Founder's Story - The FUBU Founder Got Rejected By 27 Banks. Then His Mom Bet the House. | Ep. 430 with Daymond John Founder of FUBU

Episode Date: August 7, 2026

Daniel and Kate begin the episode by reconnecting with Daymond through two surprising touchpoints: Clubhouse and the Inc. 5000 event in Palm Springs, where Daymond once shared the story of his mother mortgaging her home to help FUBU survive. That story becomes the foundation for a much deeper conversation about risk, branding, cash flow, and what founders misunderstand about money. Daymond explains why the FUBU medallion is the object from his journey he would keep forever, why the brand’s logo strategy was intentional from the beginning, and how FUBU even found ways around MTV and BET blurring logos. The conversation then moves into the loneliness of entrepreneurship, the need for advisors, the reason he built CEO Access, and why reputation will be more valuable than capital or AI over the next decade. The episode also covers what Daymond has learned from Shark Tank, why he would choose social media over traditional TV if he were starting today, how founders should handle haters, why personal branding can outperform product, and how his health transformation after a cancer diagnosis led him into biohacking. Key Discussion Points Daymond says the FUBU medallion is the one object from the early FUBU days he would keep forever because it represented the moment they had their own emblem and had “made it.” He explains that FUBU’s brand identity was intentional from the beginning, including the use of the number “05,” which helped the brand avoid being blurred on MTV and BET because networks would blur logos but not numbers on jerseys. Daymond shares that FUBU was started in 1989 and shut down three times between 1989 and 1992 because he ran out of small amounts of capital, not massive amounts of money. He tells the story of going to the Magic trade show, writing $300,000 in orders, getting rejected by 27 banks, and then having his mother mortgage her house to give him $100,000 to manufacture the clothes. Daymond admits that six months after receiving the money, he was down to $500 and three months behind on the mortgage because he did not understand cash flow, accounts receivable, and the danger of being choked by the float. His mother helped again by placing a newspaper ad that said something like “million dollars in orders need financing,” which eventually led to Samsung’s textile division becoming involved. Daymond says the experience did not immediately change how he viewed risk, but later running the company taught him that over inventory and throwing money at weak ideas can kill businesses. He explains that money does not solve a weak advertising campaign, a weak product, or a bad margin strategy. It often just exposes the weaknesses faster. Daymond talks about how lonely entrepreneurship can be because founders are expected to listen to everyone else’s problems while hiding their own financial stress, relationship issues, and uncertainty. He says CEOs and founders need advisors and people around them who have been through similar challenges, but they also need to understand what value they can give those people in return. Daymond explains CEO Access as a platform for helping CEOs manage their voice in the market, become known for the right reasons, protect their narrative, and understand the responsibilities that come with being visible. When asked whether capital, AI, or reputation will be most valuable in the next ten years, Daymond answers reputation because it cannot be bought, replaced, or automated. He says AI is valuable and capital is available when the opportunity is strong, but reputation, legacy, ethics, and trust are what people cannot simply purchase. Daymond says that if Shark Tank started today and he had to choose between traditional TV and social media, he would choose social media because it puts him one step away from the money and gives him direct control over the audience. He explains that television depends on networks, edits, time slots, and streaming data you may never see, while social media gives direct audience feedback and a direct path to the customer. Daymond describes haters as “dirty pom poms,” meaning they are still cheerleaders in a way because they are giving attention and signaling that what you are doing matters. He advises not feeding haters by deleting every comment or responding emotionally, because that gives them the reaction they want. Daymond and Kate discuss storytelling, humility, vulnerability, and why successful people are often more attracted to honesty than bragging. He says people with bigger brains and bigger wallets will always exist, so trying to impress others through status alone is a losing game. Daymond explains that vulnerability works because real entrepreneurs have all taken risks, failed, run out of cash, had people problems, and faced personal pressure. He says most people did not believe in him, including partners and even some staff members, but the people who did believe in him believed in Daymond himself, not just a specific project. He shares that success cost him time, health, privacy, and his first marriage, but he does not regret working hard to provide for his daughters. Daymond talks about the price of fame, explaining that everyone now faces some version of it because social media makes even local reputations visible and permanent. He says personal brand can outperform a great product, pointing to figures like Barbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Richard Branson, Kevin O’Leary, and others who became known beyond the categories they built in. Daymond shares that after a 2017 executive physical revealed thyroid cancer, he later went through a deeper health transformation that included reducing alcohol, working with biohackers, and focusing on longevity. He says biohacking improved his business clarity, his relationship with his wife, and his confidence that he would be around for his daughter. Daymond reflects on the first time someone told him FUBU inspired them, sharing that an African American woman told him she started her own bakery because FUBU made her believe she could own something too. He says legacy is not just money left behind, but the full imprint of your choices, your reputation, your actions, and what your children inherit from the way you lived. Daymond says the people who deserve more credit for his success include his wife, ex wife, children, staff, mother, partners, and everyone who worked on his dream while also carrying dreams of their own. He explains that nobody can do it alone, and that a leader must work for the people who work for them by helping them reach their own goals. The episode closes with a discussion of Shark Tank’s evolution, MrBeast joining as a guest shark, Stephen Bartlett appearing on the show, and how creator led media is merging with traditional business platforms. Takeaways Reputation is more valuable than capital or AI because it cannot be bought, copied, or quickly rebuilt once damaged. Founders need to understand cash flow, not just sales, because large orders can still bankrupt a company if the money cycle is broken. Personal brand is now a CEO responsibility, not a vanity project, because perception can affect funding, recruiting, partnerships, and trust. Social media gives entrepreneurs direct access to customers, data, feedback, and revenue in a way traditional media often cannot. Haters are part of visibility. Daymond’s view is that if nobody is reacting, you may not be doing anything important enough to matter. Legacy is everything a person does, not one achievement, one exit, one show, or one company. Closing Thoughts Daymond John’s Founder’s Story episode is a masterclass in brand, reputation, risk, and resilience. From FUBU’s early days in his mother’s home to Shark Tank, CEO Access, biohacking, and the future of personal branding, Daymond makes one thing clear: success is not just about building a company. It is about protecting your name, creating value for others, honoring the people who helped you, and making sure the legacy you leave behind is stronger than the money you made. 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I got turned out of my 27 banks. I went to my mother and she said, this is all we have. The house is worth $75,000. He gave me $100,000. Months later, I was down to $500 left and I was three months later on the mortgage. What's been the price of success and fame for you? That one-hour surgery became five and a half hours of removing a golf wall size of stage in cancer. I didn't know I had.

