May 23, 2023 • 32 mins
Business expert and reality star Bethenny Frankel joined me on That Moment with Daymond John to give her candid and raw reflection on some of the most significant moments of her career, from her decision to leave the Housewives franchise to her no-job-too-small approach to relief efforts in times of crisis.
You’ll be so impressed with how she carved out monetization opportunities for herself that had previously been impossible for other Housewives and the way that she rationalized leaving the show (trust me, it’s a lesson we can all learn from regardless of what our lines of work are). We also got into the rocky story of how we first met and how that almost lost her a slot on Shark Tank as a guest Shark.
One of the most impressive elements of Bethenny is her commitment to providing relief in times of major crisis across the globe, and she shared some eye-opening insights into how relief efforts actually come together and what goes on behind the scenes.
Tune in to an all new episode of That Moment with Daymond John to learn how icon Bethenny Frankel balances being authentic & honest with being respected, how to take control of your own opportunities, and how you can “build the plane while flying it.”
Host: Daymond John
Producers: Beau Dozier & Shanelle Collins; Ted Kingsbery, Chauncey Bell, & Taryn Loftus
For more info on how to take your life and business to the next level, check out DaymondJohn.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
All right, so I'm excited about today. We're going to
get into a Bethany Frankel. Now she was on The Apprentice.
She's a Marca Stewart, followed by what I started to
really knowing her as the Real Housewives in New York City.
Then she has spinoffs, Bethany getting married, Bethany ever after.
I think we've all heard, or if you haven't, she
created a brand called Skinny Girl. Sold it were millions
(00:38):
and millions and millions of dollars Skinny Girl the drink.
But she had Skinny Girl jeans and sold the massive
amount of products. But I think the thing to talk
about that with that is she looked at it kind
of how I looked at Pubo in the earlier days.
I looked at Poulboo is something that I could put
on all these music artists and their community was highlighting
these things on these pipes, right as we call it,
(01:01):
using it for a commercial. But she was smart enough
to do that where this wasn't new when she negotiated
her contracts, she carved it out without an attorney, carved
it out that I can do skinny Girl. Now, you
don't have a lot of power when you're doing that
when you're first starting, because the way the networks and
people feel is that if I do that for you,
I have to do that for everybody. But it was
something in the way that she negotiated. Excellent negotiator. She
(01:22):
would later on go on the Shark Tank, and I'm
going to probably tell you a crazy story about that,
but here it is. We're going to bring her on.
Bethany Frankel would learn so much from her. Hopefully you've
been seeing her on TikTok, being really hardcore and real
in her own way, and now she's probably bigger and
better than ever before. I'm excited, so let's get into
it with my buddy, Bethany Frankel. All Right, beth, thank
(01:47):
you so much for being here. I've already laid out
laid it out on how much you know, I love
and I respect you, and I want to just hop
right into it. You know, at that moment, I want
to go over special moments in your life that you
know you and I are out there having conversations with people.
I'm sure they ask you the same things. What's your
best investment on Shark Tank? How did you do this
and that? And you become just repetitive. Right, I want
(02:09):
to go over where were you now? I know that
you were on several reality shows prior to Housewives, and
then you're very private about many many things of your life.
What shifted? And when was the moment that it shifted?
Because you know, to be on The Apprentice and Arthur
(02:29):
Steward and various other things and then really carve out
a very rare space in you know, Housewives. All of
a sudden you just really took a turn and said,
I don't want to be in those type of worlds anymore.
I want to create even though I created a lot
out of that world, I want to create my own.
(02:49):
And what shifted? And why did you just say I'm
done doing it like that? I'm doing it now on
my terms.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
That's so interesting, It's a great question. And how do
you know I'm so private? I love that you just
said that as if like everyone knows that. I don't
know that everyone knows that. How do you know that?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Well? Because I get enough information about a lot of people,
and when when you are when you share certain things
with me and we're talking, I know that it's not
public information, not that you have said to me that
don't say anything. But I just think that in the
privacy of our conversation, you know, you don't need to
say those things, and I don't need to say it
to you. It just it's just a private thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I'm a very very private, like a fiercely private person,
which is extremely confusing because I've spent a lot of
my time on reality television, but usually that television is
agenda based. If you're on The Apprentice, it's about your
your relationship to the tasks and the other people, and
they don't really care about all these things. And on
the Housewives, it's really you're sharing what you want to
(03:50):
and sometimes it's some things that you wouldn't want to
and that are uncomfortable because they might involve other people.
Like I can control what I want to share and
what I don't want to share, and if someone thinks
because I'm seemingly forward, that still doesn't mean that I'm
not private. When it gets to other people, then it
gets uncomfortable. But still the show is about my relationship
to the other women. So I just think that's interesting
(04:13):
that you pointed that out because I am very private
and I left Housewives the first time after three seasons
when it was the beginning. I mean it was like,
I remember this woman left er years ago and that
was such an important show and you were thinking, how
the hell is she leaving when it's like just getting
hot and the Housewives was just getting popular. I mean,
it's been twenty years almost, and I left after three seasons,
(04:35):
which I was a broke person walking on so that
seems nuts, but I don't know. I just had a
feeling I was going to be on a spinoff, and
I just had a feeling I trusted myself, and so
that time I just didn't want to be there, and
I felt like I was cheating myself by selling out
by being there because it felt toxic is the word
(04:56):
that was swirling, and it really was the only word
to describe it. And I went back after I had
done kind of a rinse, like I wasn't really only
known for that, but it was part of my DNA.
And I left four three years and three seasons, and
I wanted to pitch something else to Andy, and he
pitched me to come back, which was like the Eagles
(05:17):
Hell freezing overtour, and I thought about my relationships to
the audience and my connection to them that I did miss.
I also am not going to sugarcoat the fact that
he offered me an unprecedented number for any housewife to
ever have been paid. So I cause, I said, I'm
asking this number and I'm not asking to negotiate, and
it's one number and you say yes or no, and
(05:37):
that's it.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
I'm on or off, like we're not doing this dance
and we didn't.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
That's very unbravo on everywhere, but very unbravo to say
here's my number, that's it and they said yes, and
that was it. But then to leave the next time
that was so much harder because I was being paid
so much and exponentially increasing in what I was being paid,
and the show was more popular and I was popular,
(06:01):
and I was in a relationship with Paul, who I'm with.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Now, and.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
He's just calming and balanced and it's a different type
of relationship. And I wouldn't leave for him. He never
asked me to leave for him. It just felt a
little embarrassing in my life and a little with him.
And I remember calling someone very one of the most
powerful people in Hollywood and saying like, can I be here?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Should I be here?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
It feels weird being here, and he said, there's going
to be a point and you're reaching that point. You
may have reached that point where people are going to wonder,
what the hell is she doing in this scenario? Like
it doesn't seem right where he said, it just feels
like why you know, you did it? You were there
and you were great, and you came back and you
came back big, and the be is back. But we're
going to get to a point where it's going to
(06:51):
seem like you really just why are you there and
why are you having these conversations? And not a better
then thing, but just a different then thing. So all
these things were swirling in my head and like you know,
when you want to break up with someone, you just
kind of want to break up with them, but you
don't do it yet, but you're looking for an excuse
and you're nippicking and like you want and out. I
just was looking for reasons and you get less patient
(07:13):
and you just have a you have a you have
a lower tolerance rate for things that you just wouldn't tolerate,
Like when you're doing a job and you're being paid
a lot of money, you'll tolerate different things, and you
just do different things. You're just you're you're on the
West Side Highway and you given somebody a price and
your your your turning tricks and you know the deal.
