Daymond John Interview: How to Raise Entrepreneurial Kids

Entrepreneurship is something that if I learned something earlier, it would have been how money works. And the major investment that you have to make as an entrepreneur have nothing to do with money. You have to make a major investment in your education prior to doing anything. Because actually, the top reason that entrepreneurs fail is actually over funding. They go out and they believe that they need to borrow everything and raise this money up. And, you know, money highlights your weaknesses often. If you're an entrepreneur and you've got a poor conversion rate on social media, well, buying more ads is not going to build your conversion rate. If your product is weak, buying more product is not going to help you sell more. So money can highlight your weaknesses. And that is the biggest flaw that entrepreneurs have, that they don't know how money works.

Today, Daymond John is gonna share why knowing how money works is vital to making it as an entrepreneur and how you can start at any age. This is the launch your business podcast, because we know starting a business is challenging, but it doesn't have to be confusing. Each week, we'll give you the tactical advice and the necessary tools to scale your business without feeling burnt out. I'm Terry Rice, business development consultant and staff writer here at Entrepreneur magazine. Let's dive in. When I was in elementary school, there was this store in my school called the Handy Dandy supply Store. And you could buy pencils, erasers, all that stuff you need for school. So I got an idea. I wanted to make some money, and I started selling pencils and pens and all that stuff as well. And that did well enough. But then I had another idea. Instead of selling school supplies, I would sell candy. So here's what I did. I went to the supermarket with my mom, and I bought a bunch of candy in bulk and. And then sold those individual pieces for 25 cents each. Now, after a while, I got way too busy, so I had to hire someone to help me. Shout out to my friend Matt Bellaterra for your help back then. And we kept on scaling. After a month, I made $20 as a fourth grader, which is a lot of money. And then come that Monday, the principal shut us down. Apparently, kids were spending other lunch money on our candy, which did not go over too well. So most entrepreneurs have a similar story. They had a lemonade stand. They were cutting lawns, whatever it is. But unfortunately, more kids need to hear stories like that. They don't persist in every community. They don't persist in every neighborhood. And that's what we're going to talk about today with Daymond John. And just in case you're not familiar with him, he's an entrepreneur, investor, TV personality, including Shark Tank, as well as the founder and CEO of the apparel company fubu. All right, I'm going to pause here to take a breath, because that's a lot. But he's also an author with a new book called Little Damon Learns to Earn. And he'll share more about the book during our interview. But what shocked me is how the lessons learned can be extremely valuable to any entrepreneur, regardless of how old they are. So today we're going to talk about why knowing how money works is the key to success in business, why self education is the key to financial independence, a simple process for living within your means while still enjoying yourself. And for the parents out there, how to raise creative, entrepreneurial children. But I gotta give you a heads up here. I was very excited for this interview because I saw Damon speak at south by Southwest years ago, and he just blew me away. But it wasn't just because of the content he shared. It's because of the character that he displayed. I'm going to retell the story with him right now.

How you doing today?

I'm good. And I just want to say thank you for obvious reasons, but one thing you might not remember is I've actually met you before, and I was talking to your assistant before that, before we hopped on. But I saw you at south by Southwest, and as you were speaking at one point, this woman said, you know, I teach at this school for dyslexic children. Can you just give me some message to deliver to them? And what you did next shocked me. You got off the stage, you walked up to the woman, you said, hold your camera up. I'm going to make a video. And you made a video for these kids saying, look, you have a superpower. Don't ever let anyone tell you different. You know, I'm with you, and I. I know you're going to do well, and I'm rooting for you. And I remember this five years later. And I just know that the impact you had on those kids had to be incredible, because I'm still telling the story, which means they're still telling the story. But when I saw that, I was like, wow, this guy's the truth. I will always be rooting for you. That this moment was just so incredible. So thank you for that.

Well, you know, I appreciate, man, it's those little moments, man, that is not a lot. Not a lot of heavy lifting, but it will hopefully, you know, give somebody enough Inspiration when somebody's telling them no, you know?

