Speaker 1: So welcome back to She Pivots. I'm Joy Magano.
Speaker 2: Welcome to She Pivots, the podcast where we talk with
Speaker 2: women who dared to pivot out of one career and
Speaker 2: into something new and explore how their personal lives impacted
Speaker 2: these decisions. I'm your host Emily Tish Sussman today I'm
Speaker 2: delighted in welcoming Joy Mangano to the show. If you
Speaker 2: don't recognize her name at first, I promise you know her.
Speaker 2: She's the inspiration behind the movie Joy, starring Jennifer Lawrence.
Speaker 2: And remember she's the inventor and creator.
Speaker 3: Of the Miracle Mop.
Speaker 2: Joy is a household name for millions and has transformed
Speaker 2: industry after industry. Her groundbreaking in vengeance have changed how
Speaker 2: many of us clean, organize, and live. As a single
Speaker 2: mother of three, she was constantly juggling the demands of
Speaker 2: family life while constantly sketching out ideas and inventions, dreaming
Speaker 2: of something bigger. In true Joy fashion, she saw an
Speaker 2: opportunity when she became fed up with the mops that
Speaker 2: were sold at the time, so she decided to create
Speaker 2: a more efficient and user friendly cleaning tool, the Miracle mop.
Speaker 3: She knew this.
Speaker 2: Little invention could change her life, so she took a
Speaker 2: leap of faith and made her pivot. It wasn't perfect
Speaker 2: at first. She had to fly across the country to
Speaker 2: claim her designs and patents after several vendors tried to
Speaker 2: steal them. But soon the miracle mop was selling record amounts,
Speaker 2: launching Joy to the success she had always dreamed of.
Speaker 2: But Joy's story is more than just about an innovative product.
Speaker 2: It's also about perseverance, balancing personal and professional challenges, and
Speaker 2: never giving up on your dreams. From selling her mops
Speaker 2: on QBC to building an empire of innovative home solutions,
Speaker 2: Joy has shown that with creativity and tenacity, anything is possible.
Speaker 3: Enjoy.
Speaker 1: So my name is Joy Mangano, and I am first
Speaker 1: and foremost a mom and an inventor.
Speaker 2: I think I'm going to ask you this question now
Speaker 2: at the beginning of the podcast and actually again at
Speaker 2: the end. I'm interested to hear how it may change
Speaker 2: once we go through many various steps of your career
Speaker 2: in life. But the premise of this show is that
Speaker 2: I'm trying to change culture, and particularly the culture around
Speaker 2: the way we think about our careers and even within
Speaker 2: that the interplay of how our personal decisions impact our
Speaker 2: professional wives. And I think that's happened to you over
Speaker 2: the course of your career. Like I feel like there's
Speaker 2: so many pieces that I could point to. How do
Speaker 2: you think your personal decisions have impacted your professional choices?
Speaker 1: Well, my personal decisions guided everything in my career. They
Speaker 1: were so intertwined. I always said, my life, my family life,
Speaker 1: my personal life and principles are the same as they
Speaker 1: are in business. It's not you know how You'll hear
Speaker 1: people often say, oh, it's just business, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: So for me, you know, my growing up being a
Speaker 1: caretaker so to speak, with my family, going through the
Speaker 1: various stages. You know, I grew up in an Italian family,
Speaker 1: and of course you know, they say, you grow up,
Speaker 1: you get married, you have children, and you cook, and
Speaker 1: so you know, I started to follow that pattern, rite
Speaker 1: and things in that way. It kind of didn't go
Speaker 1: exactly as it was supposed to. So I had to
Speaker 1: make very hard personal choices and actually find the courage
Speaker 1: in me to discover who I was and what I
Speaker 1: actual truly did. Going back to not knowing, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't start my career so to speak, in my
Speaker 1: mind until I was in my thirties.
Speaker 2: When you were young, did you think that you would
Speaker 2: have a career at all? Like, how did you envision
Speaker 2: yourself as being a like a grown up?
Speaker 1: Right? So, when I was young, I always I loved animals.
Speaker 1: I always thought I wanted to be a veterinarian, and
Speaker 1: I was very, very studious person. So I graduated high
Speaker 1: school a year early and I went to work in
Speaker 1: an animal hospital and the doctor was creating a healthy
Speaker 1: pet food before everybody was focused on that, and designing
Speaker 1: the packaging and creating the recipe for that was fascinating
Speaker 1: to me. So I ended up realizing the business aspects,
Speaker 1: the creation aspects in my brain took over everything else,
Speaker 1: and that started me in the direction of product and
Speaker 1: I actually invented my first product.
Speaker 4: Then.
Speaker 1: It was a fluorescent flea collar because at the time,
Speaker 1: the most common thing that happened in an animal hospital
Speaker 1: where dogs or cats hit by cars, and there was
Speaker 1: there was no such thing at the time. So I said,
Speaker 1: what does every animal what does every owner put on
Speaker 1: their animals? And it was a flea collar. So I said,
Speaker 1: if I can get one, that's make one. That's reflective. Now,
Speaker 1: remember you have to reel back how many years it
Speaker 1: didn't exist. So I got a lot of veterinarians together
Speaker 1: and I started it, but I never followed through with it.
