Shark Tank Cast REVEALS The 7 Steps To BECOME WEALTHY! | Lewis Howes

The best place to put the money is what has worked. Where have you gotten your sales? Give me the sources, what has worked. That's where you put your money.

The only thing that people have to understand about this is that now everybody can do it as well.

Everyone can do it.

You better rise and grind because.

Which one is easier to replace? Your business or your fiance?

If you want to become wealthy, you've got to learn from wealthy people. That's why in this video, I bring together some of the top entrepreneurs from Shark Tank to teach you how to earn more money. If you enjoy this, make sure to subscribe, like the video, and leave your biggest takeaway below. What would you say are the three biggest habits that you've developed over time? Maybe you didn't have early on, but you develop over time, and maybe always telling the truth is one of them that has made you so successful. The three biggest habits that you apply.

Well, you know, I've learned a lot from the CEOs I've invested in over the years. And there was a woman a few years ago, probably 10 years ago now, and she said to me something really interesting. I asked her why she was so successful, because she was. She said, I do something very ordinary and almost boring, but I do it every day. She takes a sticky note and she writes three things she has to get done before she texts answers any calls or does anything else. Just three things. And she sticks it on the mirror where she puts her makeup on. And she really, it doesn't have to be business things. It can be whatever it is that are deemed to be important to get done the next day. Maybe it's something that's a holdover from the day before because I've been doing this now for years and it's really effective. This isn't tech. You're not putting it in your phone. It's not a software program. It's a piece of paper with, and you have it, you know, right, when you're going to bed, brushing your teeth, whatever, you write those three things down, you stick it on the mirror. I do it every night. And then I am myopically focused to get those three things done.

I don't do anything before you text, before you check your email.

Before I do anything else, I nail those three things. You cannot believe how productive you get when that happens, because you don't let the distractions of all the other crap that's happening around you, I just don't do it until I get the three things done. And it's incredibly powerful. I tell people to try it. Most people try it, get stuck on it and they stick with it. It's really because in life there's so much noise coming at you and every year more noise and all kinds of different distractions and you always say to yourself, well I can multitask. But you deemed that thing to be very important and you ignored it. Now it's three in the afternoon, you're exhausted. or you're busy with other stuff and you say, oh, shit, I didn't get that done and it's whatever the effects, the domino effects are, they're gonna hurt you. And that's why I tell people, try it out. It's a really great tool.

Okay, that's number one. What's the second big habit?

Okay, so this one's a little funky chicken. It comes with a story, okay? When I was, you know, I wanted to be a photographer or a musician, a rock star. When I was, you know, graduate, when I got out of high school and my dad, my stepdad said to me, you,'re not good enough at either of those. You'll starve to death. If I were you, I would go get any kind of a degree and focus on business, which is what I did. You know, I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I learned some stuff. And I ended up going into postgraduate. I went and got an MBA, which at that time was a two-year program, which, you know, we can talk about the merits of that or not, because I've come to realize what it was worth and what it wasn't worth. But anyways, I remember on the last week, the graduating class, and in those it's sort of like an amphitheater with about 100 people in it, and you've been there for two years, you've got your little name plate in front, and they bring in guest lecturers to talk to you before you jump into the real world. And this guy comes in, and he says, I'll never forget it. He walks up, the professor hands him the floor, and he just goes in the middle and just looks up at everybody. For maybe like it felt like forever, but it was really maybe 60 seconds. It didn't say a word and the whole room like you could have heard a pin drop. I'll never forget it. And then he says, you guys think you're so hot. You think that you've come here and you've got an MBA and you're gonna go out in the world and you're gonna rock and you're gonna be incredibly successful. I've got news for you. For two-thirds of you, The world is gonna chew you up and spit you out. You have no idea what's going to happen to you. You are so irrelevant. You have proven nothing. You've done nothing. You think an MBA means something? It's worthless. And I remember the guy beside me, he'd been beside me for two years. We were up in the one row down from the top so we could chat all the time.

Hide a little bit, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

And so I said to him, Barry was his name. I said, Barry, this guy is such a. What an.

What.

An arrogant he is. Well, guess what? He was right. He was 100% right. And the reason he pointed that out was the idea that your experiences make you who you are over time as an entrepreneur, as a parent, as a person. as whatever you are, as a brand, whatever you are. It's your experiences and how you deal with them that gives you that equity over time. And for many people, they can't make it if it doesn't work out for them. They don't have what it takes to take on the abuse that the world's going to throw at you. And just to give you full circle in a Kumbaya, you know, circle of life, Lion King kind of moment, I got caught saying the same thing a couple of months ago at the Harvard MBA group. I realized I was saying the same thing that that guy said to me decades ago. I said to these kids, you're all think you're Harvard MBAs. You are nothing, burgers. You are nothing. And so there you have it. What he really explained was the idea of experience and how you have to listen to your gut to navigate the bombs of your career. And you have to trust it. You have to trust your gut. Every time I've lost dough, Every time, and I've lost plenty, luckily I've had more successes than failures, is when I didn't listen to my gut, which is my experience. And he was right. He was absolutely right. It was great information, but I couldn't assimilate it because I couldn't put it in context. Now I understand it. So number two is you need to build that experience and all the way through listen to your gut. Even when you're young, your gut will tell you. You'll know when it's right and wrong. and don't go against your intuition. That is actually your radar. That's your DNA speaking to you, figuring out what the next move is gonna be. That's a powerful story.

Yeah.

Did they say the same thing to you in the back of the room and say, what an asshole this guy is when you gave him the speech at Harvard?

Yeah, well, it's Matt Higgins, who is a get-rich-quick guy.

I know Matt very well, yeah.

Yeah, so Matt, he emailed me the next day and said, Hey, Kevin, I gotta tell you, You're a s*** disturber. I mean, you know, but, you know, much of the class really enjoyed it, but what he was really saying is he pissed a few people off. Yeah. But, you know, I know Higgins pretty well. We're good friends. And so, you know, he's, you know, he's really savvy at what he does. We wanted to talk about direct-to-consumer branding. That's what we were doing in that lesson, was two hours. It was great. I'd work with that guy anytime.

He's terrific. Yeah, great guy. Great content on LinkedIn he has. He's always sharing that content with me there. And the third habit that makes you very successful.

Well, you know, it's you have to make time in your life for your significant other and your family and it's very hard to do. It's extremely hard to do because when you this is really speaking to more to the entrepreneurial community out there which is basically a third of people. One third will attempt to take the entrepreneurial journey. It's not a destination, it's a journey and the challenges of that are very, very difficult, particularly when you're starting out. And I learned this the hard way and again, I'm going to go to a story of a class that I taught years ago in an evening class. This really sums it up and it tells you how important this is. Three hour class, six to nine, we're almost closing, you know how 10 minutes left, this guy hadn't said a word, the whole class. And he finally puts up his hand and he says, Listen, Mr. Wonderful, I have a question for you. It's not about the case. It was the case we were doing. I need some advice. I said, okay, you really haven't participated at all. I was kind of a little condescending because I know you kind of know who's engaged in the class. Even though it was a huge cohort, I think it was something like 300, 400, I can't remember, it was a lot of people. Anyways, he said, I'm graduating this year, I'm an engineer, and I've developed a cloud-based software enterprise system that helps hedge funds with less than $250 million be compliant. And you know, it's very difficult to stay compliant when you're small. You need 2 and 20 hedge funds. And it was a subscription service, so these guys could use it on a cloud basis, And he had written this code while he was graduating in engineering. And his run rate was $5 million a year in subscriptions. I mean, that is like... And I said, I don't hear a problem here. I hear something incredible going on. This is amazing. And he said, well, here's the problem. My fiance came to me this morning, and I'm really disturbed. She said, I have to make a choice. She can't live with me anymore. I never attend any of her family's picnics. I never see anybody on weekends. I'm either studying or I'm working on the code. That's all I can do. And I asked her to come over and sleep with me when she can and we'd be together, but I'm just buried in this and I need to do both. I need to get my graduation in engineering and I need to keep my customers happy because this is my business. Now, he said, what do I do? rooms, like, this is getting interesting, right? I mean, I said, okay, which one is easier to replace, your business or your fiance? And that was probably not the right thing to say at the time, but that's what I was thinking in my head, and I think everybody else was too. This guy's phenomenally successful. clearly has gotten engaged to the wrong person that can't take that journey with him. Most likely outcome is divorce after they marry because he's going to work 25 hours a day, eight days a week because he's got a business, he's an entrepreneur. My point is one of the biggest decisions you're going to make in your life between success and failure as a person is finding that right partner. that, you know, I don't care, you know, who that is. If you're going to take that route, they have to be in sync with who you are. You can't contort yourself to something else. And I think that a lot of people in their 20s really should think this through because, you know, not, I told you I'm in the wedding industry. I've got a lot of companies and I've learned a lot about marriages. The reason marriages fail is not because of infidelity. Any marriage can survive that. I talked about it earlier. But why they fail, why the union breaks up 50% of the time within five years is financial stress. One outspends the other. They're not in sync together. They don't share each other's goals. That's the hardest time in your life. In your 20s, maybe you start a family, whatever you're gonna do. The point is picking that partner is the third thing you either do right or you do wrong. Divorce is incredibly stressful. Many people try it three, four times. They're not in sync with their partner. I'm just, you know, this is kind of like a little Dr. Philish in some ways, but I'm telling you, with the CEOs I work with and all the investors I work with, I see stress in people when their relationships are falling apart. And it's devastating. So there's a story. Those are the three things I care about in giving guidance. and I think everybody knows what I'm talking about and should think about these.

What questions should partners be asking each other before they get married around money? How honest should they be? And what if they have a massive disconnect around money but they have this intimacy and connection and love? Should they just break up before the wedding or what do you think would be the right move to make?

So I have given a lot of guidance in this space. In fact, I've written three books about it called Men, Women and Money, Men, Women and Children, and it's all kinds of advice about family. But here's how the journey works. You meet somebody. It's a great first date. You have a second date. It's even better. By the time you're having your third date, The only reason you're having your third date is both of you are very interested in each other. And that is the time to start talking about the future. I know that sounds corny. I understand it. Third date, if you're just hooking up for hooking up, I get it. You don't have to worry about this. But if you're actually stopping seeing anybody else and you're on your third date with somebody you've met and they've done the same thing and you're being honest with each other, something's going on, okay? Now it's time to start doing a little due diligence because this is going to get serious. By the fourth date and you're not seeing anybody else and you're talking about, you know, doing whatever you're going to do together, it's a big deal. And you have to understand a little bit about where their heads are at. Number one is, you know, talk about family. Do you want to have one? I mean, you know, it's a question. Some people don't. You've got to know that upfront. You make a decision about it. Or can you have one? It's a discussion you've got to have. Tough discussion. Again, staying honest. Number two, what are your goals? How do you see yourself in 10 years? Are you at home? Are you working? Or would you be raising kids? I know this sounds corny, but believe me, women want that question and men want it too. If you're on your fourth date, they're dying to get into this because they're starting to really invest their time in what they think they're going to be. Anybody in your family bankrupt? Tough question.

Ooh.

Tough question. Have you ever been bankrupt? Then you ask, how much debt do you have on your credit card? Tough question. Do you pay off your credit card every month?

Oh my God.

And then they say, why are you asking me that? And if they say, why are you asking me this question? You say, why can't you answer that?

What makes you feel uncomfortable about this question?

Well, I really worry that the reason you've got to be in sync with some... Here's the thing about marriage, about getting together with your married an otter, whoever your significant other is, if those are aligned, if you have an understanding of each other that is in sync, that union could last 50 years. Because after the euphoria is over with, you're in business with each other. You have to build a financial pillar to support growing old together or raising a family or buying a house or doing whatever you're going to do. And you need to be in sync on that stuff.

Three skills you think every entrepreneur should develop whether they're about to launch a business or they're in the process of building their business. What do you think are three powerful skills that we should all develop?