Well, you inspire me too, so it's working. But I do obviously want to talk about your book, Little Damon Learns to Earn, because I mentioned to you before in Austin that the reason why I got my first job is because I wanted to buy a FUBU shirt. It was, like, a light gray FUBU shirt with, like, this Carolina blue lettering on it. And I saw it, and I was like, wow, I gotta get that shirt. So I got a job making, I think, like, $5 an hour. And I was like, well, shoot, I'm only nine hours away from getting that shirt. So you inspired me to get a job, and here's where I'm at now, so. So thanks for that. I appreciate it.

Oh, man. Well, I definitely appreciate it, man. Yeah, I felt the same way about, you know, Puma and other brands. I was coming up with this being the 50th anniversary of hip hop. Yeah. You know, so excellent. Where are you at right now? Are you in Brooklyn?

Yep, I'm in Brooklyn. Yep.

All right. I see the Brooklyn sign in the back represent.

Yeah, I have to get a Queens one somewhere. But there's so much I want to say. I mean, even beyond the book, I will say one more thing. Just because it's brilliant how you had bouncers wearing your FUBU gear to get more eyeballs on it, unlike you invented influencer marketing. So I actually wrote a blog about that.

Oh. I didn't invent it, but definitely I learned from a lot of people, and I took it to whatever level I felt that I could take it from. OR two. That was a pretty sweet deal. You know, I knew that. Also, I had some of the biggest guys in town, you know, ready to protect me at any given moment so they can keep the flow of shirts coming.

Yeah, I love it. And I don't want to take up too much of your time. So let's talk about the book. And I'm wondering what made you want to write a book about children pursuing entrepreneurship?

Because I realized that I had read my daughter one too many princesses and pony books. And I also realized after all these years of Shark Tank, within the public sector or the private sector, the biggest or the most common thread of all the people that needed to grow their company or even start a company is they didn't know how money works. So they could have had a passion. They could have a skill set. Great idea, great invention. But it all went down to the basic fundamentals of not knowing how money works. So, you know, you can have all the help in your life and you don't feed yourself or know how to put nutrition properly in your body. No matter what your intentions are, it's just not going to work out well for you, and it's unfortunate. I looked around and I guess. I guess like other entrepreneurs, I want to find a way to connect with my daughter, you know, at 5 and 6 and 7 years old. And like other entrepreneurs, I. I figured somebody else was going to solve this problem. I kept looking around and though nobody's going to solve the problem, man, I got to start trying to solve this problem.

Yeah, Yeah. I love it. I mean, I have four kids and they're all under seven. And I know your book comes out soon. I'm getting it as soon as possible because I got to make some money off of them. These kids aren't cheap. So I need your help.

Yeah, man. You know, my oldest girls, I'm on my second marriage, but they didn't grow up with financial intelligence, no matter how hard I tried to teach them, because I didn't have anybody who taught me. And, you know, the kind of, you know, you. You work for half and I'll pay the other half. That is a great discipline to teach them, but that is a work discipline. That is a work ethic discipline. That is not a financial discipline. Right. So, you know, this is needed. You know, the reality is that a bunch of clear leaf bags and go door to door when the leaves are out there and you are going to make a dollar extra, two dollars extra, but that person no longer has to wait for an Amazon package to come or go to the store. And you know, they're going to have to take the leaves anyway.

There you go.

There's some. There's some. There's some bags to sell, you know.

Yeah. And there's a. There's a mindset piece, too, because I'm always shocked, like, whenever it snows here in New York or any opportunity for a young kid to make money, I don't see them out here hustling, unlike when I was a kid, I would have been out there, like, trying to be the first one on a block because, you know, if you don't get up early enough, you're not going to get paid. So do you weave that into your story as well? Like the mindset part, not just the actions?

