THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Rise and Grind w/ Daymond John

Episode Date: December 22, 2020

THIS is what you've been waiting for! Daymond John turned $40 into a $6 BILLION fashion movement, FUBU. He’s s a 5-time bestselling author. He’s a shark investor on the 4-time Emmy Award-winning show Shark Tank AND one of the greatest motivational and business speakers in the world. He’s also my respected colleague and friend and one of the GREATEST entrepreneurs of all time! The entrepreneur’s path to success isn’t always pretty and Daymond and I are the REAL DEAL. In this interview, we are pulling back the veil of glamor as Daymond shares the STRUGGLE and GRIND he went through to build his empire. From learning how to turn your flaws into your winning assets and building up self-confidence to the skill of creating your personal presence and learning the fine art of negotiation, This interview will leave you equipped to compete with the best of the best. AND Daymond is giving the inside scoop on the #1 invested product on Shark Tank history! He reveals the secrets behind a successful pitch and the diffidence between entrepreneurs who take advantage of great opportunities vs the ones who drown in it. EXPERIENCE is life’s greatest teacher and there is SO MUCH of it in this interview you can’t afford to miss it! Get in on these MILLION DOLLAR business lessons the will put you ahead of 99% of the game!

This is the End My Little Show. Welcome back to Max Out, everybody. This is a great show today. I wanted to do it for a long time. The gentleman needs no introduction. Five best-selling books, 12 years on television. He's my favorite shark of all the sharks and a few of them are my friends, so I say that with some some bias. He's also, in my opinion, one of the greatest motivational and business speakers on earth. He's one of my favorite people to listen to. Took like 40 bucks, turned it into

billions of dollars in Fubu, and he's one of the great entrepreneurs of all time too. So, Damon John, welcome to Max out. Good to have you here. Thank you Ed. I mean I think the feeling and the respect is mutual. Thank you for the kind words and I appreciate being here. Thank you brother. If I met you young, I'm just curious. What I have known this was going to happen for you. I mean was there something about you that had I met you as a young man that would have indicated all of this would happen for you? You know it depends on the time you met me during my life. You know at the time when I was super that I met you as a young man that would have indicated all of this would happen for you? You know, it depends on the time you met me during my life. You know, at the time when I was super naive

and I thought it was just easy, you would have met me out of it. I'd been like, not a problem. And then that would have been probably around 16 to 17. I think that's when, you know, they like to induct the people into the armed forces because that's the smartest and the dumbest time of your life. And at that time, I thought I would have been it. And then right around 21-22, I realized that

I took that one year off of school, off of college, you know, to pursue other things that one year became forever. I laughed at all the other kids who searched the higher education and around 22-23. I was broke as a waiter and red lobster and all those kids that I laughed at was coming back from college and I said, maybe I'm the idiot. So it all depends on the time that you met me in life and how naive I was and if life had kicked me in the teeth properly the way it should have. The thing I noticed when we met,

there's not asking that is that, and we'll go to year a little bit, you know, about your upbringing a little bit. When I met you, one thing that struck me and we both met lots of people, is your personal presence. So I've heard you say before, I'm short, I'm black, and I'm dyslexic, you know, and that's, you describe yourself that way.

When I met you, I met a man with a ton of personal presence, almost bordering on almost intimidating, but certainly a lot of confidence. That's why what I ask. If you always had that, or is that something you developed as you became more successful, or were you conscious like, I need to develop this era of confidence about me, because all these entrepreneurs are listening to this. And one of the things that I think a lot of them lack is just some personal presence and self-confidence. Did you always have it, or did you work on it? I think it was a learned trade,

oh, you know, and being the short black order, but let's just say in my neighborhood, I was short, a lot of kids at that time were tough and they were drug dealers of fighter. I never really knew how to fight really well. Could I hold my own, yes, but there's always somebody with a bigger wallet, bigger winky and a bigger fist than you in the world, and I always realized that.

I think that it was then when I was able to manipulate my surroundings by knowing that the bigger kids respected me because I was smart or because some of the other cool kids or the drug dealer friends of mine respected me because I had a moral standard. And I said, listen, if you got something in the car and I know a good friend, just tell me to get out, man, don't put me in that situation.

And as I started to gain respect in various different areas of various different people, I found that I gained the confidence to walk into a room and know that I'm all I got, right? And I'm not going to overplay or disrespect you and play. I never played smarter than I was. So I love it. You know, when you and I, when we speak to colleges or B.C.s or whoever, it's a lot of people in the room walked in with the big brains, you know, like,

especially when I speak at big, huge schools, I make sure I go in the room and I say, listen, I'm not only going to tell you my story and this is my story and this is what I have retained from my story. However, the people here, the professors, they can teach me a lot of things on a Ph.D. level. And so I don't need, want to take away from them because I value what they do. And then all of a sudden, you see the professor sitting up in the audience, looking around because they know that I could have came in and said, well, I missed the so forth and so on. And this is the way it is.

And so when I walk into a room, I appreciate the other person's positioning. I know where I stand and I think that that makes us, and I try to break that other person up, if they not feeling like they're there. I think that's what gives me the confidence, because I know I'm exuberant confidence as well, as I'm trying to bring the confidence out of the person of the world, of the room and I respect them.

And I hope hopefully that is what you will witness it. Yeah, I did. And when people have asked me about it, I've described it. I think there's this balance with successful entrepreneurs. I mean, obviously, I have a great idea. They have to be able to execute. They have a really unique balance

that I see in you of really a presence and a self-confidence yet humility to learn and to grow and to be open. You seem to have like that major combination. Go back to the upbringing of just, because I want people to understand, you're one of the most well known obviously because of Shark Tank entrepreneurs too. But like you've written five books and but you're you legitimately dyslexic like how's that impacted you as an entrepreneur? I mean how'd you write books doing that?

