
and I love you know, when they're creating the label,
or they're creating the texture on something or picking out
the colors. You know, I was famous for walking into
the room and say, okay, can I be part of this.
That's why I often say anybody that would ever listen,
(28:26):
you know, you don't have to build rocket ships. If
you have something that's going to benefit somebody's life and
change their life and it's a better way and it's
not out there, you will have success. You know, a
really big advocate. There are no experts. You know. Don't
stop yourself if you feel like, well, I'm not an
exact expert in this, because if you have no matter
(28:49):
what it is, if it's a service, if it's a product,
you know, it doesn't matter what. If you really believe
in it and you have something to offer that's better
than what's out there, I say, go for it.
Emily Tisch Sussman (29:03):
A defining characteristic of Joy is her family, from the
time they were young kids running around the warehouse all
the way to now she has involved them. Her daughter
Christy was even at this interview. Her life and business
are all one and she's mastered that symbiosis better than
perhaps anyone I know.
Joy Mangano (29:22):
So I think we create a great atmosphere now as well.
It doesn't get better than when you're able to live
your passion and what you do and do it with
the people you love. So for twenty years, my oldest
daughter has created product with me. She I don't think
(29:43):
anybody can get a better price and a better quality
product than her, you know. And it's and my son
who went to Georgetown and then Columbia Law school, went
to a really big law firm. Eventually I grabbed him
and we are in business. And my daughter, my youngest
daughter was in Project Runway and you know, a fashion
(30:05):
personality and is on Amazon Live presently and doing other
things in fashion. But I came on TV with me
and did a lot of things with us on Live TV.
So you know, we're all you know, my son in
law was my producer for twenty years at HSN, So
you know, now we have our business clean boss and
(30:26):
we're all working together. And the people there worked with
me in the past, so it's kind of it becomes family.
So when you I think, when you love what you
do and you have a beautiful business and environment and
care about the people that work with you, they stay there,
they don't go away. You know, it's a quality of life.
(30:47):
That's a beautiful thing.
Emily Tisch Sussman (30:48):
Well, you were with QBC for so long but ended
up selling to HSN, the direct competitor.
Joy Mangano (30:54):
Can you give us a little backstory. Yeah, no, it
sounds sinister, doesn't it, But it was not at all,
not at all. So when I was at QBC at
the time, Barry Diller was the CEO, and he had
asked me to go out to after the success of
Miracle Mop and other products, jewel Kit, Rolliquit, many things there,
he had asked me to go out and do a
(31:16):
show out in California for him, be a judge. And
so I think, Barry, I think the world of Barry
Diller is brilliant. And so after a certain amount of time,
so I did a lot with him and for him.
There he left. He owned what expedia, dot com, Ticketmaster,
He bought HSN iac the company. He kept asking me
(31:37):
to come to HSN And of course you if you
haven't figured out how loyal I am in life, I'm like, no,
I can't, I can't. He goes, well, then I'm going
to buy your business. And when somebody says that you
have to think twice about it, I didn't even think
twice because it was such an amazing offer. But the
offer was amazing. Not you know, money's one thing, but
(31:59):
he was giving me the ability, you know, in our
conversations to really expand what I did. And really, you know,
I became an executive HSN. I ran their only sourcing division.
We sourced products. We actually created product for other brands.
So whether it was a chef, we sold more guitars
(32:20):
than Gibson and Fender. I was creating guitars for Keith Urban.
And with Keith Urban and Serena Williams and Emon, we
did all her fashion with her. So I expanded. I
was able to do so much more. So it was
it was a really good move. And it was nice
to get off the plane in sunny Tampa in from
(32:41):
New York in January. I must admit that. So that
was the time that I was able to grow so
much so and I had the liberty to create something
like change the cookwear industry or you know many other things.
Do you consider that to be like a second big
(33:02):
pivot of your life? Yes? Absolutely, absolutely, you know that
really changed everything. And then obviously my third big pivot
was leaving there when QB ironically enough, after QVC purchased HSN. Right,
you go figure this, right, it's like you know, a
family drama. But I knew it was time, you know,
(33:22):
because in that industry, it's very important that it's exclusive
on TV, you know, and they can't get it anywhere else.
So for me, there was a whole big vista out
there in the retail world, direct to the consumer, and
I really wanted to focus in, as I said, on
the whole health and wellness aspect of creating great product.
(33:44):
And so, you know, so now in lieu of everything,
you know, my company is Clean Boss, and I am
very much focused on the health and wellness aspects of
everybody in life, and I want that to be my
life legacy because we're creating a safer choice in your
home to clean with.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
If you're keeping up. Joy is on her third pivot.
Emily Tisch Sussman (34:10):
Inspired by her grandchildren, she wanted to make safer cleaning
products and the opportunity to create Clean Boss came along
when she met none other than Pitbull.
Joy Mangano (34:21):
So together Armando Christian Perez, Pitbull and I are going
to be the face of changing the way the world
cleans and its way beyond that, it's you know, laundry
detergents that are incredible in the you know, you really
don't know about the ingredients of things until you really
know about the ingredients of things, right, So that's what
I'm passionate about. We both want to leave that legacy
(34:45):
so that you don't have to worry. You know, my daughter,
I watch her spray the highchair for her two little
boys with clean boss. And you know, when that my
kids were young, I was using something. I didn't have
a choice. I was using you know, whatever with AMMONI
in it or whatever. And now you know, I feel
like this is such a beautiful thing. And so that's
(35:06):
what we're focused on. What was something in your life.
