THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Daymond John: The Truth About Entrepreneurship And AI's Impact

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

What If the Biggest Myths About Money, Entrepreneurship, and the Future Are Completely Wrong? In this conversation, I sat down with my friend Daymond John, and we went deep on the real truths about entrepreneurship, rejection, money, and where the world is heading next. Most people know Daymond from building FUBU and as a Shark on Shark Tank, but what you’re going to hear in this episode is the mindset that actually built his success. Not the highlight reel. The real lessons. The failures. The hard-earned wisdom that only comes after decades in the arena. Daymond and I talked about something that might surprise a lot of people. Not everyone should be an entrepreneur. In fact, Daymond believes some of the most successful businesses are built when visionaries surround themselves with incredible operators. Every Batman needs a Robin. Every Captain Kirk needs a Spock. Entrepreneurship is not about doing everything yourself. It is about building the right team, embracing rejection, and continuing to move forward even when the world keeps telling you no. We also got real about the myths surrounding money. Daymond shared how early in his career he believed you needed money to make money. Then later he discovered the opposite problem. When he finally had money, he thought throwing capital at problems would solve them. It did not. The truth is that money does not build businesses. People do. Work ethic does. And your reputation matters more than almost anything because it takes years to build and seconds to destroy. One of the most fascinating parts of this conversation was where the world is going next. Daymond has been studying AI, biohacking, and live selling intensely over the last few years because he believes we are entering a period of massive disruption. Entire industries are going to change. Jobs will evolve. And the people who thrive will be the ones who adapt quickly, stay curious, and position themselves on the right side of innovation. This conversation is not just about business today. It is about preparing for the future that is coming faster than most people realize. We also talked about something I believe every listener needs to hear. Your personal brand matters now more than ever. Whether you are a CEO, an entrepreneur, or just starting out in your career, people are forming opinions about you before they ever meet you. Your brand walks into the room before you do. The question is whether you are defining it or leaving it up to someone else. This episode is one of the most honest entrepreneurial conversations I have had in a long time. If you care about building something meaningful, navigating rejection, and staying ahead of the massive changes coming in business and technology, you are going to love this one. Key Takeaways Why not everyone is built to be an entrepreneur and why that is okay The myth that you need money to make money and the real drivers of success How to develop the rejection muscle required to win in business Why your reputation and personal brand are your most valuable assets The massive impact AI and technological disruption will have on careers and industries How entrepreneurs should prepare themselves for the next decade of change Listen now and get ready to rethink what it really takes to win in business and life. 👉 SUBSCRIBE TO ED'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL NOW 👈⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   → → → CONNECT WITH ED MYLETT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ← ← ←  ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠INSTAGRAM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   ➡️⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FACEBOOK⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LINKEDIN⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WEBSITE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This is the Edmireland Show. Welcome back to the show, everybody. So today, let's see. I don't know. All of you already know him. So I'm not going to do a long introduction. Literally all of you know who this man is. I think he is one of us.

I was thinking about this morning as I was, you know, feeling so good about getting a chance to chat with my friend here. I think he's one of the ten most important entrepreneurs of this century. Can you imagine that? One of the ten most important. I think this guy's about the interview, Henry Ford or somebody. I saw this summer. You are for a variety of reasons, and you know that.

He's, you know I'm from Shark Tank. You know him from Phubu. But here's what I'll tell you that you don't know. He is a tremendous human being. He's a really good man. Been really good to me. When I was shooting a pilot for my TV show, I made a couple phone calls to some people and said,

I need your help. He said, how can I do it, brother? Immediately jumped on and helped me. Filmed some stuff for a pilot I was doing. and so not only is he a really successful person. I think he's really grown into, you know, somebody that he feels good about and that I admire very, very much. So, Damon John, aka Henry Ford, welcome to the show.

I have you back. You know, thank you. You know what? It is truly an honor that you said that you are truly one of the most amazing people. And the only other person that says something in that realm that made me feel inadequate, even though I know you're giving me love. And I know you're not, somebody to say something you don't believe is,

there was this young man who's running for president. His name was Barack Obama now at an event. And he just got the party nomination. And then, you know, like, hey, how are you doing? And this is my Fulbu days. I was like, hey, I'm Damon John from Fulbo. He said, are you kidding me? One of the greatest entrepreneurs at our time.

That's awesome. And I was like, this guy's full of crap. And then later on he would say, we're going to make this country for us, by us. And I was like, he's on to something. Either he is a politician for sure. I was like, he knows what he's doing. But thank you so much for the really amazing intro. And I, you know, the respect is mutual.

And I can't say that I'm like that with most people because, you know, you can only pick a couple of people that you can be like that with. And I appreciate being like that with you. Thank you, my brother. And I'm glad that I could finally validate 44s. sentiments with you today. So first things first, I was saying this off camera. You look good.

