Everyone’s favorite Real Housewives of New York star and the creator and CEO of Skinny Girl Brand, Bethenny Frankel, sat down with The Knockturnal to discuss her new partnership with Scotch Brand.
Bethenny has partnered with Scotch Brand to launch the Ship It Forward Grant Program and was able to provide financial support to small businesses and a one-on-one coaching session with one lucky business. Waynesville Soda Jerks, won the contest and the company was able to sit down for an hour-long business coaching session and learn from the business guru herself.
With a hit reality TV show, a podcast, her own show on HBO Max…oh, and a brand worth $100 million dollars, is there anything Bethenny Frankel can’t do? Well, spoiler alert: the answer is no. We sat down with Bethenny to discuss her new partnership with Scotch Brand and to catch up on all of her latest endeavors.
Check out the full Q+A with Bethenny below.
The Knockturnal: Can you please tell us about the Scotch Brand partnership, and why you wanted to do it?
Bethenny Frankel: They are nurturing small businesses. They aid small businesses all year round in the perfect circumstances, and now we’ve been in a pandemic and there’s never been a time that has stretched small businesses more, so Scotch Brand is not only incentivizing people to enter to possibly win a grant, and be mentored by me, but they are just about practical solutions inefficiencies and business every day.
Never before have we realized how much support can really help, like when your business is stressed, and you’re pressed, and you’re just trying to make decisions in a crisis, it’s not that easy, so you need all the support you can get. That’s sort of what they’re doing and it’s really admirable.
The Knockturnal: What was the most meaningful part of this partnership for you? What did it mean for you to be able to offer this grant to someone that really needed it?
Bethenny Frankel: It’s amazing. I’ve done a lot of relief work during the pandemic and it’s important that I pulled my act together for my business, but also helped other businesses.
The Knockturnal: Speaking of the pandemic, what has kept you sane during it? What are you most looking forward to now with everything opening back up?
Bethenny Frankel: I’m a homebody. I’m very insular. I’m just glad that people are safe and people can walk around. It’s really about my daughter, I just don’t want to see little kids wearing masks. and old people, I don’t like to see the elderly wearing masks. It’s uncomfortable, it’s terrible, it just makes people feel bad and it’s also antisocial. So, just for things to feel sort of normal, but for the kids to just to feel more social.
The Knockturnal: What do you think the lasting impacts will be for children with this?
Bethenny Frankel: My daughter learned to cook and because of buying these kids chef knives and making her own salad, she started eating salad, which is a big deal to me. And doing more art, entertaining themselves, and being alone more- I think it’s been good for that. It’s teaching them to be alone and not have to be activated by other people all the time and to just appreciate the things that they take for granted.
The Knockturnal: I think watching kids during the pandemic made us realize how resilient they are, and it’s inspiring for everyone else since they’ve handled it so well. What is your biggest piece of advice for young entrepreneurs and what is something you wish you knew when you were starting out?
Bethenny Frankel: I don’t even know that I even knew that I could be an entrepreneur. I just did things one step at a time. So I guess to not think that you have to eat the whole pie at once and that you don’t have to know that’s what you’re going to do. Enjoy your life. Everyone’s too focused on knowing exactly what’s going to happen at the end. Enjoy, learn, and trust the process.
The Knockturnal: We loved seeing you on Shark Tank. Do you think we’ll see you there again?
Bethenny Frankel: I have no idea. I like doing it and it’s an enjoyable thing. I have a crazy business and I have so many categories I just launched, so I’ve got my own businesses. So with Shark Tank my temptation is always to sort of mold whatever their business is into my business, because I have a brand. My brand is not consisting of other brands, it’s to build my own brand.
The Knockturnal: You are so busy and we are so inspired by you. You have a podcast, Just B with Bethenny Frankel, which is amazing. What do you think makes a good podcast guest? And how do you find your guests?
Bethenny Frankel: There are some exceptions, but it has to be someone who started from the bottom and now they’re here- a game changer, a maverick.It’s about the toolbox to success that they’re creating for people and these budding entrepreneurs to aid in their small businesses.
In some cases, it will be a CEO who might have experienced personal hardships and they’re running a multi billion dollar company and they could teach this audience some ways to shift and give tools for small businesses because of the pandemic. But someone has to have created a brand and a business in a non traditional sense.
For example, Matthew McConaughey was an exception because it’s not usually actors, but he secretly (because not everyone realizes it) has built a brand. His alignment with Lincoln and his alignment with brown liquor has been very intentional and on brand. His turning down romantic comedies for years to the tune of millions of dollars was crafting a brand. The brand is to make it look effortless to us but it has had a lot of intention.
The Knockturnal: We loved you on your HBO Max show, The Big Shot with Bethenny. Are you open to coming back for season two?
Bethenny Frankel: It does take up a lot of time while I’m actually running my business, so it would depend on what the circumstances are at the time. I think HBO Max is a great partner and I think they were a pleasure to work with. It’s about if I want to be on television, whether I want to produce other people on television, or whether I’d rather become more anonymous in the future.