The Shark's Wisdom
Introduction
Hello and welcome to The Tank Marketplace!
You are now part of a thriving ecosystem where aspiring and experienced entrepreneurs level up.
We use lessons from some of the most notable entrepreneurs and contestants from the show ‘Shark Tank’.
As entrepreneurs, we are fortunate to have so many resources available from those ahead of us that we can use to avoid mistakes and improve our own business.
The show ‘Shark Tank’ has been airing for almost 15 years now and is packed with case studies of successful entrepreneurs and those who failed.
That’s why we put together ‘The Shark’s Wisdom’.
We provide you with insight into how the most notable Sharks have managed to amass such wealth and success.
We went through the work of each Shark and compiled this guide, giving you a treasure trove of wisdom that covers each area of business.
The combined net worth of these individuals is in the billions!
If you aren’t quite at that mark yet, then sit back, study and gain insight into some of their greatest lessons from 15 years' worth of content.
Although this guide was free for you to download, we ask that you study it as if it were a paid lesson from the Sharks themselves.
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban is one of the more notable Sharks on the show.
His first major win was co-founding the company broadcast.com which was sold to Yahoo! for $5.7 billion back in 1999.
Cuban is one of the Sharks with the most wisdom to offer but here are the three main entrepreneurial lessons that Cuban preaches.
Lesson 1 - There’s No Reason It Can’t Be You
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur reading this, you may have limiting beliefs about yourself that are stopping you from reaching your goals in business.
Cuban believes that you can make up for your lack of experience and ability by simply putting in more effort than your competitors.
After completing college, Mark moved to Dallas, Texas, where he tended a bar, sold software, and did whatever it took to learn and get ahead.
At one point, he was eating mustard and ketchup sandwiches when times were really lean.
But no matter how tough his circumstances got, he never gave up. When he felt down and the odds were against him, he just worked harder.
“I say it to everybody in business.
The one thing in life you can control is your effort.
If you are willing to put in the effort to start the business and you are willing to deal with the challenges and the fact you might starve or live like a student.
If you are willing to fight through those via effort and brain power, anything is possible.
There is no reason it can’t be you.”
So, no matter where you are in your entrepreneurial journey, it’s important to remember that you are in charge of your own destiny.
We all have the power to change our circumstances by just putting in more effort.
Lesson 2 - The Secret Behind Selling
Cuban preaches constantly about the importance of learning how to sell.
No matter what area of business you are in, in order to generate income you need to sell a product or a service of some form.
It is imperative that you learn the skill of sales in order to get people to pay you.
Cuban says that if you can sell, you can accomplish just about anything.
The key to selling is connecting with people while serving them.
“You are not trying to convince them of anything.
You’re trying to show them how you are going to make their lives easier.
There are no favours involved. It’s a win-win for everybody.
Success, though, takes more than just a connection with people.
Every no gets you closer to a yes. It’s a numbers game and It’s just a question of making the calls.”
Volume is your best friend in business.
You will have to handle far more rejection than you do acceptance.
Learning to handle this and keep going will ensure that you achieve long-term success.
Lesson 3 - Don’t Be A Slave To The Bank
We now live in a completely different era of business with the introduction of the Internet.
In times gone by, people have blamed the fact that they can’t start a business for the reason that they don't have much start-up capital.
However, Cuban says 99% of today’s companies can be started without capital.
“If you take a loan, you are no longer the boss and your customers are no longer the bosses.
Your banker is the boss.
And if you hit any adversity, as every startup does, the priority becomes taking care of your banker.
You’re no longer in a position to do whatever it takes to survive.”
There is an abundance of tools and knowledge that will allow you to start a business today.
So, take Mark’s advice and stay away from the bank.
Barbara Corcoran
Barbara Corcoran has covered an abundance of different areas in business from real estate to marketing.
She began her entrepreneurial journey with a $1,000 loan from the bank and transformed that into one of the largest and most successful real estate firms in the United States.
Here are three important lessons from Barbara.
Lesson 1 - Your Past Doesn’t Define You
Barbara Corcoran grew up in Edgewater, New Jersey, sharing a two-bedroom apartment with her mother and nine siblings.
