Shark Tank Success Secrets for You! Everything I Learned as a Guest Shark on The Show! Ever Wonder What Happens on The Show? Join me Behind the Scenes!

Jamie Kern-Lima is her name. Everybody needs Jamie Kern-Lima in their life.
Jamie Kern-Lima. Jamie, you're so inspiring.
Jamie Kern-Lima. Have you always felt like you have an idea, but you're not sure, would it work if you launched it as a business? Or maybe you've started a side hustle and you're like, how do I grow it? Maybe you watch Shark Tank and you can relate to so many of the entrepreneurs on there or even the sharks on there.
Y'all, I had the biggest dream and blessing happen where I got invited to be a guest shark on season 16 of Shark Tank. So this has been so fun.
And I have to tell you right off the bat, so many of the thoughts, I've watched the show for years. I've watched it.
In fact, I remember being a broke entrepreneur sitting in my living room, watching the show, like watching the show, right? Relating to the entrepreneurs who walk through the door, who are like struggling going, is my business going to make it? And I also remember sitting there and just learning so much and taking away nuggets here and nuggets there. But this show really, in so many ways, is the essence of the American dream, right? It's having an idea.
It's so many people working really, really hard, making the decision to bet on themselves and then hoping for a shot with a shark to have someone else believe in them too on the journey. So when I used to watch the show and, you know, from the beginning, when I was a broke entrepreneur, all the way through this day, when I watched the show, I've always had questions.
I've always had thoughts like, I wonder if the sharks know the business that's going to walk through the door next. Is it really their money? Is everything that happens real? What's it like behind the scenes? What's the whole journey like? Oh my goodness.
I have to tell you, it has been incredible. I want to share with you and just take you through the answers to all those questions and share with you some of the insights that maybe add value to your life right now.
Maybe you or a friend or a loved one or a family member or a colleague have an idea, have an invention, have a thought, have a dream of just offering your passion to the world or offering your service to the world. You want to know what's wild is, you know, now in this day and age, no matter what you want to do, there's a business and a brand attached to it, right? In the past, if you wanted to be a doctor, you could just be a really great doctor.
Well, now, oh my goodness, in 2025, you have to have a personal brand as a doctor because you're online everywhere. You have your profile out there.
You have photos of you. People are giving you ratings and reviews.
There's press written up about you, whether you like it or not, if you're doing anything. All of the elements of a company are there, really, no matter what you want to do in your profession or what you are doing in your profession.
And so a lot of the lessons and the takeaways from the show are more applicable than ever, whether you're a peer entrepreneur, you want to launch the idea, or you're a real estate broker that now has to brand and market yourself, right? Or you're a teacher and you have the profile online and you're dealing with needing to do all the things for your school. You're almost running your classroom in some ways, like a business.
There's just so many elements now that are all so relevant from this show. So I actually think in so many ways now more than ever, it's just so invaluable to watch because it is real.
I'm here to tell you it's real, 100% real, 100% real. So I'm gonna share answers to all the questions.
Also a little bit about what happened on my episodes that I filmed live, uh, all the things that, that went down, the other sharks, um, all of it. And, you know, the show's in season 16 now, which is incredible.
And, uh, seven years ago, seven years ago, I was still running at cosmetics, still doing a hundred hour weeks. Uh, we had sold the business or was just about, no, I think we had sold the business at that point.
And when I got, when I heard from Shark Tank for the first time and about being a guest shark, and of course I wanted to do it. And it was just the back and forth communication timing.
I was still going so hard and the timing wasn't in sync. And by the time we got back to them, I think they had filled the spots.
And so it didn't happen. And for the past seven years, I've been asked to go on other business shows as a full-time member or coming on for an episode.
And I've always just had this feeling like, no, I think I'm going to wait. I just had this feeling I'm going to do Shark Tank.
And so I would always pass on everything else, just kind of waiting.

