The School of Greatness - 598 Daymond John: Rise and Grind Habits for a Successful Business and Life

Episode Date: February 5, 2018

If you're going to operate a business, it needs to be something that's like Christmas every single day. - Daymond John Today you're in for a real treat. I interviewed a friend of mine, and king of dad joke Daymond Johnson. He was telling so many dad jokes that had me rolling, I didn't even think we were going to be able to record the interview. Not only that, but he is an amazing businessman with great insights anyone can use. If you've ever wondered how to become an entrepreneur, how to get started in investing, and how to balance your work and family life. On this episode of The School of Greatness, Daymond shares the most important things he's learned from the most successful people ever. One of the biggest things being one we all neglect: our health. By taking on the lessons himself, that he shares in his newest book Rise and Grind, Daymond learned to listen to his body and discovered cancer in his throat. Daymond is a truly remarkable man who has started from the ground up and is constantly learning and changing his game to adapt not only to the world around but also to how he himself is changing all the time. If you don't know who Daymond is, you're in for an amazing treat. Daymond is the CEO and Founder of FUBU, a famous lifestyle brand, and a pioneer in the fashion industry with over $6 billion in product sales. He is an award-winning entrepreneur, and he has received over 35 awards including the Brandweek Marketer of the Year, Advertising Age Marketing 1000 Award for Outstanding Ad Campaign, and Ernst & Young's New York Entrepreneur of the Year Award. His marketing strategies and ability to build successful brands has made him a highly influential consultant and motivational speaker today. His marketing firm, Shark Branding, offers advice on how to effectively communicate to consumers through innovative means and connects brands with the world's top celebrities for everything from endorsements to product extensions. In 2009, he joined the cast of ABC entrepreneurial business show the Shark Tank by acclaimed producer Mark Burnett. Shark Tank has been such a success, its now on it's 10th season! Get ready to take notes from Daymond's insights on Episode 598. Some questions I ask: Who has been the most inspiring person to come on the show? (10:02) What is the greatest negotiation you've ever done? (12:40) Do you feel like you have more balance for family life now? (17:38) When did you have surgery for your cancer? (23:08) Do you have any insecurities? (25:46) How do you choose what opportunities to take on? (28:17) What is the 20% that provides 80% of your revenue? (30:22) What is the thing that you are most excited about right now? (32:58) What's the thing that pulls are your heart the most? (36:04) Do you think about running your family like a business? (37:53) Why do you think entrepreneurs aren't as willing to have discussions with their significant others as they are a business partner? (39:54) What is your unique superpower? (45:27) Do you schedule everything in the book every day for you? (48:00) In this episode you will learn: The most important element to Shark Tank (8:55) The biggest lesson Daymond learned about himself over the last 10 seasons (11:53) How having a child shifted his views of business (15:25) The big things people taught him about continuing to master his skills (19:17) Daymond's daily schedule for health (24:29) How he decides which causes to support (27:23) The one thing he can do this year to increase his revenue (29:32) What his new podcast is based on (32:03) The thing Daymond is most proud of (34:55) The most painful thing in Daymond's life (36:24) What he sees as a great opportunity to get into (42:16) The thing Daymond looks for when he picks people (46:16) Plus much more...

This is episode number 598 with New York Times best-selling author and the Shark Tank master, Damon John. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro-athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And 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.

Stephen Covey said that most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important. We've got an incredible guest today, my friend, Damon John. And if you don't know who he is, throughout his career, he has continued to be an entrepreneur in every sense of the word. He is not only a pioneer in the fashion industry, turning FUBU into a $6 billion brand, but a shark on ABC's Shark Tank, New York Times bestselling author, branding guru, and highly sought after motivational speaker. Even President Barack Obama appointed Damon as presidential ambassador for global entrepreneurship,

a position focused on promoting the power and importance of entrepreneurship on a global scale. He consults for some of the top Fortune 500 companies in the world, and importance of entrepreneurship on a global scale. He consults for some of the top Fortune 500 companies in the world, and his Shark Tank group share advice and experience on branding, licensing, social media, product placement, marketing strategy, and overall business consultation. And in this interview, we dive in on some of the things that I haven't heard Damon talk about before and things he doesn't talk about in his new book, which is what Damon has learned from the other sharks the most. Also,

the greatest negotiation Damon has ever done. Why it's important to schedule in time for your family and the lessons Damon's learned through having multiple kids throughout his business career. Also, how Damon discovered cancer in his throat by listening to his body and the key to optimizing health. Also, how to separate yourself from everyone else in any business. That and so much more. I'm super pumped about this. Make sure to take a screenshot of this while you're listening. Tag me and Damon John on Instagram or Twitter. Let us know that you're listening. Tag me and Damon John on Instagram or Twitter. Let us know that you're listening. And as always, we like to give a shout out to the fan of the

week. Every week, we get reviews from people who are listening, who love the podcast, who get great results from the information, the inspiration they're hearing from the other interviews. And so many of you have left reviews. We've got over 2,500 five-star reviews, I think, at this point. So this week's fan of the week is from Derek S., who said, I just stumbled upon this podcast after iTunes recommended it when I finished Tim Ferriss' Tribe of Mentors. As a former collegiate athlete, your tone and mindset resonates very deeply with me. And when you mention your experience with abuse as a child on the judgment episode and the way you overcame emotional issues after 25 years in silence, I was truly inspired and began reflecting on some of the

similar issues of resentment and anger I have carried for over 29 years of my life. I can't wait to get through all these episodes and begin implementing the actionable advice you gave in every podcast. Thank you for being genuine and honest and helping another young man begin to reshape his life through a clearer, more purposeful lens. So Derek S., thank you for sharing that.

And I just want to let you know that you're not alone and that I've got your back. And I know what you're going through. So continue to open up your heart. Continue to share. Let go of the things that you're holding on to that you've been resenting or haven't forgiven. And allow yourself to feel free, my friend. But thank you so much for leaving that review. You are the fan of the week.

