Make 70 Million Dollars on Shark Tank: Producer Brian Speciale Tells All

Announcer: Welcome to Producing Unscripted with Joke and Biagio.

Angry Man: Is this some kind of joke?

Biagio: Biagio. Who did this episode? It’s episode 118, and we’re talking to a TV producer who flip the script to strike it rich. Brian’s special use his producing skills to get himself cast on Shark Tank. He won, and now he’s on track to do $70 million in sales this year. Holy cow. Go behind the scenes of Shark Tank and learn what it’s like to stare those sharks down. How Brian got the show even after they originally rejected him. The process of using your producing skills to succeed in other endeavors. And if you’re lucky, Brian might even sing for you.

Brian Speciale: Tis the season of the comfy music.

Biagio: Courtesy Dave Pelman music Dave Helman. Com. Hey everybody. She’s joke.

Joke: He’s Biagio.

Biagio: We’re married. We make unscripted film and television and want to help you do the same.

Joke: Hopefully by teaming up with us.

Biagio: All right. Well, I am so excited.

Joke: So excited.

Biagio: So excited. This is like a crazy day because you’re about to meet the greatest producer. I never worked with. Brian. Brian. Special someone we met through this podcast through our portal. He pitched to us some incredible projects, a couple of which we almost sold, one which I still hope we might sell. But along the way, he was by far one of the most hands on producers we ever met. Really understood filmmaking from all sides, and he’s got the craziest backstory ever. In fact, it’s so crazy. This is going to be a double episode. Count em. One, two. Boom, boom. So you got to come back next month to hear the second half this month, what we’re talking about again, Brian’s amazing story. He flipped the script on being a producer, used everything he knew to hop on the other side of the camera and win a major reality television show, which still blows my mind. So welcome, Brian. Hey, guys.

Brian Speciale: Two of my favorite people on the planet. Joke and Biagio.

Joke: What’s up? You’re the best.

Biagio: Back at you, man. We’re so. I’ve been wanting to do this podcast forever. I always hoped we would do it in the context of, hey, we just sold the show together, right? But, but, but.

Joke: But, you know, it’s like, hey, Brian made a lot more money than we have.

Biagio: That is like, wow, Brian. Brian has the life we want.

Brian Speciale: Oh my gosh. Hey, we will work together at some point. It will happen. The stars will.

Joke: It’ll it’ll happen. It has to.

Biagio: It has to happen. But anyways. So, you know, I want to get into your story a little bit for people who don’t know. So in addition to being a producer, you know, you’re an entrepreneur and you had an idea that you thought would be right for a mark Burnett show, is that correct?

Brian Speciale: That is correct. Mark Burnett show called Shark Tank.

Biagio: Oh, just that little show. Yeah, that tiny little. Has anyone ever even heard of that show? Just one of the biggest television shows ever. Tell us a story.

Brian Speciale: Yeah, yeah. So TV, long time TV producer, TV anchor. I started working in in TV when I was 19, just like we all do. Right. I worked my way up from sports producer at local news. Then I decided to go beyond the air somewhere and became the main news anchor somewhere. Left that got into TV production. That’s where I ran across you guys. And then one day, my brother and I managed to invent this little product, this little blanket sweatshirt hybrid now called the comfy. We had the idea, and six months later, no kidding. Six months from the time that we had the idea. Not that we went through the process of getting prototypes made and everything like that, but from the time we had the idea, it took us six months before we were standing before the sharks on Shark Tank. Scared out of our minds, but the greatest experience of our lives.

Biagio: Okay, so so how did you reach out to Shark Tank? Like, what.

Joke: Was that? Hold on. How do you come up with the comfy?

Biagio: That’s true. How do you come up with the comfy?

