The School of Greatness - 279 Daymond John: The Power of Broke to Build Your Business

Episode Date: January 20, 2016

"You are going to fail more than you are going to succeed." - Daymond John If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/279

This is episode number 279 with the shark Damon John Welcome to the school of greatness My name is Lewis Howes a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur in each week We bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome everyone to episode 279. Thank you so much for being here. And make sure to head back to the show notes at lewishouse.com slash 279 to check out all

the notes we talked about, all the links and the information from this episode. And make sure to share this out with your friends to let them know what you're listening to right now. Again, lewishouse.com slash 279. We've got a great guest on today. His name is Mr. Damon John, and he's the famed founder and CEO

of the global fashion brand FUBU and star of ABC's Emmy award-winning TV show Shark Tank, one of my favorite shows to watch. And he's got a new book out that's called The Power of Broke. And I'm very excited to dive into Damon's story about this book. And some fun facts is that FUBU is a $6 billion business. And every morning he says, rise and grind. What we talk about and dive into today are about the beliefs that he built up early on that he could succeed in the fashion business and where that came from. What his biggest challenge was in scaling once his brand took off.

What extremely wealthy people do differently than most every other type of individual. Extremely wealthy people do differently than most every other type of individual. How easy it is to test your concept nowadays before you invest too much in it. And how you can launch your own idea at any moment. Why Damon reads his goals five days a week, morning and night. And much, much more. I think you're going to enjoy this. Again, make sure to share this out with your friends.

LewisHowes.com slash 279. And let's go ahead and dive into this episode with the one, the only, Damon John. Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. Very excited about our guest today. He is the man and the legend, Damon John. Good to see you. Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. Very excited about your book. It just came out. It's called The Power of Broke. Make sure you guys go grab this right now. Highly recommend it. A bunch of my mutual friends are featured in here, so it was cool to see that we know

some of the same people. Amazing people. Big brains. Big brains doing some big things and trying to all emulate what you've created. You've created a huge brand, obviously. Thank you. Since the FUBU brand, you've been well-known for being on Shark Tank. So congratulations for all the success of the show and all the opportunities.

It's a fun ride. It's amazing. How many seasons is it right now? Seven. This is our seventh season. Wow, it's crazy. What's been the craziest thing that's happened in the last seven seasons for you? The craziest thing for me personally, you're saying?

Yeah, from Shark Tank, let's say. understand that kind of that shark tank carpet that entrepreneur that stands on that carpet uh it doesn't discriminate against uh creed color religion sex you know you it's the ultimate equalizer right that that empowerment is the ultimate equalizer and no matter who you are and this is a great country that we live in you have a shot and with that acknowledgement i was uh i was appointed as a presidential ambassador of global entrepreneurship, a page ambassador by President Obama and the White House and visiting Kenya and spreading the word of entrepreneurship, of how it can empower you and it can help you feed your family and help you empower others when this – unfortunately, the world we live in, when you don't have hope, other people tend to thrive off of that and ask you to to be part of whatever their cause is and you you feel that that's the only hope you have but if now you know you can have a smartphone you can open up a

smartphone and make a couple of dollars and you can hopefully feed your husband wife kids and empower yourself you're less likely to go and do some things that aren't in the best interest of humans and mankind. Right. I want to start from the beginning briefly and ask who was the most influential person in your childhood growing up and what was the biggest lesson they taught you? That by far would be my mother. I never realized the lessons that she taught me until I ended up becoming, you know, a parent myself and realizing that I ended up following all the steps or all the mistakes I made. Many of the mistakes I made, my mother advised me that those were going to be mistakes, but she never stopped me from going down the path because she

wanted me to make those mistakes on my own and learn. So she's always been the number one important mentor that I've ever had. And then, you know, life is a series of mentors. I went on from there and, you know, I had one great teacher and that's all you need is one really great teacher in school that makes you feel really special. And then I had a mentor who owned a corner store in my neighborhood and he would teach me and explain to me, you know, his business tactics. And then my mother ended up having a boyfriend who I call my stepfather, who was actually of the Jewish faith. And, you know, he taught me that love doesn't come in a color or a gender and that for me to be very proud of my culture but don't be anti anything else and respect everybody. So I think that gave me a broader look at life and I never walked in the room with a chip on my shoulder.

I also never thought anybody else was better than me but I never thought anybody had it better than me too because people of all colors have challenges in life, dreams and aspirations. So those things all led me to be the man that I am, and I'm very happy of those experiences. Yeah. And what got you into or being interested into the fashion world and the clothing world? Well, it was this new music that was coming out of the Bronx right around 1982, 83. It was called, you know, rap music. And it made its way into Queens, where I lived. And this music was amazing.

It was fascinating. And before that, I would listen to music, you know, great, great people like, of course, you know, rest in peace, David Bowie and and Rolling Stones and Donna Summer, Stevie Wonder, Barry White. But all these people had this beautiful way of singing. They had this orchestra and everything else. And they touched on some of the political issues in the world. But this music that was coming out of the Bronx named rap was kind of like our version of Twitter today. I always say it was like a disruptive technology because I started to hear about other kids, their hopes and their dreams, their aspirations, their plights of the neighborhood,

things that I wouldn't be able to see on the news. And they were putting it in a rhythmic form, and it was starting to educate us. And it came with a way not only to listen to music, but a way to walk, talk, and even dress. And you felt like you were part of this society if you wore your Adidas with fat laces on or you knew how to breakdance. And that's where I sort of find my identity as a young man. So that's really where fashion started with me. I wouldn't know till, you know, I was about 12 years old. I wouldn't know till probably about another 10 years, 15 years that maybe we should all do something that we love.

I tried everything else. Yeah. But I never thought about fashion. It's kind of like you bust your butt to go and work and make a living. And then you go out and on the weekends, you kind of snowboard and do all sorts of stuff like that but you never thought about busting your butt building snowboard or snowboarding and making money. Like Rob Dyrdek, your buddy Rob Dyrdek.