Well, you know, the mindset is the strategy. I weave into the story of the strategy. It doesn't really go as well as little Damon would like it when he first decides to open the business and he has to learn how to open the business and do it the right way. However, what little Damon does learn to do is he learns to tap into all of his friends best skills. Because being an entrepreneur is a team sport. There's 30 million small businesses country, 22 million of them are operated by single mom and pop shops. However, you can be a hairdresser, but you still need to rent a chair from a shop. You still need to get your goods from someplace else. Right? You still need to find a way to market. It is a team sport. And in the book, as little Damon tries to get what he is after, he called in his friends and he, he, he's. He's the same Damon who called in three other friends for fubu. And it also shows the, and it breaks the stigmatism that a lot of people think the boss is the only one that prospers and the boss is the one that does, you know, tell everybody what to do at the end. You know, little Damon and all his friends then individually all make enough money themselves to then get what they all want. Not, not with just little Damon. And being an entrepreneur, it is about service as well to the people that work for you as well as your customers.

So when I hear about little Damon and his crew, I feel like there needs to be a cartoon. Almost like Fat Albert back in the day. Like I feel like is this the next step where there's a continued lesson? Have you thought about that at all?

Well, it'll grow into many things. So I want to be very clear that I wrote this book there. I don't, I don't need any more public notoriety. I air on CNBC 60 times a week. I'm the Kardashians of CNBC. There is no money in books. And we have a lot of, we have a lot of programs now to donate to 501c3. Because a lot of times the people that need this education can't necessarily afford it. You know, yes, white, black and indifferent. But of course as an African American, we don't come from legacy wealth. So we can't necessarily go from our grandparents as well as some other cultures may have a little bit more of an advantage. But this is about me and my life journey now. You know, my buddy Mark Cuban has vowed to break the, break this preying off of our fellow Americans when it comes to medicine in this country. You know, a pill that is a $50. He's, I mean $150. He's, he's finding ways to get it at $20 or $15 so you can get 10 pills. I have a lifelong legacy now trying to break the system or bring attention to the fact that the system needs to be changed. I do not believe there's a conspiracy here. I just think that we grew up in a different time and era and age. And so I will be putting out as many products as I can. But I am welcoming anybody who has a product and, or another way to empower our families on this journey. And you know, if I started a business today and you know, and this was a business and if it failed tomorrow from Shark Tank, well, then it failed. I found a way to connect with my little 6 year old and next year I'm going to find another way to connect and educator. And then at 8 and then at 9, and then at 10, and then 11. And so this is my lifelong journey and I realized I have a lot of teachers and educators around me advising me. They even tell me that they don't have financial intelligence. Yes. Can they tell you everything about science and history and math? But do they know what good debt is and bad debt? No. So the people who are taking care of our most valued, almost valuable possession, they're not even educated in it. So this is a lifelong journey to add to your, to just basically answer your question. Will there be books and curriculums and various other things? Absolutely. Will there be other people that I will say, what do you have? Let me highlight you. I don't care. But this is, this is going to be what I will, I will die, you know, doing.

You're kind of calling me out here because like I said, I have four kids and I'm really focused on coaching them, like with CrossFit and athletics and thinking how can I raise these adult athletes? And to the point, maybe we don't necessarily need to push that as heavily. So what I'm going to do right now is commit to doing. I'll do this. I'm going to read your books and I'm going to have my kids implement what they've learned and I'm going to report back through Entrepreneur and other channels like, here's what my kids are doing because of this book.

I believe. No, I'm not calling you out either because I believe that kids do need sports and discipline. I think that, I think it'll, I think they need all of it. Right now we're allowing our children to be raised by iPads of a thousand splintered families that are playing with toys our kids no longer care about. They care more about unboxing than creating what's in the box. However, I think that to keep our kids to be athletes, it shows them how to work within a unit. It keeps them off the street. You see as a parent, if your child is sluggish or various other things going on due to maybe external influences and I think there's discipline needed as well, trust me. So I have a high amount of respect and I think that person who's going to be able to compete is also and work within a team unit is also going to be able to be more of a little Damon learn to earn candidate because they're going to at least understand structure and discipline.