Speaker 1: And a year later, a major major company came out
Speaker 1: with the first ever fluorescent flea collar. So I said,
Speaker 1: next item, I'm going to follow through with. So I
Speaker 1: was doing that my entire childhood. I was transforming things
Speaker 1: into other products because I see the world through product.
Speaker 1: That's how I view the world. And so when we
Speaker 1: went to build a treehouse in the back, you know,
Speaker 1: my brother was like, you know, help me build a treehouse.
Speaker 1: And I built a seven story treehouse with slides and
Speaker 1: this and that. And even before I even knew what
Speaker 1: organic gardening was, I ripped up my parents back lawn
Speaker 1: and was planting vegetables and things. I always tried to
Speaker 1: create a better, better, a better mouse trap, so to speak.
Speaker 1: It was just something I did naturally, and I never
Speaker 1: really thought about it. It just happened organically. I would
Speaker 1: see something and I'd say, I'm going to do this
Speaker 1: in a bigger, better way so that it helps the
Speaker 1: person or helps people in a better way.
Speaker 2: Still, Joy did what was typical at the time she
Speaker 2: got married straight out of college and had three children.
Speaker 2: And as someone who had three kids in four years,
Speaker 2: I know how overwhelming that can be.
Speaker 1: It shifted everything I did, and much like you, I
Speaker 1: just you know, when I decide things, I decide to
Speaker 1: do them. So I had three children in three and
Speaker 1: a half years, and it obviously was the life change.
Speaker 1: That is it's what I live for today. But it really,
Speaker 1: you know, that's hard, and it's you know, as everybody
Speaker 1: knows that's a parent. If you put your heart and
Speaker 1: soul into it, it's all consuming. So I was at
Speaker 1: the time the miracle mop was in my brain. So
Speaker 1: I would just be in my bedroom at night with
Speaker 1: them and I'd be sketching and I'd be trying and
Speaker 1: I and I kind of was almost like in a
Speaker 1: holding pattern, knowing I was headed in a direction, you
Speaker 1: know at the time. So yes, that you know, that
Speaker 1: was a time where I took a little bit of
Speaker 1: a time out. I still, you know, because I didn't
Speaker 1: have a lot of money or anything. I still was
Speaker 1: working doing things here and there. I was making grapevine
Speaker 1: reaths and selling them where I could at you know,
Speaker 1: fairs and flea markets. I always. I was always working
Speaker 1: in some form or fashion, you know, it's just something
Speaker 1: I did. But it was inclusive now of children. You know,
Speaker 1: I was pretty much in a very very short period
Speaker 1: of time doing it on my own. But what I
Speaker 1: find more than anything having had the children was that
Speaker 1: I learned this capacity of love that I never had
Speaker 1: even knew I had, And it just for me opened
Speaker 1: up a different kind of world. It wasn't you know.
Speaker 1: It was it was about me and what I could
Speaker 1: do to make them have a happy, healthy life.
Speaker 2: Eventually, all her scheming and sketching led her to her
Speaker 2: breakthrough idea, the Miracle Mop. By this point, Joy was divorced,
Speaker 2: a single mom, working tirelessly to make ends meet while
Speaker 2: raising her kids.
Speaker 3: When we come.
Speaker 2: Back, Joy talks about what it took to get the
Speaker 2: Miracle Mop off the ground. Well, you put so much
Speaker 2: at stake to bring the Miracle Mop to the market
Speaker 2: and mortgaging your house, going into debt, you know, you
Speaker 2: put so much in their But you had had a
Speaker 2: number of ideas. What made you so sure that this
Speaker 2: was the product that you should go for?
Speaker 3: Broken?
Speaker 1: Well, because I was broke, now that's what you're true.
Speaker 1: It was in my instincts, and I say, you have
Speaker 1: to follow your instincts right, because you know, it's some
Speaker 1: people think they have a great product, but you know
Speaker 1: their instincts are wrong. It's it's not right. But I
Speaker 1: hate to say that. But nonetheless I knew that this
Speaker 1: was a great product. It was a different moth. There
Speaker 1: was a whole story behind it. And at this point
Speaker 1: in my life, I said, you're either you know, you
Speaker 1: don't know you're brave until you have to be brave, right,
Speaker 1: So you know, I had really what were my choices,
Speaker 1: and I said, I'm going to go for this, and
Speaker 1: I am going to go for this. So it was
Speaker 1: I put everything on the line. But it wasn't even
Speaker 1: that simple. It was one obstacle after another. It was
Speaker 1: it just from discovering something about the patent to discovering
Speaker 1: that the people who I ended up you know, my
Speaker 1: father actually ended up having make it were not reputable.
Speaker 1: There was just every discovery along the way. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, that's why I say to somebody, just don't stop,
Speaker 1: because my if I stopped one hundred percent, I would
Speaker 1: have failed. But if I tried to keep going and
Speaker 1: figure out another way to get there, my odds were
Speaker 1: still better than zero.
Speaker 2: She had risked it all and it was paying off.