Exactly. Rob is in the book as well, of course. Yeah, that's interesting. So how old were you when you sold your first article of clothing? How old was I? How old was I? I know the date. I know exactly the date.

It was 1989, good Friday, 3 o'clock in the afternoon, 37 degrees outside. I stood outside the Coliseum Mall in 1989, so I was 20 years old. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Cool. 20 years old. 20 years old.

When did you have – how old were you when you said you had the passion for – I had the passion at 10, 11, 12. I had a passion for fashion earlier on in my life prior to that as well, but it was really my mother was dressing me because we didn't, not really when I was four or five or six, because we didn't have money, enough money to go buy clothes, so she would sew them. Interesting.

Sometimes the pocket would be hanging up in the back somewhere, but it was okay. So what gave you, when did you decide that you had the permission to go create your own things or sew them in the basement and then go sell them what gave you that you know belief in yourself that you could create this i i you know what it again like like most of us start there was no belief that i could do it but i remember walking into a store and um i started to see cross colors everywhere. And I walked in the store and I saw this picture of this guy who looked like a young Mike Tyson hanging off a pair of jeans.

And it was Carl Canai. And then it just hit me. I thought prior to that, we always thought that you had to be from Italy and France to design. You had to be older and like the guys know you know the guys with the with the tape around their neck you know the tailors right and so or whatever the fashion designer had looked like in those days and i thought i just i'm just supposed to buy from them when i saw that i was like wow that's amazing okay no problem uh then i'm watching a de la soul video i remember and seeing them wearing these hats it almost looked like a ski cap but it has like a tie on the top, and I couldn't find that hat anywhere in Queens.

I finally find one uptown Manhattan. I pay for the hat. I come home. I show my mother. I say, look, Ma, I paid, you know, I always say a joke. I paid $6 in gas, $900 in tolls, and $20 for the hat. Check this out. And she goes, that's a piece of crap, but I can show you how to sew hats like that so you can sew as many as you want so you

can wear them. You don't have to do that. So go get $40 worth of fabric. I go to the store, get $40 worth of fabric. I come home. I give my mother the stuff to sew the hats. And she says, I'm not sewing this. You're sewing this.

I sew. Crap. Now I got to work at this? I sew the hats. And then all of a sudden, I have all these hats in only one head because it's not like I was too stupid or I wasn't thinking. Thank God. I didn't buy $40 worth of different fabric. I bought $40 worth of the same fabric.

You only made one maybe every three years. Yeah. So anyway, so that's when it happened. That's when I went out and sewed those hats outside on that Good Friday and I sewed $800 worth of hats in one hour. And that's when it happened. That's when I went out and sold those hats outside on that Good Friday, and I sold $800 worth of hats in one hour. And that's when it just snapped. I just said to myself, wait a minute. I made this with my own hands. I went and sold this to individuals, and nobody was in my way.

I didn't have to get a check from a boss. Nobody told me when to come to work or go to work. I can't get fired from this because of my color creed or whatever the case is. I'm responsible for what's happening here, and I will either fail because of every decision I make or I'll succeed because of every decision I make. Was that the first time that you made money on your own as an entrepreneur? No, no, no.

I made money on my own and lost money on my own as an entrepreneur. I started my first business. It took me a long time to really decide what I want to do and what was my first business. It took me forever to decide my first business. My first business, I finally decided what I wanted to do when I was six years old. Took me forever, right? I was selling pencils in school. And then I would go ahead and sell candy.

And then when it snowed, I would shovel snow in the winter, rake leaves in the fall. And then I remember when I used to shovel snow, I used to go and kids would want to help me because I started getting everybody in the blocks that I wanted to. I would travel about three miles and take care of it. Kids would want to help me. So I would tell them, okay, no problem. Here's what you're going to do. If you're going to help me, I'm going to let no problem here's what you're going to do if you're going to help me I'm going to let you work I'm going to give you a couple let's split the money with you but you got to do a spring cleanup for free so we can go back into spring

and then I would go to the to the owners of the house and say well everybody else in the block if you shove if they shove your snow they're charging you three dollars if I shovel your snow three times during the the winter I'm going to give you a free spring cleanup. So I was leveraging all those little guys in the neighborhood. I love it. Ah, man, that was a great business. Now, when did you realize that you kind of, you know, the $800 first day, it might have been a great first day, but when you realized like, okay, I have something actually that

is consistently getting results. I mean, was it just easy for you after that? For the next year, you were just making $800 every day and then it just kept growing? Or was there like, oh, there's some dry spells here or I need to change where I'm promoting it? Like anything in business, it was always a dry spell here, a dry spell there. But in all reality, my friends and I, we love selling the hats. Why? Because there was a reason to talk to girls on the street right that's why we do a lot of things of course we do everything right if we

didn't have women in the world we'd all be walking around barefoot and just you know no teeth right exactly um and then i would start going to the black expos where there was like a basic flea market on the road and i would try to sell shirts there why because girls were there right right but also we started we were really passionate about what we were doing and and we started getting that high when we sold stuff at a black expo you know and then we go to another one and we see somebody wearing it i go wow that's pretty cool and that's when they came back and started saying man you know i tell everybody about this shirt and they asked me for it. So I need to buy three now because I got to buy for everybody. And we said, wow.

Right. And it just became so exciting. I would have normally paid to go to the Black Expo to go around and buy stuff or see stuff. And then, you know, we happen to live in Hollis, Queens. There's a lot of music artists in Hollis, Queens. You know, obviously Salt-N-Pepa, Run-DMC, LLmc ll cool j tribal quest a lot of them come from there we didn't really know them but we knew all their friends but then all of a sudden we heard we were saying well can we get something in a video and they'll go yeah come on down we go down to the video and there's craft

services it's free to eat as much food as you want you get to see somebody like ll cool j performing a song there's video vixens running around everywhere i would have paid to go there meanwhile i'm going to go ahead put on a shirt they put on a shirt not then i'll say man i don't have any money to i have a small company so i really can't afford to lose that shirt can i have it back really yeah and they would give it back and they would give it back yeah wow there's only one rapper who never gave um the shirt back to me old dirty bastard of course okay awesome if you expect to get anything back from a man named old dirty bastard there's bigger issues exactly it sounds like you know what you did

when was this what what year was this was well honestly i opened food 189 i closed it three three times because i i ran out of capital from 89 to 92. So the story really goes from 89 to around 96. Okay, cool. So 20 years ago, you were essentially the true branding expert who was leveraging the Instagram influencers of today. You were leveraging the music stars, the MTV stars. Yes. And getting that social media out there on MTV as opposed to on Instagram, which is what brands are doing today.