He built Fubu into a global brand with over $6 billion in sales, and he turned that into 17. years on Shark Tank. This is Damon John. In this episode, he opens up about the real price he paid to build a brand the world couldn't ignore. I was kind of like that guy, I'll sleep, but I'm dead. Well, I was almost dead because I didn't sleep. What would be more valuable is that capital, AI, or reputation? The only thing you can't replace it, you can't buy is a reputation. Today, everybody has the same price of fame because everybody can turn on their phone. The price of Damon, John. It's great to have you. We were just mentioning quickly that we've come across interacting with you a few times in our life and there were really interesting times.

Was I nice? One of them I want to go back to starting with is Clubhouse. Do you remember Clubhouse? Yes, of course I remember Clubhouse. It was great. Yeah, my name, I was the Pivot Queen. You've been in every room. Oh, yes, I do know you from that name. Yeah. We normally have something called an artifact, which is an object that means something to you during your business journey. What is one thing from the Fubu days that you will keep forever? Oh, my gold chain, my medallion. My Fubu medallion. Why is that significant?

Growing up in the hood, everybody had their chains when they were, you know, somebody with the deaf jam, you know, would go up there. Then my friend had murder ink with Herg Gotti and the day. drug dealers had there, then that was our emblem. The full emblem, we put it in so many, you know, as movies, you know, various other things. But that was it. That was, we made it. We got our own emblem with real diamonds, actually. Was that always intentional that you said, we need to create this logo, we need to build

the brand around it, or is that just organic? No, that was always very, very intentional. It was, you know, brand identity. We knew that it got so intentional that there was a point where MTV and VET would blur any logos of brands that were not paying to be on the network. And so they started to blur in the Fulbo logos. So there was always 05 that we used to represent the five of us, even though there's four of us, because the fifth member never stuck around. And there was 10 people running around and talking about I'm the fifth member of Fubu, just like the five Beatles, right? So when we started putting these football jerseys in,

they wouldn't blur numbers because the number didn't mean anything, right? It was a football jersey. But because this was 98, 05 didn't actually happen yet. Nobody had ever said founded in 05. So we were able to trademark that 05. So I think there's only a couple of marks that are in the numbers, BMW 323, 05. And then people started recognizing us as 05. We'd never get blurred.

So that's how strategic we were about, you know, logo and branding. You know you made it when MTV is blurring your brand. That's when you made it. There was an interesting time in our life back in 2017 was the first year that we won the Inc. 5,000 list. And the amazing thing about that was you were the keynote speaker. Again, we ran into each other. Yes. Yes. That's the talking thing. Yes. In Palm Springs, this was the first time. And it was an interesting time because our business was to the moon, but it also was falling apart. at the same time. And you said something on stage about your mom mortgaging her house to give you $100,000 to save the business. Can you tell me about that story? Yeah. So, you know, I started

at Fulbo in 89. I closed it down three times from 89 to 92. I ran out of capital. But I didn't run out a lot of money. I ran out of $1,000, $5,000. This is what I try to tell founders run out a very small amount of money. But in, in 1992, I think 1994, I went to the magic trade show, the fashion industry, and I wrote $300,000 worth of orders. Well, now I've got to come home. I got to make the orders. And I went to 27 banks. I got turned down. I went to my mother, and I said, you know, I got turned on by 27 banks. And she said, you know, you've been working in this house ever since you were 10 years old. I started working at 10. And whatever I can contribute, I contributed.