Emily Tisch Sussman (35:09):
I know there's been a lot, You've done a lot,
but what is something in your life that at the
time you thought was a negative but then now in retrospect,
you see it as having like you couldn't have had
this kind of success without it.
Joy Mangano (35:23):
So I guess so be pre QVC right. My goal.
I was demonstrating affairs and flea markets, and my goal
was to get in every kmart because I felt like
everybody went to kmart to buy a MOP. So my
goal was to get into retail across the country, start
there and then get it everywhere. And I tried to call,
(35:46):
I talked to a buyer, and nobody, you know, no, no, no,
you know, nobody talked to me. I sent letters at
the time, letters and finally I got through to a
VP there and I talked to him about the mop.
I said, let me just come out there and show
(36:06):
you this product. And again why he said, yes, I
don't know, but flew out there demonstrated the product. And
you know, there were major stick goood companies that you
know they made not only they made a whole display
of things for these stores. Right, I have one miracle
mop and a mophead. So I had my meeting with
him and he said, all right, He said, why don't
(36:29):
you let me see you demonstrate the mop in our
flagship store in a couple other places, and let's see
what happens. I guess he was being kind, I think,
you know. So we did. We went to the flagship
Kmart store and I literally was demonstrating and wringing that
mop out. My hands were raw, but everybody that stood
(36:49):
around and watched it basically bought it. And I'll never
forget He came and he was standing back and he
was watching this happen because he said, you know, we
sell five dollar mops, We're not going to sell a
twenty dollars unth So after that, I went to various
other stores, you know, to demonstrate, and he saw the sales.
So afterwards he said, Okay, this is what I'll do.
(37:10):
I will give you every kmart east of the Mississippi
and leave this major stick goood company with west of
the Mississippi in the country, and whoever brings in the
best dollars wins. And I was like, wow, I mean
east of the Mississippi. I'm in every k marty that.
It was like the biggest thing in my life. And
(37:33):
well we won. But then I went on QVC and
I couldn't even make enough, you know. It was just
like amazing, So and QBC investing in the commercial and
everything said you have to come out of retail, so
that my whole life then became electronic retailing at the time, right,
everything I did was for QVC. Then HSN interesting, but
(37:55):
it was perfect because it was instead of standing in
front of people and having a group of people, I
had millions of people watching every creation that I made.
Emily Tisch Sussman (38:08):
Yeah, I have to ask the question again that I
asked you at the beginning. The premise of this show
is that we use personal factors in our decision making
when we make professional decisions. How do you think you've
done that.
Joy Mangano (38:20):
I think more than not. I think about because my
family works with me, right, and because I love my
family and the consumer. My personal decisions about how everything
I do is going to impact them guides what I
do in business. So that's really important to me. And
(38:43):
I feel like because I've been able to stand in
front of it's you know, America and many other places
around the world, but you know, primarily here, you know,
I think you know, people will come up to me
and when they look at products, they see me right
because that you know I'm standing there, I'm talking to
(39:06):
them directly about that. So for me, everything I do,
I know that I'm not invisible. It reflects me to them,
and so everything is personal. It's everything I do is personal.
It's not a business. It's all kind of it just
(39:26):
all intertwined together.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
Thank you so much for coming on. It's been so
great having you.
Joy Mangano (39:32):
Oh yes, it's a great conversation. And I will say that,
you know, she Pivots is a perfect, perfect name because
I as a skier, I always say you have to
shift your skis right, so you always have you can't
feel like you're in a path, and it's unchangeable. It
(39:53):
constantly changes constantly, and you have to be open to that. Yeah,
thank you so much, thank you. Yes, we're done.
Speaker 4 (40:02):
We did so.
Speaker 5 (40:03):
That was great.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
That was amazing.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Joy is still a busybee, from Clean Boss to Joy
the Musical.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
She doesn't slow down.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
You can keep up with Joy by following her on
Instagram at Joymongano, and of course, be sure to grab
your tickets to see Joy on stage this summer. This
is when you won't want to miss. Visit Joythemusical dot
com for tickets. Talk to you next week.
Emily Tisch Sussman (40:36):
Thanks for listening to this episode of she Pivots. I
hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, leave us
a rating and tell your friends about us. To learn
more about our guests, follow us on Instagram at she
pivots the Podcast, or sign up for our newsletter where
you can get exclusive behind the scenes content on our
website at she pivots the Podcast dot com. Special thanks
(41:02):
to the she pivots team, Executive producer Emily eda Velosik,
Associate producer and social media connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director
Christine Dickinson, Events and Logistics coordinator Madeline Sonovac, and audio
editor and mixer Nina pollock I endorse Che Pivots
So welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Joy Magano.
Emily Tisch Sussman (00:13):
Welcome back to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk
with women who dare to pivot out of one career
and into something new and explore how their personal lives
impacts these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Today we're re releasing one of my all time favorite
conversations with Joy Mongano for a very exciting reason. The
new musical Joy is now on stage in New York City.