Brian Speciale: And you guys know where I live? I live in Arizona. I live in the desert. And my brother and I, at the time, a couple of single dads. It makes no sense that a couple of guys like us invent this thing that keeps you warm and comfy, right? It makes no sense. But one day, my brother, he was. He was going through a divorce and he was staying at my house. And he came walking through the living room with his head down one morning, and he looked up and saw my seven year old son at the time, Saxon, sitting on the couch in one of my old hoodies. So it just kind of swallowed him up, you know? It was big. He had his arms pulled in, his knees pulled in. He was playing on his iPad, and my brother looked at him and said, gosh, Saxon, you look so warm and comfy. And he looked at me and said, bro, you think they make those things for adults? I, I’m completely oblivious. I’m just sitting there on Twitter next to Saxon and I look up and I go, And he goes, yeah, like make these sweatshirt things for adults. And we kind of looked at each other and said, and there happened to be one of those nice, soft, Sherpa lined blankets that you get at Costco lying over the back of the sofa. And I said, well, what if we made it out of the out of blanket material like that? And we looked at each other and we’re like, listen, somebody has come up with this idea already. There is no doubt about it. This is too obvious. It makes too much sense. So we kicked it around for a while, did a lot of research and determined that, well, in fact, no one had come up with that idea. So we said, what the heck, we’re going to go for it. You know, we spent a lot of money for us at the time, putting in thousands of dollars to have prototypes made, got the product that we wanted, and then decided that, you know what? This is the perfect Shark Tank product. So we found an open audition that was happening in Denver, and we went up there, and the rest is kind of history. That was in late May, and by September we were standing in front of the sharks.

Joke: Okay. Well, just, you know, what about the Snuggie?

Brian Speciale: Oh, gosh, that’s.

Biagio: A four.

Joke: Letter Snuggie out of.

Brian Speciale: Four letter word in this house. But the Snuggie, we knew everyone was going to compare us to the Snuggie, right? But we are the we are not the Snuggie. The Snuggie is a blanket with sleeves. It’s open in the back. You can’t get up and move around, walk around. You know, it’s like wearing a robe backwards. Essentially, you can’t put a hood on it. So ours is basically the biggest, most gigantic oversize hoodie that’s made out of a blanket that you can find. It swallows you up. It’s got the cuffed sleeves, it’s got a hood on it. It’s just like wearing a giant hoodie. And the point being that you can get up, walk around, do the dishes, go to sporting events, it goes with you wherever you need to take your warm with you, you know? So it’s the opposite of the Snuggie. It’s a vast improvement on the Snuggie. We do not like the comparison, but it’s going to be natural. We get it.

Joke: Yeah, but I think that that’s the point, though. It’s like you guys came up with something and then like, improved on what was on the market and then differentiated yourself enough from it. But I mean, you didn’t let the Snuggie stop you.

Brian Speciale: Oh absolutely not. And hey, look, the Snuggie, I mean, all credit to the Snuggie, they sold something like 20 million units in their first year. So, you know, it became a it became a household name. Everybody knows what the Snuggie is. And, you know, we’re not quite there yet, but we did manage to do in our first two years, we’ll do something like $70 million in sales. So we’re we’re already you know, I hate to toot my own horn, but our shark, Barbara, we’re already her most successful company in her 11 years on Shark Tank. And we’re only a year and a half old, so.

Biagio: And you’re on track to do $70 million.

Brian Speciale: In our first two full years. So it’s been it’s been an amazing ride. You know, my brother and I always we always thought it’s easy to look back now and say, well, we did think this, but we did. We always looked at each other and said, you know what? This thing has the potential to be one of the biggest, most successful products in Shark Tank history. And it’s proven out so far and hopefully the good times will continue.

Joke: Okay, so so now you come up with this thing and then how did you do the prototypes and stuff? You just figured it out. You googled around or had you had experience in this business before?

Brian Speciale: This whole story is something that anyone could do. But most people, you know don’t get off the couch, don’t take action. You know, this is a story that’s all about taking action. And that’s that’s really what we did. We found a prototype maker who just happened to be in the Phoenix area. He got one made for us, and we had it refined within a month or two. Then you start looking at patents, then you start looking at, you know, forming a company, and then you start looking at getting on Shark Tank. And how are we going to source these? How are we going to have these made? How the heck are we going to pull this off? And when you when you have a mission, you know, like that and a goal to be successful, you know, take action, get off the couch and do something about it. Anybody can do. You know what we did? We’re nothing. We’re nothing special. We really are.

Biagio: Well, well, you are something special. Brian. Come on. I’m not going to. I will not stand for that on my own podcast. You are amazing.