While it would be easy to set her sights lower in such circumstances, Corcoran has repeatedly stated her belief that growing up poor is a "key ingredient for success."
"Poor kids have nothing to lose, and nowhere to go but up."
Against all odds (or, perhaps, because of them) Corcoran refused to let disadvantage get in the way of her success.
This is an important lesson.
The marketplace does not care about where you came from, only the value you can offer to them today.
Set your sights high and do not let your past define you.
Lesson 2 - Each Failure Is Fuel For The Fire
Barbara often refers to herself as the ‘Queen of Failure’.
She had worked 22 jobs by the time she was 23 years old, all before starting her real estate empire with just $1,000.
The successful entrepreneur has even said, "Failure is what I'm best at."
In fact, she almost didn't accept that $1,000 loan from Simone because she was afraid of losing her job as a waitress.
Luckily, she refused to second-guess her instincts.
She accepted the loan, built her business up and became the great entrepreneur she is today!
She was even rejected from being a Shark on the show ‘Shark Tank’ in the early days!
Failure in entrepreneurship is a chance to grow and learn from your mistakes, so don’t let your losses define you!
Lesson 3 - Hire High-Energy, Good People
If you hire a miserable person, particularly if you’re in a sales business, “it’s poison in the tank.”
She believes that the energy is infectious and can affect the other people in the organisation too.
She says that the faster you can get rid of a negative person, the better off you are.
You can teach someone with a good attitude anything, but you can’t teach someone with a bad attitude.
This is an important lesson for those of you who work in a partnership or are looking at hiring your first members of staff.
Look for people who want to turn your vision into reality and don’t settle for mediocrity in the hiring process.
Robert Herjavec
Robert Herjavec has a background in technology and sold his company BRAK Systems to AT&T Canada for over $100 million.
He also founded one of the largest cybersecurity firms in North America.
Here are three important lessons from Robert.
Lesson 1 - You’ve Got To Show Up
Robert did a talk for a tech start-up and while on stage, he started off by saying…
“I congratulate everyone for being here because the key to success is you’ve got to show up.
Whether you’re making time for an event or just struggling to survive,
If you don’t show up, you can’t win.”
It can be easy to get caught up in the minute-to-minute chaos of running a business.
You need to turn up and give 100% to the task at hand if you hope to carve out a chunk of success.
You will have bad days, we all do.
However, the more you can be present, prepared and hungry to implement your vision, the more progress and success you will see.
Lesson 2 - Nothing Happens Without Sales
When Herjavec was younger, he knew absolutely nothing about the sales world.
By his account, he was a “geeky, technical guy” who thought that as long as he offered great service, customers would show up.
This is a common theme with start-ups, particularly in the tech sector.
The common avatar for a tech founder is quite introverted and logic-driven.
Luckily, when Robert was 23 a friend from the sales world told him…
“You’re a great guy, and you really know your stuff but unless you learn sales,
You will never be successful.”
In response, Herjavec began to learn more about sales and marketing, until he realized...
“You can have the best accounting system, the best CRM and the best tools, but nothing happens until you sell something.”
For those of you who have watched the box office hit ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, there is a moment when Jordan gives a speech and motivates his sales floor to ‘pick up the phone and start dialling’.
Robert is another notable Shark who puts emphasis on the importance of being able to sell.
Even if you see yourself as the kind of person who can’t sell or doesn’t feel confident in their ability to sell.
Learn and understand sales and human psychology.
The more you practise, the better you will get.
Lesson 3 - Confidence Is More Important Than Skill
As an entrepreneur, you need to believe in the value of your product or service.
If you aren’t confident in your offer, you can’t expect anybody to be more confident than you?
This ties into the lessons on sales again.
Robert says that you should focus more on putting out there what you already have and refining it on the way.
Don’t sit with an unreleased product or service and constantly refine it. Focus on getting it out there and being more confident.
Feedback will come as time goes on and from there, you will be able to make adjustments to serve your customers better.
Lori Greiner
The Queen of QVC, Lori Greiner, is known for her accomplishments in the QVC shopping channel.
QVC is short for ‘Clever & Unique Creations’ and she specialises in products that are sold straight to consumers such as beauty products, household items and electronics
Here are some important lessons you can learn from the queen herself.