Well you know um believe it or not eight eight out of the 12 sharks are dyslexic. So Richard Branson, myself, Kevin O'Leary, Barbara, I think Rohan and two others don't come to mind at the moment. So it's fascinating. And I didn't really find out that I was dyslexic till years on in life. I didn't find out I was dyslexic until two-way pages came out.

Because you got to remember as a dyslexic kid, I'd write a love note or I write a letter to my mom, you know, my mother, you know, Damon Hayes and she'll say, he needs to fix this. I write it to my teacher. She sends back the really nice, you know, D-minus and I write a love letter to my girlfriend. She just leaves me and I never knew why. I didn't know to say what the hell I was saying. But when communication started to come out to write to other people, emails and two-way pages, I would start sending stuff out. I probably just started getting a staff at the time and people would start getting those emails going on. Two-way pages going, and you know, a couple of them would say, Hey, do you know this

or if it was a really angry one to somebody, they'd write back, you dumb motherfuckers, you know what you're saying? So either way, I started to understand that there was an issue there and then I want to got tested and realized that I had dyslexia. But when I reflect on growing up as a child with dyslexia, I think the gift of dyslexia is the fact that if I had to read a book and I didn't retain up as a child with dyslexia, I think the gift of dyslexia is the fact that, if I had read a book and I didn't retain anything, as much as I should, I'd read it 10 times

to make sure I retain things. I would also go out and try to execute things that it said to do, because I wasn't certain if I retained it the right way. I also veered away from school, from history and English, but I really love math and science and started trying to build the areas I was good at, numbers, you know, in barracks and things. So, listen, it is what I was born with. 20% of the world is dyslexic, seven presidents were dyslexic, Einstein was dyslexic,

and 85% of professional chefs are, and over 40% of entrepreneurs are dyslexic and 85% of professional chefs are and over 40% of entrepreneurs are dyslexic. So I don't think it's a problem. I think it's just a different form of absorbing information. Wow. No idea. That was the data. The reason I go there is like, I think we're all really aware of our deficiencies. Like, for me, it's one of the things you said, I walk into most rooms and I know I don't

have the highest IQ in the room. You know, but I didn't allow that thing I was aware of that was one of my deficiencies to make me believe I couldn't be successful or win. I think a lot of people listen to this. So like, well, you know, y'all win, but you don't know this thing about me. Like I've got this divorce or I had this bankrupt

so you're I'm dyslexic or, you know, my dad's been locked up or whatever the thing is. And they start using that thing as the thing in their mind that will cause them not to succeed and then I'm reading about you because I wanted to do this justice because I have such respect for who you are and also Your message when I heard you talk my I love what he has to say so you're building Fubu You literally because I want entrepreneurs to hear this because in COVID this is a lot. You had to shut it down a couple times. Yeah. I mean, I want everyone to understand this. Take us through that a little bit, because that's, I think most people think it's over game clothes, door shut. I'm out. Well, that didn't just happen once with you, right? Correct. So I shut it down three times from 89 to 92. It did not happen once,

but I was always able to recover from the shutdown because I was taking affordable steps, right? I was acting, I was learning, and I was repeating the act. So I would lose $500, $1,000. And honestly, I didn't know, I didn't know if I wanted to start over again. Again, it was another hustle and other passion that I had. Well, this one was more passion than all the ones, all the ones would do purely to make money. And I didn't love what I was doing. So I ended up quitting or closing up whatever shop it was and not wanting to go further. But when I would close this business and people would say, man, I wore this shirt. I've been looking for you at the mall or at the, at the key. I asked you, where

were you? I, I, I, I started to call me back and I found more reasons than the business that called me back. I found, well, I felt like a place of belonging. I felt like I was adding value to other people. You know what? I got shirts, I got my 10 little shirts, but I'm going on video sets where rappers like L.O.Q.J. Salt and Pepper and Rundincy are performing.

I would have paid to go on that set to watch the greatest artists as far as I'm concerned of all times, my time, perform. But yet, when the security is kicking all the kids off, I'm like, yeah, I'm here to address the artist. So they would kick me off last, plus I was hollering all the video bigsins and I was getting free food from the craft services.

So it was a win-win for me. So even if I went to 40 video sets and only five put my stuff in, 35 of the video says, I would have, I couldn't wait to be there. So it was a win all around. And that's what a lot of times when entrepreneurs see that they're challenged. They find ways to figure it out because there are so many more things than just the monetary, usually the monetary reward is an afterthought of your actions and the lessons you've learned and the drive and your dedication. And that's what I found it to be.

Did you have to get a job in between? Like you shut it down, you wouldn't get a regular old job. Oh my God, so I worked at Red Lobster for five years as I did Fubu because, you know, and the day, don't let Shartank fool anybody here when Kevin O'Leary says, well, I want my partner to work full end of the day. Don't let shartanks fool anybody here when Kevin O'Leary says, well, I want my partner to work full time on the business. Okay, if you're doing half a million, a million,

or whatever the case is, but I worked at Relapse for five years and I slept three hours a night. I rented out my house that I had to strangers. So I had three bedrooms. I rented that out for $25 a piece each bedroom. I slept in the sleeping bags next to the sewing machines as we was sewing clothes.

In the morning from 6 to 11 a.m., I would answer that at that time a voicemail machine and so in deliver hats, I'd go to Red Lobster from 12 to 10 o'clock at night, work a double ship, come home and then sew more hats and answer more things from 12 to three and then get back up a six in a morning, I repeated all over, but I was hopefully taken care

of the mortgage by running out the house at $25 a room. So I was getting $75 a week there. I had insurance at Red Lobster. I was taking all the fried shrimp home, all the food home and I was making $30,000 a year, which is not a lot, but you equate that to you

equate that to five years. That's $150,000. I, which is not a lot, but you equate that to, you equate that to five years, that's $150,000. I would have to do $2 million in business at a Fouble to do that. And I was able to last until I was able to now, you know, increase my time from, you know, 20% on Fouble to 80% on Fouble and 20% on Relobser and then hopefully take it to where I'm going to go.