Joke: So. But you find out about this open call and then what happened? You just showed up or what was that first experience like?

Brian Speciale: In this case, me and my history as a TV producer and being in TV and knowing kind of what a producer would be looking for, it was easy to sit on the other side of the table and know what they would react to. So we knew that we had a great product. At least we thought we did at the time, but we knew that that would not be enough. You know, you’ve got to stand out. You’ve got to make yourself memorable. Just like any sizzle you do. Just like anything you do in TV or in any business, you got to the people who are the most successful are the ones that that stand out from the crowd and someone that, hey, I’m going to remember this person. So we decided, you know, one day I was sitting there and we were kind of putting our little pitch together. You have one minute to stand in front of, you know, a young casting producer and hopefully get to the next stage. And there’s five people that are pitching at the same time at different tables that are set up around a room. So we knew we would have to stand out. And one night I was sitting at my house kind of going through the pitch and, you know, all of a sudden it just hit me. We wanted to be on the Christmas episode. That was our that was our goal, as crazy as that sounded at the time, because this is a, you know, a holiday kind of cold weather product. And it just kind of hit me. I don’t know where this inspiration came from because I have no history of this, but I decided that we needed to sing. We needed to come up with a Christmas carol and sing in front of these producers, because what’s going to be more memorable than that? So we came up with a with customized lyrics to. For la la la la la la la la la. Right. Yeah. To that Christmas song that that everyone knows. So we customize those those lyrics, you know tis the season of the comfy. For la la la la. And we just had fun with it. But but before that I called my brother and I said, bro, we have to sing. There’s no we have to sing. We have. We are the worst singers literally on the planet. There’s there’s just no doubt about it. This is going to be the most uncomfortable thing that we would ever do is sing in front of anyone, much less in front of a Shark Tank producer. So we finally roll into the audition. It’s finally our turn. We go back there. There’s four other people pitching their products to other producers. Our producers just sitting there like she’s bored out of her mind. It’s the end of the day. Oh my God, when is this going to end? We stand there and we say, hey, just so you know, this is going to be probably a little bit different and it’s going to be kind of loud. So, you know, we’re apologizing in advance because we knew we were going to drown out the other pitches, you know. But we just said, you know what? This is our moment and we’re going to go for it. So when we started, we just belted that song out. Tis the season and just together. And you should have seen that producers face change. She sat straight up, started fumbling for her phone, started recording us right there. Big smile on her face. And when that happened, that gave us so much energy and confidence, we just kept belting that bad boy out. They loved it. The head casting producer, Mindy, came over after and was, you know, what is, what are you guys all about? And and next thing we know, the next day after we got back home to Phoenix, we got the call saying, hey, you guys are moving ahead in the process. And off we went.

Joke: And what was that next step in the process?

Brian Speciale: Well, the process, the next step in the process is the process takes about what, you know, 4 or 5 months. So you sign a bunch of paperwork. You go through the whole process. You start refining your pitch with your producer that is assigned to you, and then ultimately, you hope to get the call at the end of that process 3 or 4 months later, that, okay, you guys are going, congratulations, you’re coming to the show. Ours was difficult because Shark Tank over the years has morphed into a show where they do not like having true startups on the show. The people that don’t have sales history that, you know, haven’t validated their product. So that was our biggest challenge, because we’re just a couple of idiots from the desert who came up with this idea and have a prototype or two and don’t have any sales, don’t know really what it’s going to cost us to make, don’t have, don’t have much information what we had going for us. I think they liked us and they like that we were saying we were going to sing and that we were decent characters for a show like that. Our producer kind of went dark on us for about a month or two. We were like, we’re done. It’s not going to happen. So and sure enough, we got the call about a week before the show was going to air. We thought we were dead at that point, and the producer basically said, hey guys, you know, they like you. We would love you to come back for season ten, but this time it’s just it’s not going to happen because you guys don’t have the sales, you don’t have the history. They want you guys to validate and then come back. So basically sorry. So my brother and I Michael we had a pity party for about 30s. And then then the TV producer in me was awakened. Okay. It’s like we’re like, okay, we could come back next season, but we don’t know if Shark Tank going to be back next season. You know, it’s been it’s had a long run. It might get canceled. We don’t want to take that chance. We’ve come this far. If we’re going to go out we are going to go out with a bang. So I grab my camera, I went over to my brother’s house and we came up with a little skit called The Top five Reasons You Cannot Cut the Comfy from Shark Tank. We stood there and just had a blast with us with it. Did this lighthearted like two minute kind of thing and sent that off to our producer. She took it into the to Clay noble, the showrunner of Shark Tank. The next day, an hour after that, we got a phone call from the producer saying, we’re filming next week. Be here so the TV producer can come out and pay off in the long run. Guys, it can happen.