You have to have an alternative endeavor in the arts. If you're focused on business, what is it? Do you draw? Do you play music? Do you listen to music? Do you cook? Do you paint? Do you do photography? What is it that you do that gets the ying and the yang working together? That's a concept in Korea of ying and yang, and it's very important in business. The greatest entrepreneurs are often very good artists in one discipline or another, and they spend enough time to hone that talent. So I always play guitar every night. You know, I'm not the best guitarist, but I get better all the time, and I'm good enough to record stuff that people listen to and seem to like. So I like that. Took me a long time to get there. But the same thing with whatever that discipline is. And I think that's number one, number two, you have to get your three things on the mirror every morning. I think that really works. Otherwise you're not disciplined, you're not organized. And number three, and I've said this a million times, you've got to tell the truth, which is very hard to do. People say they do, but they don't. Very few people, very few people tell the truth.

You were the king at this, and one of the things I love about telling the truth is that you build confidence with yourself. You know, when you're lying or even a white lie, you lack the confidence because you know you're out of integrity with yourself. And you're obviously the king of telling the truth, especially on Shark Tank. You do it in a very specific, deliberate way where you always tell the facts and how you feel about the facts of things or how things will work out. How can someone do communicate in a way where they're telling the truth and telling the facts and being honest, but also caring for someone's feelings as you might put kumbaya-ing it like Barbara might do. How can someone do both? Or is it not possible? Should you just say the facts and not care about someone's feelings?

It's not possible. You know, it just isn't. You can try and sugarcoat it, but if the more you do and you leave hope where there is none, that's a huge mistake, particularly when it comes to matters of finance. It's very binary. You don't, there's nothing between losing and making money is just the abyss. You either make money or you lose it. You have to decide which, you know, you got to tell the truth. And, and I think, you know, there's a lot of angst that goes into people trying to. You just can't serve both masters. You have to choose one. And I prefer the truth. And, you know, you can try and say, well, i'm telling the truth in.

A, in a sugar-coated way, but you're not. You're just lying to them. That's all. That's it. Was there any investments you passed on that you and your gut was like, this is not going to work out. This is a horrible idea. It won't work out. But then years later, it ended up being a big success.

There always are, but I don't even think about them. I see so many deals now. My deal flow is insane. I see so much stuff inside of Shark Tank and outside of it. I just look forward. I don't look backwards. I don't care. I might have missed one. and I've had another successful one. My portfolio we review it weekly, we talk to our entrepreneurs. I have winners, I have losers, but I also have some fantastic successes and catastrophic failures. It's sort of, it's a passion play. I have people calling me every day, you know, crying, saying, we're going to go out of business, and I have other people saying, I can't believe it, somebody just offered us 20 times sales in cash. Are you a seller? I mean, I get the same call, in the same day. So, you know, that's the nature of being diverse as an investor, but also to realize that outcomes are unknown. You don't control it. You have to just understand that there's some things out of your control and you have to deal with them. And if you tell the truth, you don't have to remember what you said.

But.

And I also, and I, you know, we talked about it earlier, I can't make everybody happy, so I don't try. I really don't.

Yeah.

And I don't worry about it. I don't spend a single second worrying about that, because I can't do it. It's not possible. The most miserable people on earth are the ones trying to make everybody else happy.

That's so true. That's a good line right there. Now sales is number one for you. If they were great salesmen, you would bet on them. if they are a great salesman with something to prove, that's like the golden ticket, it sounds like. So how does someone train to be a great salesman if they don't know how to? Is it something they can learn? Or is it something you just have to be a part of your energy?

Well, you had question about positive. That's the blood that goes through a great salesman. Seeing the positive side of anything, and a lot of people see that as baloney. I don't. It's just like, You show me a negative and I'll say, you know, you're right, it's a negative. But I can tell you what the upside of that negative is. So you have a bend toward being positive, so you must have that, okay, to be a salesman. If you don't, you'll never become a salesman. I don't care how hard you try. I think it's an intrinsic quality of personality trait. I know you're not supposed to say that. Everybody's supposed to believe you could become a salesman. I think if you're inclined to be outgoing and positive, you can become a better salesperson. But those the real phenomenal sales people that I have worked with and I've made my living my whole life in different venues with phenomenal sales people. I am telling you they come out of the gate, maybe not out of the womb, but they come out of the adolescent gate as sales people. It's very hard to teach that. It's a, it's an artistic gift to be able to sell really well because think of how complicated it is. You have to read the situation. accurately, you have to read the person and think of how you could use them in the way that they want to use themselves and thank you in a thank you note 12 hours later thinking it was their idea. That's a complicated little thing, right? And you need to think of how that person could be used for your long-term goal of the picture you want to create. So that's very complicated math in the head. And that's what great salespeople do. They find out the best salesmen, I hate to say it, that I ever met in my life and spent endless hours with Ms. Donald Trump.

Really?

Unbelievable salesman.

How so? What was it that made him so great?

He can read the vulnerability of people. You walk into a room, he could see what's wrong with you. He could just feel and know accurately what's wrong with you and how he's gonna use that to get his way. It's an instinctive trait. I don't know if he was that way at 12. But I met him at, I guess I worked with him since he was 27, 28. He is just a couple of years older than me. And we were in the same industry, the same town, so I had so many good dealings with him over the years until of course he owed me money and I had assumed that he didn't like me anymore. That's all right. I got the money. That's all that counts.

But.

He could sell anyone anything. I witnessed it again and again, firsthand, in his office, in meetings, on the phone. believable salesman. And that's exactly what he did with the American people. He sold them.

Wow.

You know, just, he's a great salesman.

What's the vulnerabilities that he would look for and how would he use those to get people to buy what he was selling?

Oh, God. I'm thinking of a million stories of him using my own vulnerabilities.

Really?

Yeah. But they're kind of too long-winded to tell, I guess.

What's one he would use with you and then one you saw him use with someone else? like a vulnerability they have and then what he did to lean into that.

Well, you know, actually, I'm like a scary turf here because I don't want, I've been sued by him and he's relentless. Yes, so, but let me just do.

It in a positive way.

Okay, my most positive self. So, for example, I saw him, maybe a silly example, but I saw him interviewing huge ad agencies in New York for an advertising campaign done all the time by large developers, right? And I saw To promote a building that he has. To promote a building, he's going to spend a lot of money advertising. That's a sizable account for any ad agency in New York. And also how to market it, how to frame it, how to name it, marketing slash sales, but most importantly sales and advertising. And I saw him sit at a meeting because I was there judging who was the best person along with them for a development site. And I saw him meet person after person, like a beauty contest, person after person after person, and then blow up the ego. of one team, unbelievable what you created here, unbelievable. And I'm like, I don't get it. I'm a marketing person. I don't get it. I don't get it. Unbelievable, unbelievable. Can you do this? Can you do that? And that was all done. And then he did the advertising on his own. But I could see why is he doing this? But now in hindsight, I see he knew that guy was gonna float and work for free because he needed the ego pet so much. And I'll give you a story of me that will sound, you'll think I'm a witchcraft person, I'm really not, you know. But I had a situation where.

My.

Husband was a Navy captain and was sinking tanks along the East Coast, and Donald had just bought MaR-A-Largo, and they were erosion issues. So my husband said to me, why don't you call Donald Trump and ask him if he wants me to sink those tanks in there? And I'll do it right along his coast, courtesy of the U.S. Navy. We need the exercise. I got the tanks. I said, I'm not gonna ask him for anything. He said, no, it's a favor. I'm not asking for anything. He's not the kind of man I want to owe anything to. No, thank you, Billy. My husband badgered me, badgered me. Finally I wrote a note saying, Just on the off chance you're interested, cowardly way to do it. I'm writing him a note. I saw the man all the time. Just on the off chance you're interested. I thought maybe. I rewrote it, rewrote it, rewrote it, 'cause I didn't want it to look like a favor. I was careful. Okay, my danger gene, do-do-do-do. sent him the note, got hired for a big job. We were at a big board meeting with like 30 people there. Every captain of the industry of the different trades was there. He's building me up for weeks. Barbara, Barbara, Barbara, Barbara. And then he decided he got out of me what he needed and he said, Did I tell you guys about the time Barbara wrote the note? I'm like sitting there going, no. He goes, Yep, she was so afraid to ask me.

Wow.

That she must have written the note. How many times, Barbara, four or five times?

No way.

I was like, oh my God. I thought I was in some kind of a horror movie. Everybody's looking at me. She writes a note, She's afraid of you. Only the week before, I was amazing. He was done with me. I knew it. Didn't want to pay the commission. Done. Contract never got done. So that is an acute ability to read vulnerability. How would he know that? to this day I'm like, but I saw him do that over and over. He's just, he, yeah.

Wow.

Do you know when I was selling real estate, I could always pick up between the lines between what people said they would buy and what they'd actually buy. So they'd say they wanted a terrace, had to have a terrace, had to have a terrace. They were leaving for the terrace and I knew as sure as I knew my name that they weren't gonna buy a terrace, that I was gonna sell them instead. on a view apartment in a new building versus a terrace in an old building if they wanted. Because what they were really looking for was charisma. That's an ability to read people, okay? And be able to substitute. So that's another version of that, but.

On the negative side.

Does that make sense? You did it in a positive way.

Yeah.

I could have done a negative way if I had that ability. I did it. Wow.

Yeah. Yeah.

Weird story, right? I'm so sorry you had me tell it. Because I don't like to talk about Mr. Trump.

Yeah, it's okay.

Don't let this one out. Edit this out. It's okay. It's okay. Wow. So how did you see this with people that where you could shift what they wanted to something that you could still sell them in a positive way. Like you said, they wanted the terrace, but I knew they just wanted charisma. How do you spot that personally when you're selling a home or something else?

I think most of us, if we listen well, could sense it. I think what it is, it's all in the delivery. You know, first of all, very often you're selling couples or a single person and you have time to chat. If you get below below the person's skin and kind of figure out what kind of person you are. Very often you know better than they know what's going to make them happy. They could be repeating what their peers said they should have or the way they, you know, you don't know where it comes from, but get to know them and you can reach your own conclusions. So I really found that the old saying buyers are liars is really true. They don't mean to lie, but what you've really got to do is in any sales situation, Really get into the person, ask a lot of questions and try it. Like if you, after you were visiting with someone, trying to sell them something, someone said, what do they like? What would you say about them? What do they really like? What would you say about them? That's where you find where the soft material to sell is, I think.

If you were given three questions to ask any buyer, potential buyer, that came into you, you can only ask them three questions.

Yes.

To try to figure out who they really were, what they were really interested in, or what you could you could potentially sell them.

Yeah.

What would you say, maybe two or three of these questions that you would ask to see what you could get out of them?

Yeah.

The first question I would ask is, when do you need it for? Urgency is 90% of it.

Interesting.

The second question I would ask is, when do you need it for? And the third is, when do you need it for?

Really? The rest doesn't matter.

Because if you have a motivated person who needs something, you've got a sale.

It doesn't matter. It feels like we need it.

Well, it does matter. You have time to figure it out. But you get instead, like as a real estate salesman, in a typical qualifying and all my qualifying forms that I taught every salesperson and every manager used my entire life. First question, Bolder, the only one Bolder, when do you need it for? Because salespeople say, oh, so what are you looking for? No, they miss the big question, when do you need it for? Interesting. Because they will move all over the board as to what they'll actually see and what they'll actually buy. And you have all the time in the world because how do you really know that? Because you haven't spent time with them. You're going to actually believe what you hear. It's crazy. You need to spend the time to form your own impression of what they're really going to buy or what is just really where the sale is or where's the opportunity. It doesn't just have to be in sales. It's in business dealings. You need to have the ability to spend time enough to read them well. But the one thing you can ask up front is when do you need it for? Because I had more sales people in the early years spin their wheels endlessly with the high priced customer, all cash, this and that, price is no limit, but they didn't need it.

For years.

And they were gonna work with them for years and spend all that cat fare and car services. No, the need is the most important question you want in any sales situation. And any salesmen that comes in and doesn't vet that out right away or on the phone is not a good salesman. I could tell right away not a good salesman. They missed the main question.

Yeah. What's the thing you're most proud of that no one knows about?

There's really nothing that no one knows about. I'm sorry. What's in my mind is on my tongue out of my mouth. You know, one of those. There's really nothing that people don't know about.

Really.

If I wish I could come up with new stuff. I'm so tired talking about the same thing.

What's the thing that you're proud of that you're just proud of the most that you've done? And maybe you don't talk about all the time, but. somebody down. Maybe it could be something small or big.