And then they're right around 18. I actually started paying a lot of the bills. And she said, this is all we have. Why don't I go out and I take a loan on the house? And, you know, you manufacture and deliver the clothes and put the money back in. And so I pitched her on that. The house is worth $75,000. So I still don't until today.

Ask her, what the hell did she do for the rest of that money? And I always say, shout out to moms. And, you know, she gave me $100,000. And I will put it to work. And, you know, be very honest, though, this story really is that in six months later, I was down to $500 left. And I was three months later on the mortgage because I didn't know how money worked. I was using it. You know, I was paying it in advance for raw goods.

I was paying for my salary, staff, and shipping in my account receivables at the time. I should have taken COD, but the stores will only give me 30, 60, 90 days. So I was being choked by the float. And then mom again comes to the rescue and says they have an idea. She takes out an ad in the newspaper for a, says something like million dollars in orders, need financing. And 33 people call that ad, 30 of them were loan sharks and people like nasty people like Kevin O'Leary. But three of them were real. And one was Samsung's textile division.

And then we took off after that. But it's all because of mom believing in me. Damon, did that moment change the way you look at risk today? It did not change the way I looked at risk today. What would change later on would be, you know, running the company knowing that the biggest pains we had or the shortcomings we had came from over inventory or sometimes we blow a lot of money on a new project because we could throw money at it. And so there's two different forms of things. There's two different things I learned. Number one, inventory is over inventory.

And it kills most companies, whether over developing, over inventory. And also, just throwing money out a problem doesn't solve a problem. Money can often highlight your weaknesses. If you have a weak advertising campaign, you say buy more time, that ain't going to increase the conversion, right? If you have poor goods or garments or products and you say you need a better margin, so instead of buying 1,000 units, buy 10,000 units, it's not going to increase the viability of the garment and or the product.

I have to say that 2017, Damon, you kind of gave me hope because I was in that situation, where I lost $6,000 a day revenue of e-commerce and Amazon's down my account. So I was pressed to the wall. But you share that story about your mom. It kind of gave me help. So thank you for that inspiration. Well, I'm glad I could help. Thank God.

Mom helped me so I could pass that information onto you. Something that I've seen is critical for most founders. And I've watched this with Kate because she's a part of a certain organization is being around people that you can confide in, that you can talk to, that get it, that understand. you, it sounds. Having that community around you is so critical because it can be so lonely. What inspired you about CEO access? And does it go back to that time? Well, thank you by asking CEO access. So the concept, though, of what you're talking about is absolutely. So that's why when you pitch people, if you have something going really, you feel this promising. At a certain point, you've got to get a board of advisors or advisors. This is people coinciding to say that I believe in this

person I'm signing on because it's lonely you know the higher you go the more lonely it is um you know a true entrepreneur the reality is that um you've got to listen to everybody else's problems you can't tell anybody your problems you know you have financial stress at home your relationships on the rocks you know um your customers all want you and they don't want anybody else and you know you never know if you're going to pull money out of the company everybody else gets paid UPS gets paid, software developers get paid, you know, leases get paid, you know, whatever the case is. So there's really nobody to talk to. And at the end of the day, there's a lot of people that have the same issue, but you have to try to seek out people who've been there before who don't need you.

And the tradeoff is what is the tradeoff, right? Because, you know, if they don't need you, then what's the tradeoff? You've got to find something that like you are with your customers. You've got to find a pain point in their life that you can add value to. And so that's what I do with other CEO. There's a lot of CEOs in the world and founders in the world that, you know, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, they didn't really need to brand themselves to be known. It was kind of like make it and they will come. But today, people don't only want to know what they're buying and who they're buying it from.

They want to know what have you done lately, not only for me, but for somebody else. And most CEOs and founders, think about the level you get to. You know, you want to be known for the right things. You've got to brand yourself. But is it one PR person? Is it your secretary? do you become part of YPO? What about asset protection?

Now you're known, everybody's coming after you to sue you. How do you protect yourself? What about putting money aside for future plans within the company? How do you look at an exit? What's going on in work-life balance and what's up with your kids?

There's a lot of things that, unless you've been through it, where are you going to go get those answers from? You know, so that's what we do. We manage CEOs. And then more importantly, we manage their voice in the market and how they're looked at and represented because it's an obligation to be a CEO and today I say the old time the kid in the mailroom with 10,000

followers decides to lie and say that you've done something that you really haven't done. You got to call spin doctors and everything else. You know a news cycle is 24 hours. You're done. People lose their jobs. You lose funding. You know, you got a lot of problems going on. So you've got to be in front of it as CEO because that's your obligation.

Now, that's your fiduciary duty to the company. Damon, in the next 10 years, what would be more valuable? Is that capital, AI, or reputation? Reputation. You know, AI is, of course, is valuable now. It takes so many different things out of your way, and it can create 80% of the work done, and then you put your hand on it, right?