And if you guys want a chance to be shouted You are the fan of the week. And if you guys want a chance to be shouted out on the podcast, go ahead and leave a review over on iTunes, or you can just open up your podcast app that you're listening to on your phone, and you can leave a review right in the podcast app through your iPhone. And without further ado, I'm super pumped for this one. Get ready, guys. The shark himself, the one, the only, Damon John. All right, welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatest Podcast. We've got the legendary Damon John in the house. Good to see you, man.

Thank you for having me. The reason we're laughing right now is because Damon just told me two two dad jokes that just really bad dad hilarious really bad the last one had me rolling we'll do an instagram story later where you guys can see the dad jokes but man good to have you back on thank you for having me you got a new book called rise and grinds rise and grind outperform outwork and out hustle your way to a more successful and rewarding life. If you guys haven't got it, go get it right now. Powerful lessons in here, examples, case studies, all the good stuff. You're a legend, man. Shark Tank continues to elevate.

I'm not a legend. I'm just one of those people on the show. I think that the sharks are really not important to the show at the end of the day. I think that it's the fundamentals of business that all of us know. It's just that Mark Burnett and ABC do a really great job editing and putting the information out there that people need to learn from. But any business person who knows the fundamentals

could be on the show. But yes, thank you for saying that I'm somewhat on the show. It's great, though. It continues to elevate, you know? It's still interesting. I still watch it because it's still good. I learned so much being on the show from not only the Sharks, my fellow Sharks, but I learned so much from the entrepreneurs coming up doing business a whole new way, but yet understanding the fundamentals of what it takes to make it. Yeah.

What do you think is, who's been the most inspiring entrepreneur that's come on that either did a deal or didn't do a deal, but you were just like, whether you got with them or not, but you were just like, man, something about them that they had that every entrepreneur should have. So hard to say that because, you know, we've seen now, I think, over the years, we've seen 2,000 people. Wow. And trust me. Does it ever get old? No, it doesn't. Like, 300, 400 of them have been people like little Moe's bows who will come on there and remind me of my mother and myself as a little kid trying to hustle. Or the guy who I joke all the time, but did the Scrub Daddy.

Yeah, yeah. Or the, I mean, there's so many people. I mean, Cousin's Maine Lobster. Like, all these people. I met people on there. They just said they mortgaged everything. There was one lady on there who did. She basically said she was selling the aluminum out of glass when they take down houses. And then, you know, she sold aluminum out. She made her first $250 selling the metal scrap metal back. And then she started her company. I mean,

just really, really amazing people, you know, so I can't even pick one. Yeah. It's been inspiring though. How long has this show been going on for now? We are about to start shooting our 10th season, and we are in our 9th right now. And I'm loving all these amazing guest sharks, you know, because if you think about it like this, you know, I sit next to Cuban, I sit next to Mark and Kevin. After a while, I know their philosophy of business, right? Whether I agree or disagree, it doesn't matter. But when you get a new shark on, you get new theories, new philosophy, and you get to object. After I hear Kevin say a hundred times, you're dead to me, I'm not offended by it, right? But when I hear the new person like Richard Branson or Bethany or A-Rod or Sarah

Blakely say something or Rohan say something, I may not agree. Or they may say something that's so profound that it changes the way I look at things, you know, and do business today because I'm constantly trying to learn. Right. And you're constantly evolving in business as social media and the internet and everything. Everything. Yeah. What's been the biggest lesson you've learned about yourself over the last 10 seasons? I think the biggest lesson I've learned about yourself over the last 10 seasons? I think the biggest lesson I've learned about myself over the last 10 seasons is that I don't know enough. No matter what business I invest in, it has to go back to the fundamentals of I love the person, I love the business, and I want to learn more about it. And it's like Christmas every day when I wake up to learn the business if

it's just a money play it's of no value to me because I can go and put my money in the in the market or in bonds or something like that crypto whatever I put my money in Tesla you know Elon is not calling me asking me how to build a car right so I have to love the person the business and I have to be I have to wake up every day like Christmas to want to learn more about it. What do you think has been the greatest negotiation you've ever done, whether it be on Shark Tank or in life? The greatest negotiation I've ever done, really, if you look at it from a business perspective, is when I negotiated out of ignorance with Samsung Textile Division when I first got my FUBU deal. I was a young kid. I was very scrappy. I was hungry. I was a little ignorant in business. I was really ignorant in business.

I had mortgaged my house and I was running my own factory. And I had met with Samsung Textile Division for manufacturing distribution probably about six months prior to mortgaging my house. And I remember calling the president of Samsung all the time of textile division and saying, hey, what's up? I want to do the deal. I want to do the deal. He never called me back. You know, it's kind of like how I don't call a lot of people back who just pitch me. And I got really pissed off because I felt like he was ignoring me. And now he had already had the meeting with me. He had showed some some interest so now I have $100,000 from my mortgage of the house and I'm making my I turn my house into a factory and I'm up and running they start to hear about

Samsung starts to hear about how food was doing well and everybody's wearing it so he calls back and I remember now that I have $100,000 I'm thinking that's all the money in the world and I will never need any help by anybody ever. And I was pissed off. I was like this on the phone. Man, you're so full of, you know, SHIT. Why didn't you call me back? I was taking it real, you know, emotionally.

And I was like, the deal I better have is this deal, this deal, this deal. And they said, no problem. Just come on in because they had offered me a deal that was, you know, it was standard. But because they saw that I grew and I had this ego, like, I don't want you anymore. I don't need you. I negotiated out of ignorance. And it was my best deal ever. I would never do that today.

You negotiated out of the deal, right? I negotiated out of ignorance and I got the best deal ever. Oh, wow. Gotcha. But as I know myself now and I turn around, I was out of that $100,000 in almost a month later, right? Because I was paying for raw goods 90 days ahead of time. I was paying for my salary and staff, and I was giving my stores terms, 60, 90-day terms. And I would have lost my house and the business and everything else.