Well, two things came to mind, big and small. So I'll give you both. Small, but somehow feels so big in my life, is when I first got my first profit for running the Corcoran Group, and I never made any profit year in year out. I pay. I was putting that cash back down long before I even had in my hands. I was always reinvesting, reinvesting because I wanted to see how far I could go. But in those years when Finally got my first profit. I had about 48,000 or maybe 40, 40 some odd thousand dollars. I could see what? We're gonna actually have a profit? How did that happen? And I bought my mother and father a brand new car each. I bought my mother a bright blue Pontiac convertible. She always wanted a blue's a favorite color. She always wanted a convertible her whole life. And I got my father a, what do you call those big ass cars that everybody likes? They float around. Early in this, you know, All the drivers you hire, in the old days, they had those big cars and the big backs. Lincoln Continental, no, Lincoln, yeah. Not a Continental Lincoln. And I had my uncle Richie and his friend drive it out to Florida and deliver it. I remember at the time they were so much in disbelief, 'cause we always had a clunky old car with all the kids stuffed in the back. And all of us learned how to drive, we were always crashing that poor car. How my dad put up with it, through store windows, we were like, each kid was learning, it got more dense. But I remember that day, and I'm so happy I thought of it in the moment, because it's bad when you miss these moments. I remember thinking, I'll never feel more satisfaction or richer than I feel in this moment. And it's not that I wish it upon myself, but you know, that's exactly been the truth. I've never felt as rich again or as endowed or as lucky or as fulfilled ever again as that moment, you see? And so that That was that was that okay, sure and you so I wouldn't say proud of that was the most satisfying and such a oh my god, okay, that's cool the most overreaching thing I'm most proud about is I I proved sister Stella Marie wrong. I still hate that bitch She was a nun from hell and I later learned out that she was buried in the nun yard and that she had a drinking problem. I wish someone had told me that as as a kid that she had a drinking problem. Who knew that nuns drank other than Sunday, right? I didn't know either. Okay. And of course we were raised by nuns in our Catholic school and they were all great except for the one I had, Sister Stella Marie. So I'm so proud that her messaging to me that I'd always be stupid just because I couldn't read, that I didn't let that determine my life because I was, I had a hard time getting over that, you know, and I had to help my mother told me I was a genius. So that helps a lot, you know, having somebody on the other side. But the idea that I proven again and again. And now it's a weird thing. I'm kind of very thankful to her because I think because of her, I tried so hard.

Yeah.

Do you know? So really, if she was kind of like an early version of Ramon Simone, yeah. She played that role. And I'm so thankful that I got over that, mostly because not only have I had success as a result of it, but mostly because I keep that message going out to all these dumb kids.

At school.

It's such a sad thing that kids are defined by how they do in school. And yet, most successful people I know who built their own stuff weren't good in school. That's been an MO I see. So I like to, I feel like I'm lucky to be around to keep getting that message out, you know?

Yeah. You said most successful entrepreneurs have a lower IQ or average IQ, right?

Yes. Well, I don't really know that. But what I, what I like is that, they're street smart, they're not book smart. They're street smart, not book smart. But what I really mean by that is that, you know, that rejection card is a big kahuna in building anything in life, not just business. So they're too stupid to lay low when they've been smacked about. You know, most people get punched, you stay low. I don't want to get punched again. They just keep popping up like a Jack in the Box. Keep popping up like... And so that takes a certain lack of intelligence, I think.

Yeah, it does.

Just keep going. You don't think about it too much. Yeah, keep going.

A smart guy would lay low, right? Exactly. I'm glad I'm not that smart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm curious. You talked about this, this, the first year you made a profit $40,000 I think you said.

-47, I think.

-47,562.

-Well, I know about that.

-If someone is an entrepreneur right now, let's just say they had their biggest year ever and they had a bunch of extra cash. They're just like, wow, we finally made some money. An extra 100 grand, extra 300 grand, whatever it is. Million bucks. What should they do with that extra money? How should they reinvest it to continue to grow.

Two things I thought of right away. Number one, they shouldn't have that money. Okay? If you're really serious about building a business, you put in the pedal of the metal, you're spending the money and putting the bets down loan before it comes in. So the idea, like I made a mistake that one year I had a profit. Shame on me. I mean, I made someone good of it, of course, but you should really have any money coming in over aggressively Targeted towards something that you do well and I think the best place to put the money and I work with my entrepreneurs all the time on this and they're not so inclined Most people want to put the money in on a new idea a new version or a new this you know the best place to put the money is what has worked? Where have you gotten your sales? Give me the sources. What has worked? That's where you put your money all in put a pile it up until it stopped working then you move to something else but people don't do that. People always like the new stuff like, oh, but if we hire a PR company, you know, we'll really get, no, no, no, the trade show has produced 80% of your money.

Right. Showing up and building those relationships yourself, yeah.

Whatever has worked for you before, keep repeating, repeating, repeating. And I just think the money shouldn't be there in the first place. Do you know, my whole life, I opened offices much bigger than I had any business doing. I if the minute I had sales in a company and started seeing that we're doing well and I started smelling a profit like we might get a profit this thing might really start kicking in I was out looking for office space and if I needed if I thought I needed 18 desks I go out looking for 36. And I plunked the money down start because I I found that when you threw the money onto your bed in advance you find a way to make it work if you wait till the time is right and wait till you have the profit guess what there's a smarter guy out there that's already put the money your competitor and he's already already ahead of you. And it's such a quick market when you're competing, you've got to like, like there's a timer on you, you know, get it going. You have to have it done early, I think.

So invest it back in the thing that's worked before for you until it doesn't work anymore.

And more than you think you could handle. Because human beings who are talented, especially entrepreneurs, are remarkable on making things work when the gun's against their head and they're under fire. But gives them a lot of leeway and have them plot out, they start to go to sleep. It's really, it's really not healthy for a business.

It's the pressure that allows you to.

Really kind of have more urgency and make it happen. Well, you're a football player. Did you play better in a game or in practice? Game.

Yeah. Same difference. Same old thing. Yeah. Okay.

You said that was the first thing.

You said there was two things potentially. Did I, what was your question again? I said if you had a lot of cash left over from the year, you just had an extra 100 grand.

A million dollars, whatever it may be in your business. What would you do with that money? Okay. I actually answered your question. I meant say it better. So the two things that I wanted to say was you shouldn't have the money, it should be spent way in advance. And the second thing is spend it on stuff that's worked before.

What's been the biggest lesson you've learned about yourself over the last 10 seasons?

That I think the biggest lesson I've learned about myself over the last 10 seasons is that I don't know enough, you know, and that 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 bonds or something like that.

Crypto or whatever.

When I put my money in Tesla, you know, Elon is not calling me, asking me how to build the 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. the 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 mortgage in 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.

Right.

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 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, you know, now that I have a hundred thousand dollars, I'm thinking that's all the money in the world and I will never need any help by anybody. And I was pissed off. I was like, this on the phone, man, you're so full of, you know, SHIT, you know, why didn't you call me back? I was taking a real, you know, emotional, right? And I was The deal I better have is this deal, this deal, this 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 saying I got the best deal ever.

Oh, wow. Gotcha.

But, As I know myself now, when I turn around, I was out of that $100,000 and almost a month later, 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 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, 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 daughters, right? I do, I have three daughters. Three daughters. 24 year old, a 19 year old, and it's really, really nasty and aggressive two-year-old.

Wow.

She'S vicious.

Wow.

She's a hard.

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?

I, you know, my first two daughters, my first marriage, I were 30 hours a day because I said to myself, how am I ever going to be able to take care of these three, these three humans? And, and now my life is no longer about me. It's about providing every single thing I can to them, getting them, you know, to have a place they can live that is safe for them and education and medical and things of that nature. And, you know, and I would die for them. Yeah. So I, I didn't have a life at that. that point, you know, and FUBU was just starting. And I never knew that FUBU would 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 gonna 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 not nothing wrong with that, but if I worked a city job, I would still work every over hour, every over time I could, because I need to be able to provide for them. 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, you know, 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? Even though 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. I was...

I don't see you slowing down really.

Right, so what was happening was I looked at 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. You know, 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, or 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 was, I, I can improve in certain areas, you know, again, like you and I were talking, I don't know who was on camera, off camera, but there is no one area of success or mastery you get to and you go, I'm done, right? You know, you can, you can be somebody who was a master at judo, judo or, 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 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 had stripped him of his prime, he had to learn the rope a dope to beat George Foreman. And, you know, 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 Damon John at 48 years old is not the grind that the Damon John at 28 years old had. and I learned all these techniques from the book and from asking these people.

So what were the big things that people taught you then about this? How to navigate?

Well, 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 our buddy Kyle Mayner, 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, what I really, to take away, 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, they 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 skinnier, whatever, they all got problems, right? And before you know, then they'll take care of their health in some fashion or form, eat a great piece of you know, nutrition and put adrenaline in their body. They'll schedule time with their families, you know, where most people will say, It's so cold. I'm not gonna schedule when I'm gonna 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, 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 is they, they value and take care of their health.

Yeah.

They go out of the way. And, and throughout this process, when I was, like, talking to Wendy Williams and, and, and she's a vegan now and so many things. Yeah. 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, and 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 touched my throat every year for the last 10 years. It probably was in me five years. 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 know I have stage 4 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. You know.

I always tell people, what you don't know can be your greatest asset if you let it, because it ensures you're going to do it differently.

Absolutely.

And when I landed Neiman Marcus, all these people came up to me and said, I have been doing this for seven years, 10 years, five years. How did you land Neiman Marcus? And I said, I called them. and they just looked at me and I was like, why, what do you do? They're like, well, I go to trade shows and I set up my booth and I'm waiting for the Neiman Marcus buyer to come by and we've been doing it every year for seven years. I didn't even know there were trade shows.

Wow.

So sometimes just not knowing how it's supposed to be done. You have to have the courage though to say, even though I wasn't trained in this, because a lot of people think, well, I didn't go to school for this, so how could I possibly know? But you know, it's inside of you.

Yeah. And you were willing to be creative and risk failure in a way that most people aren't. You put yourself out there in a major way and you said, Hey, come to the bathroom with me.

Right.

And I'm not going to do anything weird. It's amazing. It's an incredible story.

My dad used to encourage me to fail. So at the dinner table growing up, he would ask my brother and me what we failed at that week. And if we didn't have something to tell him, he'd be disappointed. and I vividly remember being a little girl and saying, I tried out for this dad and I was horrible and he would high-five me. And he'd go, Way to go!

Wow!

So he was reframing my definition of failure. So failure for me became about not trying, not the outcome.

For those that don't know Spanx, can you share how it all started so we have an understanding of what it is and how you got into it?

Absolutely. It actually started with my own butt because I couldn't figure out what to wear under white pants. and I'm sure you've had this problem when you're getting dressed.

All the time.

So what ended up happening was there was, you know, our undergarment options were no good. There was underwear that left a panty line, and then there was the girdle that was way too thick and heavy. And so then they came out with the thong, which just put underwear exactly where we've been trying to get it out of. And so Spanx was born out of just being a frustrated consumer. I wanted to wear my clothes. I wanted to smooth canvas. I didn't want to see lines or any kind of things going on underneath. So by taking the hosiery material which was meant to be seen on the leg until Spanx sort of looked at it with a different lens and said, no, no, no. I want the hosiery material to actually be what I create the undergarment out of. And it was wild trying to convince the hosiery manufacturers to help me make this product with that in mind because for so many years they'd been using the material to be seen on the leg. I said, no, it's just it's the perfect the perfect material to create the perfect canvas for women under our clothes. And it opened up my wardrobe. It opened up so many other women's wardrobe. We could start wearing colors we didn't feel comfortable wearing. And the models get airbrushed. We get Spanx.

There you go. There you go.

I love it.

And when was this? What year was this?

This was in. Well, I cut the feet out of my pantyhose in 1998. Wow. Yes. I was 20.

Is it 18 years ago? Am I doing my math?

Yes, I was 27. And then I spent the next two years getting made. I worked at night and on the weekends on the idea while I was selling fax machines door-to-door and then the company was launched in 2000 when I was 29. Wow.

Yeah.

Selling fax machines door-to-door where were you living?

