When I get home in the evenings the first thing I typically do is go into my room and kick off my shoes and then change into some more comfortable clothes for the evening.

Next, I typically turn on the TV to provide background noise while I cook dinner, feed the cat and do a variety of tasks around my apartment. That typically means throwing on a rerun of a show and recently that has been Shark Tank.

When I get home, there are typically a couple episodes running back to back on CNBC and it makes good background fodder that is interesting, but doesn’t have to be paid attention to fully in order to grasp.

I couldn’t have told you the last time I watched the show when it wasn’t a rerun years behind, but I have become a fan of the show to an extent.

That is why I was pretty excited a couple weeks ago when I got a random email saying “Local Vicksburg business on SHARK TANK!!!” in the subject line.

You see small tidbits of the time the business spends in the Tank on the show, but I was interested to talk to someone that had actually experienced it and learn more about what it is really like in the Tank.

I jumped at the opportunity to do a preview story on Juli and Richard Rhett and their company Sierra Madre Research and their experience in the Tank.

The Rhetts were then also kind enough to invite me to their viewing party to talk to them in more depth, when they could actually discuss their deal with Richard Branson.   

I now watch my reruns with a whole new perspective. The 10 to 15 minutes we see of the participants in the Tank is actually more than an hour and a half of questions, pitches and hopefully offers.

The Rhetts only got one offer, the one from Branson, but they said the negotiations weren’t actually like you saw on TV. Shark Robert Herjavec only went “out” once on TV, but the Rhetts said he was back and forth a little more and even though he never offered, he wasn’t out as soon as the show made it seem.

Rihard Rhett said “It was a small defeat in me,” every time one of the Sharks said he or she was out for good, but in the end they got the Shark they wanted.

Branson was a guest in the Tank that day and that day only. He isn’t as experienced as the other Sharks who have been doing the show for years and the Rhetts said he was quiet and they almost forgot he was still in before he offered.

Going in as chum in the Tank, the Rhetts got what they needed though, just one Shark to take a bite.

As a fan of the show, it was great learning more about how it works and all that goes into, while also seeing a homegrown business from Vicksburg featured on national television.

Brandon O’Connor is a staff writer at The Vicksburg Post. You may reach him at brandon.oconnor@vicksburgpost.com