Then there becomes a point where like you're like, I
don't know that I want to be this hoe. I
(07:35):
just don't know that this is there's a number for
me to do this because this isn't really you know,
and it's fine. Prostitution is respected. It's a number, you
get the service, and there you go. I was I was,
I was a prostitute.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So I took the.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Money and I did my job. Then I didn't want
to do it and I wasn't going to do it well.
And I just was like, you know, if it bends,
it's okay. If it breaks, it's not. And it was
coming back to a season and there were certain things
in the negotiation. I got the money I wanted. There
was a deal point that I talked about on my
TikTok that was not even important to me. It was
(08:08):
something so inside baseball that nine Leaks had been on
the season before and she didn't shoot most of the season,
so they missed a lot of scenes with her, and
I had just had someone who died that in my life,
and I was coming back the next season. I showed
up to work despite him dying. I wouldn't have even had to.
(08:28):
And they put into my contract that if I don't
if there's episodes that I don't appear in, that it
wouldn't be paid for them. And it would never have
happened because the production company is like, we'd never air
an episode without you in it. That would be stupid.
The ratings said plummeted when I left Sword when I
came back, they wouldn't do that. I already knew that
from the production company. I just wanted an excuse.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
So when.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Bravo had a precedent, which they that's they're right to,
I just said, I'm calling an uncle and I just walked.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
And that was the moment.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And it was a weird moment because my lawyers were like,
what do you mean. They'll totally foold on that. It'll
be the day of the game and the players are
walking out on the field and they'll fold.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
I'm like, I know.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
They're like, you don't need to do it, so I'm like,
I know, I know. I just want to do it.
I want to fucking do it. I want to flip
the switch. So I just flipped the switch.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
That was the moment.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I think that's powerful. What happens to people? And what
do you say to those people?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Go?
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I think I know I've been there where you go?
Am I looking at a gift to using them out?
I know that I am not that I'm better than
anybody else, but I'm here in my life. I'm getting
either I'm really getting praise, I'm really getting paid really well.
If I leave, I may hurt other people that I
care about in there, But I'm just not happy. And
(09:44):
by nature I want to grow and grow may not
become being a bigger and better star. Grow, may may
become I could be more private in my life, and
I could do it on my terms. Like so many
of us, are those crossroads in life, and then we
end up, as you said, stay at that crossroad until
sooner or later the shine is all for us, and
somebody goes, what the hell are you still doing? We
(10:24):
stay at that crossroad until sooner or later the shine
is all for us and somebody goes, what the hell
are you still doing?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Here?
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Man? You must be Oh funny, you didn't you know
like what happens, you know, like it's true. What do
we say to people right now who are at that
crossroad with love, with family, business, with their community, with politics.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Okay, let's break this down a couple of things. Number one,
Jerry Seinfeld said why he was He was offer you
would have gotten more than one hundred million dollars from
Brandon Tartakoff to do another season of Seinfeld. But he said,
there's a moment in an act where you're laughing, it's amazing,
and if it goes on too long, you get turned
(11:02):
off and it ruins the whole experience.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
And I love that. He said that. I just heard that.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I once had dinner with Lauren Michaels, who the producer
of Saturday Night Love. He said to me, not about me,
just about another. I listened to everything everybody says and
absorb it. It's just like a recipe. It's crowdsourcing. He said,
you have to make an exit to make an entrance.
It was about one of his his Lauren Michaels was
talking about one of his SNL people, saying, you have
to make you have to make an exit to make
(11:27):
an entrance.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
So that's just in my bank.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
But I wasn't even thinking like macro economics like that.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
I was just just in my own life.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
But most people don't have the bank account to support
that decision. Most people don't have the freedom to, you know,
to support that decision. I will say, I'm not in
that situation where I can't make a decision that I
want to based on finances. But I will say, as
a person who at that point had owned multiple homes,
who had invested in multiple businesses, the nut had gotten bigger.
(11:59):
You get you know, when I used to have a
twenty nineteen hundred dollars rent that I couldn't pay, Like
I knew what I couldn't pay. It was one thing
like the nutgets bigger, and your business managers are like,
listen to me, go back in one more season.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
What's the difference. It's millions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Just grab that because you know, your skinny girl Dale
went on for ten years.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
That's not happening anymore.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
That was my You know, it wasn't as easy as
you would think because I used to have numbers that
would come in every year that were just guaranteed. And
at that moment, you know, I'm looking over at Paul,
who's a wealthy man in my fiance.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
But it's like, am I gonna dump my whole not
on you? Now?
Speaker 2 (12:33):
It's your responsibility because I'm kind of leaving because of you.
You didn't ask me to. But like in my mind,
I wanted someone to like pick up the slack where's
the show? My podcast which now makes a lot of
money because I have like five of them, But I
was like, I'm going to do a podcast? How am
I going to put those numbers together? So I was
thinking that I'm thinking it's gonna be fine, but something
we're gonna have to cut it down a little. But
(12:55):
when you jump, you fly, and I jumped and I
felt it in and I now can say that I
don't that had to be what two three?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
I don't remember how many years ago that was.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I have pieced together this perfect curated life that is
exactly how I wanted this direct to consumer model, and
I make more money than I made then because I
was truthful. I wanted to go figure it out. I
had no idea, I had no plan. I've never had
a plan in my life. I don't know how I'm
piecing this puzzle together. But everybody get the fuck out
of my way, let me think, and I'm going to
(13:27):
do it. And I did it, and I'm here and
it's freedom and it's like my way because I felt
it in my body. So it wasn't starting over, but
I didn't have housewives, I didn't have the skinny Girl
deal every year. I was kind of starting over at
this new level with the guaranteed money every year.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
And I did.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
I did it, and it's my own terms, completely, every
single iote of it. I walked away from HSN too.
Same year HSN was was, you know, selling tens of
millions of dollars of clothes on TV. I felt shackled.
I felt shackled to all these different owners and I
hated it. I hated working for ag Cent, I hated
work for Bravo. I just wanted to go out and
do my own thing. So that's the life that I
(14:06):
have now.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
You know, a lot of people don't realize it, and
I'm glad you brought that up. You know, if you
are making one hundred thousand dollars a year and you
know that's your base, but you go to being unemployed
for three years, I'm not sure how much money you
say it but if you're making ten or bringing in
fifteen million, and that money's coming in, you got some
fuck off money. But the end of the day, because
you know that it's still coming in, going to keep
(14:29):
coming in. But when you do make this jump or
an investment where you go from bringing in ten or
fifteen to losing two a year, even if you stacked
up thirty or forty million, I mean you're going to
turn around and go, you know, in five years this
two million dollars a year, that's ten million lesson I
worked really hard to save. And whether it is from
a monetary standpoint or just the feeling of growing, you feel.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Scared because the number one thing that someone wealthy thinks
about who's been successful, if they're smartest, don't touch the principle.
Don't touch the principle. So you got the house, you
did this other house, you could do it. You booked
the vacation, you bought the car. You know you're not
a crazy person. I am not. I never spent even
close to more than I have, not even like within
the stratosphere. But you bought a luxury item. You bought this,
(15:16):
You did what you know you were You was going good.
The music is now gonna stop, so you're gonna have
to change your life, but you don't want to touch
the principle. So the pandemic happens, your business changes, the
whole shit goes out. Whatever it is you don't, so
now you don't. You just wanted to not touch the principle.
And this decision made mean at certain points to do
certain things, you're gonna have to touch the principle.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
That's the decision.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
How long was that scared with that uncertainty of that
moment of everything you have and of course you gave
it up or you moved on and you sold it.