They're trying to find the top influencers and get their clothing on them. Yeah. We always call Fulu the first hashtag of clothing. There you go. I like it. I like it. What would you say was the biggest challenge once you started to really take off and grow? What would you say was the biggest challenge once you started to really take off and grow?

Obviously, as a small business owner, when a trend hits and everyone wants your product, how did you handle that and what was the biggest challenge? Scalability was very hard because it was how do I go and finance and underwrite these things? Where will I get the capital? What's the turnaround time? And I didn't have any financial intelligence at the time. So, you know, my journey. You could sell and you could hustle. I could sell, I could hustle, but you know, my journey, I, I, I almost failed or in lost everything several times throughout that journey because I just didn't know how to use the tool of money. And, and, and it's so hard to try to acquire all that knowledge within the same time. How do I acquire the knowledge of branding, marketing, distribution, manufacturing, warehousing, shipping, financial intelligence, customer support, return on goods, consumption?

You know what I mean? It's so hard. So, of course, I had to start leveraging as well and creating a bunch of strategic relationships because I knew I needed that. I knew I needed that because, you know, listen, you know, when you tell somebody to stop smoking, you know, a couple of times and after the 10th time, they know they already have a problem with smoking. They don't want to listen to you. Listen, forget it. I'm not even going to address it. I'm going to start smoking. When you have a business, you have to answer the call or you're closed right

right so you have to plug the dam and I knew I had to plug the dam so I started just creating a lot of strategic relationship and that's actually the power broke because it is the fact that you know if I would have had money when I went to those video sets, I would have paid the director, I would have paid the producer, I would have paid the rapper, everybody else, right? If you gave me $20,000 at that time and I heard that LL Cool J will wear my stuff for $5,000 and the director wants $5,000 to wear it, they're getting the money. Of course.

Right? And they're going to wear it. But I got into 30, 40 videos with zero dollars right because i had no way to do it i had nothing to lose you couldn't take anything from me i didn't have anything yeah right exactly so so you couldn't even give me your shirt right you took it back i took it back right and i said i got you later right right older best so you got me now. But when you're working with the power of broke, it does a couple of things. Number one, it makes sure that you learn the process yourself. You can't afford to hire anybody else.

So all those people out there who pay $40,000 for a website when it really costs five. Right. Or you can leverage it by bartering or something. Whatever the case is, right? So you have to learn the process. And what happens during that period of time of learning the process is that when and if and hopefully you get to the point that you are successful, nobody can tell you lies. You can't have somebody say, well, I'm not going to tell you about shipping because you're firing me and I got to go work it out yourself. I said, get the hell out of the way.

I've been doing this for eight years myself, right? You get and you learn the process, number one. Number two is because you don't have a lot of capital, you focus on the only thing that you can do. You don't drown in opportunity. You don't take a bunch of money and go, we should try a bunch of stuff. Here you go. Here's $10,000, here's $10,000, here's $10,000, here's $10,000 here. Go.

Yeah, you go, all right, what are we going to do with this hat right now? So that's the process. And that process is very, very important. Also, you learn and it brings out the character of who you have around you when you operate the power of broke. What do you mean by that? Well, if you're busy, let's open a business today. Let's go take a $10,000, let's go take a $100,000 loan. Well, what happens when the money goes away? Because when I didn't have anything, people worked with me for free. And I saw who rose to the challenge.

I saw who jumped ship. I saw who was problem solvers and problem creators. And that's the process of activating the power broke. Because to tell you the truth, the people who activate the power broke more than anybody else are the people who are successful. Because that's how they stay successful. Would you say that those individuals have a powerful vision and then are really great at enrolling others in that vision? Is that the key ingredient or getting the team to do it essentially for – Absolutely.

But it's not that they have a powerful vision and they've enrolled everybody in the vision, but there's no reason for everybody who is enrolling into it to jump on a sinking ship or a bad idea. You see, we're going to get A on our report card. Sometimes we're going to get an F. So if my power broke concept, I'm creating FUBU, they didn't wear it because I was giving the shirts away. They wore it because they had to dig in their pocket and they had to pull out their hard-earned money and buy it.

Now, if you go out and you give 100 shirts away to all your friends and family, even if it's the nastiest looking shirt, someone's going to feel bad for you, usually your mother, and they're going to come to you and say, boy, son, I wore this at the store and they love my shirt. Right? Because that's mom. Yeah, right. Go try to sell that shirt to 100 people who couldn't give a crap about you.

Right. Who are going to dig in their pocket for $10. You want to get a, what do you call it, a focus group? Yeah, yeah. Try going to Harlem like I used to and selling shirts on the streets. Oh, they're going to give you the focus group for free. Exactly. They're either going to love it or not.

So would you say the power broke is more of a mindset or a way of being? What do you think? It is a mindset. It is an absolute mindset. It is a way to think and it is a way to know that, listen, if you really think about it, well, I can't come up with anything. I can't come up with any time, anything of substance in my life. come up with any time anything of substance in my life relationship whether it's personal relationship with family friends loved ones you know uh that money ever was the reason the relationship worked or the it never was it was always a byproduct on a working relationship you know it's like you're going out and getting a dating a hot girl all right your first day

hey how you doing pull Pull up to a Bentley. Next day, buying her roses. Next day, buying her everything, right? Jewelry, whatever. Jewelry all the time, right? A month later, you lose your job or you got sued for a billion dollars or whatever and you lost everything. She's probably going to be like, well, I was so used to the roses. What happened?

