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In Episode 31 of the Defining Success Podcast Rey Ybarra shares the stories of numerous Shark Tank entrepreneurs and how Shark Tank has impacted their lives and their businesses.  Rey has been able to share the stories of these entrepreneurs through all of their failures and successes to show how the entrepreneurs who have appeared on Shark Tank have thrived following their appearance on the show.

Rey Ybarra is the author of Conversations with Shark Tank Winners featuring entrepreneurs from the hit ABC TV reality show Shark Tank.  As a multimedia book author he is producing audio and video interviews focusing on helping entrepreneurs, small business owners and for those who have dreams and a sincere desire to work their dreams.

Rey Ybarra has been an entrepreneur, talk-show host and has produced a lot of multi-media programming.  He’s been helping small businesses understand social media and use the tools of the Internet to help their businesses.

Rey understands that educating businesses on how social media and the Internet can impact their businesses has been invaluable to those businesses.  As the world and the Internet has changed Rey has come to realize that a lot of businesses were in denial about how the Internet was playing a role in their businesses.

A lot of people didn’t know where to go and they needed help to understand how people were using technology and the Internet to interact with businesses.

Rey’s greatest passion is interviewing others to learn what makes them tick and how they’re using their business to help others.

Rey began working on the multi-media book, The Shark Tank Effect, to help share the stories of the entrepreneurs who have appeared on Shark Tank to a larger audience.  Through his interviews, Rey has been able to dig deep into the lives and businesses of these entrepreneurs and hopes that his book will inspire others to pursue an entrepreneurial path.

Shark Tank is a show that helps people and those who have dreams. Rey interviewed Barbara Corcoran and Robert Herjavec for an article he was writing and also many of the entrepreneurs and he got an idea for the title of his book, Conversations with Shark Tank Entrepreneurs.  He went to work right away contacting enthusiastic entrepreneurs to become a part of the project.

During his interviews he talked with several Shark Tank entrepreneurs about what they did before Shark Tank, how they got on the show, what the process was, and how they were going to give the presentations.

Rey decided to make his book into a multi-media platform because he understands that people learn to process information in a variety of different ways.  He knows that some people like to read, others prefer to listen and still others prefer to watch video.  The multi-media book gives Rey the opportunity to reach people who learn in a variety of different ways.

Rey has interviewed 14 of the entrepreneurs who have appeared on Shark Tank.  He also is working with Steve Kaplan, an entrepreneur extraordinaire and he’s on a CNBC show called Crowd Rules which debuted two weeks ago and he’s one of the judges and he is also on a show called Secret Millionaire where they handpick some successful entrepreneur who want to give back and help their communities.  He talked with Steve and they are working together on Rey’s book.

The Shark Tank Effect is something Rey covers in all of his interviews in which he asks the entrepreneurs that he’s interviewed is how the Shark Tank has impacted their business and their lives.  Each Shark Tank entrepreneur responds with a different answer about how the Shark Tank has changed their lives.

The best interview Rey conducted was with Billy Banks Jr. and his wife Sharon Catherine Blanks and their program, Dance with Me.  Their Dad, Billy Blanks invented Tae Bo and living in the shadow of his father had always been difficult.  When the episode aired, they were homeless and living in a motel.  Now they are traveling the world introducing their Dance with Me program all over the world.

Carol Foster created Mee-Mas Gumbo, who at the time of her appearance on Shark Tank was homeless.  The biggest reason why Rey created this book was to help as many people as he can.  You can get all sorts of information from these entrepreneurs and you can learn from each one of them.

Barbara Lampugnale from Nail Pak who was visiting her daughter from Connecticut who struck a deal with Lori Greiner.  How do you run a business while raising a family?  Listen to the interview with Barbara Lampugnale and you’ll be able to understand that.

Persistence is the key to getting the guests for Rey’s book . . . A big problem Rey had in the beginning was that he had some technical difficulties and lost six of the interviews he had recorded.

The one big trait that all the entrepreneurs on the Shark Tank do whatever they have to do to get the work done.  They don’t let anything humanly possible stop them . . . not even natural disasters.