Was it two months, five months, two years, we were
in the middle of a pandemic. How long were you
in that kind of gray area of like, I'm trying
to get into the jump rope. I know I will
get into the double Dutch rope, but I'm I'm stumbling
(15:56):
a little bit and I'm not getting in there just yet.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
I was.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
I was It's okay because I've always been okay because
I did my first big deal and I had my
first principle. But you know, I did have a different
home that I ended up selling in the city. It
was getting to be a little swollen, and my you know,
business manager wanted more equity money manager, more equity balanced
with the debt for like having a house and doing
(16:21):
a mortgage because it was the smart thing. Another house
is paid for in cash, like just just measuring all
the buckets and how it's going, and like God forbid.
And he would say, I want you set. You get
hit by a bus, you can't talk, you can't write,
God forbid. You're just you know, we're very conservative in
that way. So in that regard, I knew that also
a lot of the spending that I was doing with
smoke and mirrors, because it's what's happening with housewives that
(16:44):
don't have any money, that they're all spending what they
don't have because they think they're going to make it
to catch up.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
They're not good business people.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
They don't understand taxes, they don't understand that you can't
just charge everything on a credit card and it's going
to be okay.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
And they're morons. So I'm not a moron.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
And I was like, Okay, the music's gonna now, I'm
definitely not gonna spend at this at the same clip,
I'm gonna sell some things too, like I didn't need
to have three homes in I realized in the pandemic,
I'm not in the city, so I'm gonna make some
moves and decisions, which felt like a good influx refinance
something else, like it felt like a nice relief. I
it's not only just what you're making, it's what you're
(17:20):
adjusting based on the climate. Like it's gonna be cold outside,
You're gonna put a jacket on. So I'm gonna brace
myself now that I'm not gonna be making it the
same clip. So I'm certainly not spending at the same clip.
But let's try to get back to where we were
by selling something and like really, you know cushion, the
you know, pat ourselves. There was no thing I was
nervous about, but I just want to be smart. Then
one thing at a time just started happening because I
(17:41):
was living truthfully and not out of fear keeping all
the houses and everything where you're living like freaking out
about anything.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
You're calm, cool, collected.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
And you're just putting one thing on the board at
a time, and it just so It wasn't like there
was a moment where I was like afraid it was
just you did make in different moves. You're like, you know,
on the Bealt battlefield and just making different moves. And
I was always I'm always making up adjusting.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
So let me share that moment with you. Would would
will bring in full circle. And I've already shared it
with you, I believe. So you know, I uh the Sharks,
and I I forgot what show we were at. You know,
we ran into you. You weren't the most pleasant person,
but I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
You know, you couldn't energetically worst divorce in history of
ten year divorce.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
That's why, right, something was going on, and you know,
not that you was like, oh my god, David Goma.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
You were just like And I might have been intense
because I was doing the competition.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
I was taking it seriously. You guys with a show
who knows?
Speaker 1 (18:32):
So they called me. They say, you know, we think
about bringing on Bethanye, and what do you think? And
I said, well, let me let me check. I don't
know much about her, but let me check. My wife
was like, oh my god, she's got to go on
the show. She is so fast and so sharp, and
she's going to give you some ship that you do
not expect, and so I called the producer. I said, listen, guys,
I haven't necessarily the greatest interaction with or not that
(18:54):
it was bad. I said, you know, I'd rather not
be on the first panel what here, because in case
I lock horn her because she's coming into a dysfunctional family,
she's she's not a punk, and I don't want it
to come off as a man trying to beat up
on somebody new or a woman or barrass other things.
(19:15):
Or I don't want to come up. You know, I'd
rather not do the show just you know, so they
put you on a separate panel. Next thing you know,
you're on the panel with me, and you know what happened.
I think of that I had met you and we talked,
and I was like, you know what, I don't have
if it falls out that way being on a panel order,
I don't mind. So I remember a buddy of mine,
(19:35):
Pete Vargas, said he was in the car with somebody
and they were like, Hey, we're driving to go see
this guy. This guy's a real asshole at her and
he said you ever met him? And he said, no,
I never met him. And he said, well, if you
didn't meet him, and you think he's an asshole, You're
actually the asshole. And I said to myself when I
got on the show with you that panel, I said,
let me think about it. In the break of that panel,
I forgot what was happening Mexico was something you were
(19:57):
on the phone going if do not call me unless
you have a private jet and you are ready to
send food. And I mean, you were working so hard
for the crisis of people, other people that you never met.
And it was that moment that I felt like that asshole.
It was that moment that I said to myself, this
(20:20):
woman is doing way more than me for people that
she doesn't know, with the resources she has, as busy
as she is, I'm an asshole.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
You're not an asshole. You're getting an energetic vibe. And
maybe I'm intense and you took that as something else,
or maybe I was just being a bitch that day.
(20:57):
Maybe I'm intense and you took that as something else,
or maybe I was just being a bitch that day.
But the headline, so you're reading a headline that I
want to give a takeaway. You're giving takeaway about your
side of it. I'm giving takeaway for people listening that
you got to always try to be nice to everybody
or friendly, because I could have not gotten on Shark
Tank for that whatever vibe you got on, you know,
(21:20):
good morning America. So people have to I should always
be alert about being extranized to everyone around me.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Well, and I appreciate that, but in one hundred percent,
and I think we both can learn from it. But
I want to get to the moment of many of
us are too busy, or we donate at the end
of the day or through something else. When was that
moment when you were seeing tragedies go on and you
just decided the government's never going to get out of
their own way. We have great people like a chef
(21:48):
jose Andreas, who will be on the ground with food
before anybody else. When did you decide during all the
stuff you have, Hey, you got a plane, you guys, shit,
I know what you se money on. I need clothes
and food to go out there. When was that moment
that you said, somebody like entrepreneurs, somebody else is gonna
figure the set, you know what, nobody's figuring it out.
(22:09):
I'm gonna figure the shit out.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
When was that much the moment is another one that
like evolved where I did something for Houston and started
to I'm always building the plane while flying it. It's
just the way my goes Right now, I'm working on
the series that is like a direct to consumer model,
just like the podcast, which is a direct to consumer model.
And I realized yesterday for the first time. I knew it,
but I've described it, but I didn't really put the
(22:32):
light bulb. But the way I do relief is also
a direct to consumer model. No rubber chicken dinner, Beyonce's
performing You're Gonna pay in a circular reference, and part
of the like it's called money to the people, but
I didn't know that wasn't happening. I didn't know that
cash cards weren't being given to people after the ground
zero of it all months later to rebuild a community.
I didn't know anything, just like I didn't know anything
(22:53):
in business. One thing I say about The Sharks, you
guys are so smart and you've taught people are vernacular,
but like it's almost too smart a show for the
average person who doesn't really know shit. Like I would
never have been good on Shark Tach. I just like
got into the ring on business and just like swam
my way through.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
To figure it out.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
That's how I did with relief, like one step at
a time, just being like, wait a second, No one's
just talking directly to people and saying, hi, guys, this
is what's going on in this place, Puerto Rico or
a Guatemalan volcano eruption, or we don't have masks and pepa,
whatever the thing is, I don't know what the hell
is going on, because they don't know what the hell
is going on, so nobody should pretend they're an expert
(23:34):
in relief or doctor.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
And I just was like, wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
People that are big that are taking people's money are
so bulky, and they take months to do the same
thing that we could do in two days.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
So I was just like, let's just go direct.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Let's figure this thing out, and we don't have to
go to a government building in Puerto Rico and stand
there with clipboards and air conditioning and coffee and talk.