And I'm not saying that just about women or men. Sure, sure. But if things are built on a poor foundation, there's nothing there. Right, right, right. Gotcha. So what about people say this is great and all. I'm a struggling entrepreneur, so I'm going to instill this power of broke. But what about you?

Do you still have this with all the wealth that you've created? How do you create that when you have an abundance of income, essentially, what people may think, when you could put money into things and invest and try these different things? How do you- How to exercise the power, bro? Yeah. When you have the funds. Yeah, exactly. So it takes an average of $60,000 to $75,000 to create a clothing line, a first sample clothing line. It takes about nine months to get it fully done. How many samples? Like one sample?

You know, a line of, let's say, 24 pieces. I'm sorry. If you're paying a designer and you're not doing it yourself, I would say $150,000, right? I don't do that. So if I have something, great logo, whatever the case is, I will go and get a tailor to maybe sew up four pieces and average about $1,500. Then I go and find an Instagram star or a video.

If I could, I'd give them $1,000, $1,000, maybe $3,000. I put this stuff out, and I go and watch the phone. Anybody calling? Anybody calling? Anyone want this? All right. You liked it? You liked it?

All right. Let's do another shirt. Right. Nobody calling? We're it? All right. Let's do another shirt. Right. Nobody calling? We're good. Cut bait. Sure. I can do whatever I want.

All right? I can put out a book called Power Broke, and I can hire a lot of great publicists and take out ads and everything else like that. Or I can schedule nine times, reschedule nine times with you to come over here and beg you to be on your podcast and call another 10 guys like you, Adam Corral, all these people, and go out there and bust my butt and use the power broke myself and send it out to 100 ambassadors. Call them personally and say, hey, what do you think about any changes? What can I do for you? Stop over the store and start just signing out of nowhere. I just pull up in a Barnes and Noble and just start signing like crazy. I have to activate the power of growth because you know what happens.

When you have a sales staff and people, the number one person they're selling is you on how good of a job they're doing and how maybe you didn't give them the right materials. Sure, sure. Yeah. Okay. So how can someone learn this? Is this something that everyone can learn this mindset? This absolutely is something that everybody can learn. And that's why in the book, I don't want people to think that I have this magical touch, this secret sauce. And that's why, as you've seen in there, there are many people that you and I know that I've interviewed and I've learned from in that book, over 15 people that have accomplished massive success in their life.

You know, I love talking about Rob Durdack. As you say, start over the skateboarder, no money at all. Kevin Plank, the CEO of Under Armour, $4 billion annual sales, didn't have enough money to pay a toll when he started his company. So they wrote him a ticket at the toll booth. Or Mark Burnett, the head of my show, right? ABC Shark Tank. The man was a special forces or one of those type of things in the military in Europe. He comes over here, first job, a nanny.

Wow. He was a nanny. Second job, selling T-shirts on Venice Beach, right? Wow. Yeah, well, that actually hurt him because when he went to the hood to play music and be down with the clique, the keep it real artist guys, they were like, take your rich butt home. Don't come around here, little rich boy. And then when he went to dad and said, I need some money to do this and that, dad said, what are you doing? I came to this country with nothing. And if you don't work in this company with me, I'm not giving you a dime. So stop spinning those stupid little records.

Now the man does $30 million a year and he's the most touring DJ in the world. Amazing. Amazing. I love it. So what do you recommend people – what's the first step in this process of of learning this and understanding this what do you recommend if people don't don't know besides reading your book obviously but no no of course like you know and so first of all let me let me be very clear and i've had to make sure that i want to acknowledge one thing i'm not glamorizing not having resources in your life right right

because we all want to be able to take care of our family and have medical and and and have the things and an education things like that so that's why people go on shark tank exactly right get resources exactly so do not get me don't make me say oh so i'm supposed to feel good about not having money not at all sure but make that hunger if you're going to be there tap into that hunger instead of instead of complaining or feeling sorry or thinking that something needs to happen, right? Yeah, I was just going to say it's more of an exercise of hustling essentially and using that hunger as opposed to let me just throw everything I have at it and see what works. Right. Yes.

one way to go to your get to the level that you consider successful but with this day and age of social media and technology where there is no barrier to entry anymore of meeting and getting out to people you can have what we call a proof of concept and test your idea so i go through there step by step on what to do so so now in any business no what, you need to have a proof of concept, meaning, hey, I may think that my cupcakes are tasty, but let me see how many people buy them. Now, if you can't even make a cupcake, I'm sure you can film a 30-second video on your phone of you making it or telling people about it. And you can get proof of concept if you have 10,000 people views your video, right? Whatever likes, whatever the case is, right? And then you take that and then improve one and improve one it and start and start the process, right? Before it wasn't that easy, necessarily, right? You know, before when I made a shirt, I had to go and either sell it on the

corner, sell it to somebody. And then I had to find the person the next day to sell it to them again. And then, or if I sold it to the store, who would they sell it to? Who walked by and pick it up? Unless I'm going to sit in the store all day. Let's see. Was it a woman? Was it a man? Was it a kid?

Did they buy it for themselves? Was it a gift? Did they buy it to wash their car with? I have no idea. Did they haggle over the price? Now, you know. You're on the computer. You go, boop, boop.

Somebody bought it. Oh, yeah. It's an 18-year-old kid. Lives in California. Loves a skateboard. Has a pit bull and has a bad case of dandruff. Exactly. Right?

So this is where we are today. So you can test your concepts very, very easily and you can then be more equipped to go out to the world and you'll find funding. There's so many ways of getting funding now. Yeah, yeah. I'm curious. I don't really want to talk too much about Shark Tank, but I'm just curious. Yeah, we can talk about all of it.

Who has been the most inspiring person to you from the seven seasons you've been on? The person that came on where they blew you away, that you wanted to go talk and learn more from them, or you were just inspired by their story so much that maybe someone you invested in or someone you didn't or someone – Yes. Very, very hard to say because there were so many. And I truthfully – the person who learns the most from Shark Tank, whether the viewers or anybody else, is me. I learn from – I joke about the other sharks but all joking aside, I learn from them. or anybody else is me.