What are you doing? I mean, man. I saw you. I saw you a few weeks ago. We spoke at the same event together and I thought the same thing. You walked up, got real close. You hug me. I'm like, he looks younger or better.

What are you doing? I'm doing everything. You know, I'm a biohacking enthusiast. I am not a scientist doctor or anything in that nature. You know way more about health than I do because you get very granular. but I call myself now more like the what was the guy who used to travel world eating food Anthony Bordana biohacking I'm trying everything

I'm doing everything I started going down to rabbit hole I had cancer in 2017 I really didn't I thought I thought that was a wake-up call I didn't take care of myself because then COVID came around I was drinking more than ever my wife who was an amazing strategic partner she didn't make it a deal breaker she just kept looking at me and And saying, you okay? And I saw the disappointment in her eyes. And then, you know, I started following some of her protocols. And before you know it, I was red bedding and talking a ass free one minute and Gary Breckle the other and Dr. Amin the other and Greenfield, the other. Before you know it, every single thing I was looking at it, I was like, this is going to kill me. I'm going to still eat it. But this is going to kill me. My red bed is right here. There's my red bed. There you go.

I got the light system behind me. I got the biocharger over here. It's infectious. You know, you start doing it. The team starts doing it, you know? I just injected my peptides I got from Ben Greenfield about, I don't know, 30 minutes ago. And Dr. Amon was the last guy I interviewed on the show. So we're very similar on this.

What's working here to tell the audience something, though. And not everybody can afford all of these things either, unfortunately. I think the more and more people get access to medicine over time, hopefully it becomes something that everybody has access to. Is there something you've done? You're like, look, if you can afford this or you can do it, I recommend X or Y, something definitively that's worked. As you know, man, you've been on this for a while.

95%, you know, if you get out of this conversation, a bunch of gadgets, you've wasted your time. 95% of the things that we do have absolutely zero to do with technology. You know, drinking as much water than you can with no chlorine in it. eating pickles and anything naturally fermented with all of the protein. But more importantly, I fast 30 hours a week. That doesn't cost me anything, right? I do intermittent fasting.

And, you know, that's why I slip up. I'm not an expert. And that's what I say. Like, you know, I don't have great body like Ed or Gary Brecker. I'm not going to talk high level. I look at it. We're putting 100 poisons in us a day. Can I get it down to 60?

You know, can I go and can I do flossing and making sure the plaque are not going into my system and get thorough about that? Can I put on the blockers so I reduce the blue lights in my home at night? You know, these very simple things that I'm doing is making the big difference because I can't take a biocharger on the road with me and I travel 250 days a year. You know, if you have you on, I got to talk business with you. The 95% thing you just said, is there something? something that you used to really believe about business that you just you're like not anymore that's irrelevant now i mean like an overall philosophy like i had a i had a conversation with a realtor in boston this weekend's name's george sargis number one dude in boston i love this kid and uh he knows a lot

of people in boston right and i said george here's what you're limited by business used to be about who you know now it's about who knows you yeah you got to get the who knows you part down something like that anything like that that occurs you're like, this used to work or I used to think it and I don't anymore. Well, two things. I think that you need money to make money was one of my philosophies when I didn't have money. And then how did that reverse on me is that when I had a lot of money in Fulb was coming up and I was able to acquire things and do new businesses. I felt throwing money at the business was going to solve it because my ego got in the way. I could throw $6 million.

$6 million of the business. My name is Damon John. And those are the two things that I learned. Number one, you have to love what you do and you have to be a roll up the sleeves. If you don't want to be in it yourself, you have to find an amazing partner to distribute a strategic relationship and whatever the case is and somehow reward that person and know that that person had 20 years in the business. So that person will work 24 hours on this business and figure it out.

So you can throw as much money as you want. But if you ask that question, you need money to make money. And having money is great. Well, I always say 65% a lot of winners and athletes are bankrupt three years after leaving the league or winning the lotto. That means money didn't work for them. And if money worked for everybody, well, then blockbuster, Blackberry and Kodak, would still be in business in party city. It doesn't work for everybody.

But you're looking for us, top wealthiest 1,000 people. 65% of them are self-made men and women. That means they were broke, like you and I, how we started out. So it's not money. It's putting in the work. There is no shortcuts. Getting a partner that's going to put it in the work, but no matter what, you've got to put in the work.

The second part about the ego was I thought that my name is just going to get me place. No, you have to work on that name and everybody is going to sit there and go, yeah, you'll go with clothing. Right. You're going to be an author now. You're dyslexic. You can barely even read. That's not going to work.

