Daymond John Interview: 5 Steps To Turn Your Brand Into An Empire In 2024!

Hello, this is Joe Polish and I want you to watch a short video about Daymond John and you're gonna hear me do an interview with him. So here we go. The belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us. For us, but by us. For us, but by us. The man who built a multi million dollar fashion empire. This is 220s.

This is what this man had started with, to build a billion dollar empire. Daymond John displayed his entrepreneurial talents at an early age.

Daymond John turned rags to riches with his clothing brand, fubu.

Now FUBU will be no fat bum.

It's crazy.

Open all the doors for everybody. You created a brand and again created part of a movement. I created this market about 15 years ago when they said there wasn't an urban market. This space did not exist. And what I created was what today we call a 20 billion dollar market.

My meeting with Damon, it really builds.

Me up and it makes me really confident because he's so encouraging and he sees that I could do this. So the question is going to be when is it time for Chloe to start her line? I know that's what I want my next step to be, but that's also why I like Chloe. It's time now, though, it is. Damon John is the man we need to help us get a better understanding of the loyalty based relationship that brands and celebrities create.

Working with Daymond John, who is part of the FUBU for us buy us movement.

He's a part of Shark Tank and someone that I think I have a lot to learn from. We sold $30 million worth of product in three months. It was about breaking through boundaries.

You know you're large when your company is on an Indy 500 race car.

Everything you've seen from FUBU, Coogee, Heatherette and all the brands that I own have come from directly under our office. I know everything from the brand development side to the manufacturing side, all the way to the advertising side. He successfully created brands. He's written books about it. Display of power and my favorite, which I love, the brand within the hit new ABC reality show Shark Tank. Whether you like FUBU or not, I have branded a stinking pair of jeans globally to take a brand that's declining and make it hot again.

Fresh from last week's premiere of Shark Tank.

Two of the Sharks, Daymond John, and.

Our own season five favorite, Mark Cuban.

You have the power that people want.

What's the magic secret sauce?

The magic secret to power is to be decisive. Life is like business. It's 20% what happens to you, 80%, how you respond.

This is jeopardy.

You'll be just another fish in the sea if you don't understand the concept of this. As a result of his success, he wanted to share his knowledge with other aspiring entrepreneurs. I'm a student of life, and I'm truly somebody who stands on the shoulders of giants. I see that excitement in these young entrepreneurs. And you're not only a successful entrepreneur, you've just given back to the community in so many great ways. It takes the same energy to think small as it does to think big. And you must think big. I have unlimited manufacturing capabilities. I have the power to do this deal and make you filthy rich. The great entrepreneurs of our generation. Damon John. Damon John. Damon John.

Damon John.

Damon John, the forerunner. He is the leader. He is the guy that started off the pioneer. Are you ready?

You are the best.

You are the best. After the break, we're going to try to make some more money.

Hello. I'm here with my friend Daymond John. He's best known for a shark tank, but, you know, FUBU is your clothing line. You've built. How big is that brand? Just talk about some money here.

In the beginning, you know, FUBU peaked at about $350 million a year. Now we probably are less than 100. You know, we really are not as deep in the domestic market right now. We're probably doing about, I would think about 30 or 40 domestically, and then everything else is overseas.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, you just gave a great talk that I heard you speak at, and you came over to my office. We're going to do a real. This is sort of like a preview interview for a much longer one to take place in the future. But I just wanted to grab a few minutes of wisdom from you. You've written a couple of books. You have the Daymond John Academy. So you're now teaching entrepreneurs all over the country, all over the world on how to build and grow their businesses. So first off, why do you do this stuff? I mean, you're out there, you're working hard, you're on TV on a regular basis. I mean, what's the motivation?

You know, I think the motivation was initially when I created fubu and, you know, got to a really great point in my life. And then I turned around and I felt empty. I didn't love what I was doing, and I had the wrong goals. And I realized that I needed to start giving back because I was fortunate enough to be, you know, trained and mentored by many Amazing people. And I started to do that, and then I kind of got sucked into it. The emotional reward of seeing people, you know, following their dreams and being able to have financial freedom or, you know, even just saving people from, you know, making the wrong moves in businesses because their lack of knowledge.

Right.

And then, you know, Shark Tank came around. I didn't think Shark Tank was going to be huge, you know, five years later. When kids want to be, you know, as I always say, kids want to be sharks now just as much as they want to be rappers and ball players. I think that. I think that we're helping a lot of people.