We just get on the goddamn but truck and go
bring the stuff and we'll figure it out as we go.
So it kind of wasn't one moment like Puerto Rico
was so big it was. It was enveloping me, and
it was like fifteen million dollars and I was like
(24:07):
one person. I guess if I'm thinking right now, there
was a moment when a very famous person, an a
list person at this time, it's been so many years,
I guess I could say Katie Holmes, like it was.
Paris Jackson came onto my plane and said to me
that they had gone to the Big Org, the Big Org,
with their money, to say we want to go do
a relief mission, and that Big Org said, what we
(24:33):
don't know. I'm saying wait, wait to the I'm saying
to Paris and hold on. You had thirty thousand dollars
and you wanted to do a relief mission and the
Big Org couldn't help you.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Who am I? I'm nobody.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
So I remember at that moment being like, this is
fucked up. If the big multi billion dollar a year
it can't can't help you get a plane into Puerto
Rico and I can. Then we are onto something and
we did the largest private relief effort in history US history.
Then in Ukraine was insane. So I realized we that
(25:07):
was a moment, Like I didn't know that that was
the moment, but right now. That was a big one
because I was like, Wow, we're doing stuff that no
one else is doing, but everyone's pretending that they are
an expert on something. And that's the same thing in business.
You can't pretend you're an expert because most things haven't happened.
It's case law No.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
One hundred percent. And that's and that's what I want
to learn and take away from now. I want to
you know, we have limited time, and I want to
just get go to this one because there's very few
people who are can be as as people without a filter.
You and Barbara don't have filters. Mister Wonderful is one
of the only people who can curse you out with
(25:43):
a twinkle in his I like Santa Claus. There's very
few people in the world that have this ability. And
I I am listen. First of all, I came from
the hood where you know, listen, everybody's trying to shoot,
you know, shoot you, pimp you whatever cases. It's not
like I have to end skin. But as you know,
shark think. You know, there's always somebody a reporter who
(26:03):
thinks they have a smoking gun. Every year. The story
doesn't get picked up pretty much after they go the
sharks actually renegotiated deal after hearing it, or you know
you got one or two you know, sour pushing. You
know entrepreneurs who and who break their non disclosure We
don't do it. But how do you how do you
(26:24):
combats as raw as you are, with the way that
everybody's so goddamn sensitive, as much as people want to
do fight for you and love you because they say,
she's just gonna give it to you the way it is.
How do you combine combat the bullshit or the maybe
it's not bullshit? People who are offended, people think you
did this, think of the people that he did that.
(26:46):
How do you shudder that noise out? Or do you
not do you go? You know what? Like you said
with me with the beginning, just now, I should take
some of this in consideration. Let me move the rest
of this shit as crap. How do you deal with
the people that reply to a lot of you're unfiltered?
Uh Inside, I don't.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Like when it's too hot in the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I fly dangerously close to the sun and I'm okay
with it being warm, but I don't like when.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
It's too hot. It's just it's not it upsets the
Apple card. I don't like it. I'm never afraid.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
The problem is I have a strong opinion and I
want to say something. It's just got a land and
I I feel that I've garnered the respect for the
first time in all these years, I've garnered the respect
of the media.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Like they don't mess with me the way they used to.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Like you're like you're I don't know, you're a prize fighter,
or you're some athlete that like has to like fight
it out for years with them for them to be like,
all right, you know she's prayed her do It's like
I can't explain it. Like if you're in the first
couple of years on a reality show, like you're gonna
get your ass handed to you. Then it's you know,
your second show was at a one hit wonder, You're
gonna get your ass handed to you. Like I've been
(27:52):
doing this for so long now that like I have
a decent relationship with the media because it's a game,
it's a dance, it's the ocean. You don't get in
the impact zone. If you do, you're gonna get beaten up.
You wait for the good set, you ride it. And
sometimes I get beaten up because I did. I took
I took a shot I didn't need to take.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
You know, I don't and I'm not afraid.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
But like I don't need to talk about Megan Markle,
it's not necessary.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
It doesn't do anything.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Once in a while, I want to say something because
I do feel that there's something to say, but it
really doesn't affect my life. And if I do say something,
there's gonna be people that love it and hate it,
and is that worth it. I don't need to talk
about the Kardashians all the time. I'm gonna say it
once in a while. If it pertains to fashion, or
if it pertains to my daughter and the influence that
that filtering and not telling the truth about things, if
(28:39):
it affects her, that's something that might be a macro issue.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
But if I'm just doing it to just do it,
it's not necessary.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
So I'd side, like in a flash, in an instant,
whether it's worth it or not, and I just I
just let it ride, and I'd sometimes take a beating
for it. You know, by and large, I can take
the beatings, but the beatings don't really like put me
in the ground like they probably would have ten years ago.
It's just not the same because I think I've got
(29:06):
enough goodwill ye that it outweighs taking a beating. It's
just not that bad anymore. And I'm also not on
the Housewives, so I'm on Shark Tank either. Even Shark
Tank is like Housewives light as it pertains to shitty
Press because it's every second it's a factory of shit.
But I'm not really on that shit front line anymore.
(29:28):
And you're not either, but you're on like the lowest
version of it, like the low grade version of it.
And I don't you know what I'm saying, Like I'm
on TikTok. That's where I'm gonna take a beating. Okay,
I could handle that for a day. You know.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I'm becoming more like you and mister Wonderful. I'm tired
of this shit with the people and I don't I
don't want. I gotta have more intent instead of saying
it nice and the people's shock. I'm gonna go back
to the hood people shark like yo.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
And by the way, if you really commit and you're
not afraid, it really works if you really don't give
a shit with I often don't and there's a place.
The podcast is a different place to say things then TikTok,
then Instagram than television. You gotta know what party you're at.
You have to know what room you're in. Because you
say the same thing in four different rooms, it's gonna
land differently.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
That's powerful. So you know, listen, I thank you for
this journey. I think the way that I know that
I I entered these things is trying to learn. I
love the fact that we we you know, that moment
that anybody may be going through, whether they think they're
they're in the right place, they're at the right they're
at the place too long, Like you just said, you
got an exit to make an entrance, or they're laughing
all with you, and soon they're gonna be laughing at
(30:33):
you if you keep staying in that dam in that
damn place, and you gotta you gotta, you know, jump
and then fly. I love that. I love the aspect
of you know, you turned around and you really did
your analysis of what do I have as an entrepreneur
to be able to go and help change the world.
As I'm looking at everybody else out there who is
getting bottlenecked. They got too big and bulky fucket. I'm
gonna do it myself with the things that I have.
(30:55):
And then, as as crazy as it sounds, because you know,
I just think Barbara doesn't take her medicine and does
and think outside the box of when she is flying
too close to the sun at least you know, Hey,
oh no, I'm gonna give it to you. But you
know what, there's certain things that I know it's not
that important. Like you said, I fly close to the sun.
I don't get an impact zone. But yet I'm comfortable
where I'm at and I'm not at the mercy of others.
(31:17):
So thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
And yeah, that one thing you said.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
The second thing you said, you know, when you're at
that club and it's like the lights start coming on,
people's scare is flying down their face, like they should
have left a half hour ago, Like you know what
I mean, Like it's the club, like to leave at
the peak.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
The good song came on that all the time.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
But he does not.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
He's out there with the busted girl with the a
scare down her face at three forty five am, and
he should have left the two forty five and that's late.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I think I think she was there last time she
saw you. We thank you. I love you as always.
I don't know how many people know how amazing you are.