And thank God, thank God I did that deal. But it was out of ignorance that I did the deal. I, you know, I guess everybody always says, you know, do you believe in luck? And I say, no, I don't believe in luck, but maybe I should. Now that you asked that question and nobody ever asked me, maybe that was a little bit of luck. It was a little bit. Yeah. Ignorance, luck. Yeah. Yeah. Timing, everything. Now you said you have a couple of daughters, right? I do. I have three daughters. Three daughters. A 24-year-old, a 19-year-old, and this really, really nasty and aggressive two-year-old. Wow.

Yeah, she's vicious. Wow. She's a hard to go through. Now, when you had your first daughter, did you feel like your views of business shifted or the way that you worked shifted? Did you start working harder, more balanced, less, or did everything stay the same? My first two daughters and my first marriage, I worked 30 hours a day because I said to myself, how am I ever going to be able to take care of these three humans?

And now my life is no longer about me. It's about providing every single thing I can to them, getting them to have a place they can live that is safe for them and education and medical and things of that nature. And I would die for them. I didn't have a life at that point. And FUBU was just starting. And I never knew that FUBU or never thought that FUBU would be anything larger than a boutique for my four friends and I to work out of. And I was like, this is my shot at the big time. I'm not going to let anybody stop me.

And I really kind of mentally said to myself, I'll get to know my daughters when they're 10 or 15 years old because there is no time now. I have to be in Asia for six months at a time. I have to be doing this and that. And I questioned if it was the smartest move to do, but I said to myself, you know what, if I was a sanitation worker, I would still, or nothing wrong with that, but if I worked a city job, I would still work every overtime I could because I need to be able to provide for them. Yeah. And now, you know, I have my beautiful little two-year-old, and it's a different way of life now. Now, and going back to this, as we'll talk about the book, Rise and Grind,

now my theory is how much love can I give to this little being? Really? Yeah, because it has changed. You know, now my life, obviously, I am in a better place, and I have the opportunity to be able to give as much love as I can to her. Not that I don't give as much love as I can to my other daughters. They're my driving force as well. Right.

So do you feel like you have a little bit more balance now? You're working just as hard, but you feel like you take that time to... I do, but that's exactly how the theory for the book came around. Because I don't see you slowing down, really. Right. So what was happening was I looked at it and I said, you know, I'm going on nine years of Shark Tank. I have hundreds of companies I work with and or deal with,

and I'm investing in a bunch of them. I have a new two-year-old. I have work-life balance. I want to get home to my lady. You know, I want to do the things I love to do, fish or archery or whatever, snowboard. I'm really good on the board, baby. But I want to do home to my lady. You know, I want to do the things I love to do, fish or archery or whatever, snowboard. I'm really good on the board, baby. But I want to do all those things.

How do I do it? And I went and I would go in to speak to other people that I respect. And I would say, what's the tricks or the techniques you do to have work-life balance? They all told me the same exact thing, but in different forms. And I started to notice that I can improve in certain areas. Again, like you and I were talking, I don't know if it was on camera or off camera, but there is no one area of success or mastery you get to and you go, I'm done, right? You can be somebody who's a master at juditsu or karate or something like that.

And, you know, at 40 years old or 25 years old, you're a certain master. But at 80 years old, you don't have the same muscle retention or the same speed. So you have to learn to master it a different way. Kind of like when Ali came out of jail and they stripped him of his prime, he had to learn the rope dope to beat George Foreman and he had to fight a different way. You can't just sit in the pocket and just grind it all day. Yeah, you can't do that, right? So I had to start figuring out how to master my grind today, because the Daymond John at 48 years old is not the grind that the Daymond John at 28 years old

had. And I learned all these techniques from the book, from asking these people. Right, right. So what were the big things that people taught you then about this, how to navigate? So the theory in the book is I studied these 15 subjects in there and they have success from all various ways of life whether it's Santana or Tyler the Creator the Grammy award-winning kid or you know our buddy Kyle Maynard who? Army crawled on Mount Kilimanjaro with no arms and no legs, right? He's one of the most inspiring guys ever. He is. I mean, he made me feel like an absolute loser, right? And they all told me the same thing, but they told me in different ways and different formulas. And what I found, the takeaway is that everybody is extremely selfish.

All successful people are extremely selfish in a very good way. Like Chris Sacco always says, you know, and a lot of these people here will not answer any emails for the first hour of the day because they believe that you give up all your power if you're answering everybody else's problems when you wake up. They'll send out emails. And like Chris Sacco always says, his inbox is his defense. His outbox is his offense. They won't look at Instagram when they first wake up or anything else because they don't want to hear about how everybody else on the gram is looking beautiful. They're sore, they're skinnier, whatever. They all got problems, right? And then they'll take care of their health in some fashion or form, eat a great piece of nutrition and put adrenaline in their body. They'll schedule time with their families where most people will

say, it's so cold. I'm not going to schedule when I'm going to call my mother and tell her I love her or take my daughter out on a little date daddy and daughter day. But you know what? You'll never get to that if you don't do it, right? You'll schedule everything else and be on time for everybody else in the world. You'll be on time for when the train runs. You'll be on time for when the boss wants a meeting. You'll be on time for your friends to go to dinner.

But you won't be on time for your family. And before you know it, they're 20 years old and you don't even know your kids anymore, your wife and yourself or your husband. You don't have the same interests anymore. They'll also schedule time to go in a dark place and meditate and or find a place that they can be very grateful for what they currently have. And they want to know what they currently want other than serving everybody else. And in the act of doing all these things, they become more proficient and also more beneficial for everybody else. They're a better person. They're on time and they have their faith and they have everything else. And number one thing they all do, they value and take care of their health.