Capital is readily available. If you have something, great capital is there, whether you take a loan, whether you leverage, you get pre-orders, you, do strategic relationships. Remember capital OPM is not other people's money. OPM is other people's mind power, manpower, manufacturing, marketing. You can definitely make money off other people's mistakes. But the only thing you can't replace that you can't buy is a reputation. You can't buy your legacy. You can't buy, you know, your ethics. You know, you can't buy those things. And today, we don't know when,

I don't even know you both are you real now. You both can be avatars. I have no idea, you know, I'm reading. Where's it coming from? What this video is. But you cannot buy legacy mistakes and things like that. And that's what people want to know these days. They want to know your unique perspective on why you built this or why you're the person to work with. And that's what I said. The easiest thing to sell is the truth. So they told us your Damon AI, by the way. Let's just say back when you started Shark Tank, social media is what it is right now. and you can either go on traditional TV and do a show like Shark Tank, or you could just focus on social media.

Which one would you choose? I am Damon AI because I keep studying and trying to jump into the rope. I'm studying a lot, but, you know, am I proficient at Claude or some of these other things? Not yet, but that's all I've been concentrating on the last two years, getting my team in it, surrounding myself with the right people, seeing where it's going. And I am getting into it.

but I always say in business, the closer you are to the money is the most successful you'll be. You need to be one step away from the money. Having a TV show is great, but will ABC pick it up from Sony? Will it be on Wednesday night? Will it be on Friday night? Will you see it?

Will I get the proper edit, the proper cut? I have no idea. With social media, I can show myself directly. Who saw it on Chartang? Who saw Chartang on ABC? I don't know. And is it airing on what is, one of the streaming networks? They don't tell you how many people sort. What's the demographic? But in your social media, you know,

you can, of course, obviously know who they are, get them to follow you in different ways, get them to tell you more importantly what they hate about you. And you're one step away from the money. How do you handle the haters? I fall apart. Yesterday, somebody put a comment that wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. I deleted it. it. Why do you delete it? I don't know. It really impacted me. People say something about me for some reason. I can't handle it. Well, first of all, here's how I deal with the haters. I've been sitting next to Barbara and Kevin for 18 years. They are the king and queen of haters. So first of all,

I've been baptized by fire. The second of all, you know, haters are usually somebody who just wants to be you. And it's not my job to wonder what it went on in that person's life. That person could be somebody in a trailer park and a little underwear that, you know, the rag is all broken out there, they're 12 years old and they're just pushing your button. Haters are dirty pom-poms. The chairleaves are dirty pom-poms, you know, so I look at it as we all know people that, you know, they talk about somebody else, but they go, oh, that person just doing this,

do that and then you say, shit, I need to call that person. Because if this person's talking about them like that, there's something there. So, you know, you guys just ignore the haters. And when you delete them and when you answer them back, you know, you're feeding, you know, their need for what they want to do. The only time that I answer haters, I answer them a couple of times, I'll answer them with, I'll give them, they'll say it really raw and I'll give them the answer to why this happened a little bit raw and be like, you know, I'll give me example. You know, people never recap. They never read the copy. So they'll, oh, you should have done this and this and that.

This and that. You know, I can't wait to, you know, I did this and this and this and that. And then I'll go, well, by the way, I'm dyslexic. And I at least know better enough to make a stupid ass comment like that until you read what's in there. I'm sure you'll get to that next time. But thank you for the comment with a hands up. You know, sometimes, you know, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, They come back around and be like, you know, at least she answered me.

So anyway, you know, haters, hate it. If they're not hating, you're not doing something right. That's true. You're not important. You're not important. That's the challenge of building your personal brand is obviously putting yourself out there. Kate, something I think you've done good at is trying to influence more influential people versus every single human. Can you talk about that?

Yeah, I think like the, you have to master the craft of storytelling. Damon, do you agree, like being, you know, sharing a story with humility that attract people that are successful that rather than braggy online. Damon, what's your take on that? Absolutely. So, you know, you're never going to have a bigger brain and a bigger wallet than somebody. Somebody's always going to have a bigger brain, bigger wallet. Mark Cuban wants to get on and brag about his money. You know, that sounds good to me, but Mark Zuckerberg is going to laugh at him. Zuckerberg bragged about his money. Jeff Basel is going to laugh at him. when Jeff Bezos brags about his money, Elon is going to laugh at him. Elon must brag about his money,

Black Rock is going to laugh at him. So you've got to think of like that. First of all, you know, when you do that and you're puffing out your chest, the people think either you're okay, you don't need anything, or they're laughing at you because the ones who have been there before

know that you're a fake peacock. When you act with vulnerability and you come in there and say, man, I know a lot of, about this. I don't know about that. And if you got two seconds to help me know about that, man, I will do everything I can about this for you. Or I say it all the time, some of the most interesting conversations I have is you walk in the room, you say to somebody, why does you tell me about

yourself? They will talk for 45 minutes and when they're done. They go, man, you are such an interesting person. You're right about that. So, you know, communication is the only thing that separates us from the animals and to make somebody feel special and to make somebody feel like they added value to you. Uh, you know, they'll fight for you after that. Did you ever have somebody who didn't believe in you? And when you were just featured in the Forbes 250 list, they came to mind and you said, F you? Um, well, most people, um, have not believed in me. Um, partners that I made a lot of money. When I said, I'm moving on to do this. You want to do it now that are not. of a work. Most people have not believed in me. I would say even half my staff doesn't believe in me.

