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Mr. Wonderful’s 3 Steps for Growing Your Business Again
In Best Of, Entertainment, Featured, Guest, Interview, Latest, News Stories, Technology, The World, videosBy Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary stressed business owners need to adapt to what he believes are permanent changes to consumer behavior as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the WCBS Virtual Business Breakfast, presented by The First National Bank of Long Island, the self-made multi-millionaire entrepreneur made several recommendations of digital tools, sharing actionable advice for business recovery with host Joe Connolly. Mr. Wonderful also revealed what some of his companies have found success doing despite the economic turmoil.
1. MAKE THE “GREAT DIGITAL PIVOT”
O’Leary divulged that only 36 of the 56 companies he had been invested in across “almost every sector” nationwide are still in business a year into the pandemic.
“They did the great digital pivot and that involves figuring out how to set up a platform – most of them use Shopify not Amazon, number one – to change their websites to be far more interesting and engaging,” he told Connolly.
Shopify allows businesses to create their own e-commerce website using the platform whereas Amazon is the consumer-facing website for companies’ online marketplace.
“They went to 4K photography, 1080p video, they told stories about their products, they had other customers talk about testimonials and how they were using them, so they really engaged people for the first time in ways they’ve never done before because they were forced to – everybody was working remotely,” O’Leary said.
He also shared the trick to monetizing digital content on the WCBS Virtual Business Breakfast. More on that later in Mr. Wonderful’s 3rd step to growing again.
2. PUT YOUR CUSTOMER FIRST
O’Leary said the best way to sell is to “promise customer support and deliver on it.”
He told Connolly his frequent advice to young entrepreneurs is that the customer is always number one, and if you treat them like that, you can have a very profitable business.
“The differentiating factor in selling is customer service,” O’Leary said, adding, “You can actually sell the same product for a higher price if you’re in the top quartile of customer service for it.”
The software tycoon invoked Apple as a prime example.
“When you buy a laptop from them, you’re paying 50 percent more than the exact same machine’s function on a Windows-based product or a brand you may not know, but because Apple makes you pay for customer support and you respect it and you want it, you pay a crazy amount more,” he said.
3. REDUCE YOUR CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COSTS
WCBS Business Producer Neil A. Carousso posed the number one question WCBS 880 listeners had for O’Leary, which was “How do you monetize digital content?”
Mr. Wonderful responded the only metric for monetizing digital content is whether it can reduce customer acquisition costs for one’s product or service.
“Basically, what you’re trying to do when you make new digital content is to tell a story about your product, show it in its best light, try and get testimonials from other users who are using it and why they use it, and try and acquire customers at the lowest cost you can,” the Shark explained.
“Remember, long-term outcome is basically customer acquisition costs have to be less than lifetime value of the customer acquired. Otherwise, you go out of business,” O’Leary added.
He produces a plethora of content for the companies he’s invested in and shows behind-the-scenes of commercial shoots, media appearances, and his daily life on his YouTube channel, which includes afternoon bike rides along Miami Beach, playing the guitar, cooking in his “Chef Wonderful” videos and enjoying O’Leary Fine Wines with his wife Linda.
A bonus step for growing your business again, O’Leary acknowledges, is a healthy work-life balance.
“I don’t work 9 to 5, obviously, and I try and find life balance in doing the things I love to do while I’m working,” said Mr. Wonderful. “I work seven days a week, but I don’t work every hour.”
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880 Weekly Rewind: Self-Defense Tactics for Asian Americans, Border Crisis Heats Up, Cuomo Accused Again as Investigations Advance
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Asian Americans are pleading for safety as hate crimes against them spike. WCBS anchor Lynda Lopez talks to Asian American Federation Deputy Director Joo Han about how they are promoting self-defense techniques.
Plus, the influx of migrants at the U.S. Southern Border reaches the highest level in 20 years amid a change in policy from the Biden Administration.
WCBS reporter Steve Burns reports on the latest scandals involving New York Governor Andrew Cuomo who refuses to answer questions while two investigations into his alleged sexual harassment and assault proceed.
Hear comprehensive analysis of the top stories of the week and original reporting on The 880 Weekly Rewind hosted by Lynda Lopez Friday nights at 7 PM on WCBS-AM New York. Listen to this week’s full show, produced by Neil A. Carousso, on the media player above.