Oh, you're going to be an investor. You didn't go to Harvard and Yale. You didn't work at a venture firm for all these periods of time. They will always doubt you until you prove your name and your name walks in that room before you, people are just going to push you back. and you have to constantly improve on your name, and it takes you one second to destroy it. Yeah, gosh. You know?

So, you know, those are the two things, name and money, you know, IP and money. How you've been with rejection? I was with, I was so excited to talk to you because, you know, you and I get asked like the same 25 questions most of the time. Yeah. So I was with my daughter, this thing to Boston I was just talking about. She's graduated from Clemson. and she's going to go into business.

Congratulations, man. Yeah, thank you. I'm happy to not be paying for it anymore. And that's the best part. But I was talking to her about this. I said, Bella, one of the things that I said, I don't know whether you'll make it. You're smart.

You work really hard. You don't have that rich kid thing. Like, she's a grind. You know, she's willing to get after it and hustle. But I said, I don't, where's it I don't know? I don't know whether or not you can handle rejection in mass. Like, I don't know. And I said, that's one of the things that isn't really.

talked about that much is how does does rejection not only affect you like knock you out but like wind you slow you down make you flinch a little bit what about that element like if you're given advice to just entrepreneurs in general business people in general did it bug you real deep in the beginning and did you have to get over that or do you think that's one of your like quiet superpowers of all the rejection you kept steam rolling through it or did you have to learn to well first of all, I'm married. So rejection is something like this every single morning and every single night.

But you know, coming up, I was able to power through it because I looked around and what I accomplished, I thought I didn't, I didn't,

there wasn't social media. I never saw anybody accomplish it at that level. And so I kept going through things and it wasn't an, it wasn't rejection to me was like, holy crap out of the 20 times somebody said, no, it was like, holy crap, somebody said, yes, now it's game on. And I, and I, and I qualified the rejection. Well, why did they reject me? Well, is it because I'm African American? It's because I got left back in school. I don't have a history as a designer. And it made me want to give them more

reasons to say why this will work. And I had to make it, as they call in Hollywood, an undeniable package showing them all the things that could work for them. But I'm human. You know, as I came up in the business and now all of a sudden I have a massive business. I mean, I'm doing $350 million a year, this and that, this and that. It seemed like the rejection became more painful and it hurt more because I was like, well, I did this already. Yes. No man You did that

And you know what You were lucky And the rejection hurt For about About four or five years But then I found ways To change that around and go You know what

If they knew any better Then they would be doing what I'm doing You know If it was that easy Then ever you would But it would be doing So, again, I had to start really proving it. But it's funny, I saw one time Obama and he was interviewing Mark Zuckerberg.

And Mark was like, I still hear no. I was like, Mark Zuckerberg still here? No, he said, Damon, not Damon. He said to Barack, he said, when I came out with something and I was like, all these kids in Ivy League schools are going to be on this platform. Everybody said, no way, these kids are too, you know, uppity. Then when he heard, you know what, it's going to grow. when I'm going to have all kids in university. They were like the Ivy kids are definitely not going to deal with these kids.

Then when they heard that high school kids are going to be on it, oh, it's over. Then when they heard a high school kid is going to find out his Nana is on the same, or her Nana is on the same platform. No way. Then they said, well, you know what, when we're moving from desktopsies little phones, nobody's going to be riding around, you know, on this little thing. It's nobody's going to be on it. Then they said, knowing other country, he still hears no.

And he said, I kept thinking somebody's going to build it. bigger and better than me and nobody did and I said, I'm gonna do it. So, you know, I still deal with rejection a lot. You know, your only die on TV. That would surprise people.

You know, you know, it's funny, being a public person, the cheers are big and it's not deserved. That's wrong. And the failures are deep. That's not deserved.

That's wrong. It's somewhere in the middle. You know, the rejections in the middle. The praise is in the middle. And that's where you find or I find that I'm very comfortable with. Whether you're a founder, CEO, or an HR leader, building a global team usually means you got to decide to set up a local entity or not. And that's exactly why Pebble is here. So you don't have to.

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Shopify.com slash my let. You have more humility than when I met you. It's not to say that you didn't have it, but it was a long time ago that I met you the first time. It was backstage somewhere. I don't remember where it was. You were already very well known. But it feels to me like the more

success you've had, ironically, like almost the more humble you've become. You think that's fair assessment? Yeah, I think so because it comes with age. You know, you may have been, you know, Shartank has started 17 years ago and, you know, I looked at the show, maybe one or two seasons and realizing that nobody's going to know who we are as a business show. And, you know, so hopefully that was the humble aspect. And then now, you know, 17 years later, every single living president has called me for advice and not for money, every single living one. And I've met, you know, I've met so many great people, but also I've lost so many great people. I've lost 28 people in this last 16 months, you know, a couple of them, John Amos,

Mrs. C. Irv, Godi, Batumbo. And, you know, I got too many. And then I'm just a realist. You know, why was somebody to respect me? Is it money? Well, then you look at the wrong. guy because if Mark Cuban woke up with my money, he's going to think he'll crackhead.