Dan and Liz Holtz, owners of Liz Lovely cookies, did not get a deal from the Sharks and three days before they opened their store Hurricane Irene came in and wiped them out. The building materials, staff, and inventory was all lost.  They persevered and overcame those obstacles and even though they didn’t get a deal, the exposure they received from the Shark Tank grew their business exponentially.

Cheryl Rigdon invented the Spatty Daddy and even though she didn’t get a deal from the Sharks, Daymond John has been helping her grow her business and she’s experienced exponential growth as well.

The advice Rey would give to others would be to give aspiring entrepreneurs where the entrepreneur is asking for money, you have to know your numbers.  You have to know margins, return on investment, cost per unit.  You have to know all of those numbers in your sleep.  For aspiring entrepreneurs you better know your numbers, why and how and the nuts and bolts of everything in regards to your business.

Rey asked Mark Lim, creator of Lollacup, what his keys for success were and he asked what do you mean?  Rey then followed up with him . . . What did you do to prepare to get on the Shark Tank and Mark then understood.  When an opportunity comes and you seize it than that is what determines your success.

Engaging Discussion Questions:

• Are you doing what you love? 
• Are you willing to do whatever it takes to make your business successful?

Links to Great Stuff:

• Conversations with Shark Tank Winners – Conversations With Shark Tank Winners is the multimedia book featuring interviews with the entrepreneurs from the ABC TV reality show Shark Tank!
• Steve Kaplan – Steve Kaplan Inc. helps you identify the success you really want. Then, through our no-nonsense, roll-up-your-sleeves mentality and products, we help you get it. Steve has turned his experiences into proven tools to help individuals and businesses identify and achieve big goals. Through Steve’s proprietary products and services such as his unique downloadable step-by-step success playbooks, one-on-one sessions, workshops, bestselling books, DVDs, keynote speaking and more, Steve Kaplan Inc. guides you down the path to success.
• Crowd Rules – “Crowd Rules” features three small businesses that compete in front of an audience who vote to decide which business wins a much-needed $50,000 prize. Entrepreneur and jewelry designer Kendra Scott, TV newsman Pat Kiernan and a weekly guest who is an industry expert lead the examination of the small businesses. While the business owners make their case to the panel of three, the real power lies in the hands of the audience—97 strong—whose votes ultimately decide which business is most deserving of the investment.
• Secret Millionaire – The secret’s out! Some of America’s most successful self-made millionaires are embarking on a truly incredible journey. They will spend a week in the country’s poorest areas and ultimately reward some unsung community heroes with hundreds of thousands of dollars of their own money.
• Shark Tank – The critically-acclaimed business-themed show, Shark Tank, has the Sharks continuing the search to invest in the best businesses and products that America has to offer. The show received a nomination for a Producers Guild Award in 2013. In 2012 “Shark Tank” received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Reality Program and a nomination for a Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Reality Series. The Sharks — tough, self-made, multi-millionaire and billionaire tycoons — will once again give budding entrepreneurs the chance to make their dreams come true and potentially secure business deals that could make them millionaires. They are: billionaire Mark Cuban, owner and chairman of AXS TV and outspoken owner of the 2011 NBA championship Dallas Mavericks; real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran; “Queen of QVC” Lori Greiner; technology innovator Robert Herjavec; fashion and branding expert Daymond John; and venture capitalist Kevin O’Leary.

Shark Tank Entrepreneurs Interviewed by Rey Ybarra in Conversations with Shark Tank Winners:

• Billy Blanks Jr. – Dance with Me
  
• Ice Chips Candy
• Lollacup
• Cozybug
• The Green Garmento
• Cousins Maine Lobster
• Touchless Flatware
• Duality Cosmetics – Nail Pak
• Nardos Natural Organic Skin Care
• Chord Buddy
• Spatty
• Liz Lovely
• Marz Sprays (C Spray)

Success Quotes:

• “Success is finding what you’re great at and pursuing it with everything you have.”
• “These stories will definitely help them to have hope.”
• “As an entrepreneur we all struggle from time to time.”
• “You might not relate to all of them but I can guarantee you that you will relate to 2 or 3 of them.”
• “The Shark Tank Effect for us means unlimited opportunity.” via Cousins Maine Lobster
• “Once you go on that show (Shark Tank) your life will never be the same.”

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