Barbara Corcoran

Barbara Corcoran is the Founder of Corcoran Group and the Chairman of Barbara Corcoran, Inc. Her credentials include straight D's in high school and college and twenty jobs by the time she turned twenty-three. It was her next job, however, that would make her one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the country, when she borrowed $1,000 from her boyfriend and quit her job as a waitress to start a tiny real estate company in New York City. Over the next twenty-five years, she would parlay that $1,000 loan into a five-billion-dollar real estate business and the largest and best-known brand in the business.

As a speaker, Corcoran brings her frontlines experience and infectious energy to each person in the audience. They laugh, cry, and learn how to become more successful. Motivational, inspirational, and sometimes outrageous, her tell-it-like-it-is attitude is a refreshing approach to success.

Currently, Corcoran is the real estate contributor for NBC's TODAY Show where she comments weekly on trends in the real estate market. She is an investor/shark on ABC's reality hit Shark Tank. In the first season, she bought eight young businesses that she is shepherding to success.

Corcoran is the author of If You Don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails, an unlikely business book that has become a national best-seller. She credits her struggles in school and her mother's kitchen-table wisdom for her innovation and huge success in the business world. The book is a fresh, frank look at how to succeed in life and business and is as heartwarming as it is smart and motivating. Her latest book, Nextville: Amazing Places to Live the Rest of Your Life, was released in 2008.

Corcoran writes a weekly real estate column for the Daily News and monthly columns for MORE Magazine and Redbook.

• 5. The Real Estate State of the Market

  Founder of The Corcoran Group and real estate contributor to the NBC TODAY Show Barbara Corcoran addresses the state of the market in real estate, from what's happening today to where things are headed tomorrow. She'll show real estate professionals how to communicate, negotiate and close the sale and how to educate, motivate, and satiate the customer. She'll share her insider insights into the most amazing, extraordinary and distinguishing characteristics of great salespeople, as well as how to develop those characteristics in yourself. Everything the real estate professional needs to know to succeed in any market.

• 4. Reinventing Yourself at Any Age

  No one knows more about reinvention than D-student turned real estate maven turned TV personality Barbara Corcoran. She first 'reinvented' herself when her business partner and boyfriend ran off with her secretary. He swore she'd never succeed without him and, although she believed him for a moment, she ultimately triumphed by creating The Corcoran Group. When she sold that business thirty years later for $66 million, she was surprised to learn that simply riding off into the sunset wasn't for her. Reinventing herself again at age 55 turned out to be a daunting challenge—she had trouble picking out what to wear in the morning, let alone picking up the phone to ask for what she wanted, she was so unsure of who she was. Today, as a shark on the new ABC reality show Shark Tank and the real estate contributor to NBC's TODAY Show, she is a walking, talking success story whose star is still on the rise. And she happily shares her failures, her successes, and the obstacles she learned to overcome in an inspiring story that will kindle a flame in the heart of anyone searching to come into their own as a mature, powerful individual.

• 3. How to Build a Business—Using Innovation, Branding, Leadership & Guts

  Innovation may be the single most important key to success in today's highly competitive marketplace. Corcoran is known for having built the most successful real estate business in New York City, and now she reveals the unconventional strategies she used to do it: how to create an image bigger than the reality; how to use the press to get free publicity; and how a little savvy and a lot of guts can turn you into the leader in your field. She shares her innovative ideas, insights, and anecdotes on building a thriving business and a successful brand in today's marketplace.

• 2. How To Lead Your Team To Greatness

  Corcoran, who led 1,000 + brokers at The Corcoran Group, New York's largest real estate company, is an expert in the art of leading a team to success. She knows exactly what it takes to create a thriving workplace and how to develop a winning team from a diverse group of employees from Gen Y to Gen X to Baby Boomers. From hiring the right people and firing the wrong people to bringing fun into the workplace and establishing an atmosphere that breeds innovation, she shares her unique and winning strategies in how to get people moving on the path to professional and personal greatness.