Speaker 2: Soon she had hit her goal of selling to Kmart
Speaker 2: and had a huge order in from QBC.
Speaker 3: She was getting her legs under her or so she thought.
Speaker 2: If you've seen the movie, you'll know that. Joy soon
Speaker 2: realized that her manufacturer was taking steps to steal the product,
Speaker 2: idea and freeze her out all because she didn't have
Speaker 2: proper guidance on her patent.
Speaker 3: In fact, she had no guidance at all, just her father.
Speaker 1: So my father was and father like, listen, we'll do
Speaker 1: a deal. I'll take care of it. Don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: So that's a lesson you learn right away after you
Speaker 1: know anyway, find out that. So there was a gentleman
Speaker 1: we were paying royalties to for the patent to make
Speaker 1: the mop, the mop that I thought I designed. He
Speaker 1: said somebody already designed it, which okay, So then they
Speaker 1: were they started to manufacture it. He did a deal.
Speaker 1: I discovery one night after, to make a long story short,
Speaker 1: that the patent we were paying royalties to was not
Speaker 1: the mop I created at all. It was the mop
Speaker 1: we were making, but it was my design was an
Speaker 1: original design. My father, mistaken lee a very long story,
Speaker 1: said Oh, there's already a patent. We'll just pay him
Speaker 1: a royalty. We'll make the mop. So this gentleman in
Speaker 1: Texas knew it was not the mop we were making,
Speaker 1: that he was getting a royalty on a patent that
Speaker 1: was very different. So, to make a very long story short,
Speaker 1: Eye and the people in California, what had happened is
Speaker 1: I had been on QVC, it had been successful, and
Speaker 1: they ordered sixty thousand mops. So the manufacturers in California said, oh,
Speaker 1: we'll make the mops for you, but we're going to
Speaker 1: raise the price, which would have meant we were going
Speaker 1: to lose money. So my father said, and his girlfriend
Speaker 1: at the time said, that's it. We're at a business.
Speaker 1: We can't do this. And I said, Okay, I am
Speaker 1: going to figure this out, and if I do, I'm
Speaker 1: going to run this company, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: So I flew to Texas. I literally showed him the
Speaker 1: patent and what he had been getting royalties too, and
Speaker 1: in a very serious way, I told him that that
Speaker 1: was unlawful and that he had to sign a letter
Speaker 1: to say that he would not get the royalties and
Speaker 1: that I could go directly to deal with the manufacturers.
Speaker 1: So when I went to California, he did. When I
Speaker 1: went to California, And I'm minimizing this whole thing because
Speaker 1: it was really very like I could have been. You know,
Speaker 1: it was just amazing. How I was shaking when I
Speaker 1: came out of the hotel room that I met him in.
Speaker 1: When I went out to California, claim the mop molds,
Speaker 1: because you have to make the mops from a mold.
Speaker 1: I went there, landed there and they said, oh no, sorry,
Speaker 1: we don't have the molds. We're not giving you the molds.
Speaker 1: We own them. And I said, no, no, no, you don't, Mike,
Speaker 1: cause my father never did contracts with anybody. He never
Speaker 1: signed contracts. So I said, no, here is the money
Speaker 1: that's owed for the parts. I'm going to pay you.
Speaker 1: Those are my molds. And I'll never forget. This guy
Speaker 1: was not a good guy. And I was sitting there
Speaker 1: and he had a can of Pepsi on his desk
Speaker 1: and he said, little girl, go away. He literally said,
Speaker 1: little girl go away. Just don't. We're going to do
Speaker 1: this and you're out of it now. I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: I took the can of pepsi and I slammed it
Speaker 1: on the desk and the Pepsi just flew all over him,
Speaker 1: and I said, you're going to see me in court.
Speaker 1: That night, I got the lawyer because I had brought
Speaker 1: my lawyer with me. We met with a California lawyer
Speaker 1: and it was an entire night of going through everything.
Speaker 1: They said, you can't go to court with this. No
Speaker 1: judge will ever give you because I needed the mop
Speaker 1: mold back to make the mops to make the order.
Speaker 1: And I said, no, we're going to go to court
Speaker 1: because the judge is going to know with all this
Speaker 1: information that I have, he's going to know who's in
Speaker 1: the right and who are the bad guys. So they
Speaker 1: were like, okay, we'll go to court, but they never
Speaker 1: will hand these molds over to you. You're in California,
Speaker 1: give them to you to take back to New York.
Speaker 1: It's going to take years to make a long story longer.
Speaker 1: We went into court the next day, you know, and
Speaker 1: the lawyer said to me, don't say a word, just
Speaker 1: sit there right. So they walk in unbeknownst to me.
Speaker 1: I think they had been in front of this judge before.
Speaker 1: So everything you know, they're saying, we have manufactured them,
Speaker 1: we have no contract that she owns them. And I said, Judge,
Speaker 1: here is the money that we she owes me money.
Speaker 1: I said, here's the money, here's the you know, the
Speaker 1: evidence that we paid for the mold, so therefore we
Speaker 1: should own them, even though we don't have a contract.