In Clearwater, Florida. Okay.

Where I grew up. Fax machines.

On Clearwater Beach. Are there any fax machines anymore around?

No.

I mean, thank God I'm not still doing that.

I don't know what would have happened.

There are no more fax machines. Just like no one watches this is.

The movie airplane anymore.

I cannot believe I need to know.

Is, is he the only one on the planet who's not seen the airplane? I was quoting airplane and suddenly put the headset on. I'm like, Stryker, you're too low.

You're too low. And you just stared at me like, what is she? I apologize.

That's it, guys. So how long were you selling the fax machines? I sold the fax machine store to door for seven years. Seven years? Yes, I know. And before that, I wanted to be.

A lawyer, but I failed the LSAT.

Not once, but twice.

And you wanted to be a lawyer. That was your dream.

I wanted to be a lawyer. I was like, I'm gonna be a lawyer. My dad was a trial attorney. I used to watch him in court when I was a little girl.

And I'm a terrible test taker. I am the worst test taker. Are you the worst test taker? I was in the bottom four of my grade, my class all through high school, because I could not take tests.

And I always felt like the dumbest kid in the world.

Isn't that, doesn't that suck? I mean, it's, it was like the most insecure feeling. And we ranked, we had rankings on our grade cards. so I knew exactly how dumb I was.

Oh, no.

Always in the bottom four. I was miserable.

Yeah.

Test taking.

Why is it so hard? Test taking. I don't know. I have trouble reading and comprehending. Me, too. I really do. I like I. Those SRAs. Are you too young for SRAs? What's SRAs? Forget it. I don't know. But everybody at school used to have to take the SRAs, and I would read the paragraph and be. I remember vividly reading it and halfway through, I'd be like, remember what I'm reading. Remember what I'm reading. Remember what I'm reading. And I looked at those four questions at the bottom and be like, I don't know what I read, so I'd go back up and start over again.

You're speaking this is my life.

Really?

And I would just like make stuff up constantly whenever I had to comprehend. I would just read the same page over and over and I'd be daydreaming.

So much that I couldn't remember it as well. I either made stuff up or I sat next to Christina. She was so smart.

I was the king.

My best friend growing up, she ended up going to Dartmouth and was like valedictorian or something.

I'm like, I'll just sit next to Christina. Did you have scantrons? Do you remember that? No, I'm a... Okay, see?

You can't remember? Scantons are doing things with a number two pencil. I did that too.

Yes. Scantons are like multiple choice. It's like a long sheet with a multiple choice, all multiple choice. Did you have that? Multiple choice, we had to fill in the bubbles? Yes.

Yeah, okay, that's Scantons. And when you skipped a bubble, and then time's almost out, and you realize.

You'Ve just done all the wrong bubbles on the whole page.

And you're like, no!

Exactly, but I'm on the same page. You're bringing up a lot of... I'm remembering all this. I used to cheat because I couldn't comprehend. So I would have incredible vision. I would be like this. But I could see through and like see all this stuff.

I don't like that. That's a dead giveaway. Like any kid in the class like this, just you knew that they were cheating.

No one ever caught me.

So.

All right.

It's how I got through school was cheating. I could not have made it through class without it.

Christina.

You had your girl. That's hilarious.

So you were a cheater as well. Well, I'm just saying, Christina sat next to me. You were an innovator. I was resourceful.

Exactly.

I like it. I was being really resourceful.

But so you wanted to be a.

Lawyer, but it didn't work out. I wanted to be a lawyer. I failed the LSAT not once, twice. So then instead of going to law school, I drove to Disney World and.

Tried out to be goofy.

But you have to be 5'8 and you're 5'6 and I'm 5'6 so you didn't wear heels? No, I didn't wear heels. I didn't wear heels. And so I was the height of a chipmunk. Oh, so you got the chipmunk? I got the chipmunk part, but I didn't end up doing it. I put people on rides in a brown polyester spacesuit at the World of Motion. and Horizons at Epcot.

Epcot Center.

And I would see people that I hadn't seen in a while and... Come through. Yeah, I'm walking on the moving sidewalk, putting people on rides and they'd go, Hey, Blakely, is that you? Didn't you graduate from college? And my big Mickey Mouse here said Sarah Blakely and I'd be like, yes, get on the ride. Oh my gosh.

But that's what I did and then I sold fax machines door-to-door for seven years.

Seven years.

Did you wake up every morning and.

Say, this is my dream to sell fax machines door-to-door? Were you thinking, No.

What am I doing in my life?

Exactly. So what happened was a lot of people think that Spanx started when I cut the feet out of my pantyhose, but actually it started long before that. It started when I was selling fax machines door to door and getting my business card ripped up in my face being escorted out of buildings all day, every day, that I woke up one day and just thought, I'm in the wrong movie. How did this happen? This is not my life. Cut scene, director, call the producer. And I got out a piece of paper and I wrote down, what am I good at? And the only thing in the good column with sales. And I thought, okay, what am I going to do with that? And I ended up writing in my journal, I'm going to invent a product and sell it to millions of people that will make them feel good. And then I asked the universe for an idea, and I was very specific. And it took two years, and I only cut the feet out of my pantyhose one time, and I was not going to squander any idea the universe gave me because I had really asked for it. And then the minute I cut the feet out, I I started trying to make it. I started looking up manufacturers on the internet.

This is before Alibaba, wasn't it? Yes.

Because I did this about eight years.

Ago and I used Alibaba for something and it was easy to find like a manufacturer in China and test different things. But how did you find a manufacturer at that time?

A website called ThomasRegistry.com and it lists all the manufacturers in the country based on category. And that's when I found out that a lot of hosiery and undergarments were being made in North Carolina.

Oh really?

Yeah. So you got a local.

Yes. So, I called and called and no one would take my call and they'd either hang up on me or say they weren't interested. So I took a week off of work and drove around in person. And just showed up and said, I just showed up.

I want to create a sample. Yeah. Because if they weren't gonna get a big order for something, they're probably like, what's, I'm not gonna do a little sample for you. Right, right.

Yeah.

I showed up with my lucky red backpack from college. Always with me.

You still have it?

Yeah, of course. And you didn't bring it here.

Come on.

It's with me. It's with me in LA.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. So anyway, I went into the manufacturing plants and they asked me the same three questions. And you are, let's say, Sarah Blakely. And you're with?

Myself.

Sarah Blakely. And you're financially backed by. And I was like, Sarah Blakely. So you can imagine how those went. It was like, well, have a nice day, honey, and good luck. And About a few weeks after I made all those rounds, I got a call from a guy in North Carolina who had took pity on me and said, Sarah, I have decided to make your crazy idea.

Wow.

And when I asked him why he had the change of heart, he said, I have three daughters.

Wow.

Yeah, so he ran the idea by them and they're like, Dad, that sounds interesting. You gotta give that girl a chance.

Amazing. So he called you back. You didn't follow up with these people.

Oh yeah, I was following up, but to no avail.

Gotcha. But he followed up and said, we'll give it a shot, we'll make this. So what was the next step? Was he just making a sample for you or testing different models or sizes?

Yeah, so it just set up to make the garment. While I was making it with his manufacturing plant, I was also wanting to patent the idea, and I was also trying to come up with the name for the invention. So I was doing those three things simultaneously, driving up on the weekends and working with Ted. in the back of the manufacturing plant that I'd become very close with. And driving to North Carolina from Florida. No, from Atlanta.

I was living in Atlanta at the time.

What's that about? Eight hour drive, six hour drive? About four and a half. Oh, it's not bad. Yeah, it's not bad. And so anyway, Ted became my buddy and I went to get it patented but all the patent lawyers wanted between three and five thousand dollars and I had five thousand dollars set aside to do this. That's it, yeah. So I wrote my own patent. I went to Barnes & Noble. No way. And I bought a book called Patents and Trademarks. And I wrote the patent and then I called one of the patent lawyers that was the nicest to me and said, Please, please, please, will you write the claims over the weekend for a discounted price?

I've done all the other rest of the patent.

Yeah.

The legwork you'd done.

Yeah.

You just kind of needed to button it up. Yeah, you needed to sign it off. The legal part. And so he did. He actually admitted to me that when I came to visit him. He thought I'd been sent by Candid Camera, which, let me put it in.

Your words, I know.

I know.

He thought he was being punked.

Of course.

Of course.

Wow. Yeah.

He thought he was being punked. Okay. And he thought. Where's Ashton?

Yeah, exactly.

He thought that his friends were playing a joke on him. No way.

Yeah.

He goes, who's this girl? Sarah. I mean, like, you're not the typical person who walks in the door saying, I've got it. product and I want a patent. So anyway, he did that. Then at the same time, I'm trying to think of the name. I had horrible names written on scrap pieces of paper all over the place in my apartment, in my car, in rental cars on the back of, like, Avis agreements. And you want to hear how bad the runner up name to Spanks was?

Yeah.

Open toed Delilah's.

No way. Yes.

I cannot believe that was even an option.

It was.

It was the runner.

I was like, how bad is that?

Open toed Delilah. I so wouldn't be sitting here with you right now if I named it that.

That.

It's a horrible, yeah, it's so bad. Wow. So anyway, okay, so what does Spank stand for? Well, it's all about the butt. Makes your mind wander a little bit. Nobody ever forgets it. I had no money to advertise. It was risky. It was fun. At the time, listen, now it's become a household name, but when I first invented it, I would call people and say, hi, I'm Sarah from Spankx and they would hang up. Right, because I thought it was probably like a porn thing. Yeah, they thought I was pranking them. I'm called, I'm like, no, really, I'm Sarah and my company really is called Spankx. And I had department stores across the country that wouldn't sell it.

It.

They thought it was too risque of a name. Yep. And my mom sent her whole lunch into the wrong website when I first started. I was like, Mom, it's with an.

X. Oh, my God.

It's super important. It's with an X. So, yeah. Anyway, I ended up buying the word Spanks from a man who said he was holding out from the porn industry. Funny enough, you say that.

I bet. Yeah, my pig's friends with an X.

I paid some money for that. But anyway, yes. So... Amazing. Named it Spanks. It came to me because I narrowed down my thinking. I knew that Kodak and Coca-Cola were the two most recognized names in the world at the time. And I thought, what do they have in common? I like to think about words and phrases a lot. They both had a strong K sound in them. And the man that created Kodak liked the K sound so much, he took a K and put it in the beginning and the end of the word and played with letters in the alphabet. So and I also had a bunch of friends who did stand-up comedy and it's this weird trait big secret among comedians that the K sound will make your audience laugh. So I put all that together and I'm like, okay, I want my product name to have the K sound in it for good luck. And literally Spanks came across my dashboard in my car in my mind and I pulled off the side of the road. I wrote it down. I went home that night. I typed it in my computer for 150 with my credit card. And at the last second, I backspace the K and the S and put.

In an X and hit send. So it was accident.

Kind of with the X. No, I know I backspace. Gotcha. I backspaced because I stared at it for a while and I had done research. made up words do better for product than real words and they're easier to trademark. Yeah. So then, then I had the name and I had the, the, the patent in the works. Got my prototype. And my patent lawyer said, Sarah, I need to know what's in this garment in order to write the patent. I said, okay, no problem. We'll call Ted. So I get Ted on the phone. I'm like, Ted, can you talk to the manufacturer?

Yeah.

In the back. In the back. I'm like, Ted, can you talk to my patent lawyer? He's like, yeah. So we're all talking. And he goes, I go, can you tell him what's in it. He's like, yeah, well, it's 70 nylon and 30 lacquer. And I'm like, all right. And so I'm taking notes. My patent lawyers taking notes. And that night I could not sleep. I'm up all night. And the next morning I wake up.

I'm like, how is there lacquer in this product?

What is lacquer? Just so I'm away.

I think it's like paint thinner or something.

Okay. So I called 30 paint thinner. So I called Ted. I go, Ted, can you spell lacquer? He's like, yeah, L-Y-C-R-A.

Me.

Oh, my. Oh, my God. Lycra.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Got it.

All change on lack immediately. My patent lawyer was laughing. You know how fast you would have gotten a patent if you tried to make this out of paint thinner? He's like, they would be like, sure.

So was it challenging to get it? Did you get it the first try?