Yeah. They go out of the way. And throughout this process, when I was talking to Wendy Williams, and she's a vegan now, and so many things, I learned to ask more serious questions about my health. If we're in business, we're going to always ask, how do we increase sales and decrease costs? We're going to keep asking why, why, why, why, why? How can we convert more on Facebook, social media, in the store? But we don't ask about our health. And for many years, I've been going to the doctor. I do the normal thing, go get a checkup. He checks my throat and he sees if my glands are swollen here or not. But I started to realize I didn't feel right and some other things going on. I need

to look deeper into these things. And doing that throughout, you know, studying these people here, I ended up finding out that I got an executive physical. I found out I had stage 2 cancer in my throat. Really? Yeah. I had a nodule in my throat. I had a marble this size of stage 2 cancer in my throat. The doctors felt – the doctors touched my throat every year for the last 10 years.

It probably was in me five years. Wow. I didn't know it, but I started asking more questions. And I started to find out all the things that were wrong with me because I just didn't take the, oh, your physical looks okay, right? I started going deeper and deeper and deeper. And I ended up finding out I had stage two cancer. I'm cancer-free now. So these things all have came out of doing a lot of the practices in the book. People will read the book and find out that either they're doing the right thing or there's five other ways to go about it. Let me try these

five. These four don't work, but bang, that one's the one. Wow. Yeah. When did the cancer thing happen? I got the surgery good Friday on 2017. Oh, wow. Yeah. It's fully gone. It's fully gone. And thank you. Thank you. Absolutely. And it's important for me to say, you know, I've been telling people about it because the bottom line is early detection, right? The bottom line is going out there and finding out. Listen, if you think that there's something that runs in your family, go check it out. Don't put your head down and say, I hope this bus doesn't hit me one day. You know, don't put your head in the sand, right? Go check it out.

Get a mammogram, pap smear, endoscopy, colonoscopy. You know why? Because entrepreneurs don't take care of themselves. They take care of everybody else. Yeah. For me, the more I understand about my health, I feel like my business continues to grow. When I maximize my health and I have a trainer

and I'm on it and I schedule it every single day, I'm not perfect every day, but when I am, I feel like my business is unstoppable. You know, we all talk about business all the time, but the aspect of health is the most important part, and nobody talks about it. Yeah. Nobody talks about it. And most businessmen and women, you go around and you're traveling all the time, and, you know, it's not easy to eat the best things. Then you're at two and three dinners a night.

You're drinking because you're bored with a lot of people. You're drinking because you're happy because you're off. You know, you're not sleeping, you're in between climates and things of that nature, and then all of a sudden it implodes and you have nothing left. Yeah, it's crazy. Do you have a schedule every day then for your health right now? I try, and you know, I'm not perfect. I go back to the book often to look at all the things that I want to do. So, give you an example, Sway, you know, loves to say, hey, I get up and I bust down four sets of 25 push-ups a day and gets my adrenaline running. I was doing that until I blew

my shoulder out doing something else, right? So, now what I do, I have to do, I was actually diving in Mexico and trying to embarrass my daughters with this dive and I hurt my shoulder. I embarrassed myself. All right. So, now I have to adjust that.. So what do I do now? All right, so maybe now after I will answer emails after when I do, but I'll be walking on the treadmill for two hours answering them later on. So I put the steps in, I'll do leg lifts, I'll do whatever the case is. But again, it's always adjusting, right?

I'm not going to make any excuse, oh my arm's blown out so now I can't do anything, right? Because Kyle Maynard climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with no arms, no legs. What the hell's wrong with me? I got one little something wrong with my shoulder here and I can't do anything right because Kyle Maynard climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with no arms no legs what the hell's wrong with me I got one little something wrong my shoulder here and I can't work out yeah I had our good buddy uh Gary Vaynerchuk on recently and I always try to get something different out of him you know he speaks about this how can you get something I mean he says everything right he's he's crazy he says everything he's in the book by the way his book is out too uh Crushing It.

Yeah, yeah. And I asked him what his big insecurity was, and he had an interesting answer. But I was curious if you have any insecurities because the answer he gave I felt like I didn't hear often. So it was nice to get something new. My biggest insecurity, I don't know. What would my insecurity be? Your dad joke is going to land or not? No, my dad jokes are smoking. You know, they are.

They are. You know, like, you know why seagulls fly over a sea, the ocean, instead of over a bay, right? Because then they would be called bagels. Oh, my gosh. The pirate one. Anyway, let me, but insecurities. Or is it more just after, you know, 30 years? Fears, maybe let's say fears. Not to beat a dead horse, but you know, my health, right?

Am I going to be around to walk my three little girls down the aisle? That's a fear that I have that when is my time to go? If I didn't have daughters and, you know, beautiful people in my life, if I went today, I'd be happy. I've lived the life of three people, right? You know, but my time is to serve them. And you know what I think maybe a fear of insecurity is? Am I doing enough to save the planet? You know, if I have a public stage, every time I see something happen out there, whether it's something happening to animals or human trafficking,

or every time I hear something going on out there, I want to be the first person on the line, on the front line. And I sometimes suffer from analysis paralysis. But if I can use my public stage to bring attention to taking illegal guns off the street or catching predators and things of that nature, so my fear is that am I doing enough to change the planet? How do you decide which cause to support? You know, there's so many. Every day there's some issue. It's very hard.

So I have to, you know, take inventory of myself and say, where can I add value to these things? And maybe it's the public stage to bring it to attention. But, you know, people have this perception that people that have, have any level of success, walk on water. They have all the money. Like people think I can invest in every single thing in the world. I'm not the government. You know what I mean? Even the government can't do it. You know what I mean? So they think that I can just make a wave of magic wand and change the entire world. And sometimes you get caught up in going, well, if I see people that go out in the world and build, help build schools and in the world and help build schools and go to the Peace

Corps and go and build dams in other countries, they're making me feel like a loser. I can do more. Yeah. But I can't do everything. Of course. And how do you choose, you know, how many companies have you invested in now in total? It could be 60 or 80 or something like that. Yeah. Got you. How do you choose which opportunities to take on when you have so much thrown at you on Shark Tank, but also just email and Twitter and people just say, hey, here's my idea. Can you invest? How do you make money when you have so many things you're working on? Yeah, well, first of all, I don't really invest in other companies outside of Shark Tank because that takes up a lot of – it's my money and it's time. And if I would follow my own rules, then if I were to invest in other companies,

then I should go invest in myself even further, whether help bring FUBU back or my other companies that I own. Why, you know, the grass is not greener on the other side. Kind of work on myself, work on myself, how to maximize social media and empowering people and things of that nature. So I really don't invest outside of Shark Tank. Maximize social media and empowering people and things of that nature. So I really don't invest outside of Shark Tank.