And then there were a couple of times where we reached back out to Shark Tank. It was like, oh, is this a good time now? And they're like, oh, no, no, our cast is full.
We have Kevin Hart and this person, that person. I'm like, okay.
And then all of a sudden, it happened. It happened And literally not that long ago, you guys.
We got an email into the inbox

and the Shark Tank team and their showrunner, Clay Newbill and his team reached out and said,

we'd love to set up a meeting. And so we hopped on a call and did a meeting and just to really

explore as a fit and talk through a lot of the companies that I'm, you know, invested in now, uh, which is over 30 different companies. And, you know, what I look for in an entrepreneur and what I look for in an investment and, um, what I don't look for and what kind of companies I love to invest in.
And, you know, personally, I really go for people that I love entrepreneurs that no matter how many setbacks or failures, they don't go into that, like, oh, you know, you know, the victim mindset, they more just go, yeah, yeah, that happened. But here's what I did about it.
Here's what I'm doing about it. Here's how I'm solving it.
Right. Because it's like that ability to be resilient when you fall on your face, it's never about, did you get rejected? Did you have setbacks happen? For me, it's always about like, how did you handle the rejection? How did you handle the setbacks? What did you do about it? How did you get through it? Did you learn anything from it? What are you doing now to kind of power forward? It's that resiliency, that grit, that scrappiness, that perspective, that ability to handle rejection.
That for me is huge because what I know for sure, and I don't know who needs to hear this today, but if you're one of the brave ones, putting your idea out there in the world, putting your business out there in the world, putting your product invention out there, your book, your services, your heart, any of it. If you're one of the brave ones willing to do that, it's inevitable that you're going to face rejection and setbacks and hard times and moments where you feel like you got knocked down.
And so often, we have that happen and people think like, oh, this is some indication that maybe, you know, my product's not as good as I thought, or maybe I don't have what it takes to run this business. But the truth is every one of us has that happen.
And so, you know, number one, if that's you today, it is so important. You don't let anyone else's doubt about you or any rejection or any failure somehow equate to doubt in your own mind.
And I promise you, I promise you that no matter who says what, right? No matter who says you're not going to make it or you don't have what it takes or this product isn't good enough or whatever, that is never an indication of its potential to succeed. Like what I know and why I'm so attracted to the show Shark Tank, why I felt like in my body viscerally I'm supposed to do it for the longest time is because every entrepreneur that walks through those double doors and the doors open and they start walking into the tank, right? I feel in my body viscerally the things that they're going through, no matter what phase in their journey they're in, because I've lived through all of it, right? I've been the entrepreneur in my living room with a dream and a hope, just like that knowing in my gut that the business idea is going to work, but nothing around me telling me it's going to work.
Right? And then I went through years and years and years of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of no's, even touted experts in the beauty industry saying that they didn't think that this brand was going to make it, that we didn't have what it takes. And so I've been through that journey of going, I don't know how I'm going to pay myself.
I don't know how we're not going to go bankrupt this month. I don't know how we're going to survive.

And so for entrepreneurs that are in that space, walking through the doors, like I know

exactly, I know exactly that feeling and where they're at when you have this dream and you

keep getting that feeling, you're supposed to do it, but it's not working. And that is such a hard spot to be in.
So I know that very well. There's so much more coming up in this episode.
You are not going to want to miss it. But first, I wanted to share this with you.
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Imagine what would you do if you fully believed in you? My weekly free inspirational newsletter is packed with tips and tools to help you find out. It's called One-on-One with Jamie and it's delivered right to your inbox each Tuesday morning.
It's a love letter from me to you, from my soul to yours, and I hope it brings you the words and messages you need at just the right moment. Plus, when you're a part of my free inspirational newsletter community, you'll be the first to get behind

the scenes content, inspirational messages, and be the first to learn about upcoming events and more. It's the place to be, and I sure hope you'll join me there.
So if you're not on the list yet, you can sign up for free at jamiekernlima.com or click the link in the show notes below. and here's to becoming unstoppable together.

And now more of this incredible conversation together. And then, you know, there was a moment for me where we got a big break and we got that shot on QVC and we sold out and all of a sudden we started growing, growing, growing, growing.
And the inventory demands that we couldn't even keep up with.

All of a sudden we're in this hyper growth mode where there's all this demand for our

product.

And we still don't have enough money to pay ourselves because all the money is tied up

in working capital for inventory.

And we actually need more money to even like that kind of phase, right?

Which is what a lot of sharks, a lot of entrepreneurs walk through the shark tank for.

It's like, I need money to fund inventory, right?

So I've been through that phase.