We're going to take a quick break here, but when we come back, Damon will share how we can raise entrepreneurial children. But like I said earlier, these are also lessons we can apply as adults. Just Get Started if you've ever looked for tips on launching a business, just get started seems to come up a lot. And while that's vaguely motivational, it does not provide any real direction. Because the next logical question for anyone would be, well, how do I get started? What specifically should I do? Well, if you're looking to quickly start a business without the confusion, risk and pressure of doing something entirely new, I've got a solution for you. It's called the Solopreneur's Fast Track, a step by step process on how to start a business using the skills you already have and actually enjoy using. So let's say your favorite part of a previous job was email marketing. You'll learn how to start a business offering other companies advice on how they can improve their email marketing. Or maybe you are really good at integrating complicated tech tools. You can help other organizations do the same thing without the need to bring on a full time hire. So the main point here is that everything you need to start a business is already within you. You don't need a cool website or fancy tools. And by completing the course, you'll also discover a simpler approach for attracting clients without using complicated funnels or cheesy sales tactics. You can finish it over a weekend and start making money in as little as 30 days. You'll gain the clarity and confidence you need to start your business and receive a one page business plan so you can immediately apply what you've learned. Get started today and receive a 20% discount by heading to terryrice co. Fast. That's terryrice co fast. Let me ask you another question like what are some other things parents can do to raise entrepreneurial children?

You know, entrepreneurial children is an Entrepreneurial mindset. It is not necessarily that they need to be an entrepreneur, because you can. You know, I like to say, you know, one of the best entrepreneurial thinking people in the world is Bezos. You know, he finds ways that in a pandemic, he goes, you know what? My shipping is being bottlenecked. So all my employees, you can take an extra box home or anybody's home. I mean, give me two customers and make some extra money. And what do I do? Well, I reduce my shipping costs, I retain more of my people working for me, they get to make more money, and I guarantee that my boxes get to the end customer so they're happy. That's for entrepreneurial thinking at the highest level. Right? So here are some takeaways the parents can do right now. I told you how $3 works when it comes into a home or into anybody's pocket. I did the same with my little daughter. I said, baby, you got. You got. You got $300 this year. And, you know, I don't know why the tooth fairy is giving away 20s these days. I have no idea why, because I got $2.25 for all. All my teeth. But, okay, I broke out her 300. So 100. Because remember, when we talk to our kids say, you know how hard Mommy and daddy works with this? They go, I don't know. I mean, I came into this life, you working like that and taking care of me. I don't know. What am I supposed to say? Trick question. All right, So I say, here, all right, what's one? What's the first hundred you're gonna do? You're gonna give to mommy and daddy. She was like, okay. She didn't learn anything from this. She's like, whatever, friends. The second, though, I want you to start a business. And she said. And I said, but a business does one or two things. A business solves a problem, somebody or brings somebody joy. And if you solve a problem, you guarantee you're going to bring somebody joy. I said, who do you want to bring? Somebody. Joe, who do you want to do? What do you want to do? She said, we live near the beach. I want to. I want to. I want to put shells and sand that I hand pick on the beach, and I want to make them my friends and people, and I want to give them away. I said, but maybe you can sell them. She said, okay, Daddy, I want to do that. And I took the third hundred, and I said, remember, this is what you would like to have, but you do not have to have. I Said, what would you like to have? She said, I want a pet. So, you know, we talked about whatever it was and we drilled down to a Beta fish that works for us. I was like, okay, so long as mommy and daddy approve of it and the IRS and the police later on we'll get back to that. You can get whatever you want. So she went and got a beta fish. And then I, she, we're home sitting, looking at the fish and I, I said to her, baby, that's what the money you made, that's just that bought you freedom. She said, what? What do you mean freedom? I said, you didn't have to wait for Christmas, you didn't have to wait for your birthday. You didn't have to have daddy pick it up and you guess the color. You went and got that fish yourself. On your terms. That fish is yours. And from now on, you have to, that's what money buys your freedom. And freedom could be time with your family, you know, giving to those in need. And she started to understand what money got her. Now we went back to number two. I said, but oh, but guess what? Now you got a business. So we bought 30 bottles that she was supposed to, you know, put in. She wanted to give away 20. I said, Baby, you're going to be bankrupt. And if you're bankrupt, you can't pay number one and number and you can't have freedom. So she said, what do I need to do? You can give away five and you can sell 25. She sold 25 and then she was able to buy 50 and give away 10. And then she understood, she this simple concept. She understood.