This is the real entrepreneur story. This is what I wanted. They got you just said that. Like I'm so glad because like, just so everybody knows, like, same with me. I had a house, I was doing well. I didn't well enough so like I quit my job. I was full time my first big business,

a bought a house, then I went broke, then I was stocking shelves and I did the same thing. I rented rooms out in my house so I didn't lose the damn house as I built my business. I just hope all entrepreneurs get a little hope when they hear this and also they hear the hard part in there which is like, hey, I slept three hours. Yeah, I was psyched up. I was psyched up.

So by the way, when people seem really smart like Damon does or I have something to say, a lot of it is experience. Experience is one of the best teachers, man. And that's why he knows so much about being on tour because he's done so much of it. Now, I want to ask you this. On Shark Tank, how many have been that you've invested in? Percentage-wise, roughly, winners, losers.

What you would consider a winner loser? What would you say of where you put your efforts and money? What percentage of the ones you've gone in on have been winners and losers? So I say 30% of winners. I always say 30 well 30% of winners 30% of losers and 30% of those are still trying to figure their way out. And we happen to have of course um you know we have to happen to have a little bit more of an upside on Shark Tank because you look at traditional venture, it's probably one and a half to two percent to 20 percent, excuse me, or one out of 10 or winners, we happen to have a $5 million commercial on that product and or that company when it happens. So that's why I got a little bit more of an upswing. However, my downside is

a little bit more also because Shark Tank sometimes I will emotionally invest in people that may not have the the the best thing in the world, but I know that the entire world are watching them and if I invest in them I can potentially bring them to somebody else that may be more specialized in their area and give them more help that they need. And a perfect example of that and I don't know why anybody said, well, that's a charity, a perfect example of that. I used to have three kids that came on with a cut board product that their father had passed away and their mother had passed away.

The father passed away 9-11 related causes. And normally that cut board probably would not have went where it has gone. But we licensed this as a Williams Sonoma. The entire world got behind it. And it is one of the best products in William Sonoma. So you got that healthy balance of people that really need that stage, that really need help, but simultaneously they're inspiring a lot of people around the country and around

the world. So anyway, to answer the question, I got a little bit of a stack deck when it comes to the successes, but I got a little bit more of the challenges when it comes to the challenges. Yeah, I want to figure out a little bit from you with the winners and losers. I have one of my favorite ones you did is Bomba Sox. And I want people to hear about this because I Blake McCoskey on, my Koskey on,

who did Tom Shoes, kind of a similar concept, right? Yeah, but I feel like maybe these guys taught me something too. I'm learning, you know, I'm turning 50 this year. I'm learning more about what I think the consciousness of the world is now in terms of the businesses people want to support. Maybe it's a little bit different than

when I was a kid you want to be like Mike, it was almost like you want to be like this hero. It seems to me now people want to be a part of something else. So Tomba Bob Bomba Sox, be a good commercial, but also like why it's working and the fundamentals of it. So that entrepreneurs list this, may need to sow some of these seeds in there.

Yeah, I think you hit a fantastic point. So Blake is a guest shark this year, and he definitely is the pioneer of the social causes behind things. And there's so many different things we can learn from bomba stocks. So by the way, bomba stocks is the number one invested product in shark tank is the number one invested product

in Shark Tank history. Number one, right? So I get those bragging rights, because when you see those other underachievers, I call my fellow sharks, just remind them that I share that great information with you. Now, here's a couple of things you can look at from Bama Sox. Number one, when they came on,

they were pitching socks. And the last person that they should have been pitching was me because I had 10 clothing brands and eight of them were already dead the last thing I wanted was another clothing brand. So I was the last one they should be pitching. But often when you're pitching somebody and or customer, they don't know what you want until you present and package it

in the right way and show a unique way of a selling proposition. But what they realized was I was doing business the old way. I was making clothes and hopefully a retailer buy them and hopefully the retailer put it on the shelf and hopefully somebody will buy it and if they didn't buy it, I didn't know who they were to even follow up. So they were showing me the number one,

I'm gonna show you how to go direct to consumer which we're seeing during COVID is especially critical and that's separating a lot of people and companies. Number two, they had a social cause to it. Every time they give a pair of socks away, they would also sell a pair of socks. They would give a pair away to the homeless. Now, I'm a person that grew up in business

which traditionally you gave at the end of the year or you gave to organizations. And even when I gave at the two organizations, I never advertised it. I never marketed it because why make a profit off of the hardship of others. Kind of like the people you see, giving away food or sandwich, a homeless person, and they got a camera shoved right in their face going,

look at me, and they're forcing this person, not only to take a sandwich, not forcing them, but to even feel lower because they're on camera, right? So I never wanted to do that. However, that was how I worked 20 years ago today with user generated content and people wanting to be get behind something. They want to look through the layers of what you're doing And they want to tell people not you they want to tell people your story, right? And they feel that they can buy from anybody. So if I'm going to buy from you, what are you doing for other people? I can buy socks from anybody. So what I found is that not only they make a good pair of socks, they're very focused on what it is, but I found that,

you know, when people on Zoom or the dinner table or Thanksgiving, they say, hey, hey, will you help, man, you know, I gave away this year, you know, to this organization, they're like, yeah, well, I gave, I gave to 30 organizations here. Wow, you rich, no? But every time I bought this, I helped clean up the ocean. Every time I bought this, I helped stop human trafficking. Every time I bought this, I helped give a pair of socks to the homes. And you know what?