And if Bezos woke up with Mark's money, he's going to think he a crackhead. And if Elon woke up with Bezos money, he's going to think he'll crackhead. So there's always going to be somebody with a bigger wallet and a bigger brain and a more popularity with you. So again, if you walk in the room and you disarm people and just say, you're a human being, then if they don't respect you and value for who you are right there, they're not going to make them respect and value. they're the wrong person to deal with it with. They don't respect people or they respect people for the wrong reasons.

You're so right. I literally just had this conversation this weekend about the levels and what literally used about three of the same names you just used. So here's what I like about Shark Tank. Obviously, it's made entrepreneurship a front and center topic. It's made it sexy. It's given it hope. I think there's more young people aspiring to be entrepreneurs than ever. And I think that show has a lot to do with it culturally. That's why I say you were one of the 10 most important people. You know exactly what I meant culturally to have somebody who looks like you with your level of success on TV every single week in the entrepreneurial space is an important thing plus all of the success you've had on top of that. So what I said is actually true. It's a fact. But having said all of that, I also think it's almost made people think two things. Anybody can be an entrepreneur, number one.

So I want you to address that. And the other thing is, once guys or ladies get a little bit of money, everybody's become an angel investor. And the vast majority of them aren't very good at it. So one, I want you to speak to the entrepreneurship thing. And two, honestly speaking, had you not invested in any of these deals you found on Shark Tank, but just invested in businesses you drove that were your businesses, would you be wealthier had it just been your money in businesses that you could control and move yourself?

No. I don't, I don't, that last one, that last question, ain't nobody asked me that one before. So, and probably about two of these other questions you haven't. So can anybody be an entrepreneur? No. No. As simple as that, you know. And that's the, that's sometimes the beauty of life, you know, that a lot of people can't be entrepreneur, but they don't need to be. They're built differently. You know, there are just a lot of people who are not risk takers. They don't have the vision. and they have been brought up a different way where their parents told them that this is what success was and they won't learn that until later on in their life. And they're just filled, they're not risk takers. So I do not believe everybody can be an entrepreneur.

Do I believe everybody can, and they do, work for an entrepreneur? Yeah, every Batman like me needs a Robin. But I always joke and I say, I need a cap, I'm Captain Kirk and I need Spock. Robin was 100% a groupie. anything Batman holy buttermilk Batman how do you know you were going to drink poison you know

but Spock you know I would say that I say that you know I'm Captain Kirk you know Captain Kirk goes wild he was a wild boy he was running around he was doing every oh we're going to do this sure Spock will be a listen here Captain it's 4,997 reasons why this

is not going to want shut up Spock I'm doing it and you know what Spock would do he put his ass to sleep You need the person who's going to check you. You know, you need that person who's going to be that perfect ying and yang. You know, the person who's going to get detailed orientated and say, you know, I know you're doing a lot of stuff. And then really hit you some time to say, now we've got to really look at what's working. And so I think that there is a mass, I think there's a massive amount of people who can support entrepreneurs.

But I do not think a lot of people could be entrepreneurs because it's a, I haven't met any, I've met very few entrepreneurs that was successful. their first venture. They're usually successful on their fourth or fifth, and you have to have a strong rejection muscle to open up a business again after you've been kicked in your teeth. Back. All right. Now the bigger one. Would you be wealthier that you just deployed the same capital? So you did no shark tank deals. You took your capital and put it into businesses that you drove, that you controlled, that were primarily under your influence. Would you be wealthier had you done that? 120% I would Fulble would be back at

at least a $2 to $400 million annual mark now if I did that and it's about learning again as we opened up you know when we first started Charteng nobody knew the show and the casting agents were casting agents they didn't sit there and watch hundreds of hours of Kevin and I and the Sharks all the negotiations

so you know it's like you edit They brought you in somebody, you know, now somebody brings somebody to Ed and you're a casting agent. They go, yeah, I'm doing $30 million a business. I have two employees. You're going to say, where exactly are you selling crack? You know, that's what you're going to ask, right? They didn't know what to ask. So they brought us poor deals.