I think they do. I think maybe I was late
to the race, but I love it and uh and
I look forward to seeing everything you consistently do and
firing us things.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
This was a great interview. Good good interview, and thank
you for the good question. Peace awcome have a great day.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
All right, there you have it. As you can see,
I go down this rabbit hole and I've learned so
much from Bethlenhe. I'm sure you have. But thank you
so much for sharing that moment with me, Damon John.
That Moment with Damon John is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black
Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(32:29):
wherever you listen to your favorite show, and don't forget
to subscribe to the show and rate this show. You
can all connect with me on any social media platform
at the Shark Damon as in Raymond with the d
All right, so I'm excited about today. We're going to
get into a Bethany Frankel. Now she was on The Apprentice.
She's a Marca Stewart, followed by what I started to
really knowing her as the Real Housewives in New York City.
Then she has spinoffs, Bethany getting married, Bethany ever after.
I think we've all heard, or if you haven't, she
created a brand called Skinny Girl. Sold it were millions
(00:38):
and millions and millions of dollars Skinny Girl the drink.
But she had Skinny Girl jeans and sold the massive
amount of products. But I think the thing to talk
about that with that is she looked at it kind
of how I looked at Pubo in the earlier days.
I looked at Poulboo is something that I could put
on all these music artists and their community was highlighting
these things on these pipes, right as we call it,
(01:01):
using it for a commercial. But she was smart enough
to do that where this wasn't new when she negotiated
her contracts, she carved it out without an attorney, carved
it out that I can do skinny Girl. Now, you
don't have a lot of power when you're doing that
when you're first starting, because the way the networks and
people feel is that if I do that for you,
I have to do that for everybody. But it was
something in the way that she negotiated. Excellent negotiator. She
(01:22):
would later on go on the Shark Tank, and I'm
going to probably tell you a crazy story about that,
but here it is. We're going to bring her on.
Bethany Frankel would learn so much from her. Hopefully you've
been seeing her on TikTok, being really hardcore and real
in her own way, and now she's probably bigger and
better than ever before. I'm excited, so let's get into
it with my buddy, Bethany Frankel. All Right, beth, thank
(01:47):
you so much for being here. I've already laid out
laid it out on how much you know, I love
and I respect you, and I want to just hop
right into it. You know, at that moment, I want
to go over special moments in your life that you
know you and I are out there having conversations with people.
I'm sure they ask you the same things. What's your
best investment on Shark Tank? How did you do this
and that? And you become just repetitive. Right, I want
(02:09):
to go over where were you now? I know that
you were on several reality shows prior to Housewives, and
then you're very private about many many things of your life.
What shifted? And when was the moment that it shifted?
Because you know, to be on The Apprentice and Arthur
(02:29):
Steward and various other things and then really carve out
a very rare space in you know, Housewives. All of
a sudden you just really took a turn and said,
I don't want to be in those type of worlds anymore.
I want to create even though I created a lot
out of that world, I want to create my own.
(02:49):
And what shifted? And why did you just say I'm
done doing it like that? I'm doing it now on
my terms.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
That's so interesting, It's a great question. And how do
you know I'm so private? I love that you just
said that as if like everyone knows that. I don't
know that everyone knows that. How do you know that?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Well? Because I get enough information about a lot of people,
and when when you are when you share certain things
with me and we're talking, I know that it's not
public information, not that you have said to me that
don't say anything. But I just think that in the
privacy of our conversation, you know, you don't need to
say those things, and I don't need to say it
to you. It just it's just a private thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I'm a very very private, like a fiercely private person,
which is extremely confusing because I've spent a lot of
my time on reality television, but usually that television is
agenda based. If you're on The Apprentice, it's about your
your relationship to the tasks and the other people, and
they don't really care about all these things. And on
the Housewives, it's really you're sharing what you want to
(03:50):
and sometimes it's some things that you wouldn't want to
and that are uncomfortable because they might involve other people.
Like I can control what I want to share and
what I don't want to share, and if someone thinks
because I'm seemingly forward, that still doesn't mean that I'm
not private. When it gets to other people, then it
gets uncomfortable. But still the show is about my relationship
to the other women. So I just think that's interesting
(04:13):
that you pointed that out because I am very private
and I left Housewives the first time after three seasons
when it was the beginning. I mean it was like,
I remember this woman left er years ago and that
was such an important show and you were thinking, how
the hell is she leaving when it's like just getting
hot and the Housewives was just getting popular. I mean,
it's been twenty years almost, and I left after three seasons,
(04:35):
which I was a broke person walking on so that
seems nuts, but I don't know. I just had a
feeling I was going to be on a spinoff, and
I just had a feeling I trusted myself, and so
that time I just didn't want to be there, and
I felt like I was cheating myself by selling out
by being there because it felt toxic is the word
(04:56):
that was swirling, and it really was the only word
to describe it. And I went back after I had
done kind of a rinse, like I wasn't really only
known for that, but it was part of my DNA.
And I left four three years and three seasons, and
I wanted to pitch something else to Andy, and he
pitched me to come back, which was like the Eagles
(05:17):
Hell freezing overtour, and I thought about my relationships to
the audience and my connection to them that I did miss.
I also am not going to sugarcoat the fact that
he offered me an unprecedented number for any housewife to
ever have been paid. So I cause, I said, I'm
asking this number and I'm not asking to negotiate, and
it's one number and you say yes or no, and
(05:37):
that's it.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
I'm on or off, like we're not doing this dance
and we didn't.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
That's very unbravo on everywhere, but very unbravo to say
here's my number, that's it and they said yes, and
that was it. But then to leave the next time
that was so much harder because I was being paid
so much and exponentially increasing in what I was being paid,
and the show was more popular and I was popular,
(06:01):
and I was in a relationship with Paul, who I'm with.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Now, and.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
He's just calming and balanced and it's a different type
of relationship. And I wouldn't leave for him. He never
asked me to leave for him. It just felt a
little embarrassing in my life and a little with him.
And I remember calling someone very one of the most
powerful people in Hollywood and saying like, can I be here?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Should I be here?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
It feels weird being here, and he said, there's going
to be a point and you're reaching that point. You
may have reached that point where people are going to wonder,
what the hell is she doing in this scenario? Like
it doesn't seem right where he said, it just feels
like why you know, you did it? You were there
and you were great, and you came back and you
came back big, and the be is back. But we're
going to get to a point where it's going to
(06:51):
seem like you really just why are you there and
why are you having these conversations? And not a better
then thing, but just a different then thing. So all
these things were swirling in my head and like you know,
when you want to break up with someone, you just
kind of want to break up with them, but you
don't do it yet, but you're looking for an excuse
and you're nippicking and like you want and out. I
just was looking for reasons and you get less patient
(07:13):
and you just have a you have a you have
a lower tolerance rate for things that you just wouldn't tolerate,
Like when you're doing a job and you're being paid
a lot of money, you'll tolerate different things, and you
just do different things. You're just you're you're on the
West Side Highway and you given somebody a price and
your your your turning tricks and you know the deal.
Then there becomes a point where like you're like, I
don't know that I want to be this hoe. I
(07:35):
just don't know that this is there's a number for
me to do this because this isn't really you know,
and it's fine. Prostitution is respected. It's a number, you
get the service, and there you go. I was I was,
I was a prostitute.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So I took the.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Money and I did my job. Then I didn't want
to do it and I wasn't going to do it well.