Biagio: Yes. Oh my gosh, it’s so amazing what I love about this story. I mean, you really had to produce from so many different angles because on one hand you have to come up with a great product that you think the world is going to want to buy. On the other hand, you need to make sure you present yourself as someone that’s worthy to be on television, which is a completely different skill set. And let’s be honest, there’s a ton of successful people who would be absolutely horrible on camera. So I love that you kind of took everything you knew and then used it in this last minute, ditch effort to get on the show. You get on and you one night. Now tell me, what was what was that like for you standing in front of the sharks?

Brian Speciale: Well, it was the most surreal experience of our lives. Especially the story hasn’t even crazier twist, because originally our product was called the cozy. It wasn’t the comfy yet, but we got done doing our practice pitch in front of all the producers and all the bigwigs and all the lawyers, which happens about two days before you go on air. We belted out the song. We were super proud of ourselves. They were laughing and having a good time and join it. We felt great. And then the lawyers come up to us right after when we’re still standing there in the in the studio and they say, guys, we love you. But Posey, there’s another company out there that starts with a K and they say they’re cozy. And so you guys can either change your name or you can come back next year. So again they’re trying to kick us off the damn show right? Crazy even after we got all the way to this point. So we’re like, oh screw that. We are going to get on the show. So we decided to change our name. And changing your name at this point means changing your logo. It means changing the shirts that you’ve brought to the show. And for us, more importantly, it meant changing the lyrics of the song that we had been practicing for months and turning that upside down. So when you say, were you nervous standing in front of the sharks? That was when we were nervous because we ultimately had to change the words to the song, and we had basically one day to to practice those, and I was still screwing it up all the way up until we went out there. I don’t know if I’d had a clean run yet, but when it came time to stand in front of the sharks, we actually we actually got it right.

Biagio: So important question is it easier to rhyme with comfy or cozy?

Brian Speciale: I don’t know because now now it’s like, oh my God, why would we have ever even thought of being cozy? Because comfy sounds so much better. It has many more applications, so I don’t know, man. Cozy was cozy. Was it? At the time? We were really sad to have to give that up, but comfy is comfy. Comfy is a good name. Standing in front of the sharks is completely nerve wracking. Everyone knows Shark Tank and when the door is open and the music’s playing the really intense music and you’re walking down that hall, and then you stand there and you start your pitch. Well, in reality, there’s no music playing. There’s no narrator. The door opens up and you have, you know, a Steadicam operator who’s backing up in front of you. You’re just walking silently down that hall, and then the final set of doors opens up, and you see the shark sitting right there in front of you. There’s Mr. Wonderful just glaring at you, and you get out there and you hit your spot, and you do not start your pitch right away. You have to when you get out there, you have to stand in the spot where you land for like 1 to 2 minutes while they get all the overhead shots and the cutaways and things like that, and really just freeze you out and making nervous because you’re standing there in silence, ready to do your thing, just staring basically at the shark, and they’re looking back at you, sizing you up before you even say a word, so that that minute felt like an hour standing there. That was the most nerve wracking thing. And then once the pitch starts, you know, then you’re in your comfort zone. You’ve practiced it and hopefully it hopefully it’ll be good enough.

Joke: So as a producer, as you’re standing there and they’re getting all their shots, are you like like sizing everything up or are you just too nervous?

Brian Speciale: You know, we knew that that was going to happen because we’d heard that. We’d heard other people tell us in the past that that that they did that. So we were kind of prepared for it. And we knew that that was going to be a big moment because some of the sharks have said that, you know, they truly do size you up and see how you handle the moments. So we made it a point that we were going to stand there and we were going to look at them and we were going to smile and we were going to go up and down and just look them all in the eye. And that’s exactly that’s exactly what we did. It was nerve wracking, but I think that’s something you had to do. You don’t want to shrink from the moment.