• 1. Barbara's Rags to Riches Story

  How do you turn a $1,000 loan into a five billion dollar business? According to self-made real estate empress and TV personality Barbara Corcoran, you do it by learning how to fail well. She tells the story of how, armed with a $1000 loan and her own gritty determination, she quit her job as a waitress to start a tiny real estate company in New York City and turned that company into a multi-billion dollar business. She describes what it's like to go from a tiny start up to New York City's largest real estate company to a major TV personality as the real estate contributor to the NBC TODAY Show and a shark on ABC's Shark Tank, and how she overcame the many obstacles along the way. This is a highly motivational and hugely entertaining success story.

• As it turned out, your remarks were everything we hoped they would be and contained the uplifting and inspiring messages that we felt were so important for our audience to hear.
  San Francisco Association of Realtors
• I have had Barbara speak twice to sold out crowds with a waiting list each time! There isn't a more inspiring real estate speaker in the country. Barbara Corcoran is 'magic' at any event.
  Higgins Group
• I have been a realtor for over 15 years and have attended many presentations by top speakers and trainers in our industry but none can compare to Barbara Corcoran's wit, common sense, and great advice! Barbara's straightforward approach to the problems she has faced and overcome provides an inspiration to everyone who hears her. I applaud her energy, enthusiasm and honesty and am always excited to see her on TV.
  Women Council of Realtors
• I am a manager for a company that spares no expense to hear the best of the best speakers. In the 24 years that I have been in this fabulous field called real estate, I have never enjoyed myself more than I did watching Barbara Corcoran speak. Such a real person...totally in touch with today's challenging market. No wonder she built herself an empire.
  Prudential Douglas Elliman
• Barbara electrified the audience because they knew she had traveled a path in life that had similarities to their own. While others talk about thinking outside the box, Barbara has seldom stepped inside that box. Her words were nothing less than priceless and there is no doubt that the impression she made will be a gift carried by all for the rest of their lives. Everyone fell in love with her!
  World Association of Domain Name Developers Inc.
• Barbara spoke at our officers' conference with people from 16 countries in attendance. She was utterly charming-sensible, accessible and funny. Her insights about the real estate market spill over into personal career development and everyday economics. She's the one people remember.
  Hines

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  February 2011

  Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business

  The inspiring true story of Shark Tank star Barbara Corcoran--and her best advice for anyone starting a business. After failing at twenty-two jobs, Barbara Corcoran borrowed $1,000 from a boyfriend, quit her job as a diner waitress, and started a tiny real estate office in New York City. Using the unconventional lessons she learned from her homemaker mom, she gradually built it into a $6 billion dollar business. Now Barbara's even more famous for the no-nonsense wisdom she offers to entrepreneurs on Shark Tank, ABC's hit reality TV show. Shark Tales is down-to-earth, frank, and as heartwarming as it is smart. After reading it don't be surprised if you find yourself thinking, "If she can do it, so can I." Nothing would make Barbara happier.

  
  
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  June 2009

  Nextville: Amazing Places to Live Your Life

  For the past 30 years, Barbara Corcoran has built a business and a career on knowing where we will live before we even know it ourselves. She's sold her business for an astounding price, has penned a best-selling memoir, and is the national media's go-to person for real estate trends and news. In Nextville, she turns her keen eye toward predicting "the next big things" in real estate for Boomers as they begin to reach retirement.

  
  
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  December 2003

  If You Don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails: And Other Lessons I Learned from My Mom

  Barbara Corcoran shares her hilarious stories about growing up, getting into trouble, failing miserably, and then starting over again. In each chapter, she comes back to one of her mom’s unconventional lessons, and how it applies in the real world of business. Whatever your calling, the homespun lessons that work for Barbara will help you use what you’ve got to create success in your life.

  
  
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  February 2003

  Use What You've Got & Other Business Lessons I Learned From My Mom

  Barbara Corcoran, the New York real estate magnate, delivers witty, scrappy advice gleaned from lessons her mother taught her. An inspiring read for anyone interested in succeeding in business, life, or both, this book describes how Corcoran's mother instilled in her a fierce determination and the drive to work hard. At the end of each chapter, Corcoran returns to one of her mom's 24 unconventional, homespun lessons, and shows how it applies to the real world of business. Drawing also on her own personal battles in the work place, Corcoran revisits her past as a primer for others who would follow in her footsteps.