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WCBS Virtual Business Breakfast: ‘Shark Tank’ Star Kevin O’Leary Boasts of ‘Digital 2.0 America’ in Growing Out of Pandemic
In Best Of, Entertainment, Featured, Guest, Interview, Latest, News Stories, Technology, The World, Top News, videosBy Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Kevin O’Leary, the self-made entrepreneur turned TV “Shark,” brought his straight-shooting, no-frills flare to the WCBS Virtual Business Breakfast with Joe Connolly, presented by The First National Bank of Long Island, in sharing how to grow one’s business again.
O’Leary, who was nicknamed “Mr. Wonderful” by co-star Barbara Corcoran in season one of ABC’s hit show “Shark Tank,” praised business owners for their grit and resilience during the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic that has levied a burden on the economy over the past year and shut down major industries, namely restaurants and hospitality companies.
“The great thing about the American entrepreneur is they don’t let failure stop them,” he said. “The majority of them try again and learn from their mistakes.”
O’Leary emphasized a changed economy, telling Connolly owners must pursue a digital “transformation” to survive the pandemic.
“You’ve got to realize that you have to do a digital pivot,” he explained.
Mr. Wonderful said only 36 of the 56 companies he had been invested in are still in business a year into the pandemic, noting many of his still-standing “Shark Tank’ companies shifted to using Shopify for their e-commerce platform and incorporated high-quality photography and video to connect and find new customers.
“They really engaged people for the first time in ways they’ve never done before because they were forced to – everybody was working remotely,” said O’Leary.
“Retail is really challenged because if you’re just (in a) 1,200 square-foot space in a mall and the traffic’s dropped 20 percent, I don’t think that’s going to work out for anybody because consumer preferences have dramatically changed in the last year towards online retail,” he noted.
He suggested direct-to-consumer sales will help businesses to cut and manage costs, grow their gross margins, and build for the future.
O’Leary does not anticipate remote work habits will be broken. He’s actually betting on it to stay by shrinking his real estate portfolio from 31 percent to 8 percent over the next three years while the market adjusts to the post-pandemic economy.
“I haven’t had a cold or been sick since March 7th of last year and I’m starting to like it,” he said, adding, “I don’t think I’m getting in an elevator in New York going up to the 78th floor with 60 people ever again – not in December. I’m not going into a packed restaurant. That may just be me; I’m a germaphobe, but I’ve talked to lots of other people that have the same concerns.”
Kathy Wylde, president and chief executive officer of the Partnership for New York City, cited the “burnout” some employees feel by working from home where many feel they are always at work. She believes employers and employees want to return when it’s safe to do so. Mr. Wonderful disagrees with her assessment.
Photo Credit: ABC. “They have no interest in coming back to headquarters – not now, not ever,” O’Leary said of his workers. “In fact, if you try and force them, they’re going to find a job somewhere else where they get that flexibility.”
The O’Leary Financial Group founder told the WCBS Virtual Business Breakfast that he hears most of his 10,000 employees enjoy working from home to take care of children and elderly parents while avoiding rough commutes in major metropolitan cities like New York.
Employers in professional services find productivity is up and they have a widened talent pool across the country and world.
The “Shark Tank” investor said he has made informed business decisions by listening to others he encounters while working remotely, himself, from his Miami Beach dream house where he joined Connolly virtually from his home studio.
One example of this is when he struck up a conversation with the nurse who administered his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine recently. She explained that at 24 years old she was uncomfortable with the lack of data around the vaccine and fertility.
“I had obviously heard of anti-vaxxers before, but I always thought they were the lunatic fringe – the 10 percent that thought the government was injecting them with a chip or something,” O’Leary said.
“I’m under the impression now, or at least in terms of my investment philosophy, that we’re going to get to a place pretty soon in the next 6 weeks, maybe 8 weeks, where we will have vaccinated two-thirds of the country and we’re going to hit a brick wall. The other third isn’t going to take it,” he believes, thus he’s downsizing his physical footprint, beefing investment in the digital space, and encouraging restaurateurs to re-think their indoor and outdoor dining areas while improving their digital ordering systems for takeout and delivery.
O’Leary sold his first business, renamed The Learning Company from SoftKey Software Products, to Mattel for $4.2 billion in 1999. Now, he owns O’Leary Financial Group, which is a conglomerate of brands that includes investment firm O’Leary Funds. He also serves as chairman of O’Shares ETFs. Kevin, a self-proclaimed wine connoisseur, owns O’Leary Fine Wines. Mr. Wonderful is also heavily invested in financial literacy firm Beanstox, Inc., which is geared towards young people in their 20s and 30s who are more interested in business and investing because of the pandemic.