But no, there's a massive, massive job to decide on where to focus your energy and your staff. Because it's really easy for me to say to my staff, hey, why don't we go do this? Well, now you put 5, 10, 20, 30 people in and you gave them all 10 hours of work a week. And then all of a sudden you're going to ask, well, why is this crumbling? Well, boss, you told me to do this. So it's a lot of responsibility. It's rise and grind. It's writing down goals, A's and B's on your goals and finding out what you want to do the best. Yeah.

What do you think is the one thing you could do this year to help you drastically increase your revenue or income with everything that you're doing? Is it the food booth thing or reinvesting back in yourself? Is it taking a couple of things and going all in with a few things or? I think today, if I was going to maximize, then it would have to be really looking at the 80-20 at the company and personally, meaning what is the 20% of stuff that is creating 80% of the revenue and or joy or time in my life, whether it's personally or whatever the case is, and really digging deep into that thing. And a lot of times people don't want to look at the 80-20. I do look at it as often as I can, but I'm human as well. I get caught up in some things that may be from a reason I think needs to be done and I get off track, but I have to go back to my goals

and look at them. But yeah, it would be the 80-20, like what are providing the 80% of revenue and or joy for my staff and myself and keeping people there. What do you think that is right now? I would say that FUBU right now is doing really well. We have a collaboration out with Puma. Nice. That's having a resurgence. Of course, whether it's 80-20 or not, the new people that come on the Shark Tank, I need to invest in because they gave me the opportunity to invest in their dreams. And it's their time right now. And I took on that job of making sure that I did the best for them. And then my personal brand as I get out there and I start to educate people because for a long period of time, I didn't want to necessarily, I didn't feel like I wanted to go out and educate because I didn't want people thinking, oh, my God, he's trying to make money selling us books and curriculum.

But you know better than anybody else, you don't make money off of books. You do it because you want to change people's lives. And now I realize that, unfortunately, there's too many people out there selling people insecurities in this world. in this world and that I do need to come out with more products and ideas because I was put on this public stage to show people that if my dumb ass can make it, everybody else can. And then I need to create more curriculums like Damon on Demand or like Rise and Grind or The Power of Broke or my DJ Success Formula or Speaking Engagements or whatever to empower people and not feel guilty that, hey, you know what? I got to charge you because I got to get the lights on. I got to pay this staff that's traveling around or the writers and everything else. So I think to improve more of what I'm giving the people to show people that

you can make it and you don't have to have a lot of money. You got to just be able to ready to bust your butt and get out there and do it. So again, investing in myself to get this information out to the world or my podcast or things of that nature. Yeah, yeah. You did the new podcast around the book, right? Yeah, I did the new podcast around the book. It was me kind of like, you know, giving people an insight on the questions I'm asking individuals and really fascinating stuff. My Rise and Grind podcast has been doing really amazing.

And I put people on there that weren't even in the book, people like Barbara, you know, I mean, you know, of course, I had a really great conversation with Barbara. She's great, yeah. I've learned so much from Barbara. She's really a brilliant person. The reason I like that is she comes at things with a very average, everyday, the people shark type of approach. Very simplistic. She said stuff that's really amazing. Like, listen, I used to write down what I love and

what I hate. And I made sure the things that I hate, I outsourced it or got people away from me that created this hate for whatever this is and I focused on what I love. And as I did this, everything else mentally started to shift here and I got rid of these things, right?

And so she has such a simplistic approach to things, but she's a brilliant, brilliant woman. What would you say is the thing that you're excited about the most right now? You got so much going on. I'm excited about everything

I do be very honest, but I'm going on ten years on Shark Tank The next Oprah Winfrey or Steve Jobs or Bill Gates is in their pajamas eating cereal watching Shark Tank And they're gonna get up here and the film Knights of the world they're gonna go and they're gonna change the entire world And they're 12 years old right now, eating cereal in their pajamas, saying, I'm going to be that next person. So Shark Tank is absolutely amazing. Having books, when you're so close to it a lot of times, that when you finally put it out and you see that it's changing people's lives, I'm really, really excited about that. Of course, like I said, I'm so on this health thing that I'm realizing how screwed up I was prior, right?

And that I'm going to figure this thing out. I have my little girl, of course, and my two older girls. And my two older girls, as most people watching or listening to this would, most parents would say to themselves, was I a good parent? And did my child grow up to change the world? And I'm seeing my two older girls are being the grown-up to be the women that I wanted them to be and that they're adding a positive impact to this planet. I'm really looking forward. This year, I'm looking forward to acquiring a lot more dad jokes to just make me that guy. I'm going to send you some.

I'm going to find some, and I'm going to text you some. You got to send me some dad jokes. I mean, dad jokes are really, really important. They're high on my list. What's your favorite one of all time? The pirate one was pretty good. No, I have a lot of them. There's no one favorite dad joke.

And they come any time, right? So they can come at any time. And then you won't even laugh at them right then. You may laugh at them. Later. Yeah, a lot later. Like, you know, what does a pirate say when they turn 80 years old? I'm 80.