The patent? I did. Wow. Usually it takes a few turns, doesn't it? I got the patent the first try, and I the trademark name Spanks.

Amazing.

Yeah.

So it didn't seem like there was that many challenges once you submitted it or whatever. You kind of got the things you needed in place. You got the orders in. Was there a lot of challenges after that? Once you got the patent, the trademark?

That was a really hard part. It's just I heard the word no for two years. All the manufacturers, nobody thought it was a good idea. And also when you're just yourself trying to break into an industry like you mentioned, the manufacturers, it's not really in their best interest to slow down machines or try to give a girl with a couple grand a chance.

Unless you're gonna give them a bunch.

Of money for a big order of something. It's like, what's the point?

Right.

So that was the hard part. And then once I had it, I cold called Neiman Marcus, and that was the first account I called on. Did you get it?

Yes.

Well, you were great at sales.

Well, listen, you could sell it. I was so excited. It was my moment. I flew to Dallas. I called them and said, if you give me 10 minutes of your time, I'll come and meet with you. And she said, all right.

This is a buyer.

Yep. The buyer. I first called the Atlanta store. They're like, girl, we can't help you. We have a buying office. I'm like, well, where is that? Give me their number.

Wow.

And I went in, and halfway through my pitch, I could tell I was losing her. So I said, you know what? Will you please come to the bathroom with me? And she was, like, so buttoned up. I mean, Neiman Marcus, like, her pen matched her belt that matched her shoes. And she was like, what? Like, what am I gonna do in the bathroom? I was like, just follow me to the bathroom. I'm gonna show you my own panty line. And I went in the stall. with Spanx in my pants and without it in my pants. And she was like, oh, I totally get it. It's awesome. And I'm gonna put it in seven stores.

Wow. Yeah.

I mean, just like that. Just like that. It was so unbelievable. I was so nervous. And then, of course, I had to call Sam. I'm like, in the rental car on the way back to.

To.

To the airport, I called the owner of the manufacturing. I'm like, Sam, Sam, it's Sarah. I need more. I just landed Neiman Marcus. And he was like, what? He was in shock. He goes, Sarah, I thought you were going to give these away as birthday presents for like years. And I said, no, Neiman Marcus just bought it and I need more. And he patched me through to Ted. He goes, okay, you need to talk to Ted. Okay. So Ted comes back in. He's on the phone. And I go, Ted, I need more. And he goes, I just landed Neiman Marcus. He goes, well, that's great, but what you can do about the crotches. The crotches? Yeah, exactly. That's what I said. I go, what? Don't they come with crotches?

We've been making them with crotches.

He goes, Yeah, but we only got one crotch machine. It's being used by somebody else. No way.

Yeah.

So what do you do then?

So I just landed Eamon Marcus and.

I have no crotches. Oh my gosh.

Is there a hole in your crotches? I don't know where to go for a crotch. I mean, I don't know.

Where do you go?

I actually looked in the Yellow Pages.

Crotch making machines?

Yeah, I just looked up crotch.

Crotch machine. I looked up crotch. I don't even know how you spell crotch. Okay, listen.

This is what I learned.

I'm gonna teach you something. Okay, so I didn't know this. What's Yellow Pages again? yeah. Oh, my gosh. It's a big book. It's yellow. That's what we used to look. Hilarious. What's Instagram? Okay. I just joined it seven days ago. All right, so where was. Oh, crotch.

Yeah.

Crotch machine. Lift it up.

Yeah.

So anyway, in the yellow pages, it's not under crotch. So I learned there's a fancy word for crotch named gusset.

Gusset.

Yes.

What?

Gusset.

Never heard that.

So I started calling gusset companies. They were like FedExing me crotches from all over. My roommate would come home and be like, you got another crotch in the mail. And then I ended up finding a man by the name of Gene Bobo that worked for a crotch company just 20 minutes north of where I lived in Atlanta. And he saved the day. And they made the crotches, and then.

I could deliver Neiman Marcus. So you had the leggings, they made.

The crotches, and then you sew them together.

Is that's how it works? Yes, apparently.

Yes.

Yes.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Okay. So then you had another, how many.

Did you print the first time? 3,000. 3,000. 3,000 pair of the first spank.

One, one skew, right?

Or, yes, one skew. $20, one skew. Three sizes or, like four. Four sizes, yeah. And, 3,000 of them.

Yes.

And that's what Neiman's ordered. And then I sent them to, they sent them to the seven stores. I had no packing and shipping department, so the semi-trucks were pulling up to my apartment in Atlanta and I was shipping them.

Oh my gosh.

Myself to Neiman's. This is amazing. And then I called every friend I had in those seven cities. Like people I hadn't talked to in 20 years.

Hey, go buy a few of these. Go make it.

Yeah.

Take your girlfriends there. Hi, Christina, remember me? I used to sit next to you all the time in grade school. Will you please go buy this product called Spanx? I literally called them and I said, and I'll mail you a check. So I paid all my friends and friends of friends to go buy the product. That is brilliant actually. And I said, to get some movement. Yeah, I said go in. I gave him a whole script. I'm like, go in and say, I've been looking for this all my life. I can't believe it's here. here and create all this excitement. This is amazing. And then of course a week later, I talked to the Neiman's buyer and she's like, Sarah, we are blowing out. I'm like, you don't say.

No way.

Well, I was buying them all.

Yeah.

Brilliant.

You have to.

Wow.

Incredible moment. You have to ensure your own success. Absolutely. So then once I started running out of money, Oprah called and put it.

On as her favorite product of the year. How long was that for?

Until the time was in Neiman Marcus to to Oprah calling, like a month. It just happened that quick.

A month or a month and a half.

How did she even hear about it in a month? She sent it to her in a gift basket and her Andre, who dresses her, put it in her dressing room and she put them on and has basically worn them every day since.

Shut up.

I'm not kidding. It was so unbelievable. I had no money to advertise. I'm in the back of my apartment. I was selling fax machines, like, a month before that. But I have to say, I was working every night and on the weekends.

For two years, quietly trying.

To get this made.

Building this thing.

Yeah.

Building it.

I've interviewed a lot of people and there's one side of the spectrum where these successful entrepreneurs say, you know what, Louis? The key to growing your business is going all in on one focus. That's the key, right? That's what some say.

Yeah.

But there's others like yourself who've invested in every business in the world, it seems like, and seen lots of them grow. and been successful in that way. Do you feel like, is that just like your creative nature where it's like you want to invest, this is your part of your path right now where you want to invest in lots of brands because you did so much in one thing for so long?

No, I think I'm more towards the person here. So when I invest in brands and companies, I invest in them because they're allowing me to be part of their dream, but I'm also learning from them. them, which is in return, allowing me to go back to my special skill set and improve it. So I'll give you exactly.

Learning from the people you invest in a lot.

I'm constantly learning every single day. So in power shift, I had, I highlighted my investment on Bomba socks. Now, these guys are the number one sock, the number one investment in Shark Tank history. The only, the only The ring who did not get an investment went into really well.

He did a billion dollar.

He did a billion two sale.

Crazy, right? Yeah.

And good for Jamie.

You were there when?

Yeah, I said no. And you know, Jamie ended up becoming a guest shark one time. And he said when he came in the tank, he was asking too much money. But I believe that because we tenderized him like that and he went out and raised money, I think we deserve five percent. But that's just, I'll leave it up to him.

Yeah, exactly.

I send him an email every other day saying, Hey, just five percent. All right, I'm gonna go four and a quarter.

But the socks. But the socks is the best investment you made.

And it's the number one product in Shark Tank history.

Really, in terms of how much it's grown.

How much is grown and how much is gross. Now, I want to make sure that you want to, 'cause I know you interview a lot of people. So if you ever interview the underachievers that sit next to me in the tank, I want to make sure that.

You remind them that you're the number one investor.

I am King Kamehameha on the tank. All right, just make sure it was clear. But let's give you that example.

What was that deal? What was that deal and how big has it grown?

They've done over $200 million. I think it's $280 million. More importantly, they're very, so their deal is a sock and every time you buy a pair of socks, they give a pair away to the homeless because they have a big challenge.

That's cool.

And we don't normally talk about the number. It's more important that we've given away 30 million pairs of socks, right?

Thank you.

Thank you. And it's really, it's really, you know, Dave and Randy's company and they've done it all. They've gotten very little to almost no advice for me because they're so great. But I'm gonna give you an example on the negotiation. They come into the tank, the only shark that doesn't want clothes is somebody who has 10 clothing companies and eight are dead. My reason for being on the tank beside investing other people is to diversify my portfolio. So when I talk to a retailer, I go, well, I'm already taking a real estate in the clothing area. I want real estate in electronics area. real estate, lotion, da-da-da. The last thing I want is socks. Also, I have, I don't know, 20,000 units of socks that I can't sell. You know, when I can't sell socks, I just send people over to people's houses, they steal one, and then you have to buy a pair because you just think you lost it, right? So I still can't sell it. Plus, if I do the deal, I'm the logo whore. You can't, if anybody in this room were in this building wearing bomber socks, you couldn't tell. So how do I get the advertising out But they managed to make me understand that today's generation wants to give every time they purchase instead of at the end of the year.

They want impact.

They want impact. And they don't want to buy from people who are just making money. They want to know what did you do for somebody else? So that's one thing I learned that I applied to all my businesses because you couldn't do that before social media. You could, but you can't get the word out that much. And then plus you have to advertise off of people's hardships.

Right?

You wouldn't have self-generated content of people saying thank you.

You, right?

So I learned that. I also learned that because the consumer purchased and it was part of a movement, they talk about it at the dinner table, at the water cooler, and that's your advertisers. You don't need the traditional form of advertising because people want to brag when they're doing something well. And then last but not least, they were showing me how to sell directly to my consumer and not being at the mercy of a retailer who still doesn't know what they're so they shifted the power in the room to get me to do a deal.

So you weren't interested?

I wasn't interested.

Everyone else was.

Everyone? No, not all, not everybody else was interested, but I was the last shot to be interested because I'm too jaded by the fashion industry. Lo and behold, I do the deal, and that's what a power shift is, being able to know your target, know what's beneficial for that person, know where you're willing to draw the line, and know, you know, really know how to relate to that person and communicate with them.

What is it that they said that shifted the power inside of your mind.

And say, okay, I gotta get into this. Well, they showed me that the technology on the socks were really good because they didn't have the toe, the seam in the toe when me being a manufacturer, I didn't know how they did that at first. It was a simple change, but I used to get irritated in toes when they're doing that. They then, but more importantly, you have to put it on a certain way. Yeah, of course. More importantly, they showed me that the data they received from their consumer was able to give them the ability to keep selling their consumer and keep talking directly to them and that they no longer were we're at the mercy of if a retailer makes the best decision or puts your socks out over here or advertises your socks or discounts them or anything else, right? So they were showing me how to control the business. It's very much like content sending it out and getting to know a dashboard of your consumer. And I learned so much from them, but it was them understanding that, Damon, I'm going to take you out of the old way of you doing business and move you into the new way of doing business. And guess what? If it doesn't work out, we're going to do another business together and we're going to make some money or change the world and more than likely have some fun.

That'S cool. Who has taught you the most in the last 11 years of the show?

Them. They have. I learned, I learned, you know, I joke about my fellow sharks, but I definitely learned from them.

Is that just because they pay you the most every month? You get a check every month.

I see the business operating. I see them being laser focused. I see a lot of things that they do. They have probably taught me the most.

Yeah. Who was someone that you didn't invest in and taught you the most? whether it be like a good lesson or a lesson you're like, okay, that's not what that's what not to do.

Somebody that I didn't Or maybe someone.

Inspired you, but you didn't see a right fit for you and they taught you something.

I learned I learned I'm not saying to be warm and fuzzy. I learned from every single one of these entrepreneurs How they operate the business or how they fail a lot of time when they fail it re it confirms theories that I have because, you know, whenever I fail, I look a checklist of all the things and I go, why did I do this? This is not what I do. Why did I not take my own damn advice? You know, so I can't name just one of them to tell you the truth, you know, but, you know, I look at entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and learn and go, as big as you are, you are affecting the world and you will still be scrappy enough to say, say, hey, Amazon workers, you want to make a couple extra dollars when you're going home, you can take a package home and you let, why is that beneficial? Well, first of all, the worker gets to drive home and takes home a package and makes more money. You, you're a worker of Amazon, so Amazon trusts you with the box. And Amazon saves on shipping.