I learn from, I joke about the other sharks, but all joking aside, I learn from them. And I learn from these young men and women who are coming up here and they're doing business an entire new way. And there's some in the book, there's one or two in the book, but let me think of others. I mean, there was this young lady I did a deal with

for, it was called Fresh Picked Moccasins, leather moccasins. She went and I believe she she took aluminum frame windows and i think she went and melted down sold aluminum to make one pair of moccasins and then so more and then made another pair of moccasins now she's doing you know a couple a couple of million dollars or little mo he's in the book little mo bridges you know he came on the show young man very laser focused on making bow ties, him and his mother. And I looked at them and remembered – they remind me of my relationship with my mother.

And he was going to do a deal and take Kevin O'Leary's offer, which is not wrong because he came on the show to ask for capital and resources, and Kevin O'Leary stepped up to the plate. capital and resources and kevin o'leary stepped up to the plate but i told him that if he would have taken that thirty thousand dollars you know if i would have taken that back then with the fubu days it would have been worth a couple hundred million dollars right because of uh you know the percentage so he he decided to decline the deal i became his mentor and honestly i barely helped the kid he helps me more than i help him because i i turn on tv he's the fashion correspondent on the nba draft right doing about three hundred thousand dollars in business i go and i take him on to cnbc one day because i say i want to introduce you to mo and i want to take mo out to fashion week in new

york uh um oh shoot what what's the name what's the name of the big, big retailer in Dallas? Neiman Marcus, the CEO of Neiman. One of the highest retail outlets in the world calls the show, and I've never been in Neiman Marcus, and I pick up the phone. Yeah, how can I help you? You know, you want my Coogee brand and all that. And she's like, let me speak to Mo. All my life, I've never talked to this person. She wanted to speak to Mo. Wow. Amazing. Very inspiring. That's very cool. What would you say is a ritual that is a non-negotiable for you every single day, something you do in the morning or at night or throughout the day, something every day that you do? I read my goals. I read my goals, not every day, but I read them five days a week. I read them in the morning. When I wake up and I read them at night before I go to sleep, I have nine goals that range from business to health to family. Six of them expire every six

months. And two of them expire in six months. Two of them expire in five years, and one expires in 20. And they're very, very detailed in what they are, and the reason is I just want – I want to read – I want them to be the last thing I think about when I go to bed. Huh. I think about when I go to bed. And I reset them every six months. But I noticed that as the date comes up, I start to have this anxiety. If you haven't achieved it yet. Yeah, if you haven't achieved it.

And most of them you're not going to achieve if you really set aggressive ones. But you're going to get there 50%, 60%, 70%. Bang. Then reset it for a longer period of time with another higher goal to reach. Okay. What got you into setting goals or what's the process for you and why is it so important? The third time it settled in, the third time I read this book the first time when I was

16, the third time I read the book, I was 19. I read the book every year, Think and Grow Rich. It's a great book. Yeah. They're doing a documentary right now. Did they approach you? No, they didn't. I mean, they sent me some leather bags, some really special ones.

Yeah. But yeah, maybe they don't know how to get a hold of me. It's pretty hard. Well, if you want, let me know. Yeah. They reached out to me to do it. I would love it. It's a great book.

Absolutely. Got a couple of them up there. Yeah. So many editions. If we can only be so lucky to be like Napoleon Hill, right? It's amazing. So that's where it is. And the ritual is pretty simple.

It's, you know, if I say, hey, I need to lose X amount of pounds by this date. And then what's the process? Well, I'm going to drink six bottles of water. I'm going to drink one green drink a day. I'm going to do cardio in the morning. And if I can slip in some weight training at night, I'm not going to eat out to 7 p.m. I'm not going to eat fried foods and or meat. And in return for that, I will be healthier and I will be able to live a longer, prosperous life and be in my daughter's lives longer and to make sure that I'm there for them.

So what is the goal? How are you going to get to that point? When does it expire? And what is the reward for the goal? Sure. I do six and 12-month goals myself. Why do you think six months – I think you said a year or five years and then 20? Yeah. Why that time frame? You know, this is a time frame I pick. So I think six months is a

reasonable time to accomplish something and or say to yourself, what's wrong with you? You've been talking this crap for six months, right? I think that also in six months, you can see the change because if I sit there every morning and I sit there and say I'm going to have a green drink or a banana for breakfast, then that's one less time that I'm going to have that everything bagel with sour cream and salmon and all that stuff. And by time, six months ago, I probably have done that 40 times, 90 times, and you start to see the difference in what it is. games 90 times and you start to see the difference in what it is so the five-year one i want to be somewhere in you know what what are we going to do in five years i don't know and then 20 year one is always going to be about that kind of as you look over as i look over my family and my health legacy to some extent and hopefully i'll hopefully i'm gonna have to reset the 21 right 20 year goal can you share with us one of them or did you keep them pretty private no i share with you one a

little bit the the losing weight one when i get back into my training mode that's what i am uh that's what i do um specific weight you want to get at i i always i always well usually when i when i shoot shark tank i'm always at 168. Why 168? Is that just the way you are? That's just the way my body works, right? I get to 168. And then when I'm off season, I usually get up to about 185 during the winter.

And then if I'm really, really like traveling too much, can't do it, I can get as high as 193. You like to hibernate. No, you know what? It's just being on the road, bad sleeping habits. You know what I mean? It's just hard. I'm sure this book launch is not helping you either. No, not at all. I love it. What is another

ritual in the morning that you do? Let's say when you're in your home, you're on a good routine, you're not traveling. What's another part of the ritual that you follow? It's going to be getting up and it's going to be answering emails. I mean, you know, because you want to – There's so many opportunities. No, you just want to get them out of the way before you get to the office because you're never going to get to them after that.