And they brought us poor deals. Then we also did not know how to deploy money right away. Give money right away. Give money right away. We didn't say, what are the use of proceeds? We're going to give you X amount of money if you hit this mark, X amount of money, you hit this mark. I pay $750,000. and legal fees just to vet about 10 companies the first year in Shark Tank when I didn't know there was a

you know this software of a VC just put it in and you know so we were learning ourselves how to be true angel investors and we also then I started to say well you know what I can either deploy let's say a million dollars a year or I can pay a 150,000 dollars two or three salaries for somebody who's a licensing person a salesperson, and I can then get different software, deploy that for about $200,000, and that's able to handle Shark Tank investments and other investments. So when you come to me, I can basically break down what you need and negotiate the points and options and various other things,

the triggers, instead of just giving money. One of our guys going to Shark Tank the first year, gave $500,000 dollars. The lady went off paid all her bills and bought a Mercedes. She never said, She said, listen, I'm going to take money off the table. Is she wrong? You know, so we grew to be who we are, you know, on the show.

And every day we're learning on how to deploy money different ways. Do I want an advisory seat? I'm not trying to have K-1s for 900 companies. I'm going to take an option. You know, so a lot of different things, you know, changed over the years. So true on the K-1s. I just got my last K-1 right now for last year. I'm like, dude, it just messes up your taxes anyway.

That's inside baseball stuff. It does, but I love selling to the people, listen, you don't hand them in. I'm going to help you out. I'm going to call the IRS for you. Exactly. We'll straighten all that up right now because you're not messing up my stuff. Yeah, then I get audited because you didn't send me to K1 on time. Correct.

Now, we're in a new world. And I don't even know what it's going to look like. You know, people ask me all the time. I wish I knew. I'm talking about this. Now we're in a... We're in an AI world, you know, not that we haven't been already. Is there something you're thinking, doing, advice you'd give to entrepreneurs just about navigating this time?

I mean, are you familiarizing yourself personally, pretty deeply indifferent? You're not just chat GPT, but, you know, sales AI or ask elephant or all these other things that are out there. Like, what's your whole view on where we're going? I was speaking for a large corporation, but I've been, you know, as you and I know, we get to peek under the hoods of a lot of large organizations see what they're doing. And there's a couple of different common discussions that are happening now. Of course, talent, what are you doing with talent? How are you reducing your cost and increasing your sales? And somebody said to me, so what do you do for a hobby?

And I said, you know, I just thought about it for the last two years. I haven't done any of my hobbies because all I'm doing is studying AI. All I'm doing is studying biohacking and I'm studying live selling. Those are the three things that I'm studying. I said because I need to have a foot up on everybody because this is moving so fast that every, as a dyslexic and eight other 12 charts of dyslexic. So now I'm trying to see how can I be more efficient in my communication? How can I look at my legal and professional service costs and how can I reduce those every single month as AI moving around?

You know, trademark searches, design, designing things, this and that legal. How can I bake more of that information and how can I teach my team and my team teach me to be more proficient? You have a bunch of questions for attorneys, but if you're using a lot of the AI technology, you have a better point. pointed question for pointed answers. So how am I utilizing all that? How can I mimic myself and come up with avatars and great content and editing? So I'm doing that all now. And yeah, I'm going to be looking at reducing, not reducing my workforce.

Most of my friends have reduced their workforce by 30%. I don't want to reduce my, yeah, 30% due to AI. I don't want to reduce my workforce. I want to triple my business with my current workforce. I want my 30 to 50 people to now do this because this is where all of the opportunity is and then take that 30 to 50 people and then have five more divisions that are running really well because I love my people. I think this is a great time for people and opportunity. So yeah, I'm full out on AI in this sense. I'm also preparing myself.

I'm going to be totally honest. I'm preparing myself a massive disruption. in this in this in this in this uh you know and this country in the world when they have not start you know when most of these jobs for for males are operating uh heavy machinery and trucking and things that in nature or cars and they're all going autonomous when retail is all going you know uh and for a lot of women who of course the CEOs and executives but a lot of the services are now going to be AI um you know retail and various of things and factories where are these people going?

You know, when you can go and get a Tesla robot for $30,000 and to get it for your home, but you use that as your landscaping business because you have three of them, where are these people going? We're going to turn into California. I know you live in California. You know, so I'm also trying to find ways to protect ourselves

because, you know, they're, you know, they say when there's no supplies, you know, conflict will rise, you know. So I bought an island. I left California, but I just left. But I, everyone, I want you to lean in. This is one of the smartest people in the world. And you just heard what he just said. I mean, I, do you think, Alan calls it a post-work society? I don't know about that.

but what do you think about, and this isn't even in my notes, but since you brought it up, you think guaranteed minimum income is like an inevitability, what Yang used to talk about? I do think it's inevitability. You do? How long of a window? But do you really believe that? We're going to have a guaranteed minimum income at some point. I don't know you're not positive, but if you were looking at it and you think that's within

the next five years, 10 years? I think it's within the next five years, and I don't think it's something going to be positive. I think if we looked at what happened when we were, you know, when we were stuck at COVID and there's a big money dump, I see that, you know, drinking went up, you know, and we have too much entertainment on these things right here. And I see that everybody goes online for luxury goods. That's the only thing that kind of really, you know, increased. I think that the idle minds in that period of time in that bridge is going to be very, very dangerous. I think, you know, there's going to be a lot of problems. I think you've got an idle mind with a lot of times for people to think and get upset.

