Barbara Corcoran's Friends Found Her 'Dead In A Coffin' On 70th Birthday

Barbara Corcoran has built an empire on instinct, grit, and a sharp read on people, and she isn’t sugarcoating any of it. On the latest episode of "Boardroom Talks," the real estate mogul and longtime "Shark Tank" investor sat down with "Boardroom"’s Damien Scott for a wide-ranging conversation about investing, entrepreneurship, and the unconventional mindset that’s guided her decades-long career. From revealing the simple rule she follows before buying any real estate, to explaining why she once staged her own death for a birthday party, Barbara Corcoran leaned fully into the lessons and the laughs that come with experience.

One of the wildest moments from the conversation came when Corcoran explained how she turned a surprise birthday party into something far more memorable. “When Liz told me they were planning a surprise party, I said, ‘I'm going to turn the tables and surprise them,’” Corcoran recalled.

She went on to describe how her friends were waiting upstairs in her duplex for her to arrive from the airport, only for her brother to rush them downstairs. “So they planned their party at my house, and they were upstairs… My brother chased 'em all downstairs. He said, ‘my sister's coming in, downstairs quick. Go downstairs.’ They ran downstairs. They walked into the living room and found me dead in a coffin.”

Laughing alongside Scott, Corcoran went on to detail how the entire space had been transformed to sell the illusion. “I had set up the whole room as a funeral party," she said. "The chairs, the nuns, the priests, the rabbis, everybody there.”

Believing Corcoran was actually gone, guests were invited to speak openly, and they didn’t hold back. “And they all said what they liked about me, thinking I was dead, and what they didn't like about me.”

Even her family got in on the moment, including her daughter, who was just nine years old at the time. “My daughter, I wanted to kill her. She was only, like, nine at the time, and she said, ‘When do we get the money?’” she laughed.

For Corcoran, the prank wasn’t just about shock value. It was about something far more revealing. “But, you know, everybody talked about me. How many times, how many people, if anyone, do you know who hear what people say about them after they're dead?" she questioned. "I got to hear it all.”

Corcoran also opened up about Comfy, which she described as her most successful "Shark Tank" investment, and one she backed largely on gut instinct. “Comfy is unbelievable. Went to the moon and back again. All it is is an oversized sweatshirt,” she said.

When the Comfy Brothers pitched the product, Corcoran admitted almost nothing about the business plan was concrete, and that didn’t scare her off. “The day I saw the Comfy Brothers on the show, I said to him, ‘what do you got there?’ ‘Well, it's a Comfy.’ ‘What is it about?’ ‘Well, it's a sweatshirt.’ ‘How are you going to make it?’ ‘We don't know.’ ‘Who are you going to sell it to?’ ‘We don’t know.’ ‘What do you think you'll sell it for?’ ‘We don't know.’”

Her response? “I said, ‘I’ll buy it.’ I went, because I like the guys. I figured they’re going to be a lot of fun to have a drink in a bar with.” That instinct paid off, turning a simple idea into a massive success story.

While Corcoran has backed countless businesses over the years, she made it clear that success isn’t always about the first idea, it’s about resilience. “I’ve had entrepreneurs I’ve invested in where the business has gone bust within like a year, and they've reinvented themselves and started a different business,” she explained.

What matters most, she said, is persistence. “They always land on their feet. They keep trying. It's the most important trait," she said. "If I have an entrepreneur that I know can come through hardship, I know I'm going to make money, period.”

Despite being one of the most recognizable investors in the world, Corcoran makes it clear that access doesn’t equal opportunity, especially when it comes to pitching ideas on the fly. She says people often try to sell her their next big concept in everyday situations, but she has a firm way of shutting it down.

“Every cabby that I take, I don't take cabs anymore…They’d see me in the window, go, oh, you’re that 'Shark Tank' lady. I have an idea,’” Corcoran explained. “But I have a great stop.’ I say, ‘I can't listen, and you can't be on the show if I'm listening because it's tainted. What do you think?’ And they stop talking.”

It’s a tactic that reflects Corcoran’s larger mindset of respecting boundaries, protecting fairness, and knowing exactly when to say no, even if the pitch sounds tempting.