How Bethenny Frankel’s Unexpected Strategy Catapulted Her to $1 Billion—And Why You’ve Never Heard of It Before

Bethenny Frankel has some weird business advice: “You can’t ask a dog to be a cat.”

Which is to say: Don’t try to be something you’re not in business. Instead, maximize your strengths — even if they may seem a little unorthodox.

For example, many people say to write a business plan and plot strategically. This is great if you’re a careful, strategic thinker. But what if that’s not you? What if, instead, you are the kind of person with a high tolerance for risk and experimentation?

Frankel has a hypothesis, proven out from her own experience — as a former Real Housewife of New York who leveraged that attention into a string of business successes, including the Skinnygirl brand (whose shapewear, salad dressings, popcorn and coffee officially hit $1 billion in retail sales in 2025) and who now moves $2 million worth of product per month as an influencer. She believes that if you try to conform to someone else’s standards in business, you’ll just end up being a weakened version of yourself.

This is certainly true for her.

“I don’t do things just haphazardly,” Frankel says. “That being said, there’s no big endgame. I didn’t plan any of this. I had no idea this was going to happen. But trust and believe, if there’s money or fish, I’m going to get the net.”

Here’s how she does it.

First, she’s clear on her mental strengths.

Frankel may not have a “big endgame,” but she does view the world through a particular strategic lens. She describes it as “just being logical about it” — breaking down complex situations into likely outcomes, where she can imagine: If I do this, that will happen, and then that will happen…

For example: Frankel built her Skinnygirl brand into a range of products, including a popular cocktails line. Then she got an acquisition offer in 2011 from Beam Global (now Suntory Holdings Limited) for a rumored $100 million — and, as she read the sale contract, something “hit wrong” for her.

“It’s not logical that if I’m selling Skinnygirl cocktails to a liquor giant, and they don’t make jeans or lip gloss or anything else, why would I give them the entire IP?” she recalls. So she only sold them the rights to the cocktail brand, not anything else branded Skinnygirl — an innovative deal that let her maintain control of her brand, even as she also sold part of it off.

“People give me too much credit for the big picture decision,” she says. “It’s just like a logical thing. I just look at the thing like that doesn’t make sense so I don’t want to do that.”

That choice, she says, “informed my entire career path in the way that I did things.” She’s makes “seven-figures annually” from the other Skinnygirl categories that she still retains ownership of, she says.

She also has a high tolerance for risk, buoyed by her ability to come up with creative alternatives to what’s on the table. She’d rather create a little chaos in a situation, knowing that she’ll be able to piece together a better outcome on the fly, even if she has no idea what that outcome might be.

A classic example: When she was chosen to join the Real Housewives of New York for their inaugural season, she threw a big wrench into the proceedings by rejecting a common contract clause presented by the network, Bravo, that stated that they would get a piece of any businesses she started while on the show. It was a huge risk that could have gotten her bounced from the show.

“It was 2008 and I was a natural food plant-based chef. I just wanted to be able to pay my rent. I had $8,000 to my name. I would bounce checks. I would have insufficient funds notices,” she says. “I don’t even know why I told Bravo that I would take $7,250 [as her fee for the season] but that they had to take out that part that said that I would give a piece of my business. I didn’t have a business. I just didn’t like the sentence.”

Without knowing the outcome, she created a scenario that allowed her to reap all the profit from the Skinnygirl sale and from all further Skinnygirl branded merchandise.

Frankel also has an unshakeable belief in her brand, knows what it takes to maintain it and does not back away from placing a higher value on it than her competitors place on theirs.

For instance, Frankel says she generally doesn’t do category-exclusive endorsement deals. Most influencers will agree to this type of exclusivity. But it’s a decision that she believes enhances her authenticity and trustworthiness with her followers, who she calls the Nosy Bs.

“I’m not risking my entire reputation for an endorsement check,” she says.

Her faith is being rewarded: Her affiliate deals generated $20 million in shipping revenue across Amazon and ShopMy in 2025.

It takes a lot of faith in one’s instincts to operate this way, especially since Frankel claims that although she understands at a high level the deals she’s involved with, she doesn’t always understand every deliverable and clause. But once the terms are explained, and she understands what’s at stake, “I will always have a different take…or a way to get to do what I want to do by giving something else.” This, she says, creates a “very creative space to do deals in a certain way if you can breathe and step back from it.”

“If two parties want to work together,” she says, “I can make it make sense. And if at a standstill, I’ll call the CEO or CMO directly as if they’re a local pizza place to discuss.”

Sure, she could do things another way — to be a cat instead of a dog. But she doesn’t think things would have worked out the same. The key to success is simple, she says: Know your strengths and don’t stray from them.

Bethenny Frankel has some weird business advice: “You can’t ask a dog to be a cat.”

Which is to say: Don’t try to be something you’re not in business. Instead, maximize your strengths — even if they may seem a little unorthodox.

For example, many people say to write a business plan and plot strategically. This is great if you’re a careful, strategic thinker. But what if that’s not you? What if, instead, you are the kind of person with a high tolerance for risk and experimentation?