Like, takes a package home that you bought for something. No, no, meaning just take anything you want.

You Take it and drop it off.

Oh, drop it off someone on your neighborhood.

Yeah, wherever. Hey, hey, I gotta drive two miles. I gotta drive 10 miles, but I looked in the system and seven houses.

On the way, the 10 miles.

Wow.

Let me, let me make extra money doing that.

You can make extra. Yeah, that's pretty smart. I'll be picking up a whole truckloads. And it wins for everybody, right? But when I look at a, when I look at an entrepreneur like Jeff.

Bezos who does stuff like that, I.

Go, he's still scrappy.

He's still thinking, you know what I mean? All this money in the bank, but he's still trying to maximize. Yeah, yeah, he's still scrappy. who's someone that you've been a shark with, whether it be a consistent shark or someone who's come and gone that maybe you weren't sure about in the beginning, but the power shifted over time where they did something or you did something to renegotiate the relationship, where you started doing more together, you started to.

Have a respect more for, you know, and nobody's ever asked me that. And I don't think I've ever told her.

One of the school greatest, you know.

That's true. I didn't even tell her, but she's in the book, Bethany. Bethany Frankel. So I had met Bethany with one or two other sharks. I forgot when it was, like, on Backstage at GMA. And I had already seen the show a couple of times. And, you know, of course, they're drinking and cursing at each other. And we say hi, and she just, like, brushes us off and walks by. And, and I remember saying to myself, I don't, I don't really like that woman. I don't get a good feeling from her. So when they casted her to come on as a guest shark, I I said at first, listen, I don't want to be on the panel with her because I already have this kind of like, fuck you attitude to her and it may come off wrong because it'll look like I'm either beating up on a new shark or I'm being too aggressive to a female. Wow. By mistake, they scheduled me to be on with her. By mistake or by purpose?

No, no, no on purpose. No, by mistake.

By mistake. They scheduled me to be on per- oh, no, here's what I'm sorry.

All right.

We all meet at one place for the Shark Dinner prior to production. I was like, you know, she seems all right, whatever. And then they scheduled me to be on with her. And when I was on with her, brilliant person. Like, she wasn't about herself. She really cared about the entrepreneur, which we all do. But we thought, I thought, I'm not gonna speak for other, that she was gonna come on and be self-absorbed and do the reality show thing. from where she's at. She made fun of herself. She was very, you know, she had humbleness and humility. And then when we left that set, she went directly to Mexico for the earthquakes and various other things. And she called all her friends and said, if you got a private jet, do me a favor. Pack it up. I got, I got supplies and food and whatever the case is. I need these jets for Puerto Rico, for Mexico. And she spent the next a month going out and really being there hand to hand and giving people stuff. And I fell in love with her after that. Wow. And, and she's like somebody that I, I super admire. Yeah. Wow. That's cool. Have you guys done deals together or.

Are you, we haven't done a deal.

Together, but, and we're so busy, we can't always catch up. But, you know, she's offering me to stay over at her home in the Hamptons, and, and my wife loves her, and she's just, she's just an amazing individual that I, I walked in the room at first and I like she's an.

Yeah, you wrote her off. And then now you're inspired.

Now she inspired me.

Yeah. And who is the person who's taught you the most, whether it be a consistent shark or someone who's come on for a couple episodes?

No single shark has taught me the most because I learned from all of them. They're all really, really. They all are really fascinating in their space. I think Barbara.

Show sometimes is the one that can.

Influence me the most because, you know, I love marketing and branding. Yeah, but I'm a one-trick pony. You know, I'll get it on a celebrity, get it on a famous show, or get it on whatever the case is, and then I'll make inventory. Barbara will come with ideas out of nowhere. Just out, I mean, she pulls it out of the air and they're brilliant ideas and they're not, they're very rarely, are they similar?

Really?

Yeah, they're not a one-trick pony thing.

She's just, she's So she'll think of a creative idea for a specific thing and not just say, oh, I've got this celebrity who'd be great for it every time or.

Correct. She's a genius when it comes to that.

Yeah, we had her on. She was great.

Did she touch you?

No comment.

Okay, yeah. She's a predator. Full predator.

She's a sweet woman.

Her husband right there, and he's usually like this.

No, I think I actually posted that she was haunted. I think that was the first thing you texted me.

Yeah. Yeah, she'll touch.

She's great though. I like her a lot. So power shift. How did you do?

What are you laughing about?

I'm just remembering your text to me. I think you added a dad joke.

In there as well.

What I like about this, I went through a lot of this.

You did?

And yeah, I usually don't read anything.

Oh, but I say, yeah, I went.

Through a lot of this and I'm trying to find the bookmark that I had on one of these pages. But what I like is that at the end of every chapter, you talk about these kind of like little bullet points. To break things down, to break things.

Down, and I relate that in this book.

Now, you've done a bunch of books in the past. Yeah. Why do you need another book? What's, you know, it's like...

So, you know, I think that's a good question. I don't write books to write books, and this is my third one in five years. And me being dyslexic, it is not an easy... I know the feeling, man. It's really not easy. I think that a lot of people out there are misinformed. They need information. do. I think if you look at some of, you know, a lot of your books, my books and various other people, then we happen to know each other. But I believe that if you read a vast amount of things and you start to see that all these people don't know each other, but they're all saying something very similar, and if you're applying that to your life, that's how it happened to me by reading Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich or the Greatest Salesman of Babylon or Blue Ocean Strategies, all these. And I started to see these things that come together, it gives you more power to go out and execute. So the reason I wrote this book is because a lot of people that came up to me and started saying, I can't take control of my life, or I've heard people say, or act like somebody else is supposed to issue them power, or somebody took power away from them. And I realized that people always thought negotiation, first of all, you're negotiating every minute of your life. You're negotiating to get into the bathroom before your husband and wife or getting.

Your child to school bus.

Take yourself to the gym. Yeah, you negotiate. And I realize that people always thought negotiation is purely transactional. When you get to one, you get to the table, I'm sitting across from you. Right. And it's not, it's about building influence. Then it's transactional. And the transaction needs to be what's in it for the person across the table, not what's in it for you. And then more importantly, it's, it's developing that relationship and letting it grow over the course of time and doing 10, 20, 30, 40 other deals or 10, 20, 30, 40 other people telling other people how great you are to do other deals. And people always thought that it was like that.

So I ended-- Influence, yeah.

So I ended up putting it in the book.

The other book I have is marked up. Now I'm remembering the two things I wanted to talk about in here. One is a story about 6X. Now you don't give yourself enough credit about how creative you are. Because you said you're a one-trick pony. You'll just find a celebrity and put the merch on them and put it on a big show or something. But something you talked about was a story on how when you were getting started out, you started developing 6X t-shirts with your logo on the back. Which I thought was brilliant because it's the biggest real estate in the club.

Yeah, so what happened was...

It's amazing.

So I guess that's a good point. So the story goes that I didn't have a lot of money for shirts. And I wanted again, I grew up in Hollis Queens and everybody's from Hollis Queens. Eloku J. Rundium C. Jarule 50 cents, Salt and Pepper. for Trap Call Quest. Where's she from? She's from the Bronx.

But a lot of these people from.

Queens, but if I gave you a shirt, everybody was approaching you. It's just like going up to an influencer. They didn't want the shirt. I didn't wanna give it to the kids with the funny mustaches and the skateboards because they would just wear it once and throw it away. Right.

But I realized that the big celebrities.

Were probably had an entourage. Oh, they had an entourage around. So what did I have to do? I had to build influence. And how did I do that? Well, I have 50 shirts that I could buy. So I bought 50 5x and 6x shirts. I realized the big guys never had fashionable clothes to wear because all they had was like big black shirt, big white shirt, or they'd have to pay a massive amount of money to get a custom made. I bought 50 of these shirts. I handed them to all the big guys I knew where I would see. Those big guys ended up being the guys in front of the red rope at the club, the guys who were the bodyguards for people, the guys who were just big billboards and joyous, right? And they would wear the full boost 10 times a month because they finally felt fashionable. What would happen at that point is after the rappers saw it on these guys for about a year, the rappers would go, Yo, what's up man? Am I... Where's mine? I'm like, I couldn't get to you. Yo, you're too big of a star, man. I ain't trying to ball. No, no, no, I wear it. Because then they would ask the big guy who normally is like the bodyguard and they don't have nothing to say to them. They'd be like, Hey, where'd you get that? Where's that little dude at? And the big guy feel good. I'll see if I can get you one.

I know a guy.

Yeah, I'll see if I can get you one. And that is how I started building influence internally, you know, with my customers.

That's smart.

Yeah.

When I read that, I was like.

You,'Re more creative than you think. And I get it, but I generally narrow myself down to, I'm a numbers person. And at the end of the day, it was numbers to me. It was like, they'll wear it 10 times every one time. I got somebody else to wear it. There's not many of them, and they're.

A selected number of group around a selected number of people.

More about the numbers.

When I read that story, I was like, okay, who are all the assistants of the most iconic people that I want to know? Exactly. Exactly. What can I send them that will make them be reminded of me? And every time I want to call or say, Hey, is Oprah ready for the interview or whatever?

Yeah.

It's like they might push it in a little bit.

And take it even a step further, you know, some of your digital courses you give to them, you give to a bunch of people. You say, you,'re a part of a select community. I know you're the gatekeeper of these people, but I know that also if you find value in this stuff, not only am I in your life, but sooner or later you may say to the people that you work for, if it's powerful enough and say, and if you don't say it to them, then guess what? Maybe you'll give me more information on how to make it better for you and give me some real criticism that I can do it because you're seeing everything across your plate.

Right, I like that.

Creating a select community.

The power of six acts. I like that story. And then I read, I think it was in the middle of the book and one of the end parts, I think you were doing research from like all the top universities that said that you should lead with the offer first.

Yes.

When you're making a negotiation, where I've always heard that you want to wait for someone to make the offer.

That is a very common comment.

What if you think that? It's like you never want to show your cards.

Yeah, they say that the one who says the number first is the one that loses and things that nature. I actually like the negotiation part of laying it on the table. Here's where I'm at with this. Here's what I seek.

Here's what I want.

Here's what I want, and here's what value I could bring to you. And I think it just takes the It takes the question out of the room, you know. But what if you could have gotten more?

Well, then you could have gotten more, but what if you say something to.

Somebody, well, we're not even in that ballpark. You can always upsell. You can always say, here's where I would like to be. And then someone says, and here's what I'm going to give, and they're like, oh, well, we want more than that. I'll be like, okay, but I gave you where I was at. But it costs me more. It costs me more time or energy or product or inventory or whatever the case is, or relationships, you know.

Yeah, you sounded like an online marketer. The upsell word here.

Of course. Listen, you know, there's only, what did they say? There's only three ways to deal with a customer. Acquire a new one, upsell a current one, or make one buy more frequently.

It's two or three ways.

Recurring.

Yeah, that's the best way right now. Exactly. What's the best negotiation you feel like you did? Not where you gained the most, but where both parties won the most.

Not where you're like, I got, when I negotiated my deal with Bruce and Norman Weisfeld over at Samson, sung. I negotiated out of ignorance, but I got the best deal. At first, I, I was a young kid. I was 19 or 20. They, they interviewed me. They heard about FUBU. They were interviewing various other people because they were thinking about getting into, they were already in the outerwear space, but they want to get into the denim, ready to wear space. They interviewed a couple of people. Once I got interviewed, they said, we like you. And we think we may do something with you. I called the guys for six months. They never picked up the phone. This is before cell phones out. I felt it and rightfully so, but also they were looking at other opportunities. It's not their job to answer my call again after that, but I think they should have said, hey man, we're not interested. I go to the trade show, the Magic Trade Show in Vegas. They're sitting at a table and one of the big buyers from like a store was like, holy shit, is that the FUBU guys? And he talked to his boss and they said, you better get those guys. Power shift.

Right.

Now all of a sudden my phone's on fire. on fire the next day by these guys. I'm like, hey, remember me? You ain't never talked to me before, Pimento.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, I was hungry at the time.

And that's exactly how you talk to me.