Yeah, yeah. My next book is probably going to be called Death by Email. You know what I mean? Sure, sure. I don't know. These emails, man, kill me. What do you think is something that wealthy individuals or people that you've been around who have built multimillion-dollar businesses or billionaires, what do you think are two or three things that they think or do differently than people that don't make that? The billionaires I've seen, they – first of all, I'm not saying it because of the book, but they use the power broker. They'll spend a billion dollars on a party because that's a party.

But they're very disciplined, and they won't spend that on launching a company. They will act like they don't have anything, but a mentality, number one. Number two is they write down everything. Really? They write down everything. We got into this day and age where people are typing in their smartphones. They physically write down everything. I remember one of them said to me, the dullest pencil will always remember more than the

sharpest mind, which is a very, very, very, very well-known quote. And usually what they write, I noticed that they write how to save the most on taxes. Really? Yeah, they usually write that because tax codes change often. All right. And investments have certain tax benefits or not, whether philanthropy or whatever the case is. And they look at it like this. They go, well, I can either start putting in my pocket $200 million a year, argument's sake.

$200 million a year, argument's sake. I can either go and start a new business, right, that I need to go and, you know, and maybe I'll get up to $100 million, $200 million, and I pay taxes on it. Or how do I save on that 40% or 30% of taxes that I'm going to have to pay away because I already have the money? Why lose it? And they concentrate on that all the time, and they're looking at everything. And then the last thing is when I always talk to them, when we have conversations, they think purely on a global scale. people can I get to walk by my plumbers,

my service place in Manhattan on the street? And they'll sit there and say, how many cars are in the world? They're really thinking like that. They're like, how many cars are in the world? How much

exhaust comes out of them? Exhaust pipe, carry the four, nine. That's how they are. Sure. Okay. Interesting. You talk about mentorships. Life's about mentorships.

Yeah. You've had many great mentors over the years. Absolutely. Who have you yet to have mentorship from that you would love to be mentored by? Or is that not something you think about right now? If you could be mentored by anyone right now in something you think about right now like if you could be mentored by anyone right now in the world who would that be that you're not already getting it from um two very very tough you know i'm i'm mentored by really amazing people you know jay abraham

brilliant marketing guy you know so many really amazing amazing people. I don't have a mentor. You know, maybe I met him once or twice. Richard Branson, I think. The reason why is because he said something pretty fascinating. I didn't know Richard Branson is dyslexic like I am. Yeah, me too. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I couldn't really read it all growing up. I'm saying four out of the six sharks are dyslexic. Wow. Couldn't really read it all growing up. I'm saying four out of the six sharks are dyslexic. Wow. Richard Branson is dyslexic, and he also is somebody who – because I used to always say to myself, should I really focus on making FUBU Nike and try to go there and set my goals for that? Or am I too close to it? companies and he said he's an entrepreneur that gets bored fairly quickly and he loves the process of new companies bringing the fundamentals of what he knows over to a new process and the discovery

of that and as i looked at myself and i said yeah i have fubu i love it don't get me wrong amazing but i have 10 other clothing brands and now now I'm with Shark Tank, and I love this, this, this, this. I'm dyslexic. I love the process. And I think that we have – when I heard him speak, I just realized I have so much in common with that guy. Why haven't you reached out to get the mentorship yet? Well, because first of all, I also do believe in mentorship that you should be with somebody who's extremely accessible. I don't know if he's accessible, but I know one thing. I'm not accessible because I'm so busy.

So I don't want to get the time to get it. Hey, man, I'll be the mentorship. And I'm like, yeah, I'll schedule you. Six months. And you just ask me for a favor. You know what I'm saying? Why are you so pushy? Time is time, baby. I love that. for a favor? You know what I'm saying? Why are you so pushy? You know what I mean? Time is time, baby.

I love that. I love that. You know? So. Okay. Who's been the most influential mentor for you through the business side of things? I would think Jay Abraham has been. Really?

Yeah. Because, you know, it's, no, it's no it's really no no in terms of scaling or very hard very hard really all of them I can't say that any any one person uh helped me more than other I can't say any one person didn't have the knowledge my mother helped me in the beginning my stepfather Steve and then my amazing partners over at FUBU you know have my three friends who have been there all my life for me. They've helped me when the times were tough, and I've learned from them. And then our other partners over on the other side of FUBU. I don't know.

It's all been great. Amazing. I'm curious about entrepreneurs that are looking to raise money. And you get pitched, I'm sure, every day. I do. By different entrepreneurs, whether it be, I'm sure, every day. I do. By different entrepreneurs, whether it be email or in person, in the elevator or whatever, they're probably pitching you. Sure.

What's a couple of things that, one, turn you off? Like every time it happens, you're like, no, not even going to talk to you anymore. Don't even open your mouth. Yep. And then what are a few things that are like, tell me more? The thing that turned me off is the fact that they don't have proof of concept. They just think it's a good idea, and it's my job to help you create the proof of concept.

So you're too lazy to do it. By the way, I have 100 ideas in my head too that I can own 100% off. Oh, so why? Number one. Number two is – So get a proof of concept. Proof of concept, right? Show that there's a buzz.

Yeah, if you don't have proof of concept and they go, well, I don't know how to get it started. Well, then that's what you're going to be telling me when it is started and you don't know how to take it to the next step. I got my own headaches. Leave me alone. Yeah, exactly. The next one is, well, this is a $50 billion market. billion dollar market and if i only get one percent oh my god the bankruptcy market is a trillion dollar market i promise you're gonna get one percent with that attitude right um those are the things that turn me off uh the things that uh get me excited are

i tried this and i failed i tried this and i failed i tried this and I failed. I tried this and I failed. I tried this and I failed. And then I finally, bang, found out the best way to do this. And I found out because all these other things I failed at doing in this area, this one, I knew I was on to something. Somebody who's willing to admit their failure because any successful entrepreneur knows that you are going to fail more than you succeed right that one of course that's it and then the other one is proof of concept right that's it you know you have the the right to make up your own opinion but not the right to make up your own facts right so and you see that happen all the time kevin o'leary will go yeah how many uh how many how many of you see that happen all the time kevin leary will go yeah how many uh how many how many of you saw that stupid thing right there and they're like one million dollars he's like you're not too stupid now right he's like oh sales cure is all right you are not looking too stupid

now exactly all of a sudden there's a halo over that person's head right but it sounds like for you it would have to be proof of concept uh that they failed a bunch and now they hit something. But also it would have to be like something you're interested in for you that you're excited about. No, no. I have to have an interest in it. You don't care about like women's dresses or something. I don't know. I have to have an interest in it.