You know Joy as the inventor of the miracle mop,
the author and the inspiration behind the movie Joy, starring
Jennifer Lawrence, and of course.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
A previous She Pivots guest.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
As a lifelong theater lover, I couldn't pass up the
chance to help bring Joyce story to the stage. It
felt like a full circle moment to come in as
a co producer of this show. Her journey is everything
we celebrate in She Pivots, Resilience, reinvention, and the magic
that happens when women bet on themselves. Now, Joy, the musical,
(01:17):
starring the phenomenal Betsy Wolf, is out this summer. Seeing
Joy come to life on stage has only deepened my
appreciation for the conversation that you're about to hear. She's funny, fierce,
and deeply honest about the highs and lows of building
a life and a business as a single mother of three. So,
(01:38):
whether you're discovering Joy through the musical or revisiting her
incredible story, I invite you to listen with fresh ears.
This episode is a powerful reminder that the most extraordinary
pivots often begin in the most ordinary moments. So let's
jump back into Joy's story.
Joy Mangano (01:58):
So, my name is Joy Mangano, and I am first
and foremost a mom and an inventor.
Emily Tisch Sussman (02:06):
I think I'm going to ask you this question now
at the beginning of the podcast and actually again at
the end. I'm interested to hear how it may change
once we go through many various steps of your career
in life. But the premise of this show is that
I'm trying to change culture, and particularly the culture around
the way we think about our careers and even within
that the interplay of how our personal decisions impact our
(02:30):
professional lives. And I think that's happened to you over
the course of your career, Like I feel like there's
so many pieces that I could point to, how do
you think your personal decisions have impacted your professional choices?
Joy Mangano (02:44):
Well, my personal decisions guided everything in my career. They
were so intertwined. I always said, my life, my family life,
my personal life and principles are the same as they
are in business. It's not you know how You'll hear
people often say, oh, it's just business, don't worry about it.
(03:06):
So for me, you know, my growing up being a
caretaker so to speak, with my family going through the
various stages. You know, I grew up in an Italian family,
and of course you you know, they say, you grow up,
you get married, you have children, and you cook, and
(03:27):
so you know, I started to follow that pattern rite
and things in that way kind of didn't go exactly
as it was supposed to. So I had to make
very hard personal choices and actually find the courage in
me to discover who I was and what I actually did.
(03:50):
Going back to not knowing, you know, I didn't start
my career, so to speak, in my mind until I
was in my thirties.
Emily Tisch Sussman (03:58):
When you were young, did you think you would have
a career at all? How did you envision yourself as
being a grown up?
Joy Mangano (04:05):
Right So when I was young, I always I loved animals.
I always thought I wanted to be a veterinarian, and
I was very, very studious person. So I graduated high
school a year early and I went to work in
an animal hospital and the doctor was creating a healthy
pet food before everybody was focused on that, and designing
(04:30):
the packaging and creating the recipe for that was fascinating
to me. So I ended up realizing the business aspects,
the creation aspects in my brain took over everything else,
and that started me in the direction of product and
I actually invented my first product.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
Then.
Joy Mangano (04:51):
It was a fluorescent flea collar because at the time,
the most common thing that happened in an animal hospital
where dogs or cats hit cars, and there was there
was no such thing at the time. So I said,
what does every animal? What does every owner put on
their animals? And it was a flea collar. So I said,
if I can get one, that's make one that's reflective. Now,
(05:12):
remember you have to reel back how many years it
didn't exist. So I got a lot of veterinarians together
and I started it, but I never followed through with it,
and a year later, a major, major company came out
with the first ever fluorescent flea collar. So I said,
next item, I'm going to follow through with. So I
was doing that my entire childhood. I was transforming things
(05:37):
into other products because I see the world through product.
That's how I view the world. And so when we
went to build a treehouse in the back, you know,
my brother was like, you know, help me build a treehouse.
And I built a seven story treehouse with slides and
this and that. And even before I even knew what
organic gardening was, I ripped up my parents back lawn
(05:59):
and was planted vegetables and things. I always tried to
create a better, better, a better mouse trap, so to speak.
It was just something I did naturally, and I never
really thought about it. It just happened organically. I would
see something and I'd say, I'm going to do this
in a bigger, better way so that it helps the
(06:21):
person or helps people in a better way.
Emily Tisch Sussman (06:25):
Still, Joy did what was typical at the time. She
got married straight out of college and had three children.
And as someone who had three kids in four years,
I know how overwhelming that can be.
Joy Mangano (06:38):
It shifted everything I did, and much like you, I
just you know, when I decide things, I decide to
do them. So I had three children in three and
a half years, and it obviously was the life change.
That is, it's what I live for today. But it really,
you know, that's hard and it's you know, as everybody knows,
(07:00):
it's a parent. If you put your heart and soul
into it, it's all consuming. So I was at the
time the miracle mop was in my brain. So I
would just be in my bedroom at night with them
and I'd be sketching and I'd be trying and I
and I kind of was almost like in a holding pattern,
knowing I was headed in a direction, you know, at
(07:23):
the time. So yes, that you know, that was a
time where I took a little bit of a time out.
I still, you know, because I didn't have a lot
of money or anything. I still was working doing things
here and there. I was making grapevine reafs and selling
them where I could at you know, fairs and flea markets.
I always I was always working in some form or fashion.