That is the marketing. And that's good marketing. It's cause-related. And it's really important. And so people also can get penalized if they're not doing something for you. And by the way, don't just don't just put a rubber stamp of something that you think is good. If people will also find out if you're not, you know, really true to what your core values are and what you're saying

you're doing. So be honest about it, change the world, and people will definitely appreciate it. That's legit. Any of you that are entrepreneurs is giving you such remarkable advice. You've got to find a way that there's some social viral aspect of what you just got to be genuine. You can't, I don't think anywhere, I think I think I think people smell bullshit a mile away and like there's got to be transparent. So you can't transfer to people that what you're really not feeling and experiencing. It's got to be something you really have a passion for. But you can find a way to sow those seeds into whatever your business is on camera to dry cleaners. If there's something that you do that extends beyond

just cleaning clothes, you're special in this day and age. What did the I'm curious, is there's some commonality that we can learn from from the ones that you said were the 30% that lost, let's just say. Was there commonality and lack of effort of the entrepreneur, lack of execution? What would you say there's a common thread between the ones that have, I guess, failed? The commonality in the winners and the commonality in the ones that didn't get where they should be are pretty much similar in some sense. There are many losers, or there are many that lose, and then

they start over more wisely in a different area. So that means that maybe the product and or the service, the thing they had was too soon too early, or they hit some pickups. However, just like Damon closing three times, they were able to do it, you know, but the ones who lose and generally lose and stay in stay in that area, unfortunately, are the ones who believe, well, the shark is, the shark got, the shark knows everything, and now that I got a shark, my problems are over. And if I knew everything, then Fubu would be called Nike. And it's not.

So they use a shark as a crutch, those are the ones, the ones who say, well, the reason, if I had more advertising dollars out there, then I would, or I had more money and they don't have the orders, they don't have those things, then I would do better. Well, money highlights your weaknesses as well. If you're not moving in a product and you have a shitty advertising campaign, well, a million dollars more in a shitty advertising campaign, just means you spent more money

on a shitty advertising campaign. Well, a million dollars more in a shitty advertising campaign. Just means you spent more money on a shitty advertising campaign. Or the product is inferior. Or you don't know how, who your direct customer is. Those are the people that tend to fail the ones who put big bets on their areas. They don't know. And those are the ones who drown in opportunity. As you want to call it or they say, if you have too many options, you don't have enough information. Really kids. You guys know what I wanted them on now. By the way, you go to Damon's site too.

He's got a lot of different programs. Look, here's the deal you guys. Most really successful entrepreneurs. Here's a rare combo. You're a successful entrepreneur. I mean, a real one. And you create content. Because the truth is, someone like Damon,

and I'd like to think even myself, the return on created content and helping entrepreneurs financially isn't as good as just executing in the businesses that we have. So the reason we do it is that of a sincere desire to serve people. That's what I've since from Damon, and now I'm listening, I'm like, it's so convinced of it.

So he's one of the real that you could learn from that creates content. And by the way, like, it's so convinced of it. So he's one of the real that you could learn from that creates content. And by the way, like, is it the power of broke? Is that the one I just read? Is that what they're trying to look? I have power broke, I have Ryzen Grine. The one is just out now is called Power Shift. Yeah, I try to put power somewhere or something.

You know, I try to fix it, put it in there, yeah. I just finished reading the power of broke. And by the way, you should get all five books. Guys, it's so good. Like, like, there's books you read and you're like, I'm going to highlight four or four things in here that I'm going to remember. The problem with his book is like, there was very few areas I wasn't highlighting. Like, the book was highlighted. And one of the things you talk about a lot is negotiation. So when you watch Shark Tank, that's a highlighted negotiation taking place, right? But like almost everything's negotiation.

Yeah. Like that's sales, communication, persuasion is negotiation. What are some of the nuances you could teach us the fine points of negotiation that most people are unaware of? There's so many things that, you know, and I think that you're right, right? What separates us from the people who are successful? It's really what you have in negotiate and like you said, there's so many different forms in the go.

Listen, try to get the remote control away from your significant other or getting your child to get on the school bus or getting into the bathroom before your roommate is in negotiation, right? But you never got in negotiate with yourself first in the mirror in the daytime, you know, when you get up, right? That's my worth. And can I do this? You know, why, you know, and so there's a couple of things in the negotiation. First of all, know your why. Why are you getting into negotiation and know also in the negotiation? What are you trying to accomplish? What is your bottom line and what is your top line? Right?

Also, how do you build influence in the negotiation? If you see somebody like I add my lead or Damon John on the elevator, you say Damon. Okay, cool. How would I build influence with you in 90 seconds in the elevator? I didn't know I was gonna speak to you. Well, I remember a young woman, I was an elevator. She told me her business and she had the perfect pitch. She was simple. Here's my business.

I know that I can have value because here, because this is where I think you need and you know what, I'm going to put some skin in the game and do this for 30 days, 60 days, a month, whatever the case is, give me a contact over your company. You know what, if nothing comes out of it, at least I tried and you know what, no harm, no foul. She made the barrier entry extremely easy for me. She had a name on her card very easy to follow up and she said, let me speak to your people. I'm not going to even bother you, right? And she knew where I could potentially go in business. I go out of the elevator,

I look up on social media. Every time I see her picture, she looks great. I keep seeing this guy next to her. He keeps having the Confederate flag on. I keep looking at who this guy is. It's her husband. I go further into his page. I see that, you know, there's some things that are very questionable in my life about what I would do. She'll never know why I didn't call her. She didn't have to put all that information on there. I mean, listen, whatever your political beliefs are, whatever your religious sexual beliefs are, that's solely up to you. But what are parents tell you?

If you ain't got nothing nice to say, don't say it at all. And when you're putting up stuff like that, you don't know who's washing the entire world. She lost her influence after she had already had the negotiation with me. So build influence with people. Then when you go in the room, when you discuss with, don't let Shark Tank for you.