“Basically, we’ve made it so simple that you try and take 100 dollars a week and put it into the markets through indexing,” he told Connolly of Beanstox. “It’s a tool to help people solve a big problem in America: 100 million Americans do not have anything set aside for their retirement.”
Mr. Wonderful knows how to have fun, too. He shows his lighter side to his 401,000 YouTube subscribers. His hobbies include biking, cooking and playing the guitar.
“I don’t work 9 to 5, obviously, and I try and find life balance in doing the things I love to do while I’m working,” O’Leary said in response to a question from WCBS Business Producer Neil A. Carousso, adding, “I work seven days a week, but I don’t work every hour.”
You can see Kevin O’Leary’s routine, his business philosophy, and actionable advice for growing your business again despite the pandemic on the WCBS Virtual Business Breakfast with Joe Connolly, presented by The First National Bank of Long Island. Watch the full program above.
About Kevin O’Leary:
Photo Credit: ABC Kevin O’Leary’s success story starts where most entrepreneurs begin: with a big idea and zero cash.
Kevin O’Leary was born to a middle class family in 1954. The combination of Kevin’s mother’s family heritage as merchants and his father’s Irish charisma truly meant that O’Leary was born for business. Kevin learned most of his business intuition from his mother. She taught him key business and financial insights from an early age. These became Kevin’s core philosophies, and the pillars upon which he would one day build his empire.
Kevin’s approach to business went through major changes as a teenager. During his second day on the job at a local ice cream shop, his boss came into the front of the store where Kevin was scooping ice cream. She looked at Kevin and asked him to scrape all the gum between the Mexican tiles on the floor. Kevin refused and he was fired. That was the moment he realized he never wanted to work for someone else again and charted his path into entrepreneurship as a high school student.
As a university student, Kevin’s innate business sense led him along several different paths – including some very unusual, very entrepreneurial ways of making a profit.
Not long after he finished his MBA, Kevin had a meeting that changed his life forever.
He met a man who had a strange idea for a software product – an idea with huge, high-profit potential that Kevin immediately recognized.After years of ups, downs, sacrifices, challenges, and lessons learned — not to mention a critical phone call that nearly cost him everything — the opportunity that Kevin saw eventually turned into a computer software giant that was acquired for more than $4 billion dollars.
After his extraordinary success at the software company, he founded – and a difficult period of obstacles and legal disputes – Kevin eventually found himself on television, quickly becoming a sought-after host and personality on a range of shows – including Discovery’s Project Earth, CBC’s Dragons’ Den, and ABC’s Shark Tank.
Kevin has since launched O’Leary Funds, an investment fund company; O’Leary Fine Wines; and a best-selling book series on financial literacy.
In 2014, Kevin founded O’Leary Financial Group – a group of brands and services that share Kevin’s guiding principles of honesty, directness, convenience, and above all, great value.
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Marking One Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — It has been one year since COVID-19 reared its ugly head in New York. On The 880 Weekly Rewind this week, Lynda Lopez looks at the past year in the pandemic from the human toll to the lessons learned and how we recover.
Plus, WCBS reporter Steve Burns covers a tumultuous week for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo whose emergency pandemic powers were rescinded by the state legislature Friday amid dual scandals in how he handled COVID-19 in nursing homes and allegations of sexual harassment from three women.
Neil A. Carousso produces The 880 Weekly Rewind with Lynda Lopez Friday nights at 7 PM on WCBS Newsradio 880. Listen to this week’s full show on the media player above.
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State of Black New York: Racial Inequities in Social Justice and Civic Engagement
By Lynda Lopez, Marla Diamond and Steve Burns
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — All this month, we’ve been shining a light on the details of a report on equity and race in New York City.
The New York Urban League’s “State of Black New York” raises significant questions on issues like the economy, technology, social justice and civic engagement.
The year 2020 was one of impassioned activism for racial justice as protesters took to the streets and occupied City Hall Park following the police custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
According to the New York Urban League’s report, Blacks are still over-represented in prisons due to decades of over policing and racial bias, with Black youths making up 63% of the jail population.