You know, It's just something I did. But it was
(07:45):
inclusive now of children. You know, I was pretty much
in a very short period of time doing it on
my own. But what I find more than anything having
had the children was that I learned this capacity of
love that I never had even knew I had, And
it just for me opened up a different kind of world.
(08:08):
It wasn't you know it was it was about me
and what I could do to make them have a happy,
healthy life.
Emily Tisch Sussman (08:17):
Eventually, all her scheming and sketching led her to her
breakthrough idea, the Miracle Mop. By this point, Joy was divorced,
a single mom, working tirelessly to make ends meet while
raising her kids.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
When we come.
Emily Tisch Sussman (08:31):
Back, Joy talks about what it took to get the
Miracle Mop off the ground. Well, you put so much
at stake to bring the Miracle Mop to the market
and mortgaging your house, going into debt. You know, you
put so much in there. But you had had a
number of ideas. What made you so sure that this
(08:54):
was the product that you should go for?
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Broken?
Joy Mangano (08:56):
Well, because I was broke. No, that's what you were true.
It was in my instincts. And I say, you have
to follow your instincts right, because you know it's some
people think they have a great product, but you know
their instincts are wrong. It's it's not right. But I
hate to say that, but nonetheless I knew that this
(09:18):
was a great product. It was a different mop. There
was a whole story behind it, And at this point
in my life, I said, you're either you know, you
don't know you're brave until you have to be brave, right,
So you know, I had really what were my choices,
and I said, I'm going to go for this, and
I am going to go for this. So it was
(09:39):
I put everything on the line. But it wasn't even
that simple. It was one obstacle after another. It was
it just from discovering something about the patent to discovering
that the people who I ended up you know, my
father actually ended up having make it were not reputable.
There was just every rediscovery along the way. And I think,
(10:02):
you know, that's why I say to somebody, just don't stop,
because my if I stopped one hundred percent, I would
have failed. But if I tried to keep going and
figure out another way to get there, my odds were
still better than zero.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
She had risked it all and it was paying off. Soon.
Emily Tisch Sussman (10:23):
She had hit her goal of selling to Kmart and
had a huge order in from QBC.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
She was getting her legs under her or so she thought.
If you've seen the movie, you'll know that.
Emily Tisch Sussman (10:34):
Joy soon realized that her manufacturer was taking steps to
steal the product, idea and freeze her out, all because
she didn't have proper guidance on her patent.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
In fact, she had no guidance at all, just her father.
Joy Mangano (10:48):
So my father was a kind of father like, listen,
we'll do a deal. I'll take care of it. Don't
worry about it. So that's a lesson you learn right
away after you know anyway, find out that there was
a gentleman we were paying royalties to for the patent
to make the mop, the mop that I thought I designed.
(11:09):
He said, somebody already designed it, which okay, so then
they started to manufacture it. He did a deal. I
discovery one night after, to make a long story short,
that the patent we were paying royalties to was not
the mop I created at all. It was the mop
we were making, but it was my design, was an
(11:31):
original design. My father mistaken lee a very long story,
said oh, there's already a patent. We'll just pay him
a royalty. We'll make the mop. So this gentleman in
Texas knew it was not the mop we were making.
That he was getting a royalty on a patent that
was very different. So, to make a very long story short,
(11:52):
Eye and the people in California, what had happened is
I had been on QVC, it had been successful, and
they ordered sixty thousand mops. So the manufacturers in California said, oh,
we'll make the mops for you, but we're going to
raise the price, which would have meant we were going
to lose money. So my father said, and his girlfriend
at the time said, that's it. We're at a business.
(12:14):
We can't do this. And I said, Okay, I am
going to figure this out, and if I do, I'm
going to run this company, and so on and so forth.
So I flew to Texas. I literally showed him the
patent and what he had been getting royalties too, and
in a very serious way, I told him that that
(12:37):
was unlawful and that he had to sign a letter
to say that he would not get the royalties, and
that I could go directly to deal with the manufacturers.
So when I went to California, he did. When I
went to California, and I'm minimizing this whole thing because
it was really very like I could have been you know,
(12:59):
it was just amazing how I was shaking when I
came out of the hotel room that I met him in.
When I went out to California claim the mop molds
because you have to make the mops from a mold,
I went there, landed there and they said, oh no, sorry,
we don't have the molds. We're not giving you the molds.
We own them. And I said no, no, no, you don't, Mike,
(13:22):
cause my father never did contracts with anybody. He never
signed contracts. So I said, no, here is the money
that's owed for the parts. I'm going to pay you.
Those are my molds. And I'll never forget. This guy
was not a good guy. And I was sitting there
and he had a can of Pepsi on his desk
and he said, little girl, go away. He literally said,
(13:45):
little girl go away. You just don't. We're going to
do this and you're out of it now. I'll never forget.
I took the can of pepsi and I slammed it
on the desk and the Pepsi just flew all over him.
And I said, you're going to see me in court
That night. I got the lawyer because I had brought
my lawyer with me. We met with a California lawyer
(14:08):
and it was an entire night of going through everything.
They said, you can't go to court with this. No
judge will ever give you because I needed the mop
mold back to make the mops to make the order.
And I said, no, we're going to go to court
because the judge is going to know with all this
information that I have, he's going to know who's in
the right and who are the bad guys. So they
(14:30):
were like, okay, we'll go to court, but there's they
never will hand these molds over to you. You're in California,
give them to you to take back to New York.
