Television For Entrepreneurs – 7 Must-See TV Shows

About a month ago, an article of mine was posted on The Huffington Post where I listed a few of my favorite “personal development” books that have helped me and my clients (and millions of others) over the years.

So far, that article has received over 4,000 Facebook Likes and Shares, so you may find it worthwhile to check it out yourself. (And if you already have, and you helped by Liking or Sharing it on Facebook, Thank You!)

Today I’m going to provide another list for you.

If you’ve watched any television at all over the past few weeks, then there’s no doubt you’ve been bombarded by promotions about the new fall lineup of shows. It’s mind-boggling how many choices Americans have nowadays, thanks to hundreds of cable channels streaming thousands of shows into people’s homes 24/7.

Although I never mindlessly plop myself down on the couch in front of the “boob tube,” I do like to watch TV to relax and unwind at the end of a day, and I sometimes have it on in the background while I work in my home office.

I have a “DVR” device that records television shows for me, so I never have to waste time channel-surfing or watching something I don’t really want to.

Here are seven of the “must-see TV” shows I program my system to record, in no particular order…

• Shark Tank on ABC — Is it your dream to come up with an idea, start a business and then convince multimillionaire and billionaire investors to reward you with a big payday plus their help to take it to the next level? That’s exactly the opportunity several entrepreneurs get every week on this intense and entertaining show, as they try to maintain their cool and answer the probing questions of five “sharks” who hold their futures in their hands. Great insight into the keys to building a mega-successful business.

  I’ve met three of the “sharks” and a number of contestants who have been on the show, and have been entertained by a number of behind-the-scenes stories. Still, the on-air antics do not disappoint as among the best entrepreneurial moments ever on television.

  Especially over the past six years of “You didn’t build that” anti-small business sentiment and government regulation in America, it’s a rare treat to see entrepreneurialism being celebrated on primetime network television.

  *And coming soon, ABC will announce a Shark Tank spin-off called “Beyond The Tank,” featuring updates on companies whose owners landed deals on the popular show. (There’s another great marketing lesson there.)

• Mad Men on AMC — An extremely realistic look at the inner workings of an advertising agency in the 1960’s (most still function the same way today), presented in an entertaining soap-opera style. The show is in its final half-season, but replays of episodes from previous seasons are readily available and provide chilling insight into how the vast majority of image-based advertising is created and sold, very often to the benefit of everyone but the business owner.
• Million Dollar Listing (New York, Miami, Los Angeles) on Bravo – Reality shows that follow the daily exploits of some of the top real estate agents in these three major cities. Every episode has plenty of interpersonal drama, plus great lessons in high-end sales and marketing strategies and techniques.
• Tabatha Takes Over on Bravo – For the first three seasons, deadly-serious and tell-it-like-it-is beauty salon expert Tabatha Coffey “took over” a different salon on every episode and performed a miraculous turnaround that usually included schooling the owner, training and motivating the staff and overseeing a complete physical makeover of the location itself. For the past two seasons, Tabatha branched out beyond just salons to performing turnarounds on a wider range of businesses.

  A sixth season has not yet been announced, but all entrepreneurs and small business owners can learn a ton about what to do and what not to do to run a successful business from watching reruns of previous seasons’ episodes.

• The Profit on CNBC – This show is a cross between “Shark Tank” and “Tabatha Takes Over,” where serial entrepreneur/billionaire Marcus Lemonis not only makes a deal and personally invests his own money intro a different struggling company every week, but he also gets down-and-dirty to help perform the miracle turnaround himself.

  Not only can every entrepreneur and small business owner learn valuable business lessons on every episode, but they can also gain motivation from observing the unbridled passion Lemonis has for finding solutions to business challenges.

  And even when the turnarounds fail, mostly due to the ineptitude, poor attitude or bad work habits of the business owners who are now Lemonis’ partners, these cautionary tales provide important business lessons for all.

• Celebrity Apprentice on NBC – Okay, I’ll admit it: This one has a fairly large amount of “fluff” – celebrity-driven reality show drama. However, most of the episodes contain valuable lessons in sales and marketing (the money-producing aspects of any business), and every episode features a chance to learn persuasion, leadership and deal-making skills from billionaire entrepreneur Donald Trump.
• Infomercials and home shopping networks – No, I’m not suggesting entrepreneurs start staying up all night or endlessly flipping through obscure channels. But taping the best ones to replay over and over and study can pay big dividends in one’s own sales and marketing efforts. You can tell which ones are good, because they are aired repeatedly. EVERYTHING in the big-money, high-stakes world of infomercials and selling shows is tracked, so if a particular item is being presented over and over, you know its process is working.

  The writers, producers, directors and stars of these shows are absolute masters of persuasion (be careful – you may want to watch only shows about products you have absolutely no interest in, lest this academic exercise become a costly one!).

This list is by no means exhaustive.

What are some of your favorite television shows for entrepreneurs, and why?

I’d love to read about them in a Comment below.