That's, I was like, yo, baby boy. So, so a normal, like, a designer deal, I'll call it, in, in fashion is generally like, if I'm gonna put up all the money and all the resources, we're going to split this thing 25% to you or 30% to you and 70% to me because I may have a little inventory I got to get rid of. You don't have any personal guarantees at hand. I got to deal with all the risk. I'm taking a lot of risk, but you're making clean money. But because they pissed me off so much, I had said, listen, if I come in tomorrow, we better sign a deal and it better be a real distribution 50-50 even split deal for the distribution. You guys had all the distribution financing, this and that, and then I'll go ahead and it and out of ignorance that became the deal. We've been partners for 25 years and we've made massive amount of money, but we always felt aware that we could see eye to eye and it was just out of that ignorance.

What is the greatest mistake you've made that you're so grateful for that you made because it made you a better person? From the lesson you learned or from the thing you got out of? you mentioned that your previous boyfriend, a boyfriend back in the day married a secretary and it was the greatest gift that you had because you got out of a relationship that wasn't gonna work or you met your partner. Is there really like a challenge or a mistake you made in business or life besides that?

I don't think I'm the type of person that is brave enough to admit I've made a mistake honestly because I think things have not worked out along way where things just didn't work out as I had hoped or dreamed them to be. But I don't see them as a mistake because as quick as you are thinking, oh poor me, you start to see the light of the door that is opening that couldn't have opened without it. So I don't have a regret that this was a big mistake or that was a big mistake. But I have to also say I have my whole life been very cognizant of doing anything and exposing myself to anything even when I didn't want to do it because I'm deathly afraid of feeling like I would regret. Like what if I don't do it? That's more of a motivation for me than doing it. Me too. Just like, well, I look back, you know, like for example, with Dancing with the Stars, I did not want to do it. I'm an old babe. The last thing I want to do is practice four hours a day.

You were great.

You think I was so great? Not the judges. They didn't think so. I was the number one person on Dancing with the Stars. last season, number one, rejected. Now there's a record, okay? But so you might say that was a mistake with all the work that that led up to, and it was a social embarrassment. I thought I'd be rejected maybe number three or five or six, but number one, I never saw it coming. And so I was kind of a little mortified on that one. But you know what? I'm so thankful I did it. And the minute I recovered by the next morning, I'm like, thank God I did it. Thank God it's over. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. Because I didn't want to, I said yes because I didn't want to wonder what it would have been like.

What did you learn from the experience about yourself?

I learned I'm not a good dancer. I swear, I've looked at the tapes now one year later when I thought, same tapes I looked at a year ago, I thought, you know, I really got this. But I look at them one year later, I'm like, I'm stiff as a board. What was I thinking? Missing steps. So what I learned from that is that I can't dance well, but inside my body I feel like I'm a good dancer. And I'll get out on any dance floor, do my own makeup steps, and people really smile as I'm dancing because I don't really give a crap, and I look like it, you know? Yeah, but what did I learn? I learned that I learned the same lesson I learned again and again, which is thank God I did it. Thank God, and the injury of oh God, you did so poorly, dissipates quickly, but there's an echo to not trying something that's gonna sting you, I think. Not that I know that, because I really don't do that, but I'm afraid of it. It's like fear of a nightmare that might happen. I don't know why, because I don't really have that in my life, but I'm fearful of it.

I think that'll sting you for a long time too. That fear of regret of like, oh I had the opportunity to do this dance with the stars and I didn't do it. How many years would you think about?

Not, you know, what's the year? But still a bad year.

You.

Know what regret does, I think, and why I've been able to build up my personality and whatever I can get out of and give to life as best I could. What regret does is it quietly takes down your confidence a notch. Because in short, you're a coward. you shied away, even if it's the right decision to shy away. Once you shy away, you quietly, without even consciously thinking, think a little less of yourself. Now, I say that from experience because I've watched many people get stronger or people where life makes them weaker. And there's a lot that goes into that. But I really believe that that regret piece is not given enough due. You really have to try everything and try your best Because even, and listen, two out of three things I try don't work out, you know? But people just remember the successes. That's what I want. But I know what the failures are. But still, I got confidence out of failing each time. A little notch up, a little notch up. So then you conduct yourself with more power in life because you feel better about yourself. And ironically, you have more to give. You're a better package to give more because you've put a lot into that basket by just trying, trying, trying, trying, I try, you know?

Do you feel like you're more confident even though you're the first one out of Dancing with the Stars that you.

Did it and you absolutely, absolutely, I'm more confident. I got a lot of confidence out of that because every female friend and male friend I had that was even close to my age, they were like.

I can't believe you even went for it.

They said, you're at, they discourage you're out of your mind, but I won all their respect and they constantly say, that was That was amazing. So even my friends that kind of took me for granted think better of me. I went up a notch in their head.

I think a lot of courage to do that.

It takes a lot of courage to publicly fail, but I happen to be very good at public failure.

Really?

Because I've done it my whole life. That doesn't bother me. I think what I didn't want to happen was that I would look foolish or old, dancing with a 24-year-old ripped stud on the floor, until I realized it feels really good to lean in on that guy and let him spin you around that floor. And how my girlfriends are having a dance with anybody like that lately.

There you go. That's a good way of looking at it. Yeah. What would you say, why are you not afraid to fail publicly?

Because you know what I've learned, nobody's really watching, nobody gives a shit.

Yeah.

Everybody's thinking about it the next year or whatever.

Or maybe even in the moment. Because the truth is that people, most of all, are thinking about themselves. so just when you think the limelight's on you and everybody's gonna say, God, is she stupid? God, why would she say that or do that? The minute they've given you that one moment of attention, they back on to their own problems, their own selves. So it's like overstatement of your ego to think you're really that important. You know, you could just move right on. We could distract people. You try the next thing that rises on that if you're lucky. So, no, it doesn't really amount to anything. It doesn't really amount to anything. anything. Yeah, it's self-ego that is not really true. That's interesting because you say that most.

People are focused on themselves. So when you mess up publicly or you fail publicly, they'll think about it for a moment, but they're on to their own thing. If you're lucky and they notice.

If you're lucky and they notice.

Most people won't notice.

It just feels like everyone notices.

Yeah, definitely.

For the shame.

Right, exactly. What about when you want people to have the attention on you for the things you're doing Good. How do you keep the attention on you, the relevancy of yourself as an entrepreneur or an individual when people are focused on themselves so much? How do you keep them thinking about you, your brand, your business, your work, your mission?

You have to think of a way to grandstand. You know? What do you mean by that? Good old-fashioned grandstanding. Like I built my Corcoran Group brand on the backs of the New York New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, without a doubt. I would think of all kinds of crap to get media attention, okay, as long as my brand name was in there. Really? The best, single best thing I thought of, which was really just an attempt to get publicity when I couldn't afford advertising, because it was a bad market, was my Corcoran report. And all that was, was a one-page report giving the average sale price of apartments in Manhattan is how I labeled it. I didn't, I was too stupid to know that that was a wrong label. It was just my 11 sales. But it was on the front page of the real estate section and I was quoted on the first line. And boy, that was an eye-opener. That's how I learned that publicity can build a brand. Today's version of publicity that I look for in all the entrepreneurs I invest in is how good are you at social media? I don't care if you're in the sock business, if you're in hardware, what's going on? How good are your social media? What's your following? Those are the key questions now. How well, how good are you at building attention through social media because that's the new free ride, not really free, but to a large degree free, just like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, my free ride. Okay. So you have to be creative, I think, in thinking of how you can grandstand. And so what's like, I don't know, I'm thinking what's a business right today? Like, well, I don't want to use cousins. We already talked about cousins. Like, Grace and Lakes, which is a start out as a baby sock company. Phenomenal entrepreneurs I have. Is this the long, like the long? Lady stocking?

Yeah, with a little lace on top.

I bought some of those for a girl before, yeah. And they make girls look sexy.

And they're well priced and they're beautifully made.

Really nice. They're elegant. They're sexy. Well now it's a full fashion line and it's I think $17 million in sales this year. But what are they particularly good at? There's a husband and a wife team, Melissa the the wife of the team has gorgeous long legs. You may remember her from Shark Tank. Her husband's more of a nuts and bolts guy, but great at business. What she does is she constantly models and talks directly to the camera. She has so many people that love her. She has limited edition, she sells out constantly, constantly. She's great at social media. She knows how to primp herself, look sexy, talk to the ladies, and get sales. Okay.

So she uses her assets, her skills.

She uses her assets, but she does it in a way does on social media and that's built their entire business social media. And did I answer your question? Because I feel like I somehow got.

Lost in my... How do you stay relevant when things are going good? Because when things are going bad, they'll look at you for a moment, maybe, where it seems like everyone's looking at you, but then they forget. How do you stay relevant while you're growing or while things are kind of going the same?

I'll give you another example. I have a company I just bought in this past season. I was out of my mind to buy into them. It was two guys with a product called Comfy. It was a sweatshirt blanket. You slip into it, it's like a sweatshirt, but it's actually a blanket. Okay. Why I say it was crazy to buy into it, none of the Sharks, they were smart enough not to, is because they're two loudmouth guys having a good time pitching their product, and they had no inventory. They had handmade their own Two prototypes had no idea what it would cost to make, what they'd sell for, who they'd sell to. They had none of the answers, but they're great salesmen. And I said, ah, I'll take 15 or 40% whenever I got it. Boom. Just because they're great salespeople. And what they have done is they've done in their first year $11 million in sales. They found a way to produce it and sell it. But a couple of weeks ago, it was very quiet. They have had social media coverage to the moon and back, but it was very quiet. very quiet and they hand-delivered and I wish I could remember the famous actress name. Sexy, cool, long-legged actress. I'm so bad with names. Whoever she was, I think she was the same actress who closed the Oscars the other night. I might be telling you.

I didn't watch it.

Ah, shame on you, my man. Oh my god. Oh come on.

All right.

Well anyway, I saw your little party.

Watch party on Instagram.

So lonely, man. But anyway, they sent hand-delivered to her front door how they found it in Hollywood, the package, and she put on video her jumping on her bed in it. They quicker than a second started a social media campaign, people competing with the jumps. They're Johnny on the spot. That's smart business, okay? They're causing attention. They made it happen, and then they're gonna write it again, and it's gonna be all over social media all over. They're annoyed with me that I'm here because I don't have their product because they want me jumping on the beds. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna put the hood on. I have one girlfriend that has gorgeous long legs. I'm gonna Photoshop my head in to her long legs and I'm gonna win the contest.

Perfect. I like that. So grandstanding now is like more influencer marketing.

If you can find creative ways to.

Put it with an audience, maybe it's.

A micro audience or large audience or create an audience of your own one by one.

But you really have to be able to grant understand. Yeah. I know you talk about the keys to entrepreneurial success a lot, but for those who haven't heard you talk about it, what are, what are you think some of the smart ideas in business right now? The smart industries to go into if someone's maybe talented, maybe they sold a company or they're trying to start as an entrepreneur. What's an industry you really like? A product section you really like? You know, software, is it coaching? Is it Consulting? Is it an you see? Is it physical goods, food? What's the type of category you really think?