Biagio: No, no. So you guys you get into your pitch. I mean clearly we know how it ended. But what was it like along the way? Did you kind of know which shark you wanted to be with? Did you kind of have an idea one shark might pick you over another? Like what was what was that strategy?

Brian Speciale: Yeah, we knew that. We knew we were going to get lucky. First of all, we did manage to get on the Christmas episode, which was awesome. And the second twist of fate that was great for us was Laurie was on that episode, which, you know, everyone wants. Lori, the queen of QVC, you know, takes products like this and runs with it. So she was our first choice. But also Barbara was on the show and she was the she was definitely our second choice. So we were hoping because we were lucky enough that they were together that episode. They just happened to be that we would be able to entice, entice one of them, and that’s ultimately what ended up happening.

Biagio: Wow. That’s great.

Joke: That’s amazing.

Biagio: And so now okay, so so what is life like after the show? What’s the next day like the next month and next year?

Joke: How soon do you sign that contract when they give you that offer?

Brian Speciale: Yeah. So you get back to your trailer afterwards. They give they give you this little, you know, rudimentary kind of trailer for each of the entrepreneurs. You go back to the trailer and then we made a deal with Barbara. Her representative follows the psychologist. They actually have a psychologist who the network mandates has to go in and visit with you because it could be such an overwhelming situation. So right when you get off the set and you’re whisk back to your trailer after the interviews and all that good stuff, the psychologist comes in just to make sure you’re okay. You’re not going to pass out. You’re mentally okay. It was it was kind of crazy. But I guess that’s network mandate. And then Barbara’s representative, Mike Stevens, who basically controls all her Shark Tank companies, is kind of her her right hand man. He comes in and gives, kind of explains the next steps of the process and how long it takes. And the fact that really only I think it’s less than 50% of deals that you see made on Shark Tank actually close in reality.

Joke: Oh, really?

Brian Speciale: Yeah. Through the due diligence process, they can find out things that that you weren’t upfront with or things that, that they don’t like, or they can just honestly, they can just have second thoughts and be like, oh, I’m not going to do this deal. So fortunately, fortunately for us, our deal did close and it took about three months for that to happen. And boy, did we need Barbara’s help because our goal was to get companies out. We’d not sold a single one at this time. We had our first order of 4000 on their way over and we planned on Christmas. Was that was always our goal. December for everybody told us we were crazy because keep in mind, we came up with this idea in February. So now it’s November, December. We’ve already got product coming back, coming in. Everyone told us that we were crazy, that it would take a year and a half, but we missed our goal and did not get the product actually to be able to start delivered to people until January, which was painful. But in the grand scheme of things, I think we did pretty good. And after Shark Tank it was. I mean, it was it was crazy. You get that Shark Tank boost immediately after, and we sold out within 24 hours of the 4500 units that we had coming over. And then we were taken, then we were back ordered. But you know, what’s crazy is, again, the TV side of it, you know, you never know. Your skills can can transcend so many things. We continue to make like fun videos, just fun, just embracing the fun and usefulness of this product. And one of those videos went absolutely crazy viral around the world. You know, people say, hey, I know how to make viral. Nobody knows how to make viral.

Biagio: Videos, right?

Brian Speciale: It just happens. I mean, it really does. You can put the greatest thing in the world out and nobody clicks on it. You can put something you think junk out and the world clicks on it, you know? And that’s kind of what happened with us. This video, it was it was nothing special, but it was enough that people were sharing it. You know, it’s like, oh, look at this thing. Crazy. And it went worldwide on right, right. On New Year’s Eve, we started getting orders from all around the world. All of a sudden, just based on a Facebook video that went absolutely viral to the point of close to 100 million views. When I was done and we started getting picked up by all the big Facebook pages, and I mean, it was it was great. Suddenly we had we had orders from 66 countries. So it became kind of this worldwide phenomenon like overnight. But now it’s like, oh crap. Well, we need money to produce all this and to produce all these, these companies. And it was a struggle for the first 6 to 8 months with being able to keep up with the demand and disappointing everybody, you know, when the product didn’t get in on time and, and I was doing customer service for the first year, that means answering every single email, dealing with all the issues that come with it, come with that. And man, let me tell you, people can be mean.

