This is a great interview I found on reality TV star and entrepreneur Bethenny Frankel. The self made millionaire talks about her winning business model, her plans to continue to grow her brand and bucking the reality system. The former natural-foods chef, who developed the cocktail line in 2009 with partner David Kanbar (formerly of Skyy Vodka), has become the next personality-turned-mega-entrepreneur on a growing (but still somewhat short) list of reality stars who have turned the tables on producers and networks and found a way to capitalize on their fame through business ventures wholly their own.
Earlier this year, THR reported that the Kardashian family pulled in a combined $65 million in 2010 through a laundry list of endorsement deals and commercial projects. Even the less palatable stars — like Jersey Shore‘s Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, who brought home a $5 million paycheck by the end of last year for a range of deals including a book, a workout supplement and a vodka endorsement — are finding ways to broaden their reach in the reality marketplace independent of their shows. And now, this new-age business model for stretching a person’s 15 minutes into an entertainment empire has become a larger phenomenon that has reality stars coast to coast scrambling for opportunities that might send their careers (and bank accounts) into an entirely new stratosphere. It also has left networks scratching their heads as they look for ways to also cash in on their talent’s outside endeavors.
Seemingly, though, no personality has leveraged reality quite as well as Frankel. As cameras prepare to roll on the third season of Frankel’s irreverent series following her personal and professional life in New York (the first-season premiere was Bravo’s highest-rated series bow to date), it bears noting that this one-woman, low-cost operation made more money through her liquor sale than what David O. Russell’s layered, complicated, Oscar-nominated film The Fighter grossed domestically ($93.6 million).
To this day, Frankel operates largely independent of Bravo, the network that put her on the air in 2008 on The Real Housewives of New York. Under her personal business umbrella called Bethenny Frankel, the reality star has amassed a fiercely loyal social media following (Twitter, Facebook and Bethenny.com), lucrative endorsement deals (Pampers, Bluefly, Hanes), a successful publishing franchise, a Body by Bethenny workout DVD, Skinnygirl extensions (including a shapewear line, a diet cleanse and weight-loss supplements), speaking engagements, a stint on ABC’s Skating With the Stars and, of course, that epic liquor deal. It is likely Frankel ranks among reality TV’s wealthiest self-made stars.