Shark Tank, the world is not like Shark Tank. Like you just said, the world does not eight minutes of high sharks and then you either leave with a deal or not. You almost never leave with a deal when you first meet somebody. It's a dating process. And when you are talking to them, what's in it for the person you're talking to? Not you. You got to realize that person has obligations, hopes and dreams. Ask the right questions. You see, even when I was writing that book, Power Shift, I was a Mark Cuban. He's in the book. He's highlighting a lot of people in the book, right? Billie Jean King, Pitbull, Chris Jenner,

huge people. My guy who sits next to me every day on a sharting, I keep telling my team, contacting I wanna get the interview together and the dead lot is coming up. He would not get on the phone and he would not meet with people with the writer and my team was looking at me like, hey, you know, Mark is not doing that. And now I said to myself,

obviously it's because I'm much smarter and much better looking than Mark. And you know, he's intimidated or I can internalize it as this guy's an asshole. He sits next to me, but is this some Hollywood stuff he's on? But you know what I said? You're probably not asking Mark the right question. Mark is someone who publicly gives out his email. He only, he loves texts in whatever the case is.

He's not dyslexic. Did he ask him, can he do it over text? They said, we never asked. That's stupid. I Did he ask him, can he do it over text? They said, we never asked, that's stupid. I said, ask him if he could do it over text. Interview was done in 24 hours. Now, I could have internalized that, been offended. It's just like you're walking the room, and like I said to you earlier,

you know, where I came from, I could have walked the room and said, oh, it's because I'm black, isn't I? No, it's not because you're black. You got a damn book of hangin' on you, as well, I'm lookin' at you weird, right? You know, so it's all about what's in for the other person. And then the final part of negotiation is, how do you nurture the relationship after that and

let it keep paying dividends? Whether you close the deal or not, how is that person going to call Ed and say, Damon's a decent dude, or Damon's gonna call about Ed and say, yeah, he's a good guy, or or do more deals after. And those are the processes of negotiating. And we can get way into it much further. But a lot of people mess up in those processes. Really, really good. You know, one of the things that happens when you're an entrepreneur is you're so nervous, maybe you're not as confident

in what you're going to say, or you're not as confident in your product or service or what it is. And what happens is now you're so hyper focused on yourself, you miss the major thing, Damon, just said, which is that the person that you're speaking to means to know what's in it for them. And you spend all your time worrying about you and pitching you.

That's huge. And then the other thing he said, man, I just gotta say this, the social media stuff. Look, people say, hey, if you're not really yourself on social media, you're not being real and legit. Listen, you're not posting butt naked pictures to yourself, everybody. There's a degree to which you reveal yourself.

And you're gonna post a bunch of controversial stuff all the time, it's going to impact you to some extent. So just be smart. Like, you don't show all of you all the time and you shouldn't be doing that on social. So speaking of social, your life's interesting to me because it's like this, you know, there's this first half of your life

where you built this unbelievable, I don't know, brand and wealth and that other stuff, but then speaking of your social, so family stuff, I'm just curious with you. There's Yasmeen and Destiny, right? Mm-hmm. How's that changed you? Like for me, I was a relatively successful entrepreneur.

I had my ups and downs. But once I started at I had Max and Bella like my, I don't know, maybe my risk tolerance changed a little bit and also my desire level to make them proud of me, you know, I don't have to explain it. I became a much deeper committed human than I was prior to having children, what did, same or what?

Yeah, I think children treated me like, so I was fortunate enough to have, he has me in a destiny when I was early 30s and I just came in a money with Foubu, and I had them, excuse me, my first wife had them. And I was busy at that time, I think like most nervous parents were to say, I finally got this bite at the Apple at Foubu.

How much money can I make to make sure that these little girls will have the resources they're going to need as they grow older? And I don't care if I work for, you know, the sanitation department, I would have just worked overall, every extra hour I could have gotten. And as most parents here is, I was sleeping in cardboard box if I had to give my kids the things they needed. My daughter now that I'm fortunate enough to have remarried in my ex-wife is my best friend and my two older girls are great citizens and great human beings. So I'm very, very fortunate for that. But now it's how much love can I give this

little girl? You know, it's a little different than before. I even though I love my other daughter, but now it's how much love because as we all know as parents, my daughter's grew up like that. It just was a blink of an eye. And that's why in Ryzen Grind, I wrote, I wrote Ryzen Grind about that because one of the biggest challenges we'll always have is work-life balance. It's a big question. Everybody asks, and you work-life balance changes. You know, the Damon John at 22 years old, I didn't have any obligations. Right, I didn't have kids. I was able to eat pizza and not have heartburn all night

and sleep three hours a day, right? So that was a different Damon John. The Damon John at 45 and 50 is the Damon John that learned a couple of lessons of work life balance. You know, when I was 30 years old, I traveled the world twice and I shook everybody's hand on the planet four times. And the whole world was purely a conference room, an airport, a hotel, and a dinner. The Damon John now travels around steels a day, you know, to pull my shorts up to my nipples and have a camera and put I love grease and walk around, right? Or instead of going to a club, go diving, you know, instead of going to a club,

go diving off a different coast because I've seen every club, but I haven't seen every coast, every, every coral reef in Thailand or whatever the case is. And prioritize, you know, and when I get up in the morning, I don't look associated for the first hour. I don't look at, I don't look at emails for the first hour because the first hour of looking at social media, if you look at there, everybody's skinnier and sexier and wealthier than you when they just screwed up. And if you open up emails, you're letting, while you're in the bed, you're letting people tell you their problems, they're telling you their problem.

I've never gotten emails that you know that problem yesterday. I've solved it and there's five million dollars on this way so I don't do that and I write down What I'm gonna do first in my life during the course of the day because normally our schedule goes What train a plane or conference call a zoom? Am I gonna be on and this and that and then you know when we were running around it was how I'm gonna have two different Dinners with clients that I don't run and wanna see you turn around, you don't ever see your wife or your children. And what happened one day was my,

and this is why I called to write Ryzen Run because I was out with one of my colleagues who went to speaking gig and he said, he lives in San Diego, he said, I gotta get home. I said, why? I gotta get home. I gotta take my two daughters, one is 12, one is 13. I gotta take them with separate dates. I said, they're 12 and 13.