I love that approach because the step by step process is great. And on my end I'm trying to teach my 7 year old daughter how to make money. So we've been collecting cans like not from outside, just from, from home and then returning them. But it's funny because in Brooklyn it's a different scene, right? There's like grown adults in line to return cans with carts and carts and carts full of cans. So I'm like, we gotta, we gotta start getting here earlier and we need that first mover advantage. So that's one lesson she learned already the hard way.

What else does she love to do, you know? You know, you know, my God, my daughter's godfather said, he said, I want to give you, I want to buy something for my goddaughter. And I said, don't buy her anything, man. She has too much. He's like, but you know what? This is the time to spoiler, he said, if you're gonna. And you know what? If she has 10 dolls, well, then 11 ain't gonna hurt. But he said, you know what I'm gonna do? So every year he buys her a stock from a company. And so he bought her Disney stock, one share, and he puts it in a binder and he gives her the stock along with a toy. And he said, mika, Daddy now works for you. He's on ABC and you're his boss and here's a toy. And he does the same with the little boys in his life. He buys him a share in Caterpillar and he buys him a little Caterpillar toy. And now they go through it and they look over the years and they see these pictures of them getting the toy, them with the stock and these books, and they start to understand that this book was worth this amount. Now then. And now it's worth this amount. These are slow. These are small things. You can give kids that over the next, you know, 10 years. You're giving them in Christmas and birthdays alone. Think about that.

I think it also teaches them, we'll call it strategic patience. Because it's like, yeah, you can have this doll and go on your merry way, but you know, if you put that $10 into stock X years later, that's going to help you buy your first car, which you probably want more than that doll that you had.

When you're a kid, there's a lot. There's a lot of things that are very small antidotes and things you could do. And I am inviting anybody and everybody listening or watching us right now to give us more tips that we can share with the world and share with our families.

Yeah. One question I have is this. What is one lesson about entrepreneurship that you wish you learned sooner? And I know everything that you've done has made you. But if there's like, you know, one thing that stands out, like, gosh, I wish I realized this. What would it be?

Well, we've already talked about it, honestly, so I'll try to find out something else. I mean, it was really. It was really how money works again. That's it. Right, Right. Because, you know, us entrepreneurs, you know, not even entrepreneurs. As an African American, I was going down the block. I was. I was going to cash check in place, check cashing places, and I was paying, by the time I was sitting done, I was paying about 6% to get my checks cashed. And then money orders when the bank was right next door, that's 6% of my entire salary, I didn't think of anything. Right. It's just 6%. I mean, when the basis points go up 2 points, you know how, you know how, how much that hurts. But we never focus on the small percentages when the bank was right next door. And I could have done that. So it is really about, as an entrepreneur, it is about being a little more vulnerable and walk in the room and saying, I know this. Does anybody else know other things that I can be. I can help. And I can, of course, try to give you any knowledge I have. So entrepreneurship is something that if I done it or if I learned something earlier, it would have been how money works. And the major investment that you have to make as an entrepreneur have nothing to do with money. You have to make a major investment in your education prior to doing anything. Because actually, the top reason that entrepreneurs fail is actually over funding. They go out and they believe that they need to borrow everything and raise this money up. OPM and, you know, money, if you don't have the money, highlights your weaknesses often. If you're an entrepreneur and you got a poor conversion rate on social media, well, buying more ads is not going to build your conversion rate. If your product is weak, buying more product is not going to help you sell more. So money can highlight your weaknesses. And that is the biggest flaw that entrepreneurs have, that they don't know how money works.

That's brilliant because I used to work at Facebook and it would drive me crazy when clients had horrible landing pages. They're like, oh, let's up our budget. And I'm like, no, it's not. The, the budget's not going to help, like, get a better website. No one wants to buy this stuff. Like, that's the problem. So sucking Appreciate that. And, and I know you're short on time, so I don't want to overextend the welcome here, but thank you very much for this. It's going to help my kids. It's going to help everyone listening as well. And I got an idea. If you're working with anyone else, maybe it's someone you're mentoring or someone in your program who can also come on the show and provide the same kind of insight and guidance. Let me know because I want to chat with them as well.