Lesson 1 - Know Your Value
Greiner talks about being careful you don't expose your ideas too widely and too soon.
People can and will take credit for your work if you let them.
So, it's important to know your value.
Even if you are an aspiring entrepreneur with little results to show, the ideas and skills you have could make you a huge success.
You just haven’t got the evidence to prove it yet.
Know what you have to offer and what you bring to the table.
Protect your value, but don't hoard it.
Lesson 2 - Be A Better Listener Than You Are A Speaker
Listening is a very important skill to master in any situation, but especially in business.
Greiner says that if you have several decision-makers in the same room and one of them is slighted or develops a negative impression…
It can change the reaction of everyone else in the room.
Active listening can clear up a lot of misunderstandings and solve problems before they develop.
Leaders are good listeners.
Listening is a skill that is particularly important when selling.
Your prospect / prospective investor should be speaking far more during a conversation than you should be.
You should be actively listening for their problems, pain points and any other information you can use to make sure that you solve their problems.
Lesson 3 - Learn To Communicate Effectively
Effective communication is more than just using a great script or having a good pitch.
It means getting people's attention quickly.
“It's very difficult to get buyers at any store or shopping network to pick up the phone.
When I finally did, I had one second to grab their attention.
And I would tell them I had the greatest earring organizer ever. Could I have five minutes of their time?”
By developing a hook, a way that intrigues people and gets their attention quickly, you can tap into your personal leadership power at any level of the organization.
In a time in human history when people's tolerance and attention spans are lower than ever before, you need to establish yourself as different from the crowd as early on as you can.
Daymond John
Daymond John is about as self-made an entreprenur as you can get.
He took the $40 dollars he had to spare and through hard work, managed to turn it into FUBU, running it out of his mother's house in Queens, New York.
He grew FUBU into a multimillion-dollar fashion empire and has been a Shark since the first episode aired in 2009.
Here are three important lessons from Daymond.
Lesson 1 - If You Don’t Know What To Do, Ask Someone Who Does
Be humble enough to know that you don’t know everything.
Especially when you are first starting out, it’s more than likely that you will have competitors in your field or mentors whom you can learn from.
Daymond wasn’t afraid to reach out to successful people around him.
“I went through so many mentors to try to obtain the information that I didn’t know,”
If you are just starting out and can’t afford a mentor, look for the knowledge in books or courses online.
The key to landing a great mentor is making sure that you aren’t consuming too much of their energy.
Provide them with value in the form of labour or favours and make sure that you are the kind of person a mentor would want to teach.
Be personable, don’t put them on a pedestal because they are human too.
Lesson 2 - You Define Your Brand
This is a very important lesson for those of you who may do much more front-facing activities, such as podcasts, content or personal branding.
“Your brand should be throughout everything.
How you dress, how you walk, how you talk, what people say about you when you're not in the room, and what you say when you’re on social media because that's where people are looking at you.”
You aren’t just an extension of your brand or your company, you are the brand.
Ensure that you carry your company's values with you everywhere you go and customers will buy into the vision you create.
The power of a personal brand cannot be underestimated.
You have the opportunity to have people trust you before you have ever interacted with them.
Take advantage of it by embodying your brand's core values.
Lesson 3 - Focus On What You Can Do Today
Self-employment and entrepreneurship can feel like you have a never-ending conveyor belt of tasks coming your way.
Sometimes, life will make it hard to get these done and you will feel overwhelmed.
However, this is just the reality of entrepreneurship.
Problems will always be there and if you ‘wait for the right time’, you’ll soon learn that this time will never arrive.
“Things are always going to happen, so what can you do with yourself today?”
Daymond suggests taking note of what strengths you have right now.
“Is it extra time? Is it the cash on hand? Is it the fact that you don't need to travel 4 hours a day anymore?
Whatever it is, be grateful that you have it and intentional about what you do with it.”
But really it comes down to this: what can you do today, right now, so you have no excuses tomorrow?
If you find yourself stressed or overwhelmed, take a minute to think about the actions you can take right now that will move you further towards your goal.
Kevin O’Leary
Perhaps the most well-known and notable shark, Kevin O’Leary is a man of many talents.
