In ELLE.com’s series Office Hours, we ask people in powerful positions to take us through their first jobs, worst jobs, and everything in between. This month, we spoke to Bethenny Frankel, one of the O.G. Real Housewives of New York, who spun her on-screen popularity into a business empire. After founding Skinnygirl, which started as a line of guilt-free cocktail mixers, in 2009, Frankel sold the company for a reported $100 million in 2011. (Though, she still brings in seven figures annually from Skinnygirl licensing, according to the brand.) In 2017, she founded BStrong, a disaster relief initiative that has raised over $400 million to date for causes, including helping communities recover from Hurricane Helene and the Maui and L.A. wildfires. Over the last several years, Frankel has exploded on TikTok and Instagram for her unfiltered product reviews and no-holds-barred opinions. She also hosts her own podcast, Just B with Bethenny Frankel. Below, the reality TV star talks about the words she lives by, the on-brand reason she got her first job, and her all-too-relatable feelings towards alarm clocks.
My first job
I worked at a bakery in high school, and truthfully, I was working there to save up money to have a party at my house.
My worst job
My worst job was a PR company in L.A. where I had to lick envelopes for invitations. [This woman] scolded me for being on a personal phone call, which I certainly didn’t understand. You don’t need to have a brain to stuff envelopes.
The best career advice I’ve received
Don’t believe the love; don’t believe the hate. Don’t buy into either.
How many alarms I set in the morning
Alarms? Zero. Negative zero. They’re so jarring. Even with my daughter, if she’s sleeping late, I’m letting her sleep late. I believe the body needs to sleep until the body needs to sleep.
My beauty essentials
It’s not about the brands; it’s about the steps. It’s about consistently cleansing, only wearing makeup when completely critical or being paid, exfoliating. We spend our 20s and 30s stripping our skin when really we should be feeding our skin—nourishing and layering the skin versus what young girls all try to do, which is dry it out.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned
Try to please everybody, and you end up pleasing nobody. And if it were easy, everybody would do it. That’s the truth.
My go-to power outfit
I don’t really do that, because I’m such a strong personality. It’s too much. My entire wardrobe in New York City is all black and severe. I don’t really wear power clothes anymore. I don’t need them.
My ultimate career philosophy
Just do it. Never listen to people that tell you it can’t happen. I have 10 very lucrative, seven-figure businesses, and for each one of them, I was told no, it couldn’t happen.
I’m building the plane while I’m flying it. If I come up with a cocktail, and I like it, and people respond to it in that moment, I’m taking that to the next level. If I do something that’s working, I lean into that.
Why I review products on my social media
Many people, even if they don’t like me, believe me. A lot of them don’t like me because I’m telling the truth. It’s not performative; I love the find. I love a treasure hunt. And I’m aware that I am changing lives for small businesses. Big brands started as small brands! You have no idea how many people have reached out to say that their lives changed [after I posted about them]. It’s amazing. It’s a game-changer.
But then sometimes I say something, and it could change your business in the opposite direction, but I don’t think that’s bad. I’m saving them money, because they’re going to spend so much thinking they’re great, because no one tells a new entrepreneur they suck. They go out there and spend all this money betting on themselves, and it’s not going to hold up. It’s going to cost them so much more in the long run. If I don’t like it, what am I going to do? You enter at your own risk. You send it here, and you want me to review it, and I can decide to do what I want. The customer wins because the customer is getting an honest review. The brand wins because they are getting the business, or the brand wins because they’re getting real advice.
My proudest career moment
Being on the cover of Forbes. Or, I mean, Sports Illustrated is up there right now….
How I maintain a work-life balance
The people around me say to me that I take care of myself. Danielle [La Testa], who works with me, always says, “You give your body what it needs.” I think I just self-regulate. I get very activated, very stressed. I feel myself grinding my teeth, then I get a massage, or I take a bath. Or I take a walk. It’s a lot of highs and lows, but I very much help myself regulate.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