And I just was like, you know, if it bends,
it's okay. If it breaks, it's not. And it was
coming back to a season and there were certain things
in the negotiation. I got the money I wanted. There
was a deal point that I talked about on my
TikTok that was not even important to me. It was
(08:08):
something so inside baseball that nine Leaks had been on
the season before and she didn't shoot most of the season,
so they missed a lot of scenes with her, and
I had just had someone who died that in my life,
and I was coming back the next season. I showed
up to work despite him dying. I wouldn't have even had to.
(08:28):
And they put into my contract that if I don't
if there's episodes that I don't appear in, that it
wouldn't be paid for them. And it would never have
happened because the production company is like, we'd never air
an episode without you in it. That would be stupid.
The ratings said plummeted when I left Sword when I
came back, they wouldn't do that. I already knew that
from the production company. I just wanted an excuse.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
So when.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Bravo had a precedent, which they that's they're right to,
I just said, I'm calling an uncle and I just walked.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
And that was the moment.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And it was a weird moment because my lawyers were like,
what do you mean. They'll totally foold on that. It'll
be the day of the game and the players are
walking out on the field and they'll fold.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
I'm like, I know.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
They're like, you don't need to do it, so I'm like,
I know, I know. I just want to do it.
I want to fucking do it. I want to flip
the switch. So I just flipped the switch.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
That was the moment.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I think that's powerful. What happens to people? And what
do you say to those people?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Go?
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I think I know I've been there where you go?
Am I looking at a gift to using them out?
I know that I am not that I'm better than
anybody else, but I'm here in my life. I'm getting
either I'm really getting praise, I'm really getting paid really well.
If I leave, I may hurt other people that I
care about in there, But I'm just not happy. And
(09:44):
by nature I want to grow and grow may not
become being a bigger and better star. Grow, may may
become I could be more private in my life, and
I could do it on my terms. Like so many
of us, are those crossroads in life, and then we
end up, as you said, stay at that crossroad until
sooner or later the shine is all for us, and
somebody goes, what the hell are you still doing? We
(10:24):
stay at that crossroad until sooner or later the shine
is all for us and somebody goes, what the hell
are you still doing?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Here?
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Man? You must be Oh funny, you didn't you know
like what happens, you know, like it's true. What do
we say to people right now who are at that
crossroad with love, with family, business, with their community, with politics.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Okay, let's break this down a couple of things. Number one,
Jerry Seinfeld said why he was He was offer you
would have gotten more than one hundred million dollars from
Brandon Tartakoff to do another season of Seinfeld. But he said,
there's a moment in an act where you're laughing, it's amazing,
and if it goes on too long, you get turned
(11:02):
off and it ruins the whole experience.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
And I love that. He said that. I just heard that.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I once had dinner with Lauren Michaels, who the producer
of Saturday Night Love. He said to me, not about me,
just about another. I listened to everything everybody says and
absorb it. It's just like a recipe. It's crowdsourcing. He said,
you have to make an exit to make an entrance.
It was about one of his his Lauren Michaels was
talking about one of his SNL people, saying, you have
to make you have to make an exit to make
(11:27):
an entrance.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
So that's just in my bank.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
But I wasn't even thinking like macro economics like that.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
I was just just in my own life.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
But most people don't have the bank account to support
that decision. Most people don't have the freedom to, you know,
to support that decision. I will say, I'm not in
that situation where I can't make a decision that I
want to based on finances. But I will say, as
a person who at that point had owned multiple homes,
who had invested in multiple businesses, the nut had gotten bigger.
(11:59):
You get you know, when I used to have a
twenty nineteen hundred dollars rent that I couldn't pay, Like
I knew what I couldn't pay. It was one thing
like the nutgets bigger, and your business managers are like,
listen to me, go back in one more season.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
What's the difference. It's millions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Just grab that because you know, your skinny girl Dale
went on for ten years.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
That's not happening anymore.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
That was my You know, it wasn't as easy as
you would think because I used to have numbers that
would come in every year that were just guaranteed. And
at that moment, you know, I'm looking over at Paul,
who's a wealthy man in my fiance.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
But it's like, am I gonna dump my whole not
on you? Now?
Speaker 2 (12:33):
It's your responsibility because I'm kind of leaving because of you.
You didn't ask me to. But like in my mind,
I wanted someone to like pick up the slack where's
the show? My podcast which now makes a lot of
money because I have like five of them, But I
was like, I'm going to do a podcast? How am
I going to put those numbers together? So I was
thinking that I'm thinking it's gonna be fine, but something
we're gonna have to cut it down a little. But
(12:55):
when you jump, you fly, and I jumped and I
felt it in and I now can say that I
don't that had to be what two three?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
I don't remember how many years ago that was.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I have pieced together this perfect curated life that is
exactly how I wanted this direct to consumer model, and
I make more money than I made then because I
was truthful. I wanted to go figure it out. I
had no idea, I had no plan. I've never had
a plan in my life. I don't know how I'm
piecing this puzzle together. But everybody get the fuck out
of my way, let me think, and I'm going to
(13:27):
do it. And I did it, and I'm here and
it's freedom and it's like my way because I felt
it in my body. So it wasn't starting over, but
I didn't have housewives, I didn't have the skinny Girl
deal every year. I was kind of starting over at
this new level with the guaranteed money every year.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
And I did.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
I did it, and it's my own terms, completely, every
single iote of it. I walked away from HSN too.
Same year HSN was was, you know, selling tens of
millions of dollars of clothes on TV. I felt shackled.
I felt shackled to all these different owners and I
hated it. I hated working for ag Cent, I hated
work for Bravo. I just wanted to go out and
do my own thing. So that's the life that I
(14:06):
have now.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
You know, a lot of people don't realize it, and
I'm glad you brought that up. You know, if you
are making one hundred thousand dollars a year and you
know that's your base, but you go to being unemployed
for three years, I'm not sure how much money you
say it but if you're making ten or bringing in
fifteen million, and that money's coming in, you got some
fuck off money. But the end of the day, because
you know that it's still coming in, going to keep
(14:29):
coming in. But when you do make this jump or
an investment where you go from bringing in ten or
fifteen to losing two a year, even if you stacked
up thirty or forty million, I mean you're going to
turn around and go, you know, in five years this
two million dollars a year, that's ten million lesson I
worked really hard to save. And whether it is from
a monetary standpoint or just the feeling of growing, you feel.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Scared because the number one thing that someone wealthy thinks
about who's been successful, if they're smartest, don't touch the principle.
Don't touch the principle. So you got the house, you
did this other house, you could do it. You booked
the vacation, you bought the car. You know you're not
a crazy person. I am not. I never spent even
close to more than I have, not even like within
the stratosphere. But you bought a luxury item. You bought this,
(15:16):
You did what you know you were You was going good.
The music is now gonna stop, so you're gonna have
to change your life, but you don't want to touch
the principle. So the pandemic happens, your business changes, the
whole shit goes out. Whatever it is you don't, so
now you don't. You just wanted to not touch the principle.
And this decision made mean at certain points to do
certain things, you're gonna have to touch the principle.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
That's the decision.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
How long was that scared with that uncertainty of that
moment of everything you have and of course you gave
it up or you moved on and you sold it.
Was it two months, five months, two years, we were
in the middle of a pandemic. How long were you
in that kind of gray area of like, I'm trying
to get into the jump rope. I know I will
get into the double Dutch rope, but I'm I'm stumbling
(15:56):
a little bit and I'm not getting in there just yet.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
I was.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
I was It's okay because I've always been okay because
I did my first big deal and I had my
first principle. But you know, I did have a different
home that I ended up selling in the city. It
was getting to be a little swollen, and my you know,
business manager wanted more equity money manager, more equity balanced
with the debt for like having a house and doing
(16:21):
a mortgage because it was the smart thing. Another house
is paid for in cash, like just just measuring all
the buckets and how it's going, and like God forbid.