It's going to take years to make a long story longer.
We went into court the next day, you know, and
the lawyer said to me, don't say a word, just
sit there right. So they walk in unbeknownst to me.
(14:52):
I think they had been in front of this judge before.
So everything you know. They're saying, we have manufactured them,
we have no contract that she owns them. And I did.
I said, judge, here is the money that we know
she owes me money. I said, here's the money, here's
the you know the evidence that we paid for the mold,
so therefore we should own them, even though we don't
have a contract. And everything was done, and I hadn't
(15:16):
talked yet that they were showing all this information. And
the judge said, is there anything else? I said yes,
and I got up, and the lawyers were like, oh
my god, Oh my god, what's she going to say?
And I said, you know, this is my whole livelihood.
And I talked earnestly to the judge. He sat back.
I sat down, and he said, I'll never forget. He
(15:37):
slammed down the gavel and he looked at them and
he said, tomorrow at noon, I'm going to have the
sheriffs at your manufacturing plan and Joy will be there
as well. Joy. You're going to you have a truck
to take the molds. I'm like, yes, of course, I
had no truck and I had so and he said,
and if you don't hand over the molds to Joy,
(15:58):
I'm going to have the sheriff's arrest you. So the
lawyer at the time had never it's called a certain
kind of injunction. He had never seen it happen, and
he's never seen it happen. After that and he wrote
serious law briefs about this. It was the most incredible thing.
And so the next day there was a truck there.
(16:22):
The molds were on the truck. They were headed back
to New York. I flew back to New York and
had to create a fine molders to mold them, create
a business to make the mops. And then the last
day that the sixty thousand mops had to be on
their way to QBC, sixty thousand mops were on their
(16:44):
way to QBC.
Emily Tisch Sussman (16:46):
You were so young when you started. Do you remember
what was going through your mind when you not just
walked into QBC and said take my product, but then
you went back and said it has to be me.
Joy Mangano (16:57):
So at the time, as we know, you know, the
miracle mop was something that I did bring to fruition
and I thought the perfect place for that because I
used to go to fairs and flea markets and demonstrate
it and people loved it. Everybody who watched the demonstration
would buy it. So for me going to QVC being
(17:19):
able to replicate that, but on TV, I said, this
has got to work. And of course, at the time,
so it's interesting, you know, I was the only female
at a table with men. At the time, this was
an industry that loved celebrity, so there was you know,
I was like nobody again, you know. So they put
(17:42):
the miracle mop on the first time with one of
the hosts because they said, you know, you don't go
on to you. You know you're not who are you?
And it failed and I was I that was it.
I had everything to lose. So I said, you have
to put me on with that miracle mop and it
will work. So they did. You know, there was an
(18:03):
executive there who I could see. He saw the determination.
He said, okay, we're going to give her a shot.
I'm forever grateful for that. And it was unbelievably successful,
so successful at the time, it was probably out of
all the thousands and thousands of products they had. It
became their single biggest success. Not only did we sell
(18:24):
twenty thirty forty fifty sixty thousand in a day. At
a time, they created a commercial on TV and at
the time, if you remember direct Response, it's very interesting.
It was always a commercial with a male voice talking
through the commercial. Always. It was never any different. So
(18:47):
this same executive, I was like his thorn in his
side he said, we're going to make a commercial. It's
so successful. We're going to make a short form commercial,
two minute commercial with the miracle Mop, and we're going
to have a gentleman talking over it. And I said, no,
it's going to fail. I said, I want to do
it this way with me demonstrating it with another this
other female host. And he said, okay, well we'll let
(19:08):
you do that, but we're only going to put a
budget of very little into it, but we're going to
film it the other way with a voiceover, and we're
going to test both. So they did, and the one
with myself and Jane demonstrating the mop, you know, naturally
organically right, was like through the roof compared to the
(19:30):
other one, and it became the number one direct response
TV product in its time at the time and first
time ever it was in the forum where you were
watching two women talk about a product. So it was
pretty cool. Hi, I'm Joymangano, and I invented the Miracle Mop.
It's the original cotton self ringing mop, therefore the most absorbent.
(19:51):
It will clean that mess again and again and again.
And I'm daingered All Tracy host on QVC where we
have sold over three hundred thousand mops.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
To people all across the just like you.
Joy Mangano (20:01):
In fact, let's hear from some of them. I love
your mop. It's been a lifesaver. This moth is wonderful.
I would tell anybody to buy it. I am Joymangano,
and I invented the Miracle Mop. It's the original content
self bringing mop. You've seen it, seen even the toughest
nets again and again and again. Hundreds of thousands of
satisfied customers have ordered their Miracle Mop and love it.
(20:24):
And now the Miracle Mop has earned the Good Housekeeping seal.
It's quite easy.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
I mean it really changed the industry, Like it changed
the way that we thought about women marketing, women being
the face of something but also giving value, like business
value to a product that really only in this case
it was women because they were doing the majority of
the housework, could understand like considered a real serious business category.
Emily Tisch Sussman (20:51):
Did you have those kinds of conversations at the network, Yes,
very much so.