They are, you know, you can't, you can't have your staff. You can't think that your staff's going to run your business like you are. Some of them are there because they're transitioning out of high school, right? Some of there because they're taking care of their families. Some of their cause, you know, whatever the case is, right? You don't expect it. I find that the people that believe in me tend to be the people who don't analyze it. They go, so now, I got to tell you, I got four staff members, three staff members that built with me 30 years, and I got another 15 that billed me 20 years. They believe in me, but they don't go, I believe in Damon,

meaning I believe this project. They go, I believe in Damon, right? Because, you know, you think of me on the shari tank, oh, this guy in his suit. Oh, he did. He's all put together. Oh, no. Oh, no. Willie Walker's factory got a lot of chocolate on the floor.

And because I'm an entrepreneur, nor by nature. I come up with these ideas like, oh, we're going to just this and go CO access, you know, five years ago. And people, what are you talking about? Or I come up with something to say, we're going to go live selling. Or I'm going to be a biohacker. How could you be an expert in biohacker? You know, you got a couple pounds on you. You love sugar, right? You love carbs. You're not a scientist. You're definitely not a doctor. And by far, you are not an athlete. Why the hell would you be a biohacker? But then later on, people go. go, wait a minute, maybe you are America the type of biohacker because you are not talking

from the geeky scientific approach. You're not stuck like a doctor over here. You do have a crazy schedule, love sugar, low carbs, and you realize you've got to enjoy life a little bit with this and that, but you're not perfect and more people relate to that type of person. But when I first said it to my team, they were like, what the hell is wrong with this dude? He makes t-shirts for a living. You know, so again, nobody, nobody wants to be. Nobody was. ever believe in you. And that's good, though. You take that as prove them wrong, not in a nasty way. Let them question you. The tough questions. How are you going to get that done? Well, I'm going to get that done this way. I don't think you can. Okay, well, maybe I need to adjust it a little bit.

Maybe that's more interesting. You know, you got, you got to convince them. If you don't believe in yourself, there's no reason for them to believe in you. Yeah, you tackle into relatability. And most entrepreneurs, they don't want to be vulnerable online. What can he share about that, So I've come to the point in my life where I'm, you know, I've had a good amount of experience. You know, let's give you an example. If you met a nurse who's been doing it for 30 years and a nurse has been doing it for five, she can tell, she can look right through where the inefficiencies are or she doesn't know what she's doing. You don't, it's up to you if you don't want to be vulnerable, but I already can see right through you.

because you wouldn't be an entrepreneur if you didn't take risk. You wouldn't be an entrepreneur if you didn't fail. You wouldn't be an entrepreneur if you weren't very, very hard in yourself and everything's not working out the way you planned it, but you're going to figure this shit out. You wouldn't be an entrepreneur. Every entrepreneur you knows that they're going to have. Well, first of all, there's going to be a shortage of cash. Cash is the biggest need for money.

The hardest thing to source is cash in people. You can't tell me that your whole team is good and great. You can't tell me that you have funding like that because I'll give an example. Robert Hershebeck said, I had to sell my company. Now, he sold it for a large amount of money. I said, why? He said, because I was doing $800 million. No, I was doing a billion.

And to get to $2 billion, I had to put in a lot more cash. You see the problem at that level? Elon Musk said that up until 2008, when he was, he spent his last $40 million. He broke out $20 million on SpaceX and $20 million. you know, in Tesla and he said, it's either going to work or I'm done. So you got to understand, you know, when you talk about entrepreneurial and not being, you know, don't want to be vulnerable, I can see right through you because by nature is for us to go hard.

And after we go hard, something's going to hit the wall. Whether it's your relationship at home, you know, whether it's people who betrayed you, whether it is, you know, people stealing. You didn't see that coming. You can't figure it all. out as an entrepreneur. What has been the price of success and fame then? Entrepreneurs are kind of crazy. Like the most successful people I met are there. There's something a little off because in order to go all in many times almost on the brink of losing everything, you've got to have some extra

in you, I think. But what's been the price, though, of success and fame for you? Well, it depends on what success is to people that buy price of success. You know, the one price of success, you know, the one price of success that I would have paid no matter what I whether I was one of these great men and women working sanitation of keeping us clean from diseases and things that nature um the price of success there even if I was doing what Damon John does or what they do was I would have worked every overtime hour I could because I had two little girls and every parent knows that I sleep in a refrigerator box to be able to give my girl shelter education and medicine so I lost my first marriage due to, you know, me, you know, working crazy and stuff like that.