Yeah, yeah. A hundred percent I have to have an interest in it because you know what? If I don't have a full interest in it, maybe I'm a customer. Right. And listen, the power book theory is don't spread yourself too thin. You can't do every single thing in the world. And people think because I have access to capital that people like us just walk around and buy everything. Hey, how are you doing? Oh, I like that locker. I want to invest in a company. No. No, man. You don't have time for that because investing is the – you then got to answer the phone call every time. So I get all the time when Shark Tank, oh, that person had some great idea. Why don't you invest in the company?

All the time. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So how much of your time is managing other entrepreneurs that you partner with, whether through Shark Tank or off of Shark Tank that you've – because our friend Nathan, you've invested in CrossFit gyms and other things like that. How much of your time every day is picking up the phone and just being an advisor or setting up meetings for people?

Yeah. I look at, besides my companies, I really look at, it takes me about, it takes about six months out of my life, all the investments. For the year. Yeah. And I have really, really amazing partners that allow my businesses to run. And again, I could probably do more business in my business if I do. But these other opportunities that I'm in, whether I win or lose, they're teaching me about an entire new way of doing business.

If I wasn't on Shark Tank or if I didn't do investments like Nate in CrossFit, I would never have an insight on the new way that the world is operating. I would have still been the FUBU guy going, hey, you know, JCPenney's or Macy's, please buy my shirt. Hey, how you doing on social media? I don't know. You know what I mean? Right. You know, and I'd have been at the mercy of everybody else. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. A couple questions left for you. That's cool. What's the question no one ever asks you that you wish they asked? Or is there a question? they wish that you wish they asked or is there a question no you know i've i've been i've been asked some really tough questions throughout these podcasts lately because you know you know guys like you have been talking talking to tony robbins and and guys with enormous brains so your brains get bigger as you speak and i've been asked a lot of tough questions. So I'm not asking for somebody to ask me questions, you know?

Okay, perfect. What's the biggest piece of advice besides the power of broke, which I want everyone to make sure to go get? What's the biggest piece of advice that you would give yourself just starting out on top of this? Oh, yeah. Listen, trust me. You and I do in the pockets.

I'm not trying to make it a big wet kiss. I'm fine with that. I want to make sure that I didn't put in the book or I did put in the book. And whether I did or not, the advice that I would give the younger Damon John is make sure you have financial intelligence. I don't care even you're going to be an entrepreneur entrepreneur working for a company whatever the case is i don't care if you have money or you don't have money money is so hard to make and it's 10 times harder to keep and it's a tool and i almost lost too many

times because i was so eager to make the money and i didn't have financial intelligence and many people say well damien you didn't go to school or college and should I? And the fundamentals of business are the fundamentals of business. And you need to go and study finance no matter what. And a perfect example of that is all the athletes that three years out of the league, over 60% of them are broke, right? How the Powerball people, some of them are going to be broke fairly quickly, three years, right?

wall people some of them are going to be broke yeah fairly quickly three years right and it's because just you know if you really look at an anatomy of a bankruptcy or something that like you know if you and i if i had you know three hundred thousand dollars i'm gonna probably buy a fifty thousand dollar house i'm gonna buy a little car for twenty thousand dollars whatever the case is if an athlete has fifty million dollars they're gonna buy a seven million dollar house and they're gonna buy a bunch of cars. But it's the same house. It's just a bigger bill. And they're not going to understand about compounding interest and all the things that

they need to do in life to make it because money is just a tool. Yeah. What's the best book you would recommend for someone to be more financially intelligent? If there was one book to read that's hopefully understand a lot of these principles when they didn't know them? intelligent. If there was one book to read that's hopefully understand a lot of these principles when they didn't know them? Well, I think that I haven't read it yet. Everybody's

talking really amazing about Tony Robbins' new book. It's a great book. Master of the Game. Yeah, Money Master of the Game. Okay. I haven't read that. And again, dyslexic. So I'm sure you listen to audiobook probably. You got to get the audiobook. Of course, Think and Grow Rich. I know.

No, not Think and Grow Rich. Rich Dad, Poor know. No, not thinking. Rich Dad Poor Dad. Yeah. Okay. Rich Dad Poor Dad. It's a, it's a staple for a reason. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome.

Um, three final questions. Yeah. What are you most grateful for recently in your life? What am I most grateful for recently in my life? Um, you know, in my, in my personal life, I'm grateful that everybody has their health. I haven't had any loss. You know, I've seen a lot of loss in my life growing up in the neighborhood that I grew up in. Whether people were incarcerated or they lost their lives at a very early age due to violence or drugs.

incarcerated or they lost their lives at a very early age due to violence or drugs. And that, you know, hasn't been an issue with anybody in my life. So, and I know it's inevitable, right? Right. And so that's what happens. So I think on a personal issue. On a, recently on a business tip. I don't know. You know, of course, my appointment to the White House, I never thought I would be meeting and sitting with the president.

I've met the last three presidents of this great country. And who would ever thought that? Right. So business wise, I would say that is one of them. And then another really great year of Shark Tank for the reason, though, that when I see that it's one of the top shows watched from kids 5 to 15 and one of the top shows watched parents and kids together. And when I see people come up to me and say, you know what? My daughter wants to be a shark as much as she stopped caring about being an actress, a singer, a dancer, or an athlete. Nothing wrong with that.

She wants to be a shark. Or when a mother comes to me and says, my son finally came to me and said, Mommy, I know what you do now at work. When you see that or people say, I decided to start a business and I'm empowering myself. And you see that a show like that, that everybody said would never work, got almost canceled seven years in. And people are religiously following it. When you see it's changing lives, that's why Mark Cuban does it. People always wonder, why does Mark Cuban do it? He don't need investments, right? He doesn't need any more TV time.