Biagio: Oh, I can only imagine, man, I only imagine.

Joke: I got to know, what did you do in that viral video?

Brian Speciale: You know, we didn’t really do anything except kind of we just kind of had fun with with the product and just just made just shot stuff around the house of my brother with a dog coming up through the hood and people spinning around. And it just it was just basic, just kind of fun stuff. But it touched something with people.

Biagio: Okay. So now you are, you know, like you said, on track to do $70 million in sales this year. What was life? How is this different from working as a TV producer?

Brian Speciale: Well, a lot of running a business is is the same. There are parallels the creativity, the the marketing side of it. You know, having a video that goes viral. I mean, that’s a huge part of was a huge part of, of making our business. So it’s nothing I don’t think it’s much different than, you know what you guys, what you guys do, you’re trying to create something that resonates with people and that people will buy. It’s it’s kind of the same in all aspects of business. And you just use your own creative creativity and your own skill set to, to push forward. Now, I mean, so much of the stuff my brother and I had no idea how to do, we were learning as we went and finally we when we decided that, hey, we want to be in Costco and we want to be in retail, well, that’s when Barbara came in and she hooked up with somebody who was basically a sales rep for all of her other companies. And to make that long story short, she’s now our CEO. Our businesses run out of Pleasanton, up in the Bay area, and she has taken us and gotten us into retail around the world. Costco, Bed Bath and Beyond, target, all the big retailers. And we could not have done that had we not made the conscious decision to step back and let the people who really know how to run a business like this do their thing. And that’s probably the best decision that that we’ve made. You can’t, you can’t. You just can’t get in the way if you if you if you don’t know everything, you got to accept that you don’t know everything and let someone else handle it.

Joke: I mean, it’s such a great story.

Biagio: Oh, it’s such a great story, Brian. So, so listen, so that’s going to bring us to the end of our first episode with Brian. Make sure you tune in next month when he is going to tell us how he became the unicorn who managed to buy airtime from a network, sell the advertisers and do it successfully. Brian, thank you for being here.

Brian Speciale: Hey, a pleasure guys. I got to tell you real quick, real quick. I have been listening to this podcast since I was I just counted it was four houses ago when I was living in Tennessee, and I was mowing the grass, and I and I would, I would look forward to listening to you guys right from the beginning. And I look forward to every week or two for that podcast to come down. And I have to tell everyone out there, listen. These guys are legit, 100% legit. I reached out to him through the portal. That’s how this relationship started. There’s no strings attached. There’s nothing. There’s no there’s no hidden agendas here. Everything they say is true. These are two of the most genuine people I have ever met. Not not just in TV, but just ever. So if anybody has reservations about joking, viaggio, don’t. Because you guys are absolutely amazing and you are helping people. And I just think it’s so great what you guys have done. So keep it up. You’re the best.

Biagio: Oh my gosh, that is the nicest thing. I need to go get a box of Kleenex that literally. I’m not even kidding. I’m not even kidding. That means so much to hear. You know, you been working on this for six years now, and we’ve met some really good people like you along the way.

Joke: And, you know, we didn’t pay for that testimonial.

Biagio: Yeah, it definitely, definitely didn’t pay for that. We can’t compete with the can’t compete. We can’t compete with Shark Tank, you know. Well thank you so much, Brian. That is that it means a lot. And I, you know, I think what I want people to take away from this because, you know, listen, who knows where the business is going, right? TV is changing. Film is changing. At the end of the day, though, the ability to tell a great story transcends so many businesses. And what Brian did was create a great story not only for his product, but about why he and his brother should be on the show. And it worked out from every angle. I just think it’s a great example of how you can take all the skills that we’ve all earned in the field, you know, busting our butts long hours to try and create something and translate that into something else. So congratulations, Brian.

Brian Speciale: Thanks. You guys are the best.

Unidentified Voice: Much love. Talk soon.

Biagio: Producing unscripted.

Unidentified Voice: With Joke and Biagio.