I'm 80. I'm 80. That's going to hit you about 2 in the morning when you get up to go to the bathroom. That was good. Oh, man. What's the thing you're most proud of? I'm most proud of being able to escape the clutches of everybody else's goals that they set for me when I was 16 and 20 years old. Like most of the people that grew up in neighborhoods, the people told me they were going to be dead or in jail or that they weren't good because of their color, their education, or because they didn't have any money. And I escaped those goals that were set for me by society, by people in the neighborhood who may not

have had the right support system around them. And I defied those odds, and I became a person that I'm very proud of who I am today, and people couldn't look at me and say, if he can make it, I can make it. So that's the thing I'm most proud of. If I die today or tomorrow or 50 years from now, there's nothing in my closet that I need to hide. There's nothing that I need to second guess. And it was okay. It was okay doing the right thing when I had, like,

everybody else listening to us had the option to do the wrong thing. It was okay to do the right thing. Yeah, yeah. If dad jokes bring you the most joy and laughter, what's the thing that pulls at your heart the most? Is there things that happen in your day to day? It's just those causes. It's those causes to, there's a meat market for dogs.

It's crazy. To find out that there are people who can, you can put your trust in them to have your kids go and be gymnasts, and then all of a sudden they abuse your trust and they violate your children and things like that. Those things cause me pain. Yeah, yeah. What's been the most painful thing in your life? Getting divorced in my first marriage because my ex-wife is a driven, brilliant person, and my marriage was sacrificed due to me working hard, me being young and dumb, and you don't give

a 30-year-old, you know, a couple of million dollars and fame at the same time, and that doesn't have an adverse effect, you know what I mean? How long were you together for or married for? We probably married for about four years. I forgot what it was, but we were together. She was with me before the food was a success. Yeah. She's still one of my closest friends and biggest inspirations. She's the best partner I can ever have.

We're just not married any longer, but very supportive. Right. That was a challenging transition for you? Of course it was a challenging transition. But as you look back, I mean, you know, when would you ever not want to be in your family's lives and stuff like that, knowing that you could have controlled or you could have made a better effort to be a better person, right? But being human is human. You know, there's so many different aspects and things that come in your life. And many people who are business people, you know, they're on their second and third marriages. But on the flip side, listen, my wife now and my baby now wouldn't be here if that didn't happen. So everything happens for a

reason. I don't ever regret anything that happened. It just becomes a pain, you know, that you think about. Do you ever think about your family as a business in terms of like running it like a like an entrepreneur I didn't in the past but I do now almost again because of some of these studies I've have in here I realized that making the family a priority and running it like a business is great it may seem cold but it is very proficient if you do it's effective right yeah it's effective yeah how do you run your family like a business now then you schedule time first all. You look at the investment that you're doing into future education and or, you know, it all is going to be time generally. It's

going to be personal time, educational time, relaxation time, and solving problems. You know, I think one of my friends said to me, you know, when he had a problem with his wife, he said, you know, the wife said, well, why aren't you trying to work this out? He's like, I don't have the time. She said, but if I was a client. You'd make time. You'd make time, right, to work this out. Right. If I was paying you, you wouldn't want to lose that deal.

Right. Why do you want to lose this relationship or this discussion we need to have? I realized that. That was something somebody said in the book, and I started to put in more time. And if you look at this book like The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, as you talked about, I realized throughout that time, you start to find out more about yourself as you start to look at your family. You see what you're doing, good, bad, or indifferent,

and you start to understand yourself, and you become more proficient in other aspects of life. When FUBU really went down, it was right around when I had my divorce. Really? I don't think it was a coincidence. You know what I mean? It was reality. You know, I was miserable at home. I was taking it out on my work.

I was making bad decisions. And I think that we just don't talk about family and health and all that stuff in regards to how important it is for success in business. It's huge. Why is it do you think that some entrepreneurs will not have those conversations with their partner or their wife or fiance but they're willing to have those negotiations with their business deals? I think because…

It's more fun on the business stuff or if it's too messy. I think that business is a very clear thing. It's a number, right? Tomorrow you have money for payroll or not, right? And you have to address it. You can try to hide it if you want and not talk about it, but the rent needs to be paid on the 1st or the 30th, right? And or the inventory is sitting there.

So it's something you have to address. And all these other personal things or the 30th, right? And or the inventory is sitting there. So it's something you have to address. And all these other personal things, they're personal, right? I've seen the biggest titans of industry be someone who will do billion dollar deals, but yet they're afraid to have a conversation with a woman at a bar because they feel too open and vulnerable, right? When they can hide behind a pen, a checkbook, a desk, or a wall, right? So I think that the personal aspect of life is something that people don't want to address because it's so fluid. And it's scary. It's scarier, right?

Yeah. The heart. The heart. You know, listen, I can sit across the table from you and I can say, I'm going to give you, you know, this $50 for this. And you say, give me $70. And I say, screw you, right? Because, you know, this $50 for this. And you say, give me 70. I say, screw you. Right. Because you know,

you're just negotiating with me. But if, if you're personally sitting across from the table and you go like, you know, can I hold your hand? And a woman or a man goes, get the hell out of here. You'll remember that for the rest of your life.

Cause I, you listen. Yeah. I remember when this girl didn't want to kiss me when I was 16 years old. That damn Lisa. That's why you went and built up FUBU. That's right. Show you. Show Lisa.

She was crazy. She was a little tell-all. Who cares? Yeah. Wow. I had a question I want to ask you, but it's escaping me now. Do you let that roll through the podcast like you're thinking now? Yeah.

That's good because I like that because I want people to know that you're processing the information. Yeah. God, I had a really good thought. Sometimes when I'm interviewing, I have really good thoughts, but my goal is to be still present, but then the thought escapes me. This is what it was. Got it. You've seen so many deals over the last 10 years.