You always see him on basketball, right? it because it's it's it's really empowering as you what am i talking about you i mean this is what you do you empower people and and it's it's just amazing that's great that's cool and what would you say is your biggest fear moving forward it's always going to be health related it's always going to be why has um uh god has really really blessed me for too long right you know i was a kid i was hanging out i don't know how many times i was doing things that kids do right and um why am i still just cranking along right you know i'm almost 50 years old right now right and um still a young man. Yeah, I am. But again, I've seen people, not because of now talking about violence or anything else like that. I've seen people just curl over and have a heart attack.

I mean, I know last year, I think I remember counting within three months, 11 people that passed away, and they did not realize it, whether it was unfortunately. did not realize it whether it was unfortunately in the beginning of the book i dedicate something to uh my venture capitalist who's amazing man named david freshman he's the one that all my shark tank people had to once they once we did the deal they had to vet the deal with david right and david truly believed in entrepreneurship ever since from day one and he he's always somebody who was a venture capitalist but one who taught kids and people of color on how to get into this business and amazing guy you know he called me and said hey I'm ready to fight the biggest battle of my life you know right now and I found out I have pancreatic cancer and in within you know very short time you know he's no longer with us and

I met about I know about 11 people that faced that last year. So you never know when we're going to be, when the good man's going to call for us. And hopefully Dave is down here protecting me. Now he's my ultimate venture capitalist protector. Right, exactly. Final couple of questions. It's the end of the day for you as we're talking about that. Many, many years from now

and all of your books have been erased. Shark Tank has been deleted. All your brands are gone. Yeah. And your closest friends and family are there

and you've got a piece of paper and a pen and they say there's nothing else to remember you by except for this piece of paper and what you write down.

And they ask you to write down three truths. the three things you know to be true about your experience in life and what they could see as a roadmap for their lives moving forward. What would you put down as those three truths for what's coming up for you right in this moment? Treated everybody with respect that deserved it. with respect that deserved it. Knew that it was, realized that it was my job to help inspire and or move people forward and never compromised any of my beliefs, good, bad, or indifferent.

I love that. Final question before I ask it, I want to make sure everyone goes and gets the book. Check it out. Power of Broke by Daymond John. Where can we connect with you online? Where are you hanging out with the most? Your website? I'm on

powerbroke.com. I'm on daymondjohn.com. Social media wise, I am on Twitter at thesharkdaymond, Snapchat at thesharkdaymond, Facebook at thesharkdaymond, and Instagram. Which one's your favorite one to hang out? Where do you more time uh you know listen i uh you know i listen to gary v and i i wear i wear a different outfit when i'm in different ones you know when i'm in facebook

i'm at the family reunion i'm in instagram i'm wearing the you know the skinny jeans with the curly mustache i'm all i'm all hipsterish uh you know i'm on twitter i'm just kind of out in the park rolling around and i'm on i'm on snapchat i'm just kind of out in the park rolling around, and I'm on Snapchat. I don't really know what I'm doing just yet on Snapchat. I saw you post a photo of Gary Vee on your Instagram promoting his Snapchat. He sent me that same text with the photo, and I saw everyone was posting that. Of course. This guy's a hustler. He's a monster.

He's a good buddy of mine, too, and he's got a book coming out in a few months. Absolutely. He's probably hitting you up for that already. Not yet, but I'm waiting. I'm waiting, man, because I'm here. Yeah, of course. Okay, cool. Well, I want to ask the final question then.

Before I do, I want to acknowledge you, Damon, for your incredible service to the world. I think it's incredible what you've created as an example. You're really a symbol of inspiration for so many people. Oh, thank you. what you've created as an example. You're really a symbol of inspiration for so many people. Thank you. From when you were 20, hustling in your basement, sewing up hats, to consistently over 30 years being true to who you are and sharing your message and voice with the world, not just

keeping it to yourself, but sharing your wisdom through your books, what you say on TV, really inspiring people. So I want to acknowledge you for showing up in a powerful way every single day. I know it looks like that, but I definitely appreciate it. And I think that I'm humbled by it, but I think that I'm very, very little comparison to so many people we meet. Mother Teresa and so many amazing, amazing people. Our everyday teachers who are not recognized and underpaid who take care of our kids.

I hung on my kids for a week. I wanted to kill myself. They hang out with our kids for eight months. Exactly. But thank you. Yeah, of course. My final question is what's your definition of greatness? Oh, definition of greatness.

I don't know. You know, I would say my definition of greatness is, you know, I guess it's grace of all time, shocking the world, making people think that surprising everybody and doing something that everybody thought you couldn't do, you know, and feeling good about it. And feeling good about it. Just testing yourself. I mean, I read a really great quote the other day. And it said, the only person that you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday. And I think that's greatness. Testing yourself and knowing you left it all in the field and you gave it your all. And not complaining about whatever happened. Love it.

Dave and John, thanks so much for coming on, man. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you, Damon. Thank you all so much for listening and checking out this interview with Mr. Damon John, the shark himself. Super pumped about this.

Make sure to head back to lewishowes.com slash 279 to see how you can get access to more information on Damon, how you can follow him online on social media. Check out his incredible site and make sure to get his new book, The Power of Broke. Again, share this with your friends, lewishouse.com slash 279 and let Damon know what you thought of this interview over on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram. Thank you guys so much for joining.

This has been incredible. We've got amazing guests coming up very soon. Gosh, we've done some great interviews lately, and I'm super pumped about everyone that's coming on soon. So if this is your first time here, make sure to subscribe over on iTunes. Just go to iTunes and click on the School of Greatness podcast, and then click subscribe so you can listen to this during your morning workout or during your run or when you're making food or when you're going to sleep.

You can pop it on, especially when you're commuting to work. Thank you guys again so much for being here. I love you guys. I appreciate you. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you. សូវាប់បានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបា Outro Music