And he would say, I want you set. You get
hit by a bus, you can't talk, you can't write,
God forbid. You're just you know, we're very conservative in
that way. So in that regard, I knew that also
a lot of the spending that I was doing with
smoke and mirrors, because it's what's happening with housewives that
(16:44):
don't have any money, that they're all spending what they
don't have because they think they're going to make it
to catch up.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
They're not good business people.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
They don't understand taxes, they don't understand that you can't
just charge everything on a credit card and it's going
to be okay.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
And they're morons. So I'm not a moron.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
And I was like, Okay, the music's gonna now, I'm
definitely not gonna spend at this at the same clip,
I'm gonna sell some things too, like I didn't need
to have three homes in I realized in the pandemic,
I'm not in the city, so I'm gonna make some
moves and decisions, which felt like a good influx refinance
something else, like it felt like a nice relief. I
it's not only just what you're making, it's what you're
(17:20):
adjusting based on the climate. Like it's gonna be cold outside,
You're gonna put a jacket on. So I'm gonna brace
myself now that I'm not gonna be making it the
same clip. So I'm certainly not spending at the same clip.
But let's try to get back to where we were
by selling something and like really, you know cushion, the
you know, pat ourselves. There was no thing I was
nervous about, but I just want to be smart. Then
one thing at a time just started happening because I
(17:41):
was living truthfully and not out of fear keeping all
the houses and everything where you're living like freaking out
about anything.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
You're calm, cool, collected.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
And you're just putting one thing on the board at
a time, and it just so It wasn't like there
was a moment where I was like afraid it was
just you did make in different moves. You're like, you know,
on the Bealt battlefield and just making different moves. And
I was always I'm always making up adjusting.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
So let me share that moment with you. Would would
will bring in full circle. And I've already shared it
with you, I believe. So you know, I uh the Sharks,
and I I forgot what show we were at. You know,
we ran into you. You weren't the most pleasant person,
but I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
You know, you couldn't energetically worst divorce in history of
ten year divorce.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
That's why, right, something was going on, and you know,
not that you was like, oh my god, David Goma.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
You were just like And I might have been intense
because I was doing the competition.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
I was taking it seriously. You guys with a show
who knows?
Speaker 1 (18:32):
So they called me. They say, you know, we think
about bringing on Bethanye, and what do you think? And
I said, well, let me let me check. I don't
know much about her, but let me check. My wife
was like, oh my god, she's got to go on
the show. She is so fast and so sharp, and
she's going to give you some ship that you do
not expect, and so I called the producer. I said, listen, guys,
I haven't necessarily the greatest interaction with or not that
(18:54):
it was bad. I said, you know, I'd rather not
be on the first panel what here, because in case
I lock horn her because she's coming into a dysfunctional family,
she's she's not a punk, and I don't want it
to come off as a man trying to beat up
on somebody new or a woman or barrass other things.
(19:15):
Or I don't want to come up. You know, I'd
rather not do the show just you know, so they
put you on a separate panel. Next thing you know,
you're on the panel with me, and you know what happened.
I think of that I had met you and we talked,
and I was like, you know what, I don't have
if it falls out that way being on a panel order,
I don't mind. So I remember a buddy of mine,
(19:35):
Pete Vargas, said he was in the car with somebody
and they were like, Hey, we're driving to go see
this guy. This guy's a real asshole at her and
he said you ever met him? And he said, no,
I never met him. And he said, well, if you
didn't meet him, and you think he's an asshole, You're
actually the asshole. And I said to myself when I
got on the show with you that panel, I said,
let me think about it. In the break of that panel,
I forgot what was happening Mexico was something you were
(19:57):
on the phone going if do not call me unless
you have a private jet and you are ready to
send food. And I mean, you were working so hard
for the crisis of people, other people that you never met.
And it was that moment that I felt like that asshole.
It was that moment that I said to myself, this
(20:20):
woman is doing way more than me for people that
she doesn't know, with the resources she has, as busy
as she is, I'm an asshole.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
You're not an asshole. You're getting an energetic vibe. And
maybe I'm intense and you took that as something else,
or maybe I was just being a bitch that day.
(20:57):
Maybe I'm intense and you took that as something else,
or maybe I was just being a bitch that day.
But the headline, so you're reading a headline that I
want to give a takeaway. You're giving takeaway about your
side of it. I'm giving takeaway for people listening that
you got to always try to be nice to everybody
or friendly, because I could have not gotten on Shark
Tank for that whatever vibe you got on, you know,
(21:20):
good morning America. So people have to I should always
be alert about being extranized to everyone around me.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Well, and I appreciate that, but in one hundred percent,
and I think we both can learn from it. But
I want to get to the moment of many of
us are too busy, or we donate at the end
of the day or through something else. When was that
moment when you were seeing tragedies go on and you
just decided the government's never going to get out of
their own way. We have great people like a chef
(21:48):
jose Andreas, who will be on the ground with food
before anybody else. When did you decide during all the
stuff you have, Hey, you got a plane, you guys, shit,
I know what you se money on. I need clothes
and food to go out there. When was that moment
that you said, somebody like entrepreneurs, somebody else is gonna
figure the set, you know what, nobody's figuring it out.
(22:09):
I'm gonna figure the shit out.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
When was that much the moment is another one that
like evolved where I did something for Houston and started
to I'm always building the plane while flying it. It's
just the way my goes Right now, I'm working on
the series that is like a direct to consumer model,
just like the podcast, which is a direct to consumer model.
And I realized yesterday for the first time. I knew it,
but I've described it, but I didn't really put the
(22:32):
light bulb. But the way I do relief is also
a direct to consumer model. No rubber chicken dinner, Beyonce's
performing You're Gonna pay in a circular reference, and part
of the like it's called money to the people, but
I didn't know that wasn't happening. I didn't know that
cash cards weren't being given to people after the ground
zero of it all months later to rebuild a community.
I didn't know anything, just like I didn't know anything
(22:53):
in business. One thing I say about The Sharks, you
guys are so smart and you've taught people are vernacular,
but like it's almost too smart a show for the
average person who doesn't really know shit. Like I would
never have been good on Shark Tach. I just like
got into the ring on business and just like swam
my way through.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
To figure it out.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
That's how I did with relief, like one step at
a time, just being like, wait a second, No one's
just talking directly to people and saying, hi, guys, this
is what's going on in this place, Puerto Rico or
a Guatemalan volcano eruption, or we don't have masks and pepa,
whatever the thing is, I don't know what the hell
is going on, because they don't know what the hell
is going on, so nobody should pretend they're an expert
(23:34):
in relief or doctor.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
And I just was like, wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
People that are big that are taking people's money are
so bulky, and they take months to do the same
thing that we could do in two days.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
So I was just like, let's just go direct.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Let's figure this thing out, and we don't have to
go to a government building in Puerto Rico and stand
there with clipboards and air conditioning and coffee and talk.
We just get on the goddamn but truck and go
bring the stuff and we'll figure it out as we go.
So it kind of wasn't one moment like Puerto Rico
was so big it was. It was enveloping me, and
it was like fifteen million dollars and I was like
(24:07):
one person. I guess if I'm thinking right now, there
was a moment when a very famous person, an a
list person at this time, it's been so many years,
I guess I could say Katie Holmes, like it was.