But I don't regret that, you know. But, you know, the other price of success, I would have to think, what is the price of success? You know, my health in the early days and the early years, I was kind of like the guy, I'll sleep when I'm dead. Well, I was almost dead because I didn't sleep. it is the price of success is that you you you don't get to cherish a lot of things that you should have in the earlier days friends time you know and and stuff like that love um that's the price of success the price of fame and today everybody has the same price of fame because everybody

can turn on their phone the price of fame is that there's no privacy and you got to watch everybody around you um but you know i got to tell you know i i am fortunate and enough and that's what I do with the CEOs. I'm known for the right reason. You know, I can walk into the room and I'm respected. I don't, you know, I'm not Justin Bieber. I don't got to live in, you know, someplace where nobody can see me. But I remember I was talking to Brad Pitt.

Did you have the name from him? Just Brad Pitt right there. Just, I'm just talking to Brad Pitt. Yeah, you know, talking to Brad Pitt. And, you know, when they were shooting oceans, you know, and Clooney went out, Clooney went out, Cluny went out, they can go hang. and obviously the superstars. But Brad, I think because he had that relationship with Angelina,

when you become a couple, right, Jay and Beyonce, Taylor, whatever, you're out of here, right? He could not go anywhere. So the only time Brad gets his time alone is when he puts his helmet on, he rides his motorcycle to the studio. And I remember one of my friends and I, he said, why don't we go to dinner? He said, all right, let's go to dinner.

And then he invited him over to his trailer, you know, on the set. Degenerty, he's like, well, no, we go to restaurants. He said, I can't go to restaurants. And not really, right? And he said, is it really worth it? You know, all this success and you can't do that? You know what Brad said? Absolutely.

It's the best thing ever. So, again, you know, my thesis to that is you're, you have fame, whether you are somebody who is the head of the church in the neighborhood, whether you are at the most hated or the most popular person at a job. And that theme today, because of social media, it affects you. You know, your kids are judged in school by what people know about you on social media, their perception of you. Your wife or your husband is at the grocery store and people kind of know you in the neighborhood

and they're whispering about you. It's just the level of noise that you're creating. That's the important of joining CU access, right? You control your media. You got to control your narrative. So whether the CEO access or whether you're a kid going to college, you have to control your, you know, you don't many times kids come to apply for jobs. And we use the service to scrapes what they've said in their social media for the last 10 years. And it just pulls up whether they said negative things or positive things.

They never know why they don't get the job. But they were talking about malicious things or maybe drugs or whatever the cases. So this is going to follow you forever. So are you in charge of your narrative? Our mother's always said, and the parents always said, if they ain't got nothing nice to say, don't say it at all.

And that's the idea and the concept of COX, because it's now you have fiduciary duty as a CEO. Again, you know, you have a lot of people who are listening and following you. So, again, you're the kid in the middle room. You're a CEO of your brand. The way that Damon John got to, to see I'm famous. I saw talking third party. The way that Damon John got to Shartank is by

creating a brand when I was in the hood and that hood created a brand that I got to Fubu. And that Fubu brand was able to help me write books. And those books and those stages of speaking got me on to Shartank. I had to be a brand before I got there. So a great personal brand can outperform a great product. 120 percent. You know, you look at Barbara Corp. There's a million real estate brokers, there's only one Barbara Coulcran, right? There's basketball and there's only one. There's only one more Cuban.

You know, how many people invested in airlines? There's only one Richard Branson and, you know, venture capitalists. There's only one Kevin O'Leary. I always say this, but I don't want to get into politics, but there's how many real estate developers are there? But argument's sake,

the most powerful man in the world, understood out of brand himself in the 80s and the 90s. It took him a long time, but now he's literally probably one of the most powerful. He is definitely one of the most powerful people in the world because he branded himself the right way. By the way, I would love to talk to Brad Pitt. I feel like that, that, he must be a very fascinating individual. He was great. I don't know him that well. I mean, it was in passing. It was a, it was a quick 10 minute, five, 10 minute conversation. I don't know him that well, but he's always been, you know, when I see him in the world, he's, you know, wherever, wherever I'm at, he's always been that kind of like the guy he played in, um, uh, once upon a time in Hollywood. he's that guy. I remember you talked about having cancer. I think you had just found out you had cancer, but I've read a lot of things that you've talked about. Your health transformation was actually

many years later. What sparked that and what are you doing about it now? So I was, as I said, I'm a biohacker. But in 2017, I went in to get an executive physical, which I would highly recommend everybody get an executive physical. It's not the same physical that you get, but if you can afford it. You know, they run, you know, UCLA, Mayo Clinic. They do these single executive physicals. They put you through a litany of machines and they find stuff, right? They were shaking my carotabins for, you know, plaque or whatever. They said, ah, nothing there. But I say a little nodule in your thyroid. I go and get this test and they say, you have a nodule in thyroid. I go and get a one hour surgery. It's supposed to remove a dime size on my thyroid of a little