Joy Mangano (20:56):
So then at the time became this big aware that
you know, the story telling, the authenticity behind a product
is more important than just somebody talking about it or
a celebrity endorsing it. It's all about the authenticity. And
it's a funny thing that for now twenty five years
(21:20):
probably I do. I've always done the most business out
of any I just it's something that I do, right.
I can't sing or dance, but this I do. And
I've been creating product, you know, And it's an interesting
thing because you know when you create something new. Example,
for the first time, I launched the first non stick
(21:41):
ceramic cookware in the world before anybody was taught. Now
the whole industry is nonstick ceramic cookwaar. But I was
like possessed because I knew that the traditional nonstick was
not healthy when it got to high temperatures. And I
even with a chef. I got chef because they were like,
(22:01):
you know, you know you have to cook and everything.
I'm like, fine, I'll get a chef and so we
for two years. I fought the battle to launch this
product because it's a healthier alternative to the traditional nonstick.
And I mean batteries of lawyers saying we're going to
get sued because there was only one major company that
(22:21):
made the nonstick in cookwear. And you can't say this,
and you can't say that, and they said they're not
going to understand it. The consumer isn't going to care.
And I said, oh no, they're really going to care,
because remember, you have to have a heart for that
consumer and know how smart they are. And we launched
it and the phones literally blew up. I mean literally,
(22:44):
the whole system went down. People were so excited about this,
and obviously we changed an industry, totally changed in industry.
So it was It's been an amazing path.
Emily Tisch Sussman (22:57):
So you've told the story of your life yourself in
your own book and then became a huge blockbuster movie,
Academy Award nominated, Golden Globe winning, and now a Broadway musical.
How involved were you with those retelling of your life
stories in different mediums?
Joy Mangano (23:16):
So the movie, you know, is interesting because I'll go
back to the story where Barry asked me to go
out to California and make this show with him. The
producer of that show a very amazing, brilliant man. At
the end of this series, he said, come on, let's
go out to dinner because I'm always working, right No, no, no,
no no. Everybody used to go out to dinner and
I would go home to bed at the hotel. So
(23:37):
we went out to dinner and I don't know how
he got me talking about my life, my path. And
he got up from dinner and he said, one day,
I'm going to write a movie about your life. Five
years later, I get a phone call from him. Joy's ken,
I'm in here with a bunch of Hollywood producers. We're
going to write your movie. And they did. So, you know,
(23:58):
I feel blessed that David o'russell was the writer and
you know, director and producer and everything. And obviously it
goes without saying Jennifer Lawrence was amazing. She's just I
love her, love her, love her way beyond her years.
And everybody else involved, obviously, Robert Genio, Bradley Cooper. I mean,
(24:19):
he just couldn't pick a better family than meet in Hollywood, right. So,
but David o'russell, he is like a saffon. He just
you know, he he would talk. He'd call me like
at dinner time and we'd still be talking at three am.
So he really wanted to, you know, to really understand
and go even deeper into things I had already therapy
(24:41):
in life. I mean, that was it, you know, it
was really incredible but you know, at a point, you know,
I you have to trust people, right, I trusted him
and he's like, whatever he did, I had to entrust
in him at that point. So I really at the
end of the day, he was the creative of artist
(25:01):
for the movie. But I will tell you the story
is true. I mean there are little tiny aspects of it,
you know, like I had three children in life. There
were two in the movie. They thought Jennifer was too
young to have three children. So I'm like, wait a minute,
I was young. But it was very surreal. They flew
(25:22):
me to Hollywood. They put me in a studio and
actually I was with my son, and I was like,
they didn't think I really knew, but they said there'll
be people watching, you know. For the first time I
was watching it. They were all the executives. Everybody was
like worried about my reaction, and I was watching it
and I was like, this is amazing. It was so
(25:44):
surreal and to see like his interpretations of things, and
you know, obviously different people being me and my father
being you know, it was just you know, and everybody
was still alive, right, So it's a very touchy thing.
So oh my gosh, so I just to to this
day consider it to be an honor. I'm not like
the Hollywood type, you know. I'm like, you know, in
(26:05):
the sense of like I went to the Oscars and
I looked at my daughter after it were over, I said,
let's go back to the hotel and have cheeseburgers and
thick shakes, you know, so, you know, instead of all
the parties we were supposed to go to, but it
was I think people have told me that it's inspired them,
and to me, that's what matters. I you know, I
(26:25):
just recently, I hear it all the time. I watched
that movie every year, and it just inspires me to
keep doing what I'm doing. And if that's the result
of that movie, that's a beautiful thing.
Emily Tisch Sussman (26:41):
After the break, we dive into how Joy became a
leader both in her own company and to entrepreneurs around
the world, and she talks about her second pivot, selling
her company to HSN, the direct competitor to QBC, all
that and more. When we come back, something that I'm
(27:04):
noticing as we're talking through you as a manager and
as a boss, is that it seems like, not only
do you have a talent for inventing, coming up with
the ideas.
Joy Mangano (27:12):
But you also have a talent for putting people in.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
The right roles.
Emily Tisch Sussman (27:16):
Has that been something that you've always had a natural
talent at doing or has evolved as a manager.
