BETHENNY FRANKEL IS NOT WHO YOU THINK SHE IS

The former reality star is brash, ambitious, and most definitely underestimated. And that's precisely why she's such a brutally effective entrepreneur. Here's how she built her empire.

- Michael Callahan

SHE HAS LISTENED intently, nodded appropriately, even occasionally furrowed her brow to telegraph that she's deeply invested in what is being said. But seven minutes into the Zoom cherry juice meeting, Bethenny Frankel knows it's time to get down to business. She's in the studio, cheekily nicknamed the B Work, at her home in a wealthy Connecticut enclave, sipping from a metal water bottle. As executives outline marketing ideas for Skinnygirl Cherry Juice, she begins to fidget, waiting for the right moment to jump in. It comes when one of the speakers, a man in his mid-50s, calmly declares that he doesn't understand TikTok and then proceeds to attempt to mansplain social media to her.

“I don't care that you're a 50-year-old man," Frankel says flatly. She herself is 51. “You need to get with the program.” She explains TikTok the way you might to your mom, why it matters in marketing cherry juice to consumers. “It's happening," she says, reinforcing the need to get videos rolling and posted. “So the train has left, and we need to get on it, like, yesterday.”

The executive, who handles the marketing of the juice for the beverage maker she contracted, rambles a bit, talks about pro athletes who drink cherry juice, how they might be good partners.

She barrels through the word salad. “So come up with 20 ideas and bring them over to my house, and we'll dance and we'll drink cherry juice and make a smoothie and keep it moving," she says. She wants a budget, and in return she'll give him 10 influencers who will cook with the juice and another 50 they can send it to. "Let's figure it out."