Yeah, no, you are. The show's great. It gives you a lot of perspective and advice on how to build and grow a business. So you were behind the scenes for many years building your business, and now you're thrust into this whole celebrity world. You're now a big who. And so people are constantly coming up to you and asking you for advice. What are the things that they should be asking you about how to succeed that they don't?

Good question. I think that some people should be asking, what are the pitfalls that they're going to face? People always just have their eye on this whole concept of rich financial freedom. Powerful. They're the boss that can hire and fire people. They should really ask, first of all, how to do it with zero capital. Number one, what are the pitfalls that they're going to face and what are the challenges? And what is it going to take to be an entrepreneur? Do they really want to be an entrepreneur? I think that when I started out, I just had my concept and love of wanting to do this, but if somebody had to lay out everything that I did to get to this point in my life, I would have said, I'd rather be a waiter.

Yeah.

I would have never taken on the job.

I heard this quote once, which is, if I would have known being successful was this much work, I would have stuck with staying a loser.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, because, you know, I remember when I was a waiter, I didn't take my job home with me. I worked at Red Lobster.

Right.

I didn't take. I didn't worry about, you know, table 27 needs hard. The tartar sauce or hot sauce. Right. I just got to enjoy my life. I was off on weekends. I was off doing this and that. Being an entrepreneur, man, you know, you are the business. It's 24 hours a day. It's a hard grind, and, you know, you're the last one to get rewarded.

Yeah. So do you think are entrepreneurs born? Are they made? Is it some childhood trauma? Is it some great inspiration? I mean, what do you think is the makeup of what.

You know what? I think that we're born thinking like entrepreneurs. And I learned that from Lyn Schlessinger, who was the president of Babson College. And his theory was basically, you know, we figure it out. As a child, we figure it out. We don't have these blinders on or these chains, and we think that we can do everything. And I think that often after that, our family members or people around society tell us why it can't happen. And I think that we sometimes settle or accept the fact that we should just get a regular 9 to 5 or that we will never be successful. But I think we all have it in us.

One of the things I heard you talk about today when you were giving a presentation is, you know, when you were starting out, you went through many periods where you made. I mean, you were broke in the beginning and you. You lost a ton of money and you had to figure out how to piece together all of these capabilities that, quote, unquote, make somebody a successful entrepreneur. And then people, you know, expect you to teach them how to do it. Because in the beginning, you probably weren't thinking about being on national television and writing books and doing all that. And here you are with the Daymond John Academy. So you've had to really think about the elements of how someone can become more successful to give them an unfair advantage, I guess, to use some words. So you have broken down some fundamentals, share some of those, because again, we'll do a longer interview, but I'd love to have you give out some. Just some useful best practices and things that you've learned that are helpful.

Sure. Some of the useful best practices are that, first of all, understand that we're investing in people and that how are you positioning yourself as a brand? Because you're going to fail more than you succeed, and you want people to bet on the jockey, you know, not necessarily the horse. So. So how are you doing that? And. And, you know, the brand equity of yourself is what's going to take you on throughout your career. It's kind of like, you know, Grande said, the people you mean up, you know, going up, the same ones you meet going down. Right. Number one. Number two is, you know, how do you research what you're about to, you know, undertake and understand that there's no. There's no new product or new idea in the world. It's just A different form of positioning. I meet so many people that say the so forth market $20 billion and if I only had 1% or 1%. And I often say to them, well, the bankruptcy market is probably about five times that size. And that's where you're headed. And that's only because they generally, for the most part, they just think because they come up with this concept that it's just brand new. So really do your homework. I didn't put three sleeves on a shirt. The shirt didn't get up for you in the morning and make breakfast for you. I just positioned it and understand that there is going to be competition. And I try to learn from the mistakes of others. What have people done in the past that have failed? Who is currently working right now? And I try to give the one. I try to get ahead of the people that are working right now.

I heard you say when people go on Shark Tank that a lot of them don't even think about who they're trying to make the offer to, which is the panel. You and not knowing anything about what's in it for the people on the panel. So talk a little bit about behind the scenes on Shark Tank since I'm sure many of the people watching this and listening watch Shark Tank. What goes on that most people are not aware of how that really works?

What goes on is that I think Shark Tank is more reality than reality. Those pitches are 22 minutes. The shortest pitch maybe is 22 minutes. Longest pitch is about two and a half hours.

Right?