Speaker 1: And everything was done, and I hadn't talked yet that
Speaker 1: they were showing all this information and the judge that
Speaker 1: is there anything else? I said yes, and I got up,
Speaker 1: and the lawyers were like, oh my god, oh my god,
Speaker 1: what's she going to say? And I said, you know,
Speaker 1: this is my whole livelihood. And I talked earnestly to
Speaker 1: the judge. He sat back, I sat down, and he said,
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. He slammed down the gavel and he
Speaker 1: looked at them and he said, tomorrow at noon, I'm
Speaker 1: going to have the sheriffs at your manufacturing plan and
Speaker 1: Joy will be there as well. Joy you're going to
Speaker 1: have a truck to take the molds. I'm like, yes,
Speaker 1: of course, I had no truck and I had so
Speaker 1: and he said, and if you don't hand over the
Speaker 1: molds to Joy, I'm going to have the sheriff's arrest you.
Speaker 1: So the lawyer at the time had never it's called
Speaker 1: a certain kind of injunction. He had never seen it happen,
Speaker 1: and he's never seen it happen after that, and he
Speaker 1: wrote serious law briefs about this. It was the most
Speaker 1: incredible thing. And so the next day there was a
Speaker 1: truck there. The molds were on the truck. They were
Speaker 1: headed back to New York. I flew back to New
Speaker 1: York and had to create a fine molders to mold them,
Speaker 1: create a business to make the mops. And then the
Speaker 1: last day that the sixty thousand mops had to be
Speaker 1: on their way to QBC, sixty thousand mops were on
Speaker 1: their way to QBC.
Speaker 2: You were so young when you started. Do you remember
Speaker 2: what was going through your when you not just walked
Speaker 2: into QBC and said take my product, but then you
Speaker 2: went back and said it has to be me.
Speaker 1: So at the time, as we know, you know, the
Speaker 1: miracle mop was something that I did bring to fruition,
Speaker 1: and I thought the perfect place for that because I
Speaker 1: used to go to fairs and flea markets and demonstrate
Speaker 1: it and people loved it. Everybody who watched the demonstration
Speaker 1: would buy it, So for me going to QBC being
Speaker 1: able to replicate that, but on TV, I said, this
Speaker 1: has got to work. And of course at the time,
Speaker 1: so it's interesting, you know, I was the only female
Speaker 1: at a table with men. At the time, this was
Speaker 1: an industry that loved celebrity, so there was you know,
Speaker 1: I was like nobody again, you know, So they put
Speaker 1: the miracle mop on the first time with one of
Speaker 1: the hosts because they said, you know, you don't go
Speaker 1: on TV. You know you're not who are you? And
Speaker 1: it failed and I was I that was it. I
Speaker 1: had everything to lose. So I said, you have to
Speaker 1: put me on with that miracle mop and it will work.
Speaker 1: So they did. You know, there was an executive there
Speaker 1: who I could see. He saw the determination. He said, okay,
Speaker 1: we're going to give her a shot. I'm forever grateful
Speaker 1: for that. And it was unbelievably successful, so successful at
Speaker 1: the time, it was probably out of all the thousands
Speaker 1: and thousands of products they had. It became their single
Speaker 1: biggest success. Not only did we sell twenty thirty forty
Speaker 1: fifty sixty thousand in a day at a time they
Speaker 1: created a commercial on TV and at the time if
Speaker 1: you remember direct response, it was very interesting. It was
Speaker 1: always a commercial with a male voice talking through the commercial. Always.
Speaker 1: It was never any different. So this same executive, I
Speaker 1: was like his thorn in his side. He said, we're
Speaker 1: going to make it commercial. It's so successful. We're going
Speaker 1: to make a short form commercial, two minute commercial with
Speaker 1: the miracle mop and we're going to have a gentleman
Speaker 1: talking over it. And I said, nope, it's going to fail.
Speaker 1: I said, I want to do it this way with
Speaker 1: me demonstrating it with another this other female host. And
Speaker 1: he said, okay, well, we'll let you do that, but
Speaker 1: we're only going to put a budget of very little
Speaker 1: into it. But we're going to film it the other
Speaker 1: way with a voiceover, and we're going to test both.
Speaker 1: So they did, and the one with myself and Jane
Speaker 1: demonstrating the mop, you know, naturally organically right, was like
Speaker 1: through the roof compared to the other one, and it
Speaker 1: became the number one direct response TV product in its
Speaker 1: time at the time and first time ever it was
Speaker 1: in the forum where you were watching two women talk
Speaker 1: about a product. So it was pretty cool.
Speaker 5: Hi, I'm Joymangano, and I invented the miracle Mop. It's
Speaker 5: the original cotton self ringing mop.
Speaker 1: Therefore the most absorbent.
Speaker 5: It will clean that mess again and again and again.
Speaker 5: That I'm Jane Erdulf Tracy host on QVC, where we
Speaker 5: have sold over three hundred thousand moths to people all across.
Speaker 3: The country just like you.
Speaker 1: In fact, let's hear from some of them. I love
Speaker 1: your mop. It's been a lifesaver, is wonderful.
Speaker 3: I would tell anybody to buy it.
