This YouTube podcast episode (TUH #087) features Daymond John in conversation with host Gary Brecka about John’s health transformation (giving up alcohol, reversing markers like insulin resistance, triglycerides, and blood pressure), his approach to running many businesses (time management and saying no), and how he teaches financial literacy to his children. John describes a three-bucket money framework (1: living expenses, 2: investments, 3: wants — with leftover from #3 flowing into #2), warns about rising student debt and obsolete job titles (claims ~50% of graduates will retire in jobs that don't exist today), and reflects on starting FUBU in 1992 and his public profile (Shark Tank, awards).
Questions this video answers
1992.
1) Necessities (pay for living), 2) Investments (health, markets, etc.), 3) Wants (discretionary). Leftover from bucket 3 is saved into bucket 2 to compound over time.
About 50%.
$700,000 (as cited in the conversation).
Chapters
My goal initially was I wanted to get down to fit into my Shark Tank season one outfit. And I failed at those goals for three years. When I started changing my goal from getting into that suit to seeing myself alive and healthy and walking my three little girls down the aisle, the alcohol was done. I didn't need it. I spent millions more because of that lifestyle. And I could have put that on this lifestyle.
Do you flick that switch though? I will give it to you. You were all in and all out. Sugars are normalized, you're no longer insulin resistant or pre diabetic, you're no longer hypertriglyceridemia. Your blood pressure is normalized, immune system strengthened. And what we did was.
I got to tell you something, because I'm in so many businesses, you being a successful entrepreneur today does not mean you'll be a successful entrepreneur tomorrow. And you being healthy today does not mean tomorrow.
Talk a little bit about your strategy for managing so many disparate business.
Time is something you can never get back. The more successful people get, the more nos, the more times they say no, because you have to.
Hey guys, welcome back to the ultimate human podcast where we go down the road, everything anti aging, longevity, biohacking and everything in between. Today I have an incredible guest, one that you guys all know and probably love. He's an entrepreneur, he's an author, an investor, he's a well known TV personality. Probably wants to be most well known for being a father of three children. You know him from his iconic brands. He started the brand FUBU in 1992 where most of you guys were still in the womb. He's won numerous awards including the Brand Week Marketer of the Year, the NAACP Entrepreneurs of the Year award, which I think he won twice, the Advertising Age Marketing award, Crane's new business, 40 under 40, all of these awards. But I just want to give you the proper introduction. Yeah, it's actually my wife stage working her.
Thank you very much.
Welcome to the podcast, my good friend, Damon John.
Yeah, thank you. Thanks, Sadie.
Thank you for coming on. We've had quite a journey over the last two years.
We have been a little bit amazing, amazing journey. I've been watching your journey, how you know the world has discovered you and then you, you help me discover myself.
So yeah, I mean, you know, I want to talk about the health journey. I also want to talk about, I actually want to talk about your influence of, of children and finances as well. Because you and I spoke. I mean, I've watched on Shark Tank for years. I mean, obviously you're brilliant. I think you have an amazing communication style and you distill like I do in the human body, complicated information about business down to bite sized pieces that the audience can engage in and understand. I think it's a very special skill. But something I didn't know about you that I was really struck by. A few months ago, we, we both spoke at Lauren Reddinger's conference. It was Market America, shop.com. and I see a lot of speakers, I listen to a lot of topics. You know, I'm in a lot of events, but I took notes from that talk, really, and I was super captivated by it. And, and that I would love for you to share is you talked about how you're teaching your youngest your daughter about finances and the bank account and the checking and the things they're not teaching in school.
Yeah.
And so tell me a little bit about that, like what are you doing with your kids to create financial literacy?
You know, Well, I teach other importance of money, but you know, also it's the psychology around money and what do you, what are you purchasing and why are you purchasing. But to know how it works as a structure. Right. And, and what the best way to say this is that, you know, we're not taught about money in school and actually it's a taboo, you know, and you have this theory that once you get it, you can keep it. Once you get it, it'll solve your problems and it's very hard to get it. And those who have it are assholes.
So true. You know, take great offense to that.
Well, a lot, A lot of it. But you know, but the simplest way to say this is. It is a, it is a learned behavior. It is something that must start young. Right. Because you don't, you don't teach a child how to play sports at 19 and put them right on the field or her, you know, with anybody. You don't teach them how to play an instrument and put them right in an orchestra, you know.
Right.
20. And you teach them at 20.
But that's kind of what life does to them.
Right, Right. And, and so, you know, if you learn and understand and the best way to explain how you operate. $3, whether $3 comes into the house. 303 billion. Right. The first doll always goes for what you have to pay for to live. The second is supposedly an investment, whatever that investment is. Right. In, in your health or in a public market or whatever the case is. And the third is what you would like to have but don't have to have. Right. And if you don't spend all of number three, it goes into number two. And what happens is over the years, number two compounds and it flows into one and three. But we as hard working Americans who are are marketed by predatory, you know, payday loans, slash accounts such of that nature. Or we watch and everything is no money down. Of course. Right. And there's really not no money down. And not knowing that one or two points is it will change your entire life from your mortgage to anything else. Well, what do we do? We work hard. We usually buy and go and do number three first. We never get to number two and then we pay 18 or 24 on credit cards for number one. It corrodes the whole system. Now if you don't learn financial intelligence in school, the bottom line is today's kid who graduates from college, 50% of them will retire with a job title that doesn't exist today. Right. That's like telling somebody you were going to be a drone operator or a pay per click expert. 20 years ago they say, what the fuck is that?
Right, Right.
So now no financial intelligence at 16 years old or 17 years old, you will be applying for $700,000 worth of student debt for a career that you're not sure you want to have, that you won't pay off until your 50s. Let' to what Gary does. Because what happens then is if you don't have money, well, the cheapest things to consume in this country are made out of butter, sugar and salt.