Also known as ‘Mr Wonderful’, Kevin has a reputation for being very blunt and cut-throat when it comes to his investment and leadership style.
He is an entrepreneur, an author and runs multiple successful investment companies.
Here are three important lessons you can learn from Kevin.
Lesson 1 - Tell The Truth
O’Leary is known for being candid and direct on “Shark Tank,” but he claims that he’s not purposely trying to be mean.
“I get to be known as the mean Shark for telling the truth,
I just tell the truth and sometimes people don’t want it.”
O’Leary doesn’t want to be disingenuous and offers enthusiasm for a venture if he doubts it’s going to work.
“I tell it the way I see it, entrepreneurship is tough.”
What can you learn from this?
You should create an offer that is so good that you don’t need to lie about it and nobody will need to lie to you either.
You will come across characters like O’Leary during your time as an entrepreneur.
The key is not to be disheartened by the feedback they may give but to embrace it and see it as a learning curve.
Lesson 2 - The Importance Of Body Language
When entrepreneurs enter the set of “Shark Tank,” they have to stand for a couple of minutes while the crew gets ready to shoot the video.
At that moment, the entrepreneurs are standing right in front of O’Leary and he sizes them up before they have even pitched!
“I just look at them. I don’t smile. I don’t play. I just look at them. Not everybody can handle that.”
Even though the entrepreneurs haven’t said a word yet…
O’Leary makes a judgment on whether they are a winner or a loser.
“If you can’t stare someone back, what does that say? You’re not ready.
When you have a plan and you’ve done your homework, you’re ready and it shows in your eyes.”
This goes back to the lessons on confidence and sales ability. Your body language matters far more than any verbal communication.
Lesson 3 - Learn To Listen Effectively
O’Leary spoke of the importance of listening, both to others and to your own gut instinct too.
O’Leary emphasized that hearing the opinions of others is essential.
He tries to live by the metric of listening for two-thirds of the day and talking for only a third.
This is another Shark who stresses the importance of listening.
“Shut up and listen.
Because you’ll hear the train coming down the track a long time before anybody else.
I’m listening and listening, and I form opinions based on information and then I make good decisions.”
This is especially important when you are starting your journey as an entrepreneur as you need to assume that the person you are speaking to knows more than you do.
If all you do is talk, people will be less likely to want to teach you.
Next Steps
Congratulations - you have now soaked up and absorbed all of the Shark’s Wisdom!
The most fundamental part of learning is that you don’t let it go in one ear and out the other.
If you truly want to make progress with your entrepreneurial ventures, you have to take action.
Progress is split into the following 3 processes:
- Knowledge - New information from documents, podcasts or any other channel.
- Application - Using the new knowledge that you now have to go and create material or plans for your business.
- Implementation - Putting this into action and getting your ideas out to the marketplace and generating revenue from doing so.
This free product has provided you with 18 important lessons from the most notable Sharks.
However, the knowledge you now have is useless unless you go and apply and implement the ideas into your own life or business.
We understand that starting your own business can seem like a daunting task.
The team at The Tank Marketplace discussed how we could best serve Shark Tank lovers and aspiring entrepreneurs to start their own ventures.
That’s why we decided to create…
‘The Perfect Pitch’
A step-by-step business plan template that shows you EXACTLY how to start, grow and scale your own business using material from all 16 seasons of Shark Tank.
This includes the EXACT systems that the Sharks & successful contestants have used to build their companies.
This system includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- How To Cultivate The Mindset Of A Successful Entrepreneur
- Creating An Offer That Is So Good It’s Impossible To Say No
- How To Communicate Effectively During An Introduction
- How To Master Your Body Language
- Understanding Sales & How To Sell
- Finding The Perfect Price Point
- Win-Win Negotiations
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, this is an absolute must-have resource for starting your own business.
If you want to claim your copy today, you can check it out here https://the-tank-marketplace.ck.page/wisdom
We want to say a massive thank you for being part of the ecosystem we are creating here at The Tank Marketplace.
We will continue to serve you with only the best information from the best entrepreneurs.
We wish you luck with all of your business ventures.
The Tank Marketplace Team.