You've been in business for a long time yourself, pre-Shark Tank. Now with cryptocurrency and just everything online, what companies like Airbnb and Uber and these other companies have been able to do to scale so quickly, Dropbox, things like that, that just built massive businesses very quickly. Over the next 10 years, what do you see as a great opportunity to get into in business? Is it more physical goods and clothing? Is it more food products? Is it more online digital software products? If you were to recommend for an entrepreneur starting today, knowing that so much has been changing and so much is going to continue to change, what would be like the best industry business idea to get into? Well, it would be hard

to tell somebody what the best industry is unless they're just a passive investor. And you can look at industries like I play the market, I'll play infrastructure and I'll play, you know, technology and various things, right? Because I don't need to operate the business. But if you're really going to operate the business, it has to be something that you're fascinated in, right? Or something that, again, is Christmas every single day. Saints Christmas every day for someone, for whatever that is. I think that no matter what it is, it doesn't have to be anything specific. It has to be something, though, that is converting direct to the customer, You're cutting out all the middlemen because right now with all the noise, it's very hard. So I like companies, whether you're selling socks or you're selling food or you're selling fitness products

or curriculums, you're talking directly to the customer and you have various different platforms you're talking to them because, you know, I'm finding out like I was talking to one of my guys and he was like, well, Vine is gone right now. So what happened to those people who have 5 million people on Vine but they don't have any emails where they were? They're gone now. They have 5 million people. They worked so hard for that.

So whether it's a membership and you're selling somebody a subscription model or whatever the case is, or you're Amazon, you got that button on your washing machine that boom, you hit that tide, it's coming right to you. You just eliminate everybody advertising all kinds of other things because you're a creature of habit, you're going to hit it. Or if your credit card is billed $5 a month, you're not going to take that damn $5 off. By the time you call those people, they're going to give you such a heartache on taking the $5 off. You're going to give them another 50, right? So I think it's anybody that is delivering something straight to the customer

and they have full margin, they know their analytics, they know who their customer is so they can upsell their customer and or provide better value and get also real-time information on what is working or not working from the customer. So no matter what it is, that's the business, you know? That's why I love the online world right now. Just there's so many opportunities. I feel like I got it

at the right time. I knew nothing about business 10 years ago. Right. I got kind of lucky of timing and just like curiosity and working really hard to be able to understand this now.

Online, this is where it's at. There's no inventory. No inventory. That's it. I mean, and even if it is inventory, you can probably turn your inventory fairly quickly and not have to worry.

Like I said, the 60, 90 days turn and things of that nature. Exactly. Fascinating, fascinating time. But the only thing that people have to understand about this is that now everybody can do it as well. So you better get up and bust your ass. You better rise and grind because everybody can do it. So how do you separate yourself from the noise? at a rise and grind because everybody can do it. So how do you separate yourself from the noise?

It goes back to the fundamentals of being able to get up before everybody else and go to bed after everybody else. Yeah. What would you say is your unique superpower? Picking good people. Yeah. I am not the smartest person in the world, but I have this knack for picking good people. I have this knack also for allowing people to fail and seeing the good within them. And when everybody else goes, you know, they're short-tempered with the people or whatever the case is. I figure that just like in entrepreneurship. If this stuff has failed between you and I and you didn't do a good job, I know one less thing I can give you. But now where can I give you stuff that makes you who you are? And I think that's my knack. I give a lot of people a lot of

chances, but it ends up coming back to me double and triple in value because they are amazing people. Yeah. What's the thing you see that you look for when you can pick them? Is it like a feeling right away? No, it's never feel right away. It's never feel right away because they have to unfold. Everybody's on their best behavior when you first meet them. Take the onion off. Yeah, exactly. So it's drive, right? It's that they think outside the box.

They're problem solvers. They're also able to communicate throughout a team and a system. And they have a very clear vision on the things that they like, and they know how to communicate that to everybody else so everybody else can kind of see their way. They may not be good in one area, but it doesn't matter. If I pick a person, I'll put them in any area and they'll figure it out. Those type of common sense, those type would drive and some level of respect, honesty and stuff like that.

I mean, you just can't, you can't lose when you have somebody like that. You have somebody ready to bust their ass and you can't, they're never going to stop. They're going to figure it out one day. Yeah. You can't beat those people. And if you don't work with them, they're going to go off and be your competitor. Exactly. That's cool. I like that. I've got a few questions left for you, but I want to make sure you guys get the book.

Go check it out, Rise and Grind. Powerful book. A lot of great case studies. You've got Gary Vee in here, Kyle Maynard. Grant Cardone, I saw, is in here as well. Grant Cardone, Mr. 10X. You've got Gary Vee. We're speaking at the event together.

Yeah, yeah, we were there last year. Grant, you know what I love about him in this book? He says time is so valuable that he'll set a meeting at 9.06 and be there at 9.06 and be over at 9.15. And so what does that do? That puts everybody else on their best behavior in regards to time. They'll know I ain't going to come in at 9 and float around. 9.06, we're on. And when you start valuing those 1,440 minutes

you have of the day, or 86,660 seconds you have of the day, when you start scheduling and understanding the value that you get the most out of your day. Yeah, do you schedule everything every day for you, pretty much? I do schedule most of the stuff, but I also leave that gap for what happens, right? Minka, you know, if Peppa Pig is not on at the right time, you know, Minka's not, you know, she's going to set it off in the house, right?

So I'm going to have to, you know, I need that half an hour to calm her down, you know what I mean? Sure. Problem's going to come up. But, you know, a lot of people like, let's talk about emails. 20 years ago, did you walk around just opening your mail all times of the day? No. You wouldn't got it at 9 a.m. or whatever. Right.

Some people here will say, no, I'm opening emails from 4.30 to 5.30. I'm done. Yeah. Right? I'm not letting that consume me. Sure. Right? And then move on to other things, right?

So there's a lot of different ways to maximize time. But again, we all know that's the only thing we're never going to get back. That's true. That's true. This is called the three truths. I can't remember if I asked you last time. I think I did. Okay. this is called the three truths i can't remember if i asked you last time i think you did okay this is called the three truths maybe you did maybe i did but maybe i want to see this change so you interviewed somebody yeah so it's the last day for you many years from now you've achieved everything you've ever wanted to

achieve written all the books businesses you've made all the money yeah your daughters you've walked them all down the aisle everything Everything you've ever wanted to do. You've caught the biggest bass in the world. You've got the world record, right? Oh, my God. Are you a bass guy? I am. I am.