Speaker 5: I I'm Joy Magano and I invented the Miracle Mop.
Speaker 5: It's the original cotton self bringing mop. You've seen a
Speaker 5: clean even the toughest mess again and again and again.
Speaker 5: Hundreds of thousands that satisfied customers have ordered their Miracle
Speaker 5: mop and love it. And now the Miracle Mop has
Speaker 5: earned the Good Housekeeping seal.
Speaker 3: It's quite easy.
Speaker 4: I mean it really changed the industry, Like it changed
Speaker 4: the way that we thought about women marketing, women being
Speaker 4: the face of something but also giving value, like business
Speaker 4: value to a product that really only in this case
Speaker 4: it was women.
Speaker 2: They were doing the majority of the housework. Could understand
Speaker 2: like considered a real serious business category. Did you have
Speaker 2: those kinds of conversations at the network yes, very much so.
Speaker 1: So then at the time became this big awareness that
Speaker 1: you know, the story telling, the authenticity behind a product
Speaker 1: is more important than just somebody talking about it or
Speaker 1: celebrity endorsing it. It's all about the authenticity. And it's
Speaker 1: a funny thing that for now twenty five years, probably
Speaker 1: I do. I've always done the most business out of
Speaker 1: any I just it's something that I do, right. I
Speaker 1: can't sing or dance, but this I do. And I've
Speaker 1: been creating product, you know, and it's an interesting thing
Speaker 1: because you know when you create something new. Example, for
Speaker 1: the first time, I launched the first non stick ceramic
Speaker 1: cookware in the world before anybody was to now the
Speaker 1: whole industry is non stick ceramic cookwaar. But I was
Speaker 1: like zest because I knew that the traditional nonstick was
Speaker 1: not healthy when it got to high temperatures. And I
Speaker 1: even with a chef. I got a chef because they
Speaker 1: were like, you know, you know you have to cook
Speaker 1: and everything. I'm like, fine, I'll get a chef, and
Speaker 1: so we for two years, I fought the battle to
Speaker 1: launch this product because it's a healthier alternative to the
Speaker 1: traditional nonstick and I mean batteries of lawyers saying we're
Speaker 1: going to get sued because there was only one major
Speaker 1: company that made the nonstick in cookwar and you can't
Speaker 1: say this and you can't say that. And they said
Speaker 1: they're not going to understand it. The consumer isn't going
Speaker 1: to care. And I said, oh no, they're really going
Speaker 1: to care, because remember, you have to have a heart
Speaker 1: for that consumer and know how smart they are. And
Speaker 1: we launched it and the phones literally blew up. I
Speaker 1: mean literally the whole system went down. People were so
Speaker 1: excited about this and obvious we changed an industry, totally
Speaker 1: changed in industry. So it was it's been an amazing path.
Speaker 2: So you've told the story of your life yourself in
Speaker 2: your own book and then became a huge blockbuster movie,
Speaker 2: Academy Award nominated, Golden Globe winning, and now a Broadway musical.
Speaker 2: How involved were you with those retelling of your life
Speaker 2: stories in different mediums?
Speaker 1: So the movie, you know, is interesting because I'll go
Speaker 1: back to the story where Barry asked me to go
Speaker 1: out to California and make this show with him. The
Speaker 1: producer of that show a very amazing, brilliant man. At
Speaker 1: the end of this series, he said, come on, let's
Speaker 1: go out to dinner. Because I'm always working, right, No, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no. Everybody used to go out to dinner and
Speaker 1: I would go home to bed at the hotel. So
Speaker 1: we went out to dinner and I don't know how
Speaker 1: he got me talking about my life, my path. And
Speaker 1: he got up from dinner and he said, one day,
Speaker 1: I'm going to write a movie about your life. Years later,
Speaker 1: I get a phone call from him. Joy's kenna, I'm
Speaker 1: in here with a bunch of Hollywood producers. We're going
Speaker 1: to write your movie. And they did. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I feel blessed that David o'russell was the writer and
Speaker 1: you know, director and producer and everything. And obviously it
Speaker 1: goes without saying Jennifer Lawrence was amazing. She's just I
Speaker 1: love her, love her, love her way beyond her years.
Speaker 1: And everybody else involved, obviously, Robert Jennioro, Bradley Cooper. I mean,
Speaker 1: he just couldn't pick a better family than me in Hollywood, right. So,
Speaker 1: but David o'russell, he is like a saffon. He just
Speaker 1: you know, he he would talk. He'd call me like
Speaker 1: at dinner time and we'd still be talking at three am.
Speaker 1: So he really wanted to, you know, to really understand
Speaker 1: and go even deeper into things I had already therapy
Speaker 1: in life. I mean, that was it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It was really incredible. But you know, at a point,
Speaker 1: you know, I you have to trust people, right I
Speaker 1: trusted him and he's like, whatever he did, I had
Speaker 1: to entrust in him at that point. So I really
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, he was the creative
Speaker 1: artist for the movie. But I will tell you the
Speaker 1: story is true. I mean, there are little tiny aspects
Speaker 1: of it. You know, like I had three children in life.