Paris Jackson came onto my plane and said to me
that they had gone to the Big Org, the Big Org,
with their money, to say we want to go do
a relief mission, and that Big Org said, what we
(24:33):
don't know. I'm saying wait, wait to the I'm saying
to Paris and hold on. You had thirty thousand dollars
and you wanted to do a relief mission and the
Big Org couldn't help you.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Who am I? I'm nobody.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
So I remember at that moment being like, this is
fucked up. If the big multi billion dollar a year
it can't can't help you get a plane into Puerto
Rico and I can. Then we are onto something and
we did the largest private relief effort in history US history.
Then in Ukraine was insane. So I realized we that
(25:07):
was a moment, Like I didn't know that that was
the moment, but right now. That was a big one
because I was like, Wow, we're doing stuff that no
one else is doing, but everyone's pretending that they are
an expert on something. And that's the same thing in business.
You can't pretend you're an expert because most things haven't happened.
It's case law No.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
One hundred percent. And that's and that's what I want
to learn and take away from now. I want to
you know, we have limited time, and I want to
just get go to this one because there's very few
people who are can be as as people without a filter.
You and Barbara don't have filters. Mister Wonderful is one
of the only people who can curse you out with
(25:43):
a twinkle in his I like Santa Claus. There's very
few people in the world that have this ability. And
I I am listen. First of all, I came from
the hood where you know, listen, everybody's trying to shoot,
you know, shoot you, pimp you whatever cases. It's not
like I have to end skin. But as you know,
shark think. You know, there's always somebody a reporter who
(26:03):
thinks they have a smoking gun. Every year. The story
doesn't get picked up pretty much after they go the
sharks actually renegotiated deal after hearing it, or you know
you got one or two you know, sour pushing. You
know entrepreneurs who and who break their non disclosure We
don't do it. But how do you how do you
(26:24):
combats as raw as you are, with the way that
everybody's so goddamn sensitive, as much as people want to
do fight for you and love you because they say,
she's just gonna give it to you the way it is.
How do you combine combat the bullshit or the maybe
it's not bullshit? People who are offended, people think you
did this, think of the people that he did that.
(26:46):
How do you shudder that noise out? Or do you
not do you go? You know what? Like you said
with me with the beginning, just now, I should take
some of this in consideration. Let me move the rest
of this shit as crap. How do you deal with
the people that reply to a lot of you're unfiltered?
Uh Inside, I don't.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Like when it's too hot in the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I fly dangerously close to the sun and I'm okay
with it being warm, but I don't like when.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
It's too hot. It's just it's not it upsets the
Apple card. I don't like it. I'm never afraid.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
The problem is I have a strong opinion and I
want to say something. It's just got a land and
I I feel that I've garnered the respect for the
first time in all these years, I've garnered the respect
of the media.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Like they don't mess with me the way they used to.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Like you're like you're I don't know, you're a prize fighter,
or you're some athlete that like has to like fight
it out for years with them for them to be like,
all right, you know she's prayed her do It's like
I can't explain it. Like if you're in the first
couple of years on a reality show, like you're gonna
get your ass handed to you. Then it's you know,
your second show was at a one hit wonder, You're
gonna get your ass handed to you. Like I've been
(27:52):
doing this for so long now that like I have
a decent relationship with the media because it's a game,
it's a dance, it's the ocean. You don't get in
the impact zone. If you do, you're gonna get beaten up.
You wait for the good set, you ride it. And
sometimes I get beaten up because I did. I took
I took a shot I didn't need to take.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
You know, I don't and I'm not afraid.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
But like I don't need to talk about Megan Markle,
it's not necessary.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
It doesn't do anything.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Once in a while, I want to say something because
I do feel that there's something to say, but it
really doesn't affect my life. And if I do say something,
there's gonna be people that love it and hate it,
and is that worth it. I don't need to talk
about the Kardashians all the time. I'm gonna say it
once in a while. If it pertains to fashion, or
if it pertains to my daughter and the influence that
that filtering and not telling the truth about things, if
(28:39):
it affects her, that's something that might be a macro issue.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
But if I'm just doing it to just do it,
it's not necessary.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
So I'd side, like in a flash, in an instant,
whether it's worth it or not, and I just I
just let it ride, and I'd sometimes take a beating
for it. You know, by and large, I can take
the beatings, but the beatings don't really like put me
in the ground like they probably would have ten years ago.
It's just not the same because I think I've got
(29:06):
enough goodwill ye that it outweighs taking a beating. It's
just not that bad anymore. And I'm also not on
the Housewives, so I'm on Shark Tank either. Even Shark
Tank is like Housewives light as it pertains to shitty
Press because it's every second it's a factory of shit.
But I'm not really on that shit front line anymore.
(29:28):
And you're not either, but you're on like the lowest
version of it, like the low grade version of it.
And I don't you know what I'm saying, Like I'm
on TikTok. That's where I'm gonna take a beating. Okay,
I could handle that for a day. You know.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I'm becoming more like you and mister Wonderful. I'm tired
of this shit with the people and I don't I
don't want. I gotta have more intent instead of saying
it nice and the people's shock. I'm gonna go back
to the hood people shark like yo.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
And by the way, if you really commit and you're
not afraid, it really works if you really don't give
a shit with I often don't and there's a place.
The podcast is a different place to say things then TikTok,
then Instagram than television. You gotta know what party you're at.
You have to know what room you're in. Because you
say the same thing in four different rooms, it's gonna
land differently.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
That's powerful. So you know, listen, I thank you for
this journey. I think the way that I know that
I I entered these things is trying to learn. I
love the fact that we we you know, that moment
that anybody may be going through, whether they think they're
they're in the right place, they're at the right they're
at the place too long, Like you just said, you
got an exit to make an entrance, or they're laughing
all with you, and soon they're gonna be laughing at
(30:33):
you if you keep staying in that dam in that
damn place, and you gotta you gotta, you know, jump
and then fly. I love that. I love the aspect
of you know, you turned around and you really did
your analysis of what do I have as an entrepreneur
to be able to go and help change the world.
As I'm looking at everybody else out there who is
getting bottlenecked. They got too big and bulky fucket. I'm
gonna do it myself with the things that I have.
(30:55):
And then, as as crazy as it sounds, because you know,
I just think Barbara doesn't take her medicine and does
and think outside the box of when she is flying
too close to the sun at least you know, Hey,
oh no, I'm gonna give it to you. But you
know what, there's certain things that I know it's not
that important. Like you said, I fly close to the sun.
I don't get an impact zone. But yet I'm comfortable
where I'm at and I'm not at the mercy of others.
(31:17):
So thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
And yeah, that one thing you said.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
The second thing you said, you know, when you're at
that club and it's like the lights start coming on,
people's scare is flying down their face, like they should
have left a half hour ago, Like you know what
I mean, Like it's the club, like to leave at
the peak.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
The good song came on that all the time.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
But he does not.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
He's out there with the busted girl with the a
scare down her face at three forty five am, and
he should have left the two forty five and that's late.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I think I think she was there last time she
saw you. We thank you. I love you as always.
I don't know how many people know how amazing you are.
I think they do. I think maybe I was late
to the race, but I love it and uh and
I look forward to seeing everything you consistently do and
firing us things.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
This was a great interview. Good good interview, and thank
you for the good question. Peace awcome have a great day.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
All right, there you have it. As you can see,
I go down this rabbit hole and I've learned so
much from Bethlenhe. I'm sure you have. But thank you
so much for sharing that moment with me, Damon John.
That Moment with Damon John is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black
Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(32:29):
wherever you listen to your favorite show, and don't forget
to subscribe to the show and rate this show. You
can all connect with me on any social media platform
at the Shark Damon as in Raymond with the d
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