I think it's a problem. Here's what I think. I think in five years, you all could go back and watch what we just talked about. And unfortunately, I completely agree with him on the wealth disparity and on it becoming a cultural, societal, real dramatic issue that may lead to a very dangerous point. Let's be real. Let's be real. If the jobs are going to decrease and the government's not going to catch up in time and we're talking about from a state level all the way up to a higher level, don't you think when and they have the data on how we're moving and what we're talking about and the sentiment, don't you think there are also going to, many people are going to

use that to their benefit? I really would love to say like all the people here, hopefully you're great people, but there's some bad people in the world and then they create the, campaigns and or ways and propaganda and they know how to tap into what we're doing emotionally now than ever before. And I just think that there's going to be a lot of the when they have-nots don't have anything. And, you know, there's 20 homes on the block. And these 17 homes don't have jobs anymore. They're coming for those three. I was with Jose Andreas and Abaco when the hurricane had hit maybe about 10 years ago. And I remember we were feeding the people. And I remember somebody said, oh my God, that's that person.

That person owns this business. That person's owned this business. That person's owned this business. And I was like, well, why are they online? Why aren't they helping to feed the people? And they're like, oh, no, the water came up. The gangsters all went into their homes and took their homes. And they're the homeless ones.

It's not the gangsters. They're the ones who are homeless now. So again, you know, I know we're getting into a very dark area. And I hope none of this is zero. happens, just be aware. You know what I mean? I'm not going to put my head in the sand. And I hope that somehow things are going to move along in a more, you know,

a positive way for all of us. But as entrepreneurs, you and I, we look at not where is it positively going to go, but where is any of the potential, you know, roadblocks, hiccups, hurdles that we may face in business, whether it's life without health or, whether it's, you know, business like that. Well, this is good for everybody. This is what two real entrepreneurs talk about privately when we're not just trying to be rosy on camera to sound good, right?

And this is going on in every single major corporation room right now. I was in another room. You know what they said? They said that these are the real estate investors. They said, you know the biggest problem we're going to have? It is not going to be the have-nots. It's not going to be the super wealthy. It's going to be that middle-compressed, highly educated person

that was an attorney that was making 150, $200,000 a year that has a two or four year lease and they know legally how to squat. Brother, this is so true. So everyone, you can just do a SWAT analysis on your life and your company, strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. If you're not doing this, you're not a thinker. I mean, this is what we're really rifting on right now. I'll give you an idea of you guys.

I just did a big estate plan for my family. It's something you'll all do once you acquire some other than I'm changing mine. And I spent a bunch of money to do it. The guy just sent me this big packet information. My next door neighbor here, I'm looking at his house, did the exact same thing, except he just dunked his documents into an AI that put out the entire plan for him. So if you think this isn't coming here, this dude's an estate planning attorney. My neighbor's like, you're still using a human to do that?

No offense to all the state planning attorneys. But I had someone who sells insurance yesterday that they say to me, well, I'm safe because I said, I don't know. I don't know. So, you know, we should just be, these are the conversations you should be having. And by the way, educating yourself about it, trying to get on the other side of it. And you know what? Society and culture, everybody has a way of sort of organizing itself sometimes.

And hopefully it does. But you ought to be ready if it didn't. And you ought to get your family ready. And you ought to get your money ready. And you ought to get your career ready. So anyway. You are. I mean, you know, end of the day, I mean, the insurance person,

you think that down the road Uber is not going to offer insurance for a private own vehicle. You think that the hospitals and what are not going to use AI to say, you know, if you like this and that, here click these buttons and look at your best and then they'll just they'll just compress the insurance uh you know companies down you know what i mean it just depends on you know it's amazing how much you and i agree dammit so i was just saying this to somebody it may not eliminate you but it's going to compress your value to the market it's going to compress but it's worth even in real

estate look at even some of these online search engines like realtor dot com or redfin or you know these other ones zillow they haven't eliminated the industry but they've compressed the value to some extent of what an agent can charge already. And so this is just the stuff to be thinking about you guys. And by the way, how to get on the other side of it, how to take advantage of it. You listen to this driving in your car today that are doing HVAC and Ruths. You're in good shape probably for a while. You're in great shape right there, right?