Why would you have to take your daughters on separate dates? He said, because if I don't take my daughters on dates, how will they ever know how a man is supposed to treat them the first time they go on a date? And it just punched you my gut. Bang! Open the door goes around the car to open the door. You know what I mean? Let's her order first and all the, you know, know all of all the various things. And I said I have not been putting my personal life, my criteria, the things that are important to me before everybody else. And that's why we're rising right. So those are the things that have changed in my life as I've grown as a man. And I'm still learning every single day how to be a better husband, a better person and everything else. That's what I mean about you. I that's what I mean.

And by the way, guys, in my book, I say, Hey, don't check your email in your text and stuff in the first hour. And I have to tell you that I learned that from him. And you've been saying that for a long time. And I'm like, that's exactly what I do. I roll over and I start reacting into my problems of media. And I do exactly that. And the other thing he said too, it's like, you know, there are dads, we both know these guys or moms, but just take dads because we're

meant to do that. That date thing comes very natural to them. Of course, I'm going to do that with my dog. I think high power in general, high power to cheever psycho people like us and many of the people listen to this. That stuff isn't naturally occurring to us. And so, and then by the way, the guy who that occurs to very easily, he may not be able to achieve and produce like we do. And so it's important to be conscious of those things because I do that now, I do date nights and stuff with my daughter too,

mainly because other people taught me it. What probably my daughter would have left my house, man, after 18 years, it would have never occurred to me that I should have done those kinds of things with my daughter. My dad didn't do it with my sisters. And it's just, I'm below and end going all the time. So that's what happened to me with Destiny as me. And I didn't do that with them.

I'm going to do it now with mine. She's four, but I so hopefully I got, you know, I got, I don't know, I don't know, whatever 13 years or whatever. I wish I could do it one more time. That would be so cool, ever baby. Now speaking of that, just life wise, I can ask you with this is like, you just found out or recently found out or you have siblings that you didn't know about.

Yeah, I was just asking you. You know, so my father left when I was 10 and I never see a speak-dum-over again. And I knew that I heard that he had had two daughters. And I was waiting till they were of age to reach out to them and contact them because obviously, you know, I knew that he probably, you know, was it either ashamed or whatever the case is or didn't want and I finally did, you know, and the universe

brought us up together because they found out who I was and I found out who they were and, you know, about three years ago, you know, we got together and I've never experienced that type of love in my life. I've never had a sibling. So I never understood how it is to have, of course, more females. I don't have any males in my life, which is a blessing, but there's a certain type of love you have a daughter, a certain type of love you have for a wife, a certain type of love you have for a mother, but a sister is just a different

love. And after 50 years to experience this type of love, you know, it's really enriching and it's a great thing. Dude, that's so cool. That is a trip. So you knew they existed. You just didn't have them in your life. You had to wait for the right time.

Right. Because I think my sister is now 26, but up until 18 or whatever it is, 18 or 21, if I had to reach out to them, I didn't know how this guy would respond. And I didn't want to meet or see my father. I didn't have a problem with the fact I think that I wouldn't be here without him.

That life has just happened to me at that point. And I wouldn't have taken the role as a man of the house and taken, you know, my family, that's not my family's Trinidadian and it's part of Indian culture and I would have more likely have been an engineer or a computer program or nothing wrong with that. But I wouldn't have been the entrepreneur that I am today. What a trip. So a couple of things left. I'm enjoying it so much.

Just so you know, I knew when we talked out and enjoyed it, we're like, I'm about to join us so much. I knew when we talked out and enjoyed it, we're like, I'm enjoying it to a degree there. Yeah, me too. I would do this. I mean, I would do it if it was just you and me talking. I could even put this out, but I'm asking a hard question because it's interesting. You met me at 25 or you at 25 or 30. There's something better about me in some ways that that is than you would get now. There was a scrappiness and eginus of fire. I still have more and so do you than 99.9% of the planet has, but they're just something different when you're hungry, right?

So, you know what I mean? It's like how hard a dude will fight to become heavyweight champion in the world compared to a once-or-heavyweight champion in the world, not that either one of us are heavyweight champions, but the principal, you understand the point. So there's a lot to be learned from that 30-year-old me that 30-year-old you, but there's also a lot to be learned from the more experienced one, too. So here's the hard question,

because I've been thinking about this for me, too. What did you use to believe when you were 30 about business or life that you no longer believe to be true? Something that you believe that you no longer believe. Excellent question, never been asked that before. And as I reflect on what I believed about life was that the whole theory of I'll sleep when I'm dead. You know, the kind of go, you know, maximize your hours

and it wasn't necessarily working hard and not smart, it was a combination of both, but it was like, how dare you, um, not, uh, how dare you sleep when you know that you're willing to get up before everybody and go to bed after everybody. Well then why would you do it? Um, I got to tell you, when I was, um, I must have been right before the food, but took off and I was right in that low area of not working at Red Lobster, but still working on food will and food wasn't defined yet. And I literally thought I was going crazy for about six months because I was actually sleeping like seven hours or eight hours a day.

And I couldn't go to sleep. I just literally thought, now I'm not a person who is suicidal or anything like that. But I gotta say go to sleep. I just, I literally thought, now I'm not a person who is suicidal or anything like that, but I got to say it was the closest I got to just being going crazy. So in life, I would think that back then, I did like to take care of my health. I was training, you know, for fitness competitions, but I never competed, but I liked it, but why was I training? I wanted to get girls, you know, you know, I wanted to blow off steam, right? But it wasn't about having health, because then I'd eat, I'd eat a bucket of fried chicken or

whatever the case is, and that wasn't a problem, you know, whatever the case is. So the theory of taking care of yourself internally was not as important then, and it was like, who know, whatever case is so the theory of taking care of yourself internally was not as important then and it was like, who cares, just go hard as long as you're not being going out there and, you know, doing bad things. I think a business, my theories then were, you know, acquire, acquire, it's wreckable, it's wreckable, it's like acquire, go through go through it You know use your tools like you know like build your army move forward hurry up and be in different industry because you never know What you want to pop and then I learned that no be some be more slow and methodical Don't necessarily rush. You know what it's more the things that

You take on that can hurt you than the things you say no to say no. One. God says that. Yeah, you know, it's say no more. Also, it was the numbers look good. I know, but in your gut is telling you something about the person, no, no, no, but the numbers look good and I got it. Let's go. No, now it's, I don't know if even I have an answer for you, but something about this, I just don't like it. I don't feel if I even have an answer for you, but something about this, I just don't like it. I don't feel everything is great. Sorry, I don't even know if I have the answer. Maybe I'll figure out the answer later.