Bail reform was one bright spot in a difficult year, said Jullian Harris-Calvin, director of the Greater Justice New York at the Vera Institute of Justice.
“I don’t know that we ever expected that bail reform is going to fix all of the racial injustices,” Harris-Calvin said. “It has been successful in many ways, but it has not fixed all of the problems with racism and inequity in the criminal legal process.”
The Vera Institute’s recently-released Empire State of Incarceration report found jail populations fell significantly in the first half of 2020, but the racial disparities grew.
“That obviously is something that we are not happy about and it was certainly an unintended result in terms of what the data shows,” Harris-Calvin said.
Much of the focus of criminal justice reform is on policing, the trial system and sentencing, said Alexander Horowitz, executive director of New Yorkers United for Justice.
“But where mass incarceration of Black and brown New Yorkers is most pernicious is a place where folks aren’t paying as much attention to, and that’s the back end of the system,” Horowitz said.
He tells Marla Diamond that Black and brown New Yorkers are less likely to be granted parole and when they are, they are 12 times more likely than whites to be jailed on a parole violation.
“We have to talk about who’s being granted parole, and who goes back and why, because if we continue to target Black and brown New Yorkers for reincarceration for non-criminal offenses then we are continuing this horrible legacy of the mass incarceration of Black and brown New Yorkers,” Horowitz said.
The New York Urban League’s report also tackles the question of civic engagement, which our reporter Steve Burns digs into this week.
He spoke with Chi Osse, who has gone from protester to protest leader to now City Council candidate in Brooklyn.
“It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” the 22-year-old said. “I realize that this is bigger than what’s happened in the summer, there’s a lot more to be done, and I’m going to be the one to do it.”
Osse was a ubiquitous sight during the protests last summer, holding court on megaphones and bullhorns across the city.
His announcement came just a few weeks later, channeling his activist energy into local politics.
“We need to bring our voice and our power to the polls,” he said.
At just 22 years old, Osse could represent the new model as we examine how to drive more widespread participation in local and national elections.
The New York Urban League reports voter turnout among African Americans has been trending downward and communities of color were more at risk of being undercounted in the census.
New York’s arcane voting laws also don’t help matters.
“Many New Yorkers would be surprised to know that some states all over the country and even in the south have some more progressive legislation on this front than we have,” said New York State Sen. Zellnor Myrie.
Myrie told WCBS 880 last month that it’s been his mission to take New York from worst to first as chair of the elections committee.
“We think more democracy is better,” Myrie said.
After a test run in 2020, lawmakers are now looking into allowing absentee or mail-in voting without needing a pre-approved excuse first.
“We almost have a culture of absentee voting now, something that very few voters utilized in the past has become one of the main ways that voters have partaken in their democracy,” Myrie said.
New York also enjoyed its first election season with early voting, opening the polls 10 days ahead of Election Day. This year marks the first test for another innovation in the city.
“Ranked choice voting is the process that is going to be used going forward in New York City local primary and special elections,” said Sean Dugar, who is in charge of education and outreach for Rank the Vote NYC.
He tells Burns that giving voters the option to rank their top five candidates instead of just one opens all kinds of civic doors.
“Ranked choice voting forces candidates to no longer talk to a small block of voters in hopes of getting elected, they have to talk to every voter in a district or in a city in order to get not just first choice votes, but second, third, fourth and fifth choice votes which may put them over the top,” Dugar said.
He believes the system levels the playing field and forces candidates to focus on policy rather than personality.
But it hasn’t been without controversy. Members of the City Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus sued in an attempt to stop ranked choice voting this year claiming the outreach hasn’t been there for communities of color.
Dugar disagrees saying, “We’ve done trainings for community groups, we’ve had elected officials host public training, we’ve had the candidates themselves host public training.”
That injunction was struck down, but those council members are appealing.
On a foundational level, Osse said civics education has been lacking.
“I think we need to start educating the youth about not only how to vote and who your electives are, but also how to run,” Osse said, adding that he hopes to be a trailblazer for others, especially those who might not fit the traditional mold of a politician. “This is such a cliché, but be yourself and speak your truth.”
And to do that, there’s no better time than the present.
“If you have a vision and a voice and you have distaste for what’s happening in your neighborhood, or something next door, on your block, speak up about it and maybe there’s someone else that feels that same way about that issue,” Osse said.