Speaker 1: There were two in the movie. They thought Jennifer was
Speaker 1: too young to have three children, so I'm like, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, I was young. But it was very surreal.
Speaker 1: They flew me to Hollywood. They put me in a
Speaker 1: studio and actually I was with my son, and I
Speaker 1: was like, they didn't think I really knew, but they
Speaker 1: said there'll be people watching it. You know. For the
Speaker 1: first time I was watching it, they were all the executives.
Speaker 1: Everybody was like worried about my reaction, and I was
Speaker 1: watching it and I was like, this is amazing. It
Speaker 1: was so surreal, and to see like his interpretations of things,
Speaker 1: and you know, obviously different people being me and my
Speaker 1: father being you know, it was just you know, and
Speaker 1: everybody was still alive, right, So it's a very touchy thing.
Speaker 1: So oh my gosh. So I just to to this
Speaker 1: day consider it to be an honor. I'm not like
Speaker 1: the Hollywood type, you know. I'm like, you know, in
Speaker 1: the sense of like I went to the Oscars and
Speaker 1: I looked at my daughter after it were over, I said,
Speaker 1: let's go back to the hotel and have cheeseburgers and
Speaker 1: thick shakes, you know, so, you know, instead of all
Speaker 1: the parties we were supposed to go to, but it
Speaker 1: was I think people have told me that it's inspired them,
Speaker 1: and to me, that's what matters. I you know, I
Speaker 1: just recently, I hear it all the time. I watched
Speaker 1: that movie every year, and it just inspires me to
Speaker 1: keep doing what I'm doing. And if that's the result
Speaker 1: of that movie, that's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2: After the break, we dive into how Joy became a
Speaker 2: leader both in her own company and to entrepreneurs around
Speaker 2: the world, and she talks about her second pivot, selling
Speaker 2: her company to HSN, the direct competitor to QBC.
Speaker 3: All that and more when we come back.
Speaker 2: Something that I'm noticing as we're talking through you as
Speaker 2: a manager and as a boss is that it seems like,
Speaker 2: not only do you have a talent for inventing coming
Speaker 2: up with the ideas, but you also have a talent
Speaker 2: for putting people in.
Speaker 1: The right roles.
Speaker 2: Has that been something that you've always had a natural
Speaker 2: talent at doing or has evolved as a manager.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's something I think that evolves because in
Speaker 1: the beginning, you know, when I started this, it would
Speaker 1: be like, Okay, Mo, my girlfriend Jan, she used to
Speaker 1: be a graphic artist, so we need packaging. Jan, do
Speaker 1: you want to work for me? And so over time,
Speaker 1: you know that those are the resources I had at
Speaker 1: the time, right, you know, and then over time as
Speaker 1: the business grew, you know, and I mean I think
Speaker 1: I'm now nearing you know, four billion dollars worth of
Speaker 1: product in homes across America. It's important to get the
Speaker 1: right people doing the right thing so that, you know,
Speaker 1: so that you don't have to worry about it. But
Speaker 1: I still am one of those people that still gets
Speaker 1: involved in you know, I can't help myself sometimes because
Speaker 1: I love it right, and I love you know, when
Speaker 1: they're creating the label, or they're creating the texture on
Speaker 1: something or picking out the colors. You know. I was
Speaker 1: famous for walking into the room and say, okay, can
Speaker 1: I be.
Speaker 3: Part of this.
Speaker 1: That's why I often say anybody that would ever listen,
Speaker 1: you know, you don't have to build rocket ships. If
Speaker 1: you have something that's going to benefit somebody's life and
Speaker 1: change their life and it's a better way and it's
Speaker 1: not out there, you will have success. You know, a
Speaker 1: really big advocate. There are no experts. You know, don't
Speaker 1: stop yourself if you feel like, well, I'm not an
Speaker 1: exact expert in this, because if you have no matter
Speaker 1: what it is, if it's a service, if it's a product,
Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't matter what. If you really believe
Speaker 1: in it and you have something to offer that's better
Speaker 1: than what's out there, I say, go for it.
Speaker 2: A defining characteristic of Joy is her family. From the
Speaker 2: time they were young kids running around the warehouse all
Speaker 2: the way to now she has involved them. Her daughter
Speaker 2: Christy was even at this interview. Her life and business
Speaker 2: are all one and she's mastered that symbiosis better than
Speaker 2: perhaps anyone I know.
Speaker 1: So I think we create a great atmosphere now as well.
Speaker 1: It doesn't get better than when you're able to live
Speaker 1: your passion and what you do and do it with
Speaker 1: the people you love. So for twenty years, my oldest
Speaker 1: daughter has created product with me. She I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody can get a better price and a better quality
Speaker 1: product than her, you know. And it's and my son
Speaker 1: who went to Georgetown and then Columbia law school, went
Speaker 1: to a really big law firm. Eventually I grabbed him
Speaker 1: and we are in business. And my daughter, my youngest daughter,
Speaker 1: was in Project Runway and you know, a fashion personality
Speaker 1: and is on Amazon Live presently and doing other things
Speaker 1: in fashion. But I came on TV with me and
Speaker 1: did a lot of things with us on Live TV.