And you know what? If you're somebody who you're a child, we all grow up a different way. If you're, like you said, you thank God you you're not paying anymore. But if your child is in the 10th grade and looking at a college, you know, you're going to go and borrow five to $600,000 worth of student debt for a job that may not even be here in two years? Or will your job potentially, you know, go and do HVAC or like my buddy with a crash champions, go and get paid $75,000 to $80,000 a year to learn a trade? Well, oh, is my kid going to do crash cars or HVACs?

That's what you want them to do for a living? Or no, maybe your kid is going to realize that, you know what, I'm going to learn that part of it, but all the baby boomers are going out of business and selling their businesses. They don't have a kid to hand their business down to. So I'm going to acquire 1900 H-back companies. I'm going to be a gazillionaire, but I'm going to know it from this standpoint. And then I'm going to roll into it and get money from other places. And I'm going to then hire this industry because nobody's kid wants to be an H-back person or a plumber

when those people are going to be making $300,000 a year. It's just how you twist it. That's exactly right. By the way, I just literally told this kid yesterday who's graduating business school at a very, very prominent school, maybe the most prominent one that you'd all know. And I said, hey, man, don't be opposed to being a plumber because that's where the money's going to be at and own it a bunch of plumbing businesses. Anyway, this is such good stuff. This is why I told you guys what happened when we put Damon and I together. So speaking of that, connecting, there's a thing you're doing.

I want to know more about it because I really don't understand it. I want you to tell us what it is. What is CEO access? because I think you're connecting these CEOs, and they'll expand their brands. Am I right about that? Like, what is exactly the... Hey, guys, new year, new systems, right?

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They don't build tech for tech's sake. They build it for you. Find technology built for the way you work at dell.com slash XPS. Built for you. You're doing. It's funny. So, you know, as I learned, I evolved. You know, one day I was, I was talking to one of my CEO, buddy.

And he said, hey, you want to help me brand myself because you know what? I'm finding out that I need a brand myself. I said, no, this guy's doing like $4 billion a year. I said, you don't need any help. I'm here, you know, I'm here for, I'm the people stock. I'm here for the people. And he's like, yeah, okay. Now, I know this man.

And this man has adopted many children. He's done a lot of stuff in life. And he is one of the purest people you'll ever meet, you know. And he said, but if you help me, then I can help more people. And I said, holy shit, I'm becoming what I'm fighting against. somebody, you know, and I said, you know, I'll work with you. And so what I decided is, like, we only have a limited amount of time. If I go on an, Ed, my life podcast, you know, Ed doesn't need me, you know, next week and next month, but who, and Ed is sitting there going, who do you have,

and I know everybody would love to be with you, but you're like, who do you have in your Rolodex that can talk on this topic on a granular level because I need to bring real debt? Okay, I got this person. If I go on CNBC, MSNBC, I show people that I'm not the smartest person in the world, but I got the Henry Ford thing, but I know the smartest person in the world. And I bring on this person. And what happens is I share staging with them. So a lot of my CEOs, I've gotten them on cover of success magazines and various other things. But for the right reason, guys who are walking, girls who are walking in the room and the room needs to know who they are before they get in. And like I tell people, if you're not in charge right now, where are the day and age is no longer

make it they will come. They want to know who's making it, why you're making it. But CEOs today, they can't go to their executive assistant and say, make me famous for the right reasons. Well, do you hire a publicist? Do you hire this, that? Who's the one who talks on about estate planning when you now have a billion dollars in your bank? Who's the one who talks some about being non-collectable? So there's a lot of real estate brokers.

There's only one Barbara Corcoran. There's a lot of basketball team owners. There's only one Mark Cuban. There's a lot of real estate developers, the most powerful man. world, not talking of religion or politics here. There's only one Donald Trump. There's only one, you know, Damon John. I just put a couple of Fubu's on a shirt.

You have to be able to brand yourself now because if not, you're at the mercy of the kid in the mail room who has 200,000 followers who decided to say you're a racist or a misogynistic pig. You've got to go and get spin doctors. Your business is over and you had to cut 40% of that hardworking staff because you never had a microphone. And so I, you know, CEO need to need to brand themselves. So I've created like a management company where CEOs was managed by me. And my team and my staff, I'm not only the president.

I'm a client. You know, so that's what they treat everybody like they treat me. So that's what CEO access is. Anybody you think, anybody out there who is interesting could potentially qualify, we can only take two a year. Check out CEO access.com. Very good, you guys. By the way, it's what I said earlier.

It's not who you know. It's who knows you. It's actually both. But this helps with the who you know. Let me ask you this last. By the way, this has been a tremendous conversation. I don't even know we're going to go in some of these directions. I'm really grateful that we did.

I love that you have such depth and range of topic. I love that about you. What about this idea of community and brand? I'm just trying to think of something that, you know, not everyone's thinking about right now. So you just said for that CEO, obviously them building a brand matters. I feel like I don't. I don't know that that's just limited to a CEO. Like, in real estate here, I'm in, I'm in Ponavider Beach.