As we end the month looking at the issues of race and equity in our community, we wanted to bring in another one of the candidates for mayor of New York City on the topic.
WCBS 880’s Lynda Lopez spoke to Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams about the racial divide in our community and what he believe we need to do about it.
Lopez started the conversation by discussing civic engagement.
On a national level, there was an increase in engagement among Black voters from 1996 to 2016, and then it plummeted that year. In New York, we have our own voter patterns and issues.
Asked about the challenges in getting communities of color engaged in voting, particularly in a mayoral race, Adams said, “First we have to stop believing that engagement is something you could do in a spot way based on the campaigns that are taking place. It must be built into our school system, we must have an aggressive engagement plan while young people can see and understand how resources for their schools equate into who they elect and how they involve themselves civically, and allow them to volunteer and intern in governmental offices.”
He believes it should be part of the overall requirement in schools to understand local government.
Secondly, Adams said we need to speak with local stakeholders.
“We failed to do that and engage people in a language and the cultural norms that they will understand,” Adams said. “Those are two important areas that we can make real changes.”
Campaigning in the middle of a pandemic poses its own challenges, but Adams said he is continuing to engage voters on the ground.
“We have to give out literature to talk about our campaign, I’m still doing that, but this time I’m wrapping it in face masks and I’m giving instructions on how to avoid COVID-19. We’re standing at food pantries and giving out food and talking to people as we hand out food, not to politic, but just to let them know the consistency of delivering service to every day New Yorkers,” Adams said. “And really informing New Yorkers about those benefits that are available to them.”
Lopez also asked Adams about the social and criminal justice statistics laid out in the New York Urban League’s report, which showed that by 1992, Blacks and Latinos made up 92% of the New York state prison population.
Adams, a former police officer, has more experience in policing in the city than his opponents. Other than the changes implemented in the wake of the summer’s protest, Lopez asked him what the city is now not doing to address the problem head on.
“We have to address the problem on three levels. Number one, real crime that takes place in this city happens in our school system. If you don’t educate, you will incarcerate. You have a failing school system, where 65% of Black students don’t meet proficiency. So if you go to Rikers Island and look at the numbers presumably 30% are dyslexic, 80% don’t have their high school diploma or equivalency diploma, 55% have learning disabilities and so really RIkers Island is a reflection of a failed educational system,” Adam said. “We need to go long term by improving our educational system and then we could do short term things such as foster care.”
He said hundreds of young people age out of foster care at 21 and only 12% will graduate for high school, 3% will enroll in college, and are more likely to be victims of crime or participate in crime.
“If we invest only $50 million a year and allow them to age out at 26 they are more likely to be productive citizens, not involve themselves in criminal justice behavior and really live a productive life,” Adams said. “We have to move from a reactive law enforcement plan to a proactive law enforcement plan and prevent crimes.”
Speaking to education, Adams said closing the digital divide is crucial to solving racial inequities.
“We need to engage into a real conversation about how the city gets involved in ensuring high-speed broadband. We can no longer leave it up to the private companies and entities. High speed broadband and access to internet is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity,” Adams said.
Adams said the people of New York City are not getting their money’s worth and he’s most focused on addressing those failures in his bid for mayor.
“They’re doing their job as taxpayers and they’re paying their taxes, government is not doing its job. Our city is dysfunctional and the dysfunctionality is in our agencies and those inefficiencies in our agencies, they’re leading to the inequalities and in many cases the injustices,” Adams said. “That’s why we see the continuation of Black, Brown, immigrant and poor people are constantly staying in systemic poverty and the goal is to get taxpayers’ dollars operating correctly and we do that by having our city and our agencies become more efficient and that’s what the next mayor must do. We can’t continue business as usual in a city that has had the business of locking out too many New Yorkers.”
Adams said he would be a “blue collar mayor” in the spirit of Fiorello LaGuardia. He believes that his life experience of growing up in poverty, working as a dishwasher and living on the verge of homelessness will help him lead the city because he is in a better position to understand what every day New Yorkers are going through.
“I think the next mayor must be a mayor that has gone through a lot so they could help people who are going through a lot,” Adams said. “It’s time for an everyday New Yorker that understands New Yorkers to help us get out of COVID-19.”
Neil A. Carousso produces The 880 Weekly Rewind with Lynda Lopez Friday nights at 7 PM on WCBS Newsradio 880. Listen to this week’s full show on the media player above.
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