noddle and that one-hour surgery became five and a half hours of removing a golf ball size of stage shoot cancer. I didn't know I had. You know, at that time, I thought I was going to do better and, you know, life was, you know, I was like, you know, life is good. I got this cancer out. I started drinking twice as much, you know, I started drinking around six to eight doubles a night. I don't think about that. We all have clients, you know, you go to dinner with two separate clients. You got to get numb because he can't stand, you know, the crap they're saying. Then after that, you got to go to dinner with friends and talk about the clients

you just went to dinner with, right? And then COVID hit, right? So 18, 19 of drinking, COVID hit. I doubled down on the drinking. And then I realized that, you know, I was heavier than ever. I realized that I just didn't enjoy what was I doing it for. And my wife is already big into biohacking, that type of stuff. And I moved into a building where a big biohacker named Gary Brecker was there.

And I went to go see him because my wife was seeing him. I mean, he started taking me down this path. right of red light beds and blood dilation evil and of course hyperbaric chambers and all and my life started just feeling better my relationship with my wife got better my clarity on my business got better you know knowing that I was going to be around for my at the time you know my daughter was probably about you know probably about five years old knowing that I'm going to be around to walk her down the aisle and so it just really started to drive me and then I think it's the perfect time COVID happened we realized that where he's

humans. The one thing that we understood was life was very delicate. AI happened so now I can ask AI every single thing I want every single night about something I'm taking, not taking. And we started to see how much people are being poisoned every day. We're taking in a hundred poises a day. Can I get it down to 60? You know? And seeing that people started emailing me, hit me saying, man, you saved my life. I went not, I went and got a scan and I found a tumor or this or that or this. I started taking for bend is all and all this kind of stuff I see. And, you know, it's just been really fulfilling. I think that, you know, in this journey, if I could say one other life that I've done my job, you know, maybe God will let me into heaven.

Did you ever receive a message that to this day still stands out to you? Gives you goosebumps when you think about it. I've received plenty times. But the first time I received it was when I was when football was started and an African American woman came in me and said, you know, you know, I decided to create my own bakery line because I never thought that I could own and I can start my own. I thought we had to get it from, you know, other places, other people. And I think that was the first time that that impacted me. And since then, you know, thank God, because of books and stages and stuff like that, I'm often getting gotten told that I've changed my life when I go, I ain't do anything. You know, I was a messenger and you put in a lot of work after that. It got nothing

do with me. You would just tune to my message at the moment. You heard that message many times prior by somebody else, you know? We just saw Oprah out in France at Cannes Festival. And she said something that was very profound. She was talking about how she was telling someone about legacy. And then that person told her, legacy is not the one thing, the school that you did. It's everything that you do and have done in your life. How do you think about that? You know, so I'm not leaving my girls an inheritance. I'm leaving them a legacy.

You have kids? Yes. All right. So, and beautiful. You know, we go out into the world, and as I said about earlier, working in somebody's sanitation will do anything for our children.

But what does that mean? Can Weinstein, Epstein, Bill Cosby, Diddy, or R. Kelly? can their kids actually say who their parents are for the rest of their lives? Can their grandkids say it? Can their great-grandkids say it? You know, due to the selfish acts of these people taking or not being really, you know, conscious about the legacy that they're going to leave on this planet, their children will never get a fair shake.

So what's the purpose of me trying to supply all this comfort and protection and education for my children and then set them up and leave people wanting to hate them and hurt them because of an action that I'd take in or an action I didn't take. So I think legacy is by far the most important thing that you could leave on this planet. When people celebrated Damon John's success, who deserves more credit than they ever receive? My wife, my ex-wife, my kids, my staff, those who work tireless for me and still do.

Those who every day get up and even though they have their dreams, they work on my dream. Of course my mother. Every single partner I've had, you know, that came up with me from the beginning when it wasn't easy when people said it couldn't be done. Those are the people, you know, that they really need to acknowledge me. Because, you know, I got to tell you, nobody, there's two ways to think about this. Number one, nobody will ever outwork me in the world. And you should think the same way about yourself, right? But the more important thing is, I can't do it by myself.

And when you understand that, that you cannot do it by yourself and you work for those who work for you more than they work for you because you have to make sure that their dreams and their goals are hit, then I think that that is where you find success. But, you know, there's a lot of people who consciously hide in the shadows because they just want to do their job, but their job is so important. You know, my dad always told me something.

He said, take care of the janitor, because if you ever want to get something done anywhere, if you're nice to the janitor, they will help make a, and I've always thought about that. Isn't that Daniels-Libiski's whole story? That is his whole story. Be kind.