There's a couple, there's a billion realtors, but there's a couple people online that are kind of like become like the mayor of Pontovendra type brand. You know what I mean? And I can honestly say, if I was to go sell a house, I'm probably, this is, it's the person I see the most regularly. I would probably go to them. So what about brand building for anybody? Maybe you don't think it needs to be for everybody, and that's completely fine.

And then also community. Two things are correlated to me a little bit. How important is it for a company to build a community as it builds its brand like Fubu did? Like Starbucks has. It's kind of a community, right? Those two things for your everyday entrepreneur out there, should they still be working themselves on building a brand in a community themselves? Yeah, absolutely. You know, we talk about the CEOs.

I talk about that because that just happens to be where I, you know, where I am and where I can add the most value, but I wrote a whole book on it, right? The brand within. It is for every single person is a brand. So two things. Number one, you are a brand, you are a business. Whether you think a brand that's the crest on, you know, the shield representing, you know, a royal family or a family here or you, you know, you being a brand of a family in a church or a family who lost food, everybody's the brand and you are personally a brand. You know, you have to be, I always say people have to be able to put themselves in two to five words. Now, it could be 10 words.

But if you can't define the two to five words who you are, well, then you walk into the room, you leave it up to other people to interpret. And why is that more powerful now than other before? Because we're no longer shaking your hand and looking you in the eye and call your references. We're all looking at you through this. So we're checking you out before you walk into that room. And who is working for you as a founder or in your family? When I'm following them, I don't know if they're talking on their personal time or your time. Do we have, you know, the freedom of speech in this country.

But when your child is talking about you or talking about their life, I'm looking at the family's brand. Right? The child is brilliant. The child is smart. The child is nice. The child is cordial. Or the child's an animal. Who the hell?

It's their parent. Let me see what's going on at home. So you are personally brand. Community, 100%. The number one product in Shark Tank History, and it's mine, out of all 54 Shark Tank Tanks around the world, is Bombas socks. It's a sock. They do $2.7 billion this year, hit that mark, and why?

Every pair of socks they make, product is king, but they give a pair of way to those in the homeless community. Now, they don't just give them. way they're in the communities. They know the directors. They know the people. And so, you know, as a community, brands are a community. Don't think that your brand has to be, or your community has to be polished and great. Old dirty bastard was an old dirty bastard and he knew his community. Wu Kang was a certain way. But, you know, you have a brand. Let's talk about brands really cool. Well, you have this one that's in Bloomingdale or Louis Vuitton. It's the great.

You're only going to see one of these white shirts ever. Meanwhile, they got a hundred in the back. And you pay you $200 for that white shirt. All right, you go to Macy. Well, I want this white shirt. It has a polo horse. It looks like a guy playing horses and I'm going to look like I'm sexy, you know, a horse on a yacht. You pay about $70 for that. And that brand, you see other people wearing it. You know where they're from. And then there's the person who's like, I don't care about all that stuff. I'm a slob. And I'm going to buy three white T-shirts for a pack in a pack for $20. And when I spill crap on it, I don't care.

By the time you bought that one Louis Vuitton one, I got 100 shirts. And I give it away to those in the homeless community. Even the people out there who are you in California. I'm a tree hugger. Don't get me wrong. I'm a tree hugger. And I'm about to save the planet. But you're going to still see me around my Land Rover, my Yeti bucket, you know, my

North Face. I'm going to be hugging trees looking good. It's still a brand. So again, we are all communities. and brands. Was this good, you guys, or what? Like, sometimes at the end of the show, I go, hey, share the episode.

I don't need to ask anybody to do that today. This is going to several million people, I guarantee you. This is like why I do the show. By the way, everyone, you won't see this then. But it's he and I, we're four days before Christmas, and we're both still in the hunt right now. Those of the stores that are on your three-week, whatever trip you're on, just so you know,

maybe success leaves clues. We're both grinding. on the week of Christmas. Damon, this was so good. I'm really grateful that you did this. This was, we had a great show the other times. This is awesome right here, brother. So thank you so much. I love you, man. I wish we get to spend more time. We're always in passing, and I check on you, and we ask all our friends. I'm going down to head. Dan Fleishman's over at the Casaya Center handing out 30,000 toys to kids right now. I'm going to head down there, man. But I really, I'm always really impressed by you. You were just such an amazing human being and

such a powerful, powerful speaker communicator, man. Any time. And I don't want to do the Hollywood. Let's just try to get together. But let's just try to get together whenever we can. I love you, brother. God bless you. All right.

All right. Thank you, everybody. Share the episode. Max out. This is the Admireland show. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything. Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared.

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