Kevin Harrington goes Live on the Adam Carolla Show and discusses how to understand the mind of a successful entrepreneur, he shares his secrets to success, and how mentorship will lead entrepreneurs to exponential success.
“Today, Adam (Carolla) picks the entrepreneurial mind of self-made-millionaire, Kevin Harrington. They talk about his time on Shark Tank as one of the Original Sharks, and they discuss what’s happened to entrepreneurship in general. Kevin shares his success from inventing the infomercial, building his ‘As Seen on TV’ brand, and working with some of the biggest celebrities in turning their products into smash hits. Kevin’s new book, “Mentor to Millions” is available for preorder now at Amazon and releases September 22nd.”
Here’s a clip from Kevin’s interview on the Adam Carolla Show:
Grab these top secret to success tips from Kevin’s interview with Adam Carolla:
Timestamps:
04:02: Kevin discusses entrepreneur life and what the, As Seen on TV, business is all about it……
“I’m the guy that back in the early eighties who saw (an opportunity) that television stations were cutting off at certain hours to the night and going dark.
And I started buying up all that downtime and putting products in there direct to the consumer. So we would find a product with an inventor who would come to us.
We would put that product, shoot an infomercial, put it on that TV spot, ship it, manufacture it, and then bring it into the country, shipped directly to the consumer.”
And by the way, this is what Amazon has done, which is hurting many of the retail outlets now for this was pre-COVID.
—You know, Amazon is just been crushing a lot of these retailers. So the good news is I’ve got 38 years of my background, which is selling direct to the consumer.”
05:05: Adam Carolla asks Kevin about his first products and what they were……
Kevin explains below:
“One of the first ones was a product called the food saver. It’s a vacuum food sealer. We did that one back in the early eighties. Then I ran into Billy Mays at the Philadelphia home show and we did dozens of projects with Billy Mays. He was a lot of fun!!”
Kevin goes on to mention others such as Tony Little and the fitness products, Jack Lalaine with the juicer, George Foreman, Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian, 50 Cent, and additional (celebrity and other) inventors.
Listen here for more about how he helped the Jenners and Kardashians.
14:00: Kevin describes his humble beginnings as a shy kid and how his father mentored him into the entrepreneur he is today.
“When I was a young kid, I was very shy and my father was in the restaurant business and he opened Harrington’s Irish Pub when I was 11 years old —so, I started working in my Dad’s bars.
My dad was my first mentor in my life. And he would talk to me about how to talk to people in the bar, and how he did business, and how to be more friendly. And, and then he’s like, “Kevin, you gotta get your own business”.
So I went out and started a driveway sealing business when I was 15 years old.”
Learn more about Kevin’s entrepreneurial beginnings in his new book: Mentor to Millions.
22:09: Kevin discuss with Adam his role as the Original Shark on the hit tv show, Shark Tank:
“So, I’ll tell you something, Shark Tank has been a phenomenon as it has been very cool out in today’s marketplace. I still do Shark Tank-style events for grade schools, high schools, and colleges.
In fact, we take pitches that we give them and give prizes to the winners. So I think Shark Tank has been a good thing for the educational process because kids earlier on are now starting to talk about valuations and entrepreneurship tactics. So I do feel there’s been a little cool movement there.”
24:30: Kevin goes on to discuss his experience at Babson College which is the #1 school for Entrepreneurship.
“When I was at Babson College, I had the chance to sit and talk with Steven Spinelli, an amazing guy, who’s made tons of money out in the marketplace, building different international businesses, while empowering his teachers, and bringing on entrepreneurial types.”
Even though I’m mentoring entrepreneurs all over the globe, I’m still learning and getting mentored by cool people like Mr. Spinelli.
Never stop learning and growing.
28:10: Adam Carolla asks Kevin if you have to have passion to succeed in entrepreneurship:
“Well, for me, I think my passion is across the board, but certainly when I see a product, I focus on what problem does that product solve, and is it solving it in a unique fashion?
And if so, then I excited because I know the market is going to want this. Okay. So that’s kind of my focus…… finding something that’s great for the unique mass market.
I get excited to invest money in something like this. So yes, passion matters in entrepreneurial success.”
53:59: Kevin touches on what it takes to launch a product:
“When launching a product, the first step is to make some (upfront) decisions, such as do you have the money too?
—Because it’s very expensive to launch a product, you need an engine, you need to do engineering, you need to do prototyping. Then you have to do tooling, manufacturing.
You can easily spend hundreds of thousands of dollars.
For example, I had a nurse who walked into my office one day. She had borrowed against her house, spending 150,000 to make something that was never going to be sold because she made it, she had a bad manufacturer and a really crappy product.
So I say, when launching a product, don’t go spend a lot of money —do some (extensive) research (first).”
54:58: Kevin discusses mentorship and why it matters to entrepreneurs in today’s world:
“I’m going to go back to what I was talking about earlier is……
“You should look for a good mentor in your life and somebody that can show you how to do a lot of good things out in the world.”
For example, the Entrepreneurs’ Organization is all about giving back to the entrepreneurial community.
Now if somebody wants me to partner with them or finance them, I’ll put up the money to do it, right.
So I’ll pay for the tooling and the manufacturing and the inventory and the production of the spot and the, and then the cost of the airtime and pay you a lot of money.
I mean, that’s what I did with Tony Little and Jack Lalanne, the Jenners, etc. I didn’t ask them for any money. I did it all because I had the skillset. So it’s……
If you’re looking to launch, get a good mentor, find a good partner until you’ve got the money to do it yourself. And it’s not just the money, but it’s the skillset. —Kevin Harrington
Learn more about how Kevin helps mentor entrepreneurs to succeed every day in his new book: Mentor to Millions.
55:48: Kevin gives additional tips on the secrets to success:
“In my company, we know how to manufacture, how to produce, how to get distribution. We have a global team of people, retail distributors. We can get you in Walmart, target CVS Walgreens.
We can get you on walmart.com and target.com. I’m also into the shopping channels, meaning we’re, right now, with COVID people are staying at home, as in, we went back to some old product lines that we were selling before.
In this article, Kevin explains How To Make Money During (and After) a Pandemic
Sort of some tools we have like the magic saw, the magic wrench, the magic hammer, these products are crushing it on QVC because people are at home and they’re doing things themselves now instead of calling in a contractor.
So, sometimes you got to pivot and look for the right kind of movement, but I just caution people to be careful about trying to do it all yourself and avoid draining your life savings.
There’s a lot of people out there that would be happy to help you drain your life savings which is why you need to get the right people and mentor.
Grab my new book to learn more about how to pick your mentor for success.
The name of my book is, Mentor to Millions, and it is all about mentoring in the world, getting the right mentor and not just for your business, but for your family.
Listen here for more awesome tips and learn Kevin’s secret to success on the Adam Carolla Show.
Are you ready to unlock the immeasurable power of leaning on others?
Are you ready to finally live and fully integrated life of balance and success professionally and fulfillment and purpose at home?
Today, I would like to invite you to take the journey with me, no matter where you are in your professional life.