Be kind. You know, that's the janitor, the person who's putting in the work. They're ready to put in. They're a soldier, you know, and they will either, you know, help you when you need help or they'll lead the army if the leader falls. They're the ones, yeah. So I'm wondering about a post you made recently.

You talked about how Mr. Beast is going to be a guest shark on Shark tank. Yeah. I saw that Stephen Bartlett is also going to be a guest shark. But what is the meaning? Do you think that him or Steve and Bartlett have being on the Shark Tank? And what does it mean for Shark Tank for them to be on? Well, first of all, Stephen's already a dragon on the European show. So the meaning for him to be on is number one shows his ability and his reach and his network and his depth.

It shows that Shark Tank is a value because a lot of people don't know or they haven't watched Shark Tank in a while. Stephen then comes on. So it's huge for Shark Tank. I'm a big fan of Stevens. But Mr. Beast is a whole other beast, lack of a better word. You know, Mr. Beast does not need Shark Tank in any fashion form or sense.

You know, the numbers that Mr. The Shark Tank probably reaches, you know, on a day when it airs, is probably one-onehundredth of what Mr. Beast reaches. But it shows the power of Shark Tank because Mr. Beast does not watch or know any other musical TV. And he only knows Shark Tank because that's what inspired him to become who he is. He just took the lessons from it, every single one of it,

and then manipulated him to be the way that the world thinks today. He is a network, as I said in the post, he has his own Beast's world, he has an amusement park, he has everything else. So it's important to Shark Tank because not only will it bring a new generation or reinforce, to a generation of children, how powerful the show. Now, the show as a show being, it's the number one show on network

that is marketed to adults, watch from kids five to 15, parents and kids together and taught in schools. So it's already very powerful. But Mr. Dease is just incredible because he brings this to the kids. But more importantly, all the influences now go, oh, I get it.

I understand that's the baseline to business. And, you know, I think all So CEOs, when that Mr. B shows up and their kids are going crazy and they're going to go, I need to check into more of these streamers in this world because maybe I'm the one who doesn't know what the hell is going on. So I think it's all around just a really good story. Yeah, we've had this new economy, this kids that we interviewed 13 years old, made a million. We have one that makes $4 million a month. And they might have to say, hi, I used to have a model.

I own a boutique hotels in the Philippines. and she got into OnlyFam making a million dollars a month. I was like, man, I'm in the wrong business. And that's like clean. Like, it's a whole new world out there. So crazy. It is because, you know, these kids are talking rights to the consumer. Again, they're one step away from the money.

They talk them right to their consumer and that's it. And, you know, they're building their following. There's something, though, around being an entrepreneur is kind of like the, the pinnacle for people in the sense of Mr. Beast, many people will still to this day say he's just a YouTuber, right? Isn't that funny? I guess so, but they are, you know, I got, um, you know, he films 28 days a month. You know, we can look at the Kardashians. A lot of people say they're famous for nothing. There is no way that gets to that level of success that is not busting their ass every single minute of the day strategizing hiring firing filming working hard

ulcer and everything else so when people try to label people that's just them trying to demean something that they don't understand um but you know i i looked at that a lot you know when i say you know we say people who didn't believe in me or people who demean things when i look at that and people say that, I go, there would be no place for me if they got it. Love that. I'm going to hand it to Kate for the final question. Yeah, Damon. Where can we learn about the CEO access?

Oh, thank you for supporting it. You know, it's at CEOaccess.com. And what it is, we only have very few, but we're like the super friends. And you see all the sharks are in it and everybody else is in it because we're a collaborative epic of, you know, CEOs who want to be known as the voice of authority in their space for the right reasons. Not people want to hang out and party or whatever the case is. Not people want to dance on TikTok. You can dance a TikTok if you want. But, you know, people who want to be known. And they don't know where to go because they can't ask this secretary or a PR person or how do you

make me recognizable in my space? Because I've created everything in my life. I've done this. I've been a chartered 10,000 people. I've helped people. But yet nobody knows them. They understand they're in charge of their brand and it's very important. So yes, CEOaxis.com and then, you know, we vet them and, you know, basically here's the short. We try to create people that become recognizable enough to sit next to me in a shark tank. Amazing. One day, Damon, Kate and I might be sitting next to you on track.

I don't know if there's been a couple. Yeah. Oh, they do double seats. So that would be absolutely great. We've had, we had two double seats this year. We had one double seat last year. I forgot the name of the couple of big home makeover, a couple and stuff like that.

So absolutely. We'd love it. So all we have to do is join CEO access first and then we'll get there. But Damon John, this has been amazing. It's just so interesting. 2017, we met you. Business doing great, but also collapsing at the same moment. 2020, we met you as we started this trajectory of clubhouse.

In 2021, we supposedly had, we guesstimated around 20, 20 million listeners live, which is why we started this show. Yeah. We literally just passed 1 million subscribers like a month ago. Oh, bless you. I knew you. So, like, I feel like the next journey phase in our life, we're going to meet you in some point at some capacity.

I have absolutely no doubt that we will. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much.