Joy Mangano (27:21):
Yeah, well that's something I think that evolves because in
the beginning, you know, when I started this, it would
be like, Okay, my girlfriend Jan, she used to be
a graphic artist, so we need packaging, Jan, do you
want to work for me? And so over time, you
know that those are the resources I had at the time, right,
(27:42):
you know. And then over time as the business grew,
you know, and I mean I think I'm now nearing
you know, four billion dollars worth of product in homes
across America. It's important to get the right people doing
the right thing so that, you know, so that you
don't have to worry about it. But I still am
(28:04):
one of those people that still gets involved in you know,
I can't help myself sometimes because I love it right,
and I love you know, when they're creating the label,
or they're creating the texture on something or picking out
the colors. You know, I was famous for walking into
the room and say, okay, can I be part of this.
That's why I often say anybody that would ever listen,
(28:26):
you know, you don't have to build rocket ships. If
you have something that's going to benefit somebody's life and
change their life and it's a better way and it's
not out there, you will have success. You know, a
really big advocate. There are no experts. You know. Don't
stop yourself if you feel like, well, I'm not an
exact expert in this, because if you have no matter
(28:49):
what it is, if it's a service, if it's a product,
you know, it doesn't matter what. If you really believe
in it and you have something to offer that's better
than what's out there, I say, go for it.
Emily Tisch Sussman (29:03):
A defining characteristic of Joy is her family, from the
time they were young kids running around the warehouse all
the way to now she has involved them. Her daughter
Christy was even at this interview. Her life and business
are all one and she's mastered that symbiosis better than
perhaps anyone I know.
Joy Mangano (29:22):
So I think we create a great atmosphere now as well.
It doesn't get better than when you're able to live
your passion and what you do and do it with
the people you love. So for twenty years, my oldest
daughter has created product with me. She I don't think
(29:43):
anybody can get a better price and a better quality
product than her, you know. And it's and my son
who went to Georgetown and then Columbia Law school, went
to a really big law firm. Eventually I grabbed him
and we are in business. And my daughter, my youngest
daughter was in Project Runway and you know, a fashion
(30:05):
personality and is on Amazon Live presently and doing other
things in fashion. But I came on TV with me
and did a lot of things with us on Live TV.
So you know, we're all you know, my son in
law was my producer for twenty years at HSN, So
you know, now we have our business clean boss and
(30:26):
we're all working together. And the people there worked with
me in the past, so it's kind of it becomes family.
So when you I think, when you love what you
do and you have a beautiful business and environment and
care about the people that work with you, they stay there,
they don't go away. You know, it's a quality of life.
(30:47):
That's a beautiful thing.
Emily Tisch Sussman (30:48):
Well, you were with QBC for so long but ended
up selling to HSN, the direct competitor.
Joy Mangano (30:54):
Can you give us a little backstory. Yeah, no, it
sounds sinister, doesn't it, But it was not at all,
not at all. So when I was at QBC at
the time, Barry Diller was the CEO, and he had
asked me to go out to after the success of
Miracle Mop and other products, jewel Kit, Rolliquit, many things there,
he had asked me to go out and do a
(31:16):
show out in California for him, be a judge. And
so I think, Barry, I think the world of Barry
Diller is brilliant. And so after a certain amount of time,
so I did a lot with him and for him.
There he left. He owned what expedia, dot com, Ticketmaster,
He bought HSN iac the company. He kept asking me
(31:37):
to come to HSN And of course you if you
haven't figured out how loyal I am in life, I'm like, no,
I can't, I can't. He goes, well, then I'm going
to buy your business. And when somebody says that you
have to think twice about it, I didn't even think
twice because it was such an amazing offer. But the
offer was amazing. Not you know, money's one thing, but
(31:59):
he was giving me the ability, you know, in our
conversations to really expand what I did. And really, you know,
I became an executive HSN. I ran their only sourcing division.
We sourced products. We actually created product for other brands.
So whether it was a chef, we sold more guitars
(32:20):
than Gibson and Fender. I was creating guitars for Keith Urban.
And with Keith Urban and Serena Williams and Emon, we
did all her fashion with her. So I expanded. I
was able to do so much more. So it was
it was a really good move. And it was nice
to get off the plane in sunny Tampa in from
(32:41):
New York in January. I must admit that. So that
was the time that I was able to grow so
much so and I had the liberty to create something
like change the cookwear industry or you know many other things.
Do you consider that to be like a second big
(33:02):
pivot of your life? Yes? Absolutely, absolutely, you know that
really changed everything. And then obviously my third big pivot
was leaving there when QB ironically enough, after QVC purchased HSN. Right,
you go figure this, right, it's like you know, a
family drama. But I knew it was time, you know,
(33:22):
because in that industry, it's very important that it's exclusive
on TV, you know, and they can't get it anywhere else.
So for me, there was a whole big vista out
there in the retail world, direct to the consumer, and
I really wanted to focus in, as I said, on
the whole health and wellness aspect of creating great product.
(33:44):
And so, you know, so now in lieu of everything,
you know, my company is Clean Boss, and I am
very much focused on the health and wellness aspects of
everybody in life, and I want that to be my
life legacy because we're creating a safer choice in your
home to clean with.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
If you're keeping up. Joy is on her third pivot.
Emily Tisch Sussman (34:10):
Inspired by her grandchildren, she wanted to make safer cleaning
products and the opportunity to create Clean Boss came along
when she met none other than Pitbull.