Yeah. I'm a bass guy. You've got the world record for the biggest catch, right? Everything you want. It's happened. You just lit up. I would kill myself right there if I caught the bass. Done.

But for whatever reason, all the stuff you've ever created has been erased. The books are gone. People don't have access to your information anymore. Your lessons, your wisdom is gone for whatever reason. Hypothetically, right? But you've got a piece of paper and a pen. And you get to write down three things you know to be true about all the lessons you've learned from your life. Whether it be personal, family, business, health, anything. But you only get three things to share.

And this is all the world has to remember you by. What would you say are your three truths? Be in the moment. Live in the moment. Love as much as you can. Your family and whatever else it is. Have faith in God. Solid. I like it. Yeah, that's it. And Have faith in God. I like it.

Yeah, that's it. And go for the bass, the world record. Well, if you have faith in God, then you're going to catch that bass. Right? And if you love your family, love you too, they're going to allow you to go fishing as much as you can. Yeah, yeah. And if you're in the moment, you're going to take a rod

and go right down to the lake every moment you can. I like that. It all goes back to that bass the lake every moment you can. I like that. It all goes back to that bass, man. That's good. I like that. I want to acknowledge you, Damon, because every time I'm around you, you're always very generous and kind and giving and supportive. Well, thank you, man. I think people, sometimes people who have a lot of success and a lot of recognition and opportunities aren't always so nice.

But you always show up with a very caring, giving heart. Every time I'm around you with your friends or people that maybe aren't close to you, you're always very kind and giving of your time and wanting to always support and lift others up. So I acknowledge you for our friendship and always. I think the same with you, man. And I think that a lot of people can learn from this in some form because a lot of us are raised with the theory that business has to be hard and cutthroat and you got to be like, you know, J.R. Ewing on Dallas or Michael

Douglas on Wall Street. And that's the only way to go. It's, you know, it's wreckable. My life, I'm here because of a lot of giving people. I'm here because of those teachers that believed in a little dyslexic boy or my stepfather who came in my life at the age of 15 who is of the Jewish faith. And it gave me a worldview to understand that love doesn't come in a color or a gender and the people are amazing. And I got to understand something about white people that, first of all, they're white, black, yellow, love doesn't come in gender. And white people are just as screwed up as black people too, right?

And it made it very human. But I remember his brother was the lead attorney in America to fight for the abolishment of apartheid and the freeing of Mandela. And when I see that people of all color and people like that are giving, we don't get to see the human aspect of society and the beautiful part of it. And then when I was growing up in business, you would think it would be my competition, Carl Canai, who was really a prominent figure in urban apparel. He was one of the first people to introduce me to stores and help me. So so i came up

seeing people who were giving i didn't come up seeing cutthroat people or maybe i have blinders on and i wouldn't deal with them yeah so i think that that's a lesson that people need to know outside because everybody's trying to put on this facade like you got to be so tough you can't you can't be tough to be on the team right so i appreciate the the acknowledgement but you know i just think that's the way it should be. Yeah, of course. Well, keep it up. You're doing an amazing job.

Thank you, brother. I appreciate it. Yeah, make sure you guys get the book. Follow you on Instagram. Where do you hang out the most right now on social media? I'm on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. My Insta stories, you know, I'm doing that. You're getting hard on there.

I like it. Yeah, I'm trying, man. I'm trying to be like you guys. You guys are right. I got to get that mentality. Just flip on the camera. there. I like it. Yeah, I'm trying, man. I'm trying to be like you guys. You guys are like, I got to get that mentality. Just flip on the camera. Don't overthink it. Don't produce it too much. Yeah, but that's where I am.

And hopefully I'm out there giving good information. And then obviously you catch the podcast. It's called Rise and Grind Podcast? Rise and Grind Podcast. Check it out. It's up there now. And it's a lot of the interviews you did with the story. A lot of these interviews as well as other interviews that are not in the book oh sweet awesome yeah so go

subscribe to that final question what's your definition of greatness well the the quick answer is the one that everybody knows which is uh what success is you know doing something you love every day but my i think my uh greatness being satisfied yourself being able to sleep at night uh because of the journey that you've taken and um yourself and being able to sleep at night because of the journey that you've taken. And just really being able to sleep at night and not having to say, man, I shouldn't have done that. And now I've got to correct myself. Just being able to. I sleep really, really good at night.

Yeah. I do. And I'm glad that I do because my life, you know, growing up in a tough neighborhood, I could have made other turns. I was very tempted as a kid. So many people think that money is success and it's not. It really isn't. And I'm not saying that because I got a couple of dollars.

You know what I mean? It really isn't. I know people that don't have a pot to piss and they're the happiest you can ever imagine. Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. the piss in there the happiest you can never imagine all right all right thanks bro thank you brother appreciate it oh yes if you enjoyed this one make sure to let me know let damon know over on instagram take a screenshot of this tag me and add damon john and let us know what you thought i'd love to hear your thoughts on this and i always love connecting with you

over on Instagram, over on the Twitter, over on the Facebook, anywhere you like to hang out, but I'm mostly spending my time over on Instagram. And as always, the show notes. You can get the full video interview,

all the links, all the information to Damon's book. Go get up a copy of his book at lewishowes.com slash 598. Go check out that link to get all the resources and feel free to share that out with your friends as well who might be interested in hearing this also. Again, a big thank you to listening to this episode with Daymond John. If you haven't left a review yet, make sure to head over to iTunes or on your podcast app and leave us a review right

now for a chance to be shouted out of the review of the week. And as always, I hope you remember how meaningful and important you are to this world. This world needs you. It needs your gift. It needs your smile, your joy, your compassion, and your generosity. We need more good people like you in this world. And you are a good person. You have so much value to add. Whatever you're doing in your life right now, continue to improve upon your life and add value to those around you.

And as Stephen Covey said, most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important. Think about the thing that's most important for you to do right now in your life and go do that. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music