Barbara Corcoran: One Shark You’d Love Swimming With!

Most of us are familiar with Barbara Corcoran as a real estate mogul and star of ABC’s Shark Tank. Barbara made her fortune at first leasing and then selling NYC real estate when she owned The Corcoran Group.  I had the pleasure of meeting Barbara recently at the Real Estate Staging Association‘s annual convention in Las Vegas; Barbara was our keynote speaker, and her story was so inspirational!

Barbara Corcoran is one of ten children, and she learned a lot from her mother’s practical way of raising all those kids that she later applied to business. Although Barbara admits to not being a great student, she certainly had ‘street smarts’ and knew that perception creates reality (kind of like “fake it until you make it”).  A few of Barbara’s great tips for us included:

• Be great at failure … you’ll learn a lot when faced with failure and it will spur you on to greater things
• You have the Right to be there!  Never think that you don’t or can’t fit in with a particular client, or committee, or meeting.  You can!
• FUN is good for business!  Remember to have as much fun as you can … people will love working with you!
• There’s really no “balancing” your work life and personal life.  Do the best you can, and remember that your family is #1.  Barbara shared a touching story that her proudest moment in life happened when her son was born — not when she sold her real estate company for many millions.

After Barbara’s talk, I was thrilled to be able to chat with her in person!  Here she’s complimenting my business card.

Barbara’s new book “Shark Tales” tells the story of her real estate career and how she became a star of “Shark Tank.”

Barbara is a strong proponent of home staging as a marketing tool and believes that it’s becoming the norm in today’s market, rather than the exception.

The night before, I was honored to receive two awards at our annual convention: One of the Top Ten Home Stagers in the United States for 2014; and National Board Member of the Year  for the Real Estate Staging Association