Joy Mangano (34:21):
So together Armando Christian Perez, Pitbull and I are going
to be the face of changing the way the world
cleans and its way beyond that, it's you know, laundry
detergents that are incredible in the you know, you really
don't know about the ingredients of things until you really
know about the ingredients of things, right, So that's what
I'm passionate about. We both want to leave that legacy
(34:45):
so that you don't have to worry. You know, my daughter,
I watch her spray the highchair for her two little
boys with clean boss. And you know, when that my
kids were young, I was using something. I didn't have
a choice. I was using you know, whatever with AMMONI
in it or whatever. And now you know, I feel
like this is such a beautiful thing. And so that's
(35:06):
what we're focused on. What was something in your life.
Emily Tisch Sussman (35:09):
I know there's been a lot, You've done a lot,
but what is something in your life that at the
time you thought was a negative but then now in retrospect,
you see it as having like you couldn't have had
this kind of success without it.
Joy Mangano (35:23):
So I guess so be pre QVC right. My goal.
I was demonstrating affairs and flea markets, and my goal
was to get in every kmart because I felt like
everybody went to kmart to buy a MOP. So my
goal was to get into retail across the country, start
there and then get it everywhere. And I tried to call,
(35:46):
I talked to a buyer, and nobody, you know, no, no, no,
you know, nobody talked to me. I sent letters at
the time, letters and finally I got through to a
VP there and I talked to him about the mop.
I said, let me just come out there and show
(36:06):
you this product. And again why he said, yes, I
don't know, but flew out there demonstrated the product. And
you know, there were major stick goood companies that you
know they made not only they made a whole display
of things for these stores. Right, I have one miracle
mop and a mophead. So I had my meeting with
him and he said, all right, He said, why don't
(36:29):
you let me see you demonstrate the mop in our
flagship store in a couple other places, and let's see
what happens. I guess he was being kind, I think,
you know. So we did. We went to the flagship
Kmart store and I literally was demonstrating and wringing that
mop out. My hands were raw, but everybody that stood
(36:49):
around and watched it basically bought it. And I'll never
forget He came and he was standing back and he
was watching this happen because he said, you know, we
sell five dollar mops, We're not going to sell a
twenty dollars unth So after that, I went to various
other stores, you know, to demonstrate, and he saw the sales.
So afterwards he said, Okay, this is what I'll do.
(37:10):
I will give you every kmart east of the Mississippi
and leave this major stick goood company with west of
the Mississippi in the country, and whoever brings in the
best dollars wins. And I was like, wow, I mean
east of the Mississippi. I'm in every k marty that.
It was like the biggest thing in my life. And
(37:33):
well we won. But then I went on QVC and
I couldn't even make enough, you know. It was just
like amazing, So and QBC investing in the commercial and
everything said you have to come out of retail, so
that my whole life then became electronic retailing at the time, right,
everything I did was for QVC. Then HSN interesting, but
(37:55):
it was perfect because it was instead of standing in
front of people and having a group of people, I
had millions of people watching every creation that I made.
Emily Tisch Sussman (38:08):
Yeah, I have to ask the question again that I
asked you at the beginning. The premise of this show
is that we use personal factors in our decision making
when we make professional decisions. How do you think you've
done that.
Joy Mangano (38:20):
I think more than not. I think about because my
family works with me, right, and because I love my
family and the consumer. My personal decisions about how everything
I do is going to impact them guides what I
do in business. So that's really important to me. And
(38:43):
I feel like because I've been able to stand in
front of it's you know, America and many other places
around the world, but you know, primarily here, you know,
I think you know, people will come up to me
and when they look at products, they see me right
because that you know I'm standing there, I'm talking to
(39:06):
them directly about that. So for me, everything I do,
I know that I'm not invisible. It reflects me to them,
and so everything is personal. It's everything I do is personal.
It's not a business. It's all kind of it just
(39:26):
all intertwined together.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
Thank you so much for coming on. It's been so
great having you.
Joy Mangano (39:32):
Oh yes, it's a great conversation. And I will say that,
you know, she Pivots is a perfect, perfect name because
I as a skier, I always say you have to
shift your skis right, so you always have you can't
feel like you're in a path, and it's unchangeable. It
(39:53):
constantly changes constantly, and you have to be open to that. Yeah,
thank you so much, thank you. Yes, we're done.
Speaker 4 (40:02):
We did so.
Speaker 5 (40:03):
That was great.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
That was amazing.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Joy is still a busybee, from Clean Boss to Joy
the Musical.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
She doesn't slow down.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
You can keep up with Joy by following her on
Instagram at Joymongano, and of course, be sure to grab
your tickets to see Joy on stage this summer. This
is when you won't want to miss. Visit Joythemusical dot
com for tickets. Talk to you next week.
Emily Tisch Sussman (40:36):
Thanks for listening to this episode of she Pivots. I
hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, leave us
a rating and tell your friends about us. To learn
more about our guests, follow us on Instagram at she
pivots the Podcast, or sign up for our newsletter where
you can get exclusive behind the scenes content on our
website at she pivots the Podcast dot com. Special thanks
(41:02):
to the she pivots team, Executive producer Emily eda Velosik,
Associate producer and social media connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director
Christine Dickinson, Events and Logistics coordinator Madeline Sonovac, and audio
editor and mixer Nina pollock I endorse Che Pivots
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