We all have best intentions of closing the deal. And the deals are closing at a much higher rate right now. And you can tell it's the deal flow that's coming through. People are getting to know what's viable. People coming through now they're knowing their numbers. Believe it or not, some people still come out there and they have a valuation of 100 times sales, which is amazing. I think that people need to know that we go back and we do a lot of due diligence on the company, you know, right after we meet with them. We don't know anything about the companies prior to them coming onto the show. And, you know, and what I find valuable about that, and this is, this is a lesson that I've learned, is that, you know, some products that I may pass on or I may do deals with, I may not be the best partner. Just because I have money and knowledge of a category, it doesn't mean that I'm the best partner. When I look at something that I think is Horrible. And a Lori, a Barbara, Mark or Robert will go off and do millions of dollars worth of it. So I found that I have to check my ego at the door, you know, walking in there and don't think that I know everything.

Yeah. And I think you're really, really good about that because a lot of, I think that's, I think ego's the biggest killer of all for people. How do you deal with pain? And the reason I bring this up is I went to SpaceX earlier in the year and we had a meeting with Elon Musk and you know, he's a pretty amazing entrepreneur. And he said, you know, someone asked him, you know, how did you. You're running three different companies, you know, Tesla and SolarCity and SpaceX. He said, I have a very high pain tolerance.

Yeah.

And all entrepreneurs that are doing anything big, they endure suffering. And most people are not aware of the depths of that. Emotional suffering, mental, you know, the public wants to attack you. You can simultaneously helping people while they're also trying to steal from you. I mean, how, what are your recommendations on enduring the parts that are durable to get to the parts that are great?

You know, I think the biggest thing is that what is the end of the day goal? Is it the, you know, the ability that. I know that I made the best efforts and I don't judge people per se for what they do wrong. You know, I don't know if your daddy or mommy locked you in the closet for 30 years or whatever the case and they whip you, whatever the case is, that's not my problem. I try to find the best in everybody that I work with. I also, you know, it's a lesson learned every time that I have to endure the pain on how to make myself better. I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to have to deal with this sooner or later. What can I learn from the lesson of what just happened? And then I also, it really makes me check my three criterias when I either work with a business or an individual. Number one, did I have enough knowledge for the subject matter or on the person or on the business? Did I have enough knowledge? Number two, did I surround the business or the, you know, the investment or whatever the case is with enough qualified people? And number three, did I do it because I really wanted to be part of this and do I love it? Because, you know, we can fail 10 times with something we love and we're gonna work it out the 11th time, but you fail one time with something you just, you didn't have your heart into it, you're gone.

Right.

And I keep going back to that checklist and it prioritizes my next effort.

How do you get out of success traps? Because for entrepreneurs, success traps are harder to get out of than failure traps. When things are good, but they're not great or they have so. Because in your world right now, you are thrown deals continuously and you have to say no, or getting yourself into a situation where it's like, this is good, but it's not great, how do you cut it?

It's purely time management and it really is. You got to, you know, I look at it once a week or once a quarter or once a month, depends on what the topic is with my team. And I go, what is generating, you know, more cash and with the least amount of effort and time and what are we having more fun at? Bottom line, that's it. And then sometimes I look at things and it's kind of like the buyer's remorse or shopping. If I go and see something, I don't necessarily buy it right away. I leave. If I can't get that thing out of my mind, whether it's a car or whether it's a belt, I'll go back for it. But nine times out of 10, I forget all about it.

Gotcha. You know, that's a good practice too. It really is. Saves you from probably owning a bunch of stuff and spending money.

It's kind of like going to the grocery store hungry. You don't want to do that.

Yeah, yeah. Very bad at it. So since me and you are good friends with the brilliant marketer Jay Abraham, I want to do a shout out to.

Absolutely.

And of course that goofball Kevin Harrington, who you actually are on Shark Tank with in this video, is going to go on. Ilovemarketing.com what are your thoughts on marketing? You obviously love marketing. You're a good marketer. You've built not only companies, but a brand and marketing is essential. So what are your thoughts on marketing?

It's constantly changing in one way, it's constantly saying the same in the others. Today is about transparency and today it's about over delivering and giving people as much as you can. Because that's the only thing that's going to stay separate. You necessarily. It's always about position, it's always about what are you selling them, what's the. What's the. What's the movement you're selling them. And you know, I always feel like people do say that I may be brilliant or maybe smart. I Feel like I know nothing when it comes to it because I'm constantly, you know, learn from guys and guys like you and Jay Abrahams of the world and I, and I always look at something like I'm an idiot because I'm ready to learn more and more and more and I'm not too comfortable with myself and thinking I know what's going on. And that's just where I look at marketing and branding and I believe that that's the only thing that is going to position you to be successful is how you market and brand it.