You know, really none of the above. Okay? It's not my cup of tea to think of an industry that's. That you can. This certainly leading Industries. I don't believe that's what your head should be. If you're thinking of going into business, I think your head should be is what do you enjoy? What are you naturally inclined to be good at? What were you always good at? Things. These. These abilities don't change much. Whatever you're, you know, if you're gregarious. as a young kid you generally don't wind up as a bookworm. When you get older and get a head on your shoulders you're still gregarious. So I think what you have to do is think what would suit me? What could I visualize myself doing where I could picture a happy picture of myself? And I think most people are capable of dreaming that up. I don't think it's an analytical kind of left-brain kind of thing where you apply yourself to your best shot, like going and playing blackjack and putting your chips on the right thing. No, I think you have to figure out you're the table, where should you put your chips, what's on you, what's true to you, okay? And so for me, it took me 22 jobs to find real estate, but the minute I was out opening keys, you know, opening the doors and chatting people up, and it didn't feel like work and I was the boss. I knew I was going to be the Queen of New York Real Estate. I knew it as sure as I knew my middle name was Anne. I just could see it in my mind's eye. I never had that vision when I worked my other 22 jobs. And the other thing, it's sort of related to what you asked. I think it's such a wrong thinking that you have to choose your spot. I think it's like finding out what clothing you look good in. You got to go try a lot of shit on the rack and see see what works with you. And then you kind of, little by little, kind of get your look on what looks well with, on your body type, your personality, the colors that are good. I think you find yourself little by little. It's very hard to sharpshoot. It's not that kind of a thing. And, you know, often the people, I know so many entrepreneurs well beyond or well before Shark Tank, peers of mine in many industries that have succeeded, no one ever went out for that industry. And so that's what I want to do. But you know what made the biggest difference in a myriad of those, if that's a word, a selection of those people that made the biggest difference was they came along someone they worked for who believed in them. Getting one good boss that gives you an opportunity is worth a million intellectual thoughts and Harvard MBAs grouped up in a pile. Because you kind of can sometimes need somebody else to see that light or you get into something you never thought you'd be interested in and you really love your job. And then that winds up being what you do for a lifetime. And so I don't believe that you've named the big industries. That's more of Mark Cuban stuff. He's like high level investment strategy stuff. But I'll put my businesses against his any day one to one. And because I think I'm so good at seeing who's got that talent that matches where they you know?

If someone's approaching you for investment or to partner with you, and you could choose only three qualities that you would dream that they would have, that's never giving up, a grid, a positive energy, whatever the quality might be. And you would say if they had these three qualities, it doesn't matter what business they're in, maybe timing and the economy might play a little bit of part here and there, but if they had these three qualities, they're most like, I would bet on them any day.

Yeah, well that's what I do every day on Shark Tank. And I've gotten better at it, 'cause I've learned to hone in on those. I could think of two, maybe I'll come up with a third if I keep talking. All right, number one is salesmanship. I have never succeeded with any business where the principal didn't know how to sell. I mean, sales is the guts of every business. If you don't have sales, you're not in business, any business applies everything. Okay? So, okay, if you're a technology nerd and really are in a technology space, but you better have a partner who could sell the shit out of it or it ain't gonna go anywhere. Okay? So selling is number one. The other thing I look for, and maybe it sounds weird to you, but I've learned it to be a great almost insurance policy. I look for injury. I look for anger in the individual. If I could find someone, and this is true of all my successful business business, interestingly enough. If I could find someone who had injury at an early age and has something to prove, I got myself a winner. It's like insurance. Okay. So when I say injury, meaning they were a dunce in school, like three out of four, three out of five sharks were dunces at school. They're, they're out to prove, you know, I have, I, I don't want to out them, so I, I won't use them. I'm inclined to use the names, but I won't. I have entrepreneurs usually never had a father. And then when they went on Shark Tank, their father, after 35 years, was back in touch. How insulting. It enraged them. Okay. I have entrepreneurs who were sports figures, almost going to be professional sports people, had an injury, but were fiercely competitive with someone who wound up in their space. They hate that person because they played against them in ice hockey. Crazy. All I have to do is name the other person. person, their sales go up. So I think anger and proving is very much part of a lot of successful stories out there. It's an over compensation, over proving, over driving, like, I'll show you. Give me the I show you something that went wrong earlier, and you've got a motivated person, and it gets you through hard times really well. And then I'm coming up with a third. I can't. There's a million other ones, but None of them as serious as that. Oh, it's those two. You have to be able to sell and if you have injury to prove something, it's a wonderful insurance policy.

How important is a positive attitude with those two things? Like if you were negative.

Oh, you don't... Let me tell you. You're not even going to get out of the gate. Well, there's negative people.

All right, you know what's... Might be.

Trying to prove people wrong and always nasty about it. Forget it. Let me tell you what's true about a negative person. You won't meet them in the entrepreneurial space. You know why? Because they are far more comfortable criticizing the next guy than doing. Negative people are bloodsuckers. They just suck your energy away. You know, the nicest thing I did for all the people that worked with me over the years was get rid of negative people the minute I spotted them. I didn't care if I had cause. They were out. You know why? Because it's like letting the enemy quietly into your camp and giving them free reign. Negative energy is the enemy of all business especially. I've always been in sales related businesses. You let a negative person into a sales force, they have a pity party all of a sudden they need one more person to feel sorry for them or point out what's wrong. It's terrible. I would spot them a mile away, feel their vibe. Do you have a few minutes on Friday? I'd love to have a chat with you. Wow. Because I felt like I was saving my good people. You know, they were good positive people. I don't mean criticism. It's invalid valuable in business. You need to have your critics to let you know when you're off and what you could do better. But I'm just talking about real bloodsuckers, you know? You know, everybody's met a few.

Before we continue this video, make sure to subscribe below and turn on the notification Bell right now so you don't miss out on these great videos every single day. Foreign 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?

Very hard.

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. The grass is not greener on the other side, you know, kind of work on myself. Work on myself. How to maximize social media and empowering people and things that nature. So I really don't invest outside of Shark Tank. But no, it is 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. It's not you, and then all of a sudden you're gonna ask, well, why is this crumbling? Well, boss, you told me to do this. So it's a lot of responsibility. It's rising 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, you know, the FUBU thing or reinvesting back in yourself? Is it taking a couple things and going all in with a few things.

Or I think today, you know, if I was going to maximize, then it would have to be, you know, really looking at the 80 20 at the company and, and personally, meaning what is the 20 of stuff that is creating 80 of the revenue and or joy or time in my 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.

And 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 do the best for them. So that's where, 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, right? 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. 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 my dumbass can make it, everybody else can. And then I need to create more curriculums like Damon on Demand or like Rise and Grind or Power or Broke or my DJ success formula or speaking engagements or whatever to empower people and not feel guilty that, hey, you know what? I gotta charge you 'cause I gotta keep the lights on. I gotta pay this staff that's traveling around or the writers and everything else. So I think to improve more of what I'm giving to people to show people that you can make it, you don't have to have a lot of money. You gotta 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 and things of that nature.

Yeah, yeah. 'Cause 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 how I'm, you know, 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 had a really great conversation with Barbara.

She's great.

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. realistic.

Yeah.

You know, I learned, like, even, you know, she said stuff that's really amazing. Like, listen, I put down, I I used to write down what I love and what I hate, and I made sure the things that I hate, I Outsource 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, and so she has such a realistic approach to things, but she's a brilliant, brilliant woman.

Yeah. What would you say is the thing that you're excited about the most right now?

You got so much going on.

You know, I, you know, I'm excited. I'm excited about everything I do, to be very honest. But I'm going on 10 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 going to get up here and the film Knights of the World, they're going to go and they're going to 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, when, you know, 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, like I said, I'm, I'm so, I'm so, I'm so on this health thing that I'm realizing how screwed up I was prior.

Right.

And that I'm gonna figure this.

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, you know, 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.

I'm this year, I'm looking forward to acquiring a lot more dad jokes to just make me that guy.

I gotta, I gotta send you some. I'm gonna find something.

I'm gonna test you. You gotta 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, there's no one favorite dad joke. And they come anytime, right? So they can come at any time and then you won't even laugh at it. laugh at him right then. You may laugh at him later. Yeah, a lot later. Like, you know, like, what does the pirate say when they, they turn 80 years old?

I'm 80.

That's gonna hit you about two in the morning. Yeah, you know, I have to go to the bathroom.

That was good. That was good. Oh, man. What about. 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 that people told them they were gonna be dead or in jail or that they weren't good because of their color, their skin, or education. 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 could look at me and say, if he can make it, I can make it. And that's the thing I'm most proud of. I died a day 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. If dad jokes bring you the most joy and laughter, what's the thing that pulls at your heart the most?

Most.

Is there are things that happen in your day to day?

It's just those causes. It's those causes to find out that, you know, there's a meat market for dogs. It's crazy, you know, to find out that, that there are people who, who, who can, you know, 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, they violate. like your children and things like that, you know, those things cause me pain. Yeah.

Yeah. What's been the most painful thing in your life?

Getting divorced when I was, my first marriage, because, you know, my ex-wife is a driven, brilliant person and, you know, my marriage was sacrificed due to me working hard, me being young and dumb and you know, 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? So, you know, you know, how long.

Were you together for or married for?

We probably married for about four years, if you know what it was, but we were together she was with me before the food was success. Yeah. You know, still, she's still, she's still one of my closest friends and, and biggest Inspirations. She's, 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.

Well, of course it was challenging transition. But as you look back, I mean, you know, when would you ever, you know, 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, you know?

Yeah.

But on the flip side, listen, you know, my, 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 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, of some of these studies I've having here, I realized that making the family a priority and running it like a business is, 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 in business now then?

Well, you schedule time. You schedule time. First of 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, you know, and, and, and solving problems. You know, I think one of my friends said for 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 time. She said, but if I was a.

Client, you'd make time.

You'd make time, right? If I was paying you, you wouldn't want to lose that deal. Why do you want to lose this relationship or this discussion we need to have? And I realized that, and that, you know, that was, that was, that was something somebody said in the book, and I started to put in more time. And if you look at this, you know, a book like the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, as he talked about, I realized throughout that time, you know, 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. You know, when FUBU really went down, it was right around when I had my divorce.

Really?

I don't think it was a coincidence. Yeah, you know what I mean? It was a real, 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.

Yeah.

Why is it, do you think, I think that's in some entrepreneurs will have 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- 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 first 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'll do billion dollar deals, but yet they're afraid to have a conversation with a woman at, at a bar because they feel, 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.

It's scary, scarier, right? The heart, like the heart.

You know, you wanna, you know, listen, I can sit across the table from you and I can say, I'm gonna give you, you know, this $50 for this and you say, give me 70. I say, screw You, right? Because you're just negotiating with me. But if you're personally sitting across from the table and you go, 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.

It hurts.

'Cause 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 as hell, though. Ah, who cares?

Yeah.

Wow.

Mm.

I'm still thinking about the beginning, the pirate beginner.

Yeah.

I had a question I want to ask you. It's escaping me now.

Do you let that roll through the podcast, like you think email? Yeah. Yeah. That's good, 'cause I like that, because I want people to know that you're processing the information.

Yeah, I had a really good thought. Sometimes when I'm interviewing, I have really good thoughts, but my goal is to be still present.

Yeah.

But then the thought escapes me.

Gosh, what was that?

It'll come to me. I'm curious, 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 and what companies like Airbnb and Uber and these other companies have been able to do to scale so quickly, Dropbox, things like that, they've 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 the day, knowing that so much has been changing and so much is going to continue to change, what would you put? What would be like the best industry business idea to get into?

Well, it would be hard to tell me to tell somebody what the best industry is unless if 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. Yeah. But if you're really gonna operate the business, it has to be something that you're fascinated in, right? Or you, yeah, something that, again, is Christmas every single day.

Say it's Christmas every day for someone or 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 and 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, you know, I was talking to one of my guys and he was like, well, Vine is going right now. So what happened with those people who have five million people online but they don't have any emails where they were? They're going now. They have five 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 eliminated everybody advertising all kind of other things because your creature habit, you're gonna hit it. Or if your credit card is billed $5 a month, you're not gonna take that damn $5 off. By the time you call those people, they're gonna give you such a heartache on taking the $5 off, you're gonna 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 customer. So no matter what it is, that's.

What, that's, 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 in at the right time. I did 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. It's online. This is, this is where it's at. 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. So, exactly. Fascinating, fascinating time. But the only thing that people have to understand about this is that now everybody could do it as well.

Everyone.

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? It goes back to the fundamentals of being able to get up before everybody else and go to bed after everybody else, you know?

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 an entrepreneur, endorsement. 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 is, that makes you who you are? And I think that that, that's my neck. I give a lot of people a lot of chances, but they, 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 unfolding the, the, you know, they're, you know, 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 could kind of see their way. They may not be good in one area, but it doesn't matter if I, I, you know, I'll if I pick a person, I'll put them in any area, you know what I mean? And they'll figure it out. Those type of common sense, those type with drive and some level of respect, honesty and stuff like that. I mean, you just can't lose when you have somebody like that. You have somebody ready to bust their ass and you can't, if they're never gonna stop, they're gonna figure it out one day.

You can't beat those people.

And they're gonna, if you don't work with them, they're gonna go off and be your competitor.

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