I think that's a thousand employees. That journey, oh my goodness, of building teams, building departments, building infrastructures, building redundancy, right? For the entrepreneurs walking through the door.
I've been through that phase. Oh my goodness, have I made mistakes? Have I got great lessons? And that's another thing is like put in so many reps in my own life.
My hope and prayer is that I can offer value to the entrepreneur walking through Shark Tank or to anyone at home who has a dream or an idea. And so I've been in that space.
Then there's the entrepreneurs who are like, oh my gosh, my business is actually really, really big. We're doing tens of millions of sales.
And I'm thinking about the next step, which is, do I partner with someone? Do I bring on an investor? Do I bring on private equity? Do I set my business up to go public or to be bought by a strategic partner? So I've been in that phase as well and learned so much. And then once you make a sale, once you get to that exit process of your business, then there's the acquisition phase and the integration phase where your business, your company, this thing that you've birthed is now integrating into a bigger business.
That is a whole other phase. So I've gone through all of those.
And so what I love so much about the show is the entrepreneur who's walking through the door could be at any one of those stages. And I like feel it viscerally in my body and I want them to win so badly.
And when I have to say no as a shark, like you're not ready for an investor or, you know, give really tough feedback, it destroys me. Like I cried.
I cried. I'm not going to give away anything, but I cried on the show because there was one entrepreneur, a couple in particular.
I just, I wanted them to win so bad and I didn't want to say no because I know what that feels like.

And just wasn't the right time for them to partner with the shark right now. But like, I just feel in it.
So I've always dreamed of like, oh yeah, this is going to be so fun to be part of this show one day. And so to get the call to go through all the interview rounds with the Shark Tank team, with their executive producers and showrunner, and then, of course, with ABC and MGM and Sony and everybody involved, and then to get that opportunity to be a guest shark and to do a couple, what I believe will be a couple episodes airing.
So excited, so honored. So here's a couple of things about it that I didn't know, I guessed, but I didn't know.
Number one, it's 100% real. So as a shark, you're in that chair.
You don't know who's walking through the doors. We actually don't know anything.
We're not told anything ahead of time. So you have no time to do research or to, no, you don't know anything until they walk through the door.
And it's up to you and the other sharks up there to ask the entrepreneurs questions and to try to get to the bottom of their business, of the potential of the business, of is this a great investment for you? Do you believe in this entrepreneur? Do you have feedback you can offer? It is real. It's in real time.
You literally know nothing until they walk through the door. And you don't have a long period of time to make a decision.
Once you make a decision, and if you have a deal, then that entrepreneur walks out. And right away, they meet with your team, and and you exchange info and then all the diligence starts.
And you dive right into, of course, getting more information, verifying that all the numbers are right, doing all the diligence, and then hopefully closing the deal and making it happen. It all happens there.
It's all real. I remember in the interview process, they're like, because I'm a much better listener than I am a talker.
So when I go to parties, I barely say a word, you guys. I just listen.
When I host my podcast, why I love it so much is I just love other people's stories and ask them questions. And I just listen.
I just listen. My husband, Paulo, he talks a lot.
He talks a lot. He's very extroverted.
I'm very introverted and I listen. And in the Shark Tank interviews, they're like, are you comfortable talking over the other sharks, interrupting the other sharks, getting your questions in, chiming in, fighting for the deal? And I'm like, yeah, of course, because I know that that's the environment.
Okay. Let me tell you, they were right.
You feel like you have no time and you've got to just hop right in and get your questions in and fight and all the things because normally when you invest in a company, it's a very long duration of time before a deal happens. And here, it's anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes and it goes fast and everyone's jumping in.
And so, you know, in a business meeting, normally you would never interrupt people and talk over them and cut them off, but here you have to. So I was like, okay, when duty calls, they got to do it.
And I had so much fun. I have to tell you, the sharksarks were so incredible.
For my filming day, I was there with Mark Cuban, Kevin O'Leary, Laurie Grenier, Barbara Corcoran, and me. And then on another day, I was there for the wrap party.
I met Damon John and also Robert as well. So I met all the original OGs that have been there since, gosh,

this is their season 16. So it was such an honor.
And I met some of the other guest sharks as well, which is a lot of fun. And I have to say, everyone was kind.
Even Mr. Wonderful is so kind.
Like, what you get is what you see, which I think is the most beautiful thing that when someone is just exactly who they are. Barbara Corcoran, I have to say, was the most beautiful, incredible, heart-soul-filling experience.
So I am going to film an entire episode with her, The Jamie Carlema Show, because she is that amazing. What she did for me as an empowered woman who steps right over to empower

another woman stepping on the set of her show just blew me away. She's incredible.
She is

incredible. They always give, I guess, the first shark to set every day gets a $20 bill,

and it's always Barbara. And so they gave her the $20 bill.
She comes out to set,

and I was there waiting. I was there on set already, so I was the first to set.

