Not so very long ago in this fairytale land I live in, I attended a fabulous party at The Viceroy Hotel (P.S. Go there for brunch) to celebrate the official launch of Bethenny Frankel's new talk show, aptly titled "Bethenny." It's premiering on Monday, September 9 (check local listings for channel and time).
The party was a blast and it was emceed by my random crush, Tommy Riles, whom I am familiar with as the audience warm-up guy for Ellen DeGeneres. Complete with yummy bites and Skinny Girl cocktails, the colorful affair (it was nice to be at a cocktail party where not everyone was in black) was even more fun since I got to spend some time with fellow, favorite bloggers Chris of What I Run Into, Marie of The Curvy Fashionista and Megan of Sunshine Wonderland.
Marie also flattered me by allowing me to crash her interview with Bethenny. I even got to sneak in a couple questions of my own, which was such a treat! I never get to do that suff! I really enjoyed it and I must say, if ever I was a fan of Bethenny's before, I am an even bigger one now. I have always enjoyed her brand of honesty on TV and she is every bit the same in person. There is no editing to blame here - nor would she even try to. She is all who she is, all the time. I respect it.
Here are some of the key take-aways from our conversation
that I wanted to share with you.
On how she does it:
"I was always very driven and focused and I didn't really look to the left or the right but... you gotta be direct and decisive and just keep going. And you hit roadblocks and you get discouraged and you get depressed and you just keep moving."
On staying confident and motivated:
"I always feel whatever I am going through right now, I'm gonna find out later why it's so difficult; but I'm gonna keep at it, keep going, because there's something greater. And I think that's probably the thing that most people who've experience self-made success have in common... You just have to keep on the road because all roads lead to Rome."
When it clicked:
"It evolved from 'Housewives' to saying 'I wanna have a spinoff' and saying that the first season - not thinking that I was going to make that happen; knowing I was going to make that happen. Then, becoming a woman that women related to -- I was just being myself and women were relating to me being honest about what I was going through... The talk show just evolved. The show came from how do we take this relationship to the next level?"
Her bucket list:
She wants to host Saturday Night Live!
"I tell people to dream big and just go for it, but it's not like I sit here thinking about all these goals. Oh, you know.... there needs to be better salad dressings.... I wanna make a salad dressing! It's very micro. It's not like this grand plan like I wanna take over the world. Although you know, the only way to take over the world is one thing at a time..."
One salad dressing at a time!
"If I can impact people's lives and make their days better after an hour together? Then that's awesome."
And finally - my favorite thing she said:
"A little nonsense is fine."
Thank you so much to Bethenny Frankel and her team of social PR ninjas for inviting me! (Disclosure: They didn't require me to post but I did it anyway - they were nice to let me come to their party and provided booze.)
Don't forget to tune in. I really enjoy her and think you will, too!
- For some glamorous photos from the event, visit the Facebook albums on my page as well as on Bethenny's page
- You can follow Bethenny's show on Twitter
- And while you're at it, check out Sirens of Soho, who sing her theme son -- they're pretty rad