Speaker 1: So you know, we're all you know, my son in
Speaker 1: law was my producer for twenty years at HSN, So
Speaker 1: you know, now we have our business clean boss, and
Speaker 1: we're all working together. And the people there worked with
Speaker 1: me in the past, so it's kind of it becomes family.
Speaker 1: So when you I think, when you love what you
Speaker 1: do and you have a beautiful business and environment and
Speaker 1: care about the people that work with you, they stay there.
Speaker 1: They don't go away. You know, it's a quality of life.
Speaker 1: That's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2: Well, you were with QB's for so long but ended
Speaker 2: up selling to HSN, the direct competitor.
Speaker 3: Can you give us a little backstory?
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it sounds sinister, doesn't it. But it was
Speaker 1: not at all. It was not at all. So when
Speaker 1: I was at QBC at the time, Barry Diller was
Speaker 1: the CEO, and he had asked me to go out
Speaker 1: to after the success of Miracle Mop and other products,
Speaker 1: Jewel kit, Rollicut, many things there, he had asked me
Speaker 1: to go out and do a show in California for
Speaker 1: him be a judge. And so I think Barry, I
Speaker 1: think the world of Barry Diller is brilliant. And so
Speaker 1: after a certain amount of time, so I did a
Speaker 1: lot with him and for him. There he left, He
Speaker 1: owned what expedia, dot com, Ticketmaster, He bought HSN iac
Speaker 1: the company. He kept asking me to come to HSN.
Speaker 1: And of course, you if you haven't figured out how
Speaker 1: loyal I am in life, I'm like, no, I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't. He goes, well, then I'm going to buy
Speaker 1: your business. And when somebody says that, you have to
Speaker 1: think twice about it. I didn't even think twice because
Speaker 1: it was such an amazing offer. But the offer was amazing,
Speaker 1: not you know, money's one thing, but he was giving
Speaker 1: me the ability, you know, in our conversations to really
Speaker 1: expand what I did, and really, you know, I became
Speaker 1: an executive HSN. I ran their only sourcing division. We
Speaker 1: sourced products. We actually created product for other brands. So
Speaker 1: whether it was a chef, we sold more guitars than
Speaker 1: Gibson and Fender. I was creating guitars for Keith Urban,
Speaker 1: and with Keith Urban and Serena Williams and Emon, we
Speaker 1: did all her fashion with her, So I expanded. I
Speaker 1: was able to do so much more. So it was
Speaker 1: it was a really good move. And it was nice
Speaker 1: to get off the plane in sunny Tampa from New
Speaker 1: York in January, I must admit that. So that was
Speaker 1: the time that I was able to grow, oh so
Speaker 1: much so, and I had the liberty to create something
Speaker 1: like change the cookwear industry or you know, many other things.
Speaker 2: Do you consider that to be like a second big
Speaker 2: pivot of your life?
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, absolutely, you know that really changed everything. And
Speaker 1: then obviously my third big pivot was leaving there when QB.
Speaker 1: Ironically enough, after QVC purchased HSN. Right, you go figure this, right,
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, a family drama. But I knew
Speaker 1: it was time, you know, because in that industry it's
Speaker 1: very important that it's exclusive on TV, you know, and
Speaker 1: they can't get it anywhere else. So for me, there
Speaker 1: was a whole big vista out there in the retail
Speaker 1: world direct to the consumer, and I really wanted to
Speaker 1: focus in, as I said, on the whole health and
Speaker 1: wellness aspect of creating great product. And so you know,
Speaker 1: so now in lieu of everything, you know, my company
Speaker 1: is Clean Boss, and I am very much focused on
Speaker 1: the health and wellness aspects of everybody in life. And
Speaker 1: I want that to be my legacy because we're creating
Speaker 1: a safer choice in your home to clean with.
Speaker 3: If you're keeping up. Joy is on her third pivot.
Speaker 2: Inspired by her grandchildren, she wanted to make safer cleaning products,
Speaker 2: and the opportunity to create Clean Boss came along when
Speaker 2: she met none other than Pitbull.
Speaker 1: So together Armando, Christian Perez, Pitbull and I are going
Speaker 1: to be the face of changing the way the world
Speaker 1: cleans and its way beyond that, it's you know, laundry
Speaker 1: detergents that are incredible in the You know, you really
Speaker 1: don't know about the ingredients of things until you really
Speaker 1: know about the ingredients of things, right, So that's what
Speaker 1: I'm passionate about. We both want to leave that legacy
Speaker 1: so that you don't have to worry. You know, my daughter,
Speaker 1: I watch her spray the high for two little boys
Speaker 1: with clean boss. And you know, when that my kids
Speaker 1: were young, I was using something. I didn't have a choice.
Speaker 1: I was using you know, whatever with ammonia in it
Speaker 1: or whatever. And now, you know, I feel like this
Speaker 1: is such a beautiful thing. And so that's what we're
Speaker 1: focused on. What was something in your life? I know
Speaker 1: there's been a lot, You've done a lot, but what
Speaker 1: is something in your life that at the time you
Speaker 1: thought was a negative but then now in retrospect, you
Speaker 1: see it as having like.