Well, it is an honor. Amanda can definitely look, talk to Ted or Karen and see some of the great entrepreneurs that we know that are doing amazing work and they're deserving of what they do. But I definitely thank you for this opportunity. And again, anytime you have any other ideas or techniques that we can share with the public on how to educate their families and these little sharks? I think that, you know, I would love to highlight them because it is a team sport and we all got to do this together.

And that's our show for today. Again, Damon's new book is called Little Damon Learns to Earn. And I just know it's going to be a great way for kids to discover how money works and how they can make their own money on their own terms. So if you have a kid, definitely consider picking it up and it would also make a great gift for other parents as well. And speaking of gifts, first let's give away a few copies of Damon's new book. To enter, just post your key takeaways on Instagram with a screenshot of this episode and tag me at Terryrice. Thanks again for listening and I'll catch up with you next time. Apply what you've learned on today's show. You'll find the show notes and more resources at TerryRice Co podcast. Again, that's Terryrice Co Podcast. And the best way to support this podcast is by subscribing, Tap, Telling a Friend and leaving a review. Also, you can get more tips by following me on Instagram, terryrice or follow me on LinkedIn. This episode was produced by Josh Wilcox of Brooklyn Podcasting Studio and edited by Dan Lardy. Special thanks to my wife Dominique for keeping our kids relatively quiet as I recorded. Thanks again for listening. I'll see you next time.

And walk in a room and saying, I know this. Does anybody else know other things that I can be? I can help and I can of course try to give you any knowledge I have. So entrepreneurship is something that if I done it, if I learned something earlier, it would have been how money works. And the major investment that you have to make as an entrepreneur have nothing to do with money. You have to make a major investment in your education prior to doing anything. Because actually the top reason that entrepreneurs fail is actually overfunding. They go out and they believe that they need to borrow everything and raise this money up. Opm and you know, money, if you don't have the money highlights your weaknesses. Often if you're an entrepreneur and you've got a poor conversion rate on social media, well, buying more ads is not going to build your conversion rate. If your product is weak, buying more product is not going to help you sell more. So money can highlight your weaknesses. And that is the biggest flaw that entrepreneurs have that they don't know how money works.

That's brilliant because I used to work at Facebook and it would drive me crazy when clients had horrible landing pages. They're like, oh, let's up our budget. And I'm like, no, the budget's not going to help get a better website. No one wants to buy this stuff. Like, that's the problem. So sucking. Appreciate that. And. And I know you're short on time, so I don't want to overextend the welcome here, but thank you very much for this. It's going to help my kids. It's going to help everyone listening as well. And I got an idea. If you're working with anyone else, maybe it's someone you're mentoring or someone in your program who can also come on the show and provide the same kind of insight and guidance. Let me know because I want to chat with them as well.

Well, it is an honor. Amanda can definitely look, talk, talk to Ted or Karen and see some of the great entrepreneurs that we know that are doing amazing work and they're deserving of what they do. But I definitely thank you for this opportunity. And again, anytime you have any other ideas or techniques that we can share with the public on how to educate their families and these little sharks, I think that I would love to highlight them because it is a team sport and we all got to do this together.

And that's our show for today. Again, Damon's new book is called Little Damon Learns to Earn. And I just know it's going to be a great way for kids to discover how money works and how they can make their own money on their own terms. So if you have a kid, definitely consider picking it up. And it would also make a great gift for other parents as well. And speaking of gifts, let's give away a few copies of Damon's new book. To enter, just post your key takeaways on Instagram with a screenshot of this episode and tag me at it. Terryrice, thanks again for listening and I'll catch up with you next time. Apply what you've learned on today's show. You'll find the show notes and more resources at Terryrice Co Podcast. Again, that's Terryrice Co Podcast, and the best way to support this podcast is by subscribing, telling a friend, and leaving a review. Also, you can get more tips by following me on Instagram at It's Terry Rice or follow me on LinkedIn. This episode was produced by Josh Wilcox of Brooklyn Podcasting Studio.