Every time we've gone to dinner, I've seen you speak a couple times. We've not hung out a ton, but we've spent some time talking and I always hear you say things that I think are incredibly smart pieces of wisdom that I'd like to highlight. I think going into anything, even if you're amazing and you've had great success with a beginner's mind, it's just the smartest position to be in checking your ego, knowing you're never as good as your own pr. I mean, you know and understand those things and you've seen many people that have literally gone to the top and tanked because they never built that level of confidence. So let's talk about how people can gain capabilities and for whatever, you know, you're able, whatever access they could have to you, you're available to, to speak. I think you're a great speaker. So if anyone out there wants an amazing speaker, how does someone get a hold of you? Go to the Daymond John Academy. Your books.

Yeah, there's many touch points. Obviously you can go to daveandjohn.com where you can work with me either to consult or speak. You can go to the Academy if you're somebody looking for knowledge and understanding, you know, how to become a better entrepreneur and or meet other like minded people such as yourself. You know, you can see me up on Shark Tank fighting with those other four sharks every Friday night, 9pm I have two books out. Display of Power and the Brand Within. Where, you know, maybe you don't necessarily understand my, you know, my way of thinking and you know, before you listen to my thesis and understand where I come from because you can either say this guy doesn't know what he's talking about or you resonate with where I've been. So there's many ways to. And of course, Twitter TheSharkDamond. I'm on Twitter TheSharkDon.

So the last thing I want to kind of end with and then we'll do a longer interview in the future, is you talked about maximizing contacts. And I have my genius network. And I think that a lot of people go out and meet a lot of people. They have a lot of followers on Facebook, whatever. But I try to network with industry Transformers. I mean, I do interviews with people that are at the top of the game, like Sydney here right now. That's a form of genius networking. And so you have spent your career maximizing contacts and relationships. How and why is that important? Because so many people just don't get it.

Yeah, well, how and why? First of all, when I started fubu, I didn't have anything. And so I had to just have common sense, a drive and contacts. And a lot of those individuals that I started with who were carrying crates for other artists or they were working in the mailroom someplace, they're CEOs right now. And as I said, I'm not going anywhere. And it's kind of those individuals who have always helped me transform my business. I dealt with a lot of celebrities. And celebrities are very, very difficult to deal with their entire life. They dream and hope that they can get in front of that camera. And then after that, they have a lot of buffers and layers of people around them. Some people tell them they're the greatest, some people hate them. So it's very complex dealing with them. It's like babysitting. But what I realized is the way that I converted more of my business was not the celebrities. It was their attorney, it was their manager, it was their best friend. It was everybody else around them in those contacts, because those people move on. If you look at somebody like an agency, I remember talking to John Kamen, a radical media, a brilliant, brilliant individual. I said, john, why don't you do an advertising agency? He said, you know why, Damon? Because Coca Cola, I like being the producer. Because Coca Cola has had 19 advertising agencies and fired them all over the last 20 years. And I've been the producer of all their commercials from that point on, right? So I believe that it's kind of like the Robert Evans. You know, the kid stays in the picture. I don't want to be the director. I don't want to be the celebrity. I like being the producer. And a producer main goal, and his main objective is to be is to use all the assets around and continually use the them. You know, whether it's the editors, where it's everything else. And so I look at every theory and every industry, and I go, the most important thing to context. When I ran out of my money the first time, when I blew a lot of money, it wasn't money that made my, you know, that got me back on my horse and made a lot of money. It was my contacts. I was able to call buyers and say, hey, I have this new product. Please put it in. I was able to call management and say, please do me a favor and have your artist wear this. I was able to call bet, not the host on bet, the advertising side, and say, hey, I spent a lot of money with you in the past. I need this favor. I was able to maximize my contacts.

There you go. That's great advice. And if people just maximize every relationship and contact they had, just by even 5%, it would totally change your world.

Absolutely.

Thank you for taking the time. It's great. We'll do a longer version.

We're gonna get deep in some stuff in the next time, right?

Yeah, absolutely. And I just want to mention that Damon just. He has another thing he has to be at, and so we just did this real quickly. So leave your comments@ilovemarketing.com if you know any startup entrepreneurs that will gain value from this Share this interview Pick up one of Damon's books, check out the Damon John Academy, and help make yourself a better entrepreneur. So thanks, man. Thanks. Appreciate it.