God is that not true. The last two things. Trust your damage or wish it. God's that's so true. There's been so many times, like this just looks too good, but there's something about this dude. I just, he may not even be a bad dude.

We just don't buy, but it's not gonna click dude. I just he may never be a bad dude We just don't buy but it's not gonna click you know Same exact thing and saying no. I said no to absolutely nothing for about 20 years. Yeah Complicated my life that stressed my life. It took focus away from my life man, I so oh my god totally agree with you on that like a million a million percent So you speak about hell Oh my God, totally agree with you on that. Like a million, a million percent. So you speak about health. I just want to know this because I have had a little bit myself. You had a little bit of a almost got this wrong before we went on air, which would have been funny, but you had a thyroid cancer issue, right?

So that changed anything like did it change your perspective on time or your wellness, your health, like tell us about that a little bit. Yeah. And I think I put it in one of the books, but I would rather tell you now, it's so so listen, at one point a buddy of mine, really well known guy, you may not know, I don't know, name Bernie Yumini, he discovered a small act out of Austria named, Sigfreen Arroyd, brought them to Vegas, and then he also managed his box so that he met when he's 15 years old, named Cassius Clay. He rode him home on his bicycle on the handlebars

of his bicycle, told his dad, he went to the Jewish community, his dad is Jewish, he went to his Jewish, how way he lived and said, dad, and dad was like, hey, who's on your bike? Oh, this guy's gonna be the next heavyweight champion in the world. What's the name, Cassius Clay? So I don't know that.

I do not know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. on your bike? Oh, this guy's going to be the next heavyweight champion in the world. What's the name? Cash was clay. So I'm not going to happen. I did not know that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So I was out one day with him and he said, what all the money you got? Why don't you take it? You why don't you have an executive physical? And I said, I don't know what an executive physical is. Remember, I never worked in a corporation. I've had a business and you call it a corporation. Yes. I said, what is it?

He said, just go have them. So I realized that executive physical is they put you through 20 machines over the course of two days and they check everything on you. And when you use that, I was like, I'm okay. The doctor grabbed something on me, he tells me to call up and sticks his finger in my ass and then tell me to go about my way, no problem.

And I've been healthy ever since I was a certain, I go to get this executive physical. They said, there's a little bump on your car, uh, carada, uh, in this area when they were looking for my carada, excuse me, they were a little bump here. I go to the doctor, they do a biopsy, they said 90% of chance we're going to be able to tell what it is, 10% chance we can. Of course, 10% chance they can. Dr. Says, listen, you have a little nonjalant thyroid. We want to,

if you were 90, I would say leave it there, but you're 50 years old or 47 or 49. I would say, take it out, but here's the chance. 50 percent chance you're taking on half of a person, perfectly good thyroid. 50 percent chance that could be problematic. I go take it out. The one hour surgery becomes three and a half hours surgery. They take it out. It's the size of golf ball. It's a mass. I didn't know I had. I say, and you know, you talk to doctors. They never give the damn ass. I said, what is it? It's cancerous. I can't tell you. I don't know. Let send it away. You know, you know what? And just send it away. All right. Send it away. If you say we're going to take two weeks for you to find out what it is. In

that two weeks, the first week I said to myself, I had to do the why, I had to have the negotiation with myself. I said, you know what, I lived 10 lives that other people have not lived. I have two beautiful daughters. My mother's still alive. I don't wanna see my mother die. And I have three beautiful daughters because I have a super hot wife and a youngest daughter.

And if I die, my youngest daughter will never remember me. She's three years old, two years old. My wife is so smoke and hot. She's going to have another husband in a week. My mother is great and I don't want to see me bury my mother and my other two daughters great citizens and great human beings. And you know what? Maybe I need to down, I need to slow down my life anyway. I'm hectic with all these companies. And I didn't enjoy myself, but I realized at that point, I'm actually being selfish. I'm being very, very selfish. Why should I leave my wife?

She's finally fell in love with somebody she fell to be around forever. Why should my little girl and I see me? How, what parents should ever bury their child? You know, and why should my daughter not let, not be there and have their father walk them down the aisle? And I turned around and within a couple of days I said I'm gonna beat this shit no matter what it comes back Guess what I am gonna be around for my mother to see me by the way I do sleep next to a smoking hot woman every night and I better enjoy it, right?

I do have a little baby and I'm gonna work my girls out. You know what and in one week I forgot I was even waiting for results Wow to come I, you know what? And in one week, I forgot I was even waiting for results. Wow. To come back, you know, I had that negotiation and when the results came back, I was like, what the oh shit. It's cancerous. Okay, no problem. He comes and checks me though and says, listen, as a right now, you can't, you can't, you can't, so free. We're going to still keep an eye on this, but I totally forgot that I even had it, right? And so at that point, I decided to, I didn't want to go public with it at first because you know, I'll go,

people hear half-ass the story, half the story, and I started getting calls. Damon, I heard about the cancer you're dead. I just answered the phone, and I told them I'm not dead. But I decided to tell people because what I realized is entrepreneurs, we don't take care of ourselves. We take care of everybody else.

And if I can get just somebody to go out there and urge the sister, the father themselves, get that 10 dots, me, Paps, me, a mammogram, colonoscopy, but I did my job, you know? And that's what I wanted to share with you. That was one of my favorite stories of all time, the way you laid that out. That was freaking awesome.