Speaker 3: You couldn't have had this kind of success without it.
Speaker 1: So I guess so be pre QVC, right. My goal
Speaker 1: I was demonstrating affairs and flea markets, and my goal
Speaker 1: was to get in every kmart because I felt like
Speaker 1: everybody went to kmart to buy a mom So my
Speaker 1: goal was to get into retail across the country start
Speaker 1: there and then get it everywhere. And I tried to
Speaker 1: call I talk to a buyer, and nobody, you know, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: you know, nobody talked to me. I sent letters at
Speaker 1: the time, letters and finally I got through to a
Speaker 1: VP there and I talked to him about the mop.
Speaker 1: I said, let me just come out there and show
Speaker 1: you this product. And again why he said, yes, I
Speaker 1: don't know, but flew out there demonstrated the product. And
Speaker 1: you know, there were major stick goood companies that you
Speaker 1: know they made not only they made a whole display
Speaker 1: of things for these stores. Right, I have one miracle
Speaker 1: mop and a mophead. So I had my meeting with
Speaker 1: him and he said, all right, He said, why don't
Speaker 1: you let me see you demonstrate the mop in our
Speaker 1: flagship store in a couple other places, and let's see
Speaker 1: what happens. I guess he was being kind, I think,
Speaker 1: you know. So we did. We went to the flagship
Speaker 1: Kmart store and I literally was demonstrating and ringing that
Speaker 1: mop up. My hands were raw. But everybody that's stood
Speaker 1: around and watched it basically bought it. And I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: He came and he was standing back and he was
Speaker 1: watching this happen because he said, you know, we sell
Speaker 1: five dollar mops, We're not going to sell a twenty
Speaker 1: dollars mop. So after that I went to various other stores,
Speaker 1: you know, to demonstrate, and he saw the sales. So
Speaker 1: afterwards he said, Okay, this is what I'll do. I
Speaker 1: will give you every kmart east of the Mississippi and
Speaker 1: leave this major stickwood company with west of the Mississippi
Speaker 1: in the country, and whoever brings in the best dollars wins.
Speaker 1: And I was like, wow, I mean east of the Mississippi.
Speaker 3: I'm in every k marty that.
Speaker 1: It was like the biggest thing in my life. And
Speaker 1: well we won. But then I went on QBC and
Speaker 1: I couldn't even make enough, you know. It was just
Speaker 1: like amazing. So and QBC investing in the commercial and
Speaker 1: everything said you have to come out of retail, so
Speaker 1: that my whole life then became electronic retailing at the time, right,
Speaker 1: everything I did was for QBC, THN, HSN interesting, but
Speaker 1: it was perfect because it was instead of standing in
Speaker 1: front of people and having a group of people, I
Speaker 1: had millions of people watching every creation that I made.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have to ask the question again that I
Speaker 2: asked you at the beginning. The premise of this show
Speaker 2: is that we yet use personal factors in our decision
Speaker 2: making when we make professional decisions. How do you think
Speaker 2: you've done that?
Speaker 1: I think more than not. I think about because my
Speaker 1: family works with me, right, and because I love my
Speaker 1: family and the consumer, my personal decisions about how everything
Speaker 1: I do is going to impact them guides what I
Speaker 1: do in business. So that's really important to me. And
Speaker 1: I feel like because I've been able to stand in
Speaker 1: front of it's you know, America and and many other
Speaker 1: places around the world, but you know, primarily here, you know,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, people will come up to me
Speaker 1: and when they look at the products, they see me, right,
Speaker 1: because that you know I'm standing there, I'm talking to
Speaker 1: them directly about that. So for me, everything I do,
Speaker 1: I know that I'm not invisible. It reflects me to them,
Speaker 1: and so everything is personal. It's everything I do is personal.
Speaker 1: It's not a business. It's all kind of it just
Speaker 1: all intertwined together.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for coming on. It's been so
Speaker 2: great having you. Oh yes, it's a great conversation.
Speaker 1: And I will say that, you know, she pivots is
Speaker 1: a perfect, perfect name because I as a skier, I
Speaker 1: always say you have to shift your skis right, so
Speaker 1: you always have You can't feel like you're in a
Speaker 1: path and it's unchangeable. It constantly changes, constantly and you
Speaker 1: have to be open to that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 1: It's We're top we day. So that was great. That
Speaker 1: was amazing.
Speaker 2: Joy still lives on Long Island with her kids and
Speaker 2: grandkids right nearby, and in true Joy fashion, she is
Speaker 2: still busy building clean boss and I hear she has
Speaker 2: some exciting new announcements on the horizons. You can keep
Speaker 2: up with Joy by following her on Instagram at Joy Mangano.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to this episode of She Pivots. If
Speaker 2: you made it this far, you're a true pivoter, so
Speaker 2: thanks for being part of this community. I hope you
Speaker 2: enjoyed this episode, and if you did leave us a rating,
Speaker 2: please be nice.
Speaker 3: Tell your friends about us.
Speaker 2: To learn more about our guests, follow us on Instagram
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