She marches right up to me. She tells me the whole deal and she hands me the $20 bill.
And this is not even the story I'm talking about. There's a whole other story that she did that I'm going to share in a separate episode of me and her in the podcast.
But you guys, she is incredible, next level. The biggest thing that I thought was most rare and unique about the show was the crew.
The crew, the hundreds of people that work on the show, love it. They emit joy and passion for the show behind the scenes.
A lot of them do different shows on television throughout the year. And they say that no matter what, they always come back to Shark Tank.
You rarely see that where everyone that works on the show is so proud of what they're doing, proud of the offering they're putting out into the world. And so that was really cool to see.
And of course, that always stems from leadership at the top, from Clay Newbill, from Yoon, from the entire teams there, and of course the Sharks. So that was really, really cool to experience.
So I don't want to give away too much because you've got to watch the episodes. So I am going to be a guest shark in a few episodes this season, season 16 on ABC.
I'm of course going to be posting updates the second I know when my episodes are going to air. I will share them with you on Instagram through my email newsletter.
Make sure you're subscribed to that. And it's totally free to join.
I send it once a week into your inbox to just pour into you with inspiration. So if you haven't signed up for that, go to jamiekernlima.com and sign up.
I love you. I believe in you.
I see you. And I'm so excited to experience Shark Tank season 16 with you.
If you loved today's episode, my only ask is that you please click the follow or subscribe button for this show on your app and give it a rating or review, and then share this episode with everyone you believe in. Share it with another person in your life who could benefit from it.
Post it and share it with others online or in your community who just might need the words and tools and lessons in this episode today. You never know whose life you're meant to change today by sharing this episode.
Thank you so much for joining me today. Before you go, I want to share some words with you that couldn't be more true.
You right now, exactly as you are, are enough and fully worthy. You're worthy of your greatest hopes, your wildest dreams, and all the unconditional love in the world.
And it's an honor to welcome you to each and every episode of the Jamie Kern Lima Show. Here, I hope you'll come as you are and heal where you need, blossom what you choose, journey toward your calling, and stay as long as you like because you need.
Blossom what you choose. Journey toward your calling and stay as long as you like because you belong here.
You are worthy. You are loved.
You are love. I love you.
And I cannot wait to join you on the next episode of the Jamie Kern Lima Show. Do you struggle with negative self-talk? Living with a constant mental narrative that you're not good enough is exhausting.
I know because I spent most of my life in that habit. The words you say to yourself about yourself are so powerful.
And when you learn to take control over your self-talk, it's life-changing. And I wanted to give you a free resource that I created for you if this is something that could benefit your life.
It's called Five Ways to Overcome Negative Self-Talk and Build Self-Love. And it's a free how-to guide to overcome that negative self-talk to build confidence and develop unshakable self-love so that you can dream big and keep going in the pursuit of your goals.
Don't let self-sabotaging thoughts hinder your progress any longer. It's time to rewrite the script of your life when filled with self-love, resilience, and unwavering belief.
If you're ready to take charge of your narrative, build unwavering confidence, and empower yourself to persevere on the path to your dreams, you can grab your free guide to stop overthinking and learn to trust yourself at jamiekernlima.com slash resources, or click the link in the show notes below. Who you spend time around is so important as energy is contagious, and so is self-belief.
And I'd love to hang out with you even more, especially if you could use an extra dose of inspiration, which is exactly why I've created my free weekly newsletter that's also a love letter to you delivered straight to your inbox from me. If you haven't signed up to make sure that you get it each week, just go to jamiekernlima.com to make sure you're on the list and you'll get your one-on-one with Jamie weekly newsletter and get ready to believe in you.
If you're tired of hearing the bad news every single day and need some inspiration, some tips, tools, joy, and love

hitting your inbox, I'm your girl. Subscribe at jamiekernlima.com or in the link in the show notes.

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It's such an honor to share this podcast together with you. And please note, I'm not a licensed therapist and this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician,

professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional.

If you love this episode's insights, this next transformative episode is for you.