So I'm about to have a hard issue when I was young and this doctor did this to get me to take the medication, he did that whole thing with me like, hey, you got a hot wife, because you okay with some other dude living in your mansion with your hot wife. And by the way, some other dude walks your daughter down the aisle on her wedding day. Something about that walk your daughter down the aisle on her wedding day thing is big for a dad. Absolutely.

And one of the reasons I'm pretty relatively fit is all those mornings on the road, and I don't want to get up, Bella's wedding. Bella's wedding. It's a bigger reason than how tired I am. And so I'm 1,000% with you. I love this. I wanna ask you one more. First off, guys, you already do,

but make sure you follow a name and make sure you go into his site, get in his books, participate in his programs. Go see him speak when COVID's up. Trust me. It's one of the best skill ever. See, I like when he gets interviewed as much as when he speaks

because you can pull so many things out of his big brain. But when I ask you a question, I never ask him to do this on the show because no one ever asks me this, but I'm curious. Did becoming successful, and I know you'll be honest, becoming successful to the extent that you have? Is it what you thought it would be better, or not all it's cracked up to be?

It depends on what stage of my life I was at. You know, when I was younger and Fubu had started to take his decline, then the ego kicked in of me wanting to go back out there and make sure that people didn't feel I was a one trick pony and various other things. So I still needed to prove myself to myself as well as to people. And it was a little bit of a, it was a little bit of both. What I thought it would be and what I didn't think it was B because I still had some levels of insecurity in life. I still had hopes and dreams.

So that was something I didn't think would happen. What did I think would happen? Yeah, I could afford to do most of the things I want in a life. However, if I tried to keep up with the Joneses, then I wouldn't be able to afford that forever, because like I said, there's always somebody who has more than you and you know, you need to be comfortable

where you're at to make sure that you have everything for the long game. If I had to look back over my life and say, what did I have to do to get to this point? And if somebody would have laid that out to me at 15 or 20 years old, I would say, well, hell no. I don't wanna do that. I rather just have a regular life. However, when you're in the middle of it and you know, you're too close to it, you

know, it's kind of those saying when you can't see, you can't see the whole elephant if you're only looking, if you're only a foot up one, the elephant. So, you know, but is it great where I am now is extremely, extremely, it is great, great, where I am now because, you know, being, being unfortunately, being one of the only, being the only African-American who has this level of public notoriety that has nothing to do with sports, music, or politics, it's the fact that as I shared with you as you know, I didn't have any resources, I didn't have an education,

and when people look at me, I think they look at entrepreneurship and say, well, if his dumbass can make it, anybody can make it, I hope I get that across to people. So whether it's your gender, your color, your career, your sexual preference, nothing can hold you back. And when you stand on that carpet in front of it,

my letter, whoever the case may be, that carpet doesn't care about anything else besides the work that you're ready to put in. And I think that being hopefully somebody who can be inspired by the people and know that maybe the next Oprah Winfrey Steve Jobs is 12 years old and they're pajamas eating a bunch of fruit loops watching Shark Tank are watching me somewhere else and they're gonna go out there and change the world. That is an extremely inspiring place to be in

my life. Brother, I'm so glad you said what you said at the end there because I know you get complimented all the time, but I was thinking about actually, I pray every night, and I knew we were going to do this today. So you just don't mind. So it came up in my prayer last night. I just wanted to tell you this for what it's worth from one man, do another. I don't know why this makes me emotional, but it's interesting who God chooses in life. And it's interesting how our lives work. I know for me becoming a successful entrepreneur, there's elements of it that are a thousand times better, making dreams come true for family members. I never envisioned if a family never got sick. Then there's the other thought,

I thought I'd never have any worries or problems. I thought all my insecurities would go, well none of that crap happened, you know? But there's been blessings. But in your case, you know, and I know you're living it still, you're one of those things where you're too close to the elephant still don't understand, but you're one of the most important social

and cultural icons in the history of the business world. And the reason is because you are a black man, and you have become in this very prominent role. And if God shows you for a reason because of your humility, He also shows somebody with this anointed ability to communicate and the breadth of experience. I have a funny feeling that if I'm at the 30-year-old you, I don't like you, but I think I like this version of you a lot more. And you're so important because there are millions and millions and millions of people who just think they're different, whether it's their skin color,

their religion, their sexual preference, whatever it might be. And you have been the most prominent person on television for more than a decade that looked different than everybody else did and gave them hope and the way you articulate it and thank Gotti picked somebody who could teach people how to do it at the same time. So, I have really huge admiration for you. Well, I truly definitely appreciate you. I mean, words can't say, you know, because obviously I respect you as colleagues and stuff like that.

And yeah, it's an honor and I definitely appreciate it. And I just appreciate it. And I just hope that I can set an example of somebody come out there and be more successful than me and more. Like, you know, and can spread the message, you know, and in a much more powerful way. Hopefully I'm just a stepping stone as somebody else is going to do it in a bigger and better way.

But I'm happy where I am now and I'm going to keep trying. Yeah, you're not just inspiring your mentoring. That's what's cool about social and digital and coming to see people speak. He can mentor you if you just get connected with his work and his content. I loved today, Damon. So thank you so much.

Anytime, brother, I'm really, really happy about it and entertained by it. And I keep learning from you. Thank you for what you do, man. And I appreciate you, man. Stay safe. Where are you at right now? You're in La Quinta, Palm Springs, California. Good place. Good place to you, man, and I appreciate you, man. Stay safe. Where are you at right now? You're in, are you? I'm in La Quinta, Palm Springs, California.

Good place, good place to be, man. Stay safe, man, and happy holiday. Anytime you need me, I'm here. And I just let you know. I'll catch you. I do need you, so I will be hitting you up. No problem. Hey, everybody, max out.

God bless you. Share the show. Share this with people.