Patrick Ambron, CEO of BrandYourself.com, shares with you some of the most important leadership lessons he learned from Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran.

1. LEADERSHIP LESSONS
I LEARNED
P A T R I C K A M B R O N
In Conversation With
6
BARBARA
CORCORAN

2. Pitching your company to a panel
of business savvy investors is no
easy task. Doing so on national
television can make it even
harder.

3. ABC’s Shark Tank gives entrepreneurs a very rare
and unique opportunity to gain massive exposure for
their business — but also opens the business up to
the scrutiny of the Sharks and the show’s millions of
viewers across the country.

4. When I appeared on Shark Tank to pitch my company,
BrandYourself.com, each Shark gave me a different
flavor of feedback, all of which have proven invaluable
since my appearance.

5. Despite walking away
from a $2 million offer
from Robert Herjavec,
appearing on the show
was one of the best things
to ever happen to me or
my company.

6. T h e r e w a s o n e S h a r k w h o w a s n ’t o n s e t d u r i n g m y
p i t c h : B a r b a r a C o r c o r a n .
I h a d t h e g r e a t f o r t u n e t o h a v e a c a n d i d
c o n v e r s a t i o n w i t h h e r a f t e r w a r d s a b o u t m y p i t c h ,
m y b u s i n e s s , a n d t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f a n
e n t r e p r e n e u r ’s r e p u t a t i o n .

7. Just like the Sharks on set, Barbara gave
me advice that I’m using to take
BrandYourself.com to the next level.
Here are six major takeaways from
our conversation . . .

8. 1. Grow from your
failures quickly.
When Barbara was building her real estate
brokerage, The Corcoran Group, she had the
greatest successes right off the heels of her
biggest failures. She was able to quickly
accept when something wasn’t working and
spin the circumstance to her benefit.

9. There’s a great lesson for
entrepreneurs in this: don’t dwell
on your failures. Instead, look
forward for solutions. Don’t waste
time feeling sorry for yourself;
instead, put all your focus on
making the most of the situation at
hand.

10. 2. You need thick
skin, but not all the
time.
As an entrepreneur and company leader you
become a target from a lot of different angles.
People will always be there to agree or
disagree with what have to say or what you’re
doing. It’s important to be resilient and to
stick to your guns, but also to remain open to
feedback.

11. It’s a delicate balancing act between
holding your ground, and knowing
when to listen to your team. The
ability to innovate on the fly, while
remaining true to your core values, is
invaluable in startup territory.

12. 3. Your reputation is
important.
Being in the online reputation
management industry, this is a point that
at first seemed obvious to me — but the
importance of your reputation goes even
deeper when you’re leading a large group
of people.

13. BrandYourself.com now has over 70 employees,
and whether I like it or not, they all have a close
eye on everything I’m doing. Barbara reminded me
just how important my role is in nurturing the
company’s culture and defining its mission — and
furthermore, my need to clearly communicate the
company’s direction so that everyone is on the
same page.

14. 4. Personality makes
the brand.
Defining a brand isn’t always an easy
task. What Barbara did, instead of
creating an abstract brand identity,
was to use her name, face, and
personality to represent her
company.

15. People have an easier time relating to a person
— and if that person has a big personality, he or
she will hold people’s attention. That’s not
always easy for an entrepreneur, but the reward
is a very cost effective way to get people to
notice what your company is doing and how it
stands out from the crowd. So if you’re an
entrepreneur with a big personality, let it show!

16. 5. You need to put
yourself out there.
If you want people to know about what
you’re doing, you can’t be afraid to let
people know. Barbara has done an
incredible job of building her personal
brand and knows just how important
that outreach work has been to her
success.

17. When I asked Barbara what she thinks of
entrepreneurs who don’t want to put
themselves out there online, she said, “That’s
like saying I want to hide but I want people to
know where I’m hiding. It’s just not going to
work out that way.”

18. 6. Plan for ridiculous
fun.
Barbara reminded me that it’s
the job of the company leader to
implement clear
communications channels by
defining a philosophy for the
workplace.

19. Add At BrandYourself.com, I try to foster a
culture that brings out creativity, and
sometimes that means having a ridiculous
amount of fun, whether it’s through our
company soccer team, happy hours, or
special events.subheading

20. Barbara agreed with the concept of planning for fun in
the office: “I think drinking together, having fun,
having days off doing stupid things, dressing in
ridiculous costumes, whatever you mandate as a
company culture, what happens is everyone really
likes each other and you create a family.”
It’s also a great way to bring out every employee’s
creative side, so don’t be afraid to have some fun
while you work.

21. Read Patrick's article about 5 ways to protect your
brand's online reputation here:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249041