Daymond John on The Power of Broke - with Lewis Howes

Lewis Howes 0:00 [upbeat music]

Lewis Howes 0:04 Welcome, everyone, to School of Greatness podcast. Very excited about our guest today. He is the man, the myth, the legend, Daymond John. Good to see you, man.

Daymond John 0:11 Thanks for having me.

Lewis Howes 0:12 Thanks for being here.

Daymond John 0:13 Thanks for having me.

Lewis Howes 0:13 Very excited about your book. It just came out. It's called The Power of Broke. Make sure you guys go grab this right now. Highly recommend it. Bunch of my mutual friends are featured in here, so it was cool to see that we know some of the same people.

Daymond John 0:25 Amazing people.

Lewis Howes 0:26 And-

Daymond John 0:26 Big brains

Lewis Howes 0:27 ... big brains doing some big things, and, uh, trying to all emulate what you've created. You've created a huge brand, obviously, and, uh, you're-

Daymond John 0:34 Well, thank you

Lewis Howes 0:35 ... you're, you know, you've... Since the FUBU brand, you've been, you know, well known for being on Shark Tank, so congratulations for all the success of the show and all the opportunities-

Daymond John 0:44 Thank you

Lewis Howes 0:44 ... that's come from it.

Daymond John 0:44 It's a fun ride. It's amazing.

Lewis Howes 0:45 It's an amazing ride.

Daymond John 0:45 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 0:45 Now, how many seasons is that now?

Daymond John 0:47 Uh, seventh.

Lewis Howes 0:47 Seventh season.

Daymond John 0:48 This is our seventh season. Sure.

Lewis Howes 0:49 Wow, it's crazy. What's been, um, the craziest thing that's happened in the last seven seasons for you?

Daymond John 0:56 The craziest thing for me personally, you're saying?

Lewis Howes 0:58 Yeah, from Shark Tank, let's say.

Daymond John 1:00 Um, so you're, you're, you're asking on Shark Tank, or in the last seven years-

Lewis Howes 1:06 Let's say on Shark Tank

Daymond John 1:07 ... because of the Shark Tank love?

Lewis Howes 1:08 Let's say, uh, any of that. Yes.

Daymond John 1:10 Well, because of the Shark Tank love, I, um, you know, I got put on this, uh, public pedestal where, you know, people started to understand that, you know, as a... people started to understand that kind of, that Shark Tank carpet, that entrepreneur that stands on that carpet, uh, it, it doesn't discriminate against, uh, creed, color, religion, sex, you know, you... It's the ultimate equalizer.

Lewis Howes 1:34 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 1:34 Right? That, that empowerment is the ultimate equalizer, and no matter who you are in this, um, great country that we live in, you have a shot. And with that acknowledgement, I was, uh, I was appointed as a Presidential Ambassador of Global Entrepreneurship, a PAGE ambassador by President Obama in the White House.

Lewis Howes 1:52 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 1:52 And, uh, I'm one of several, uh, people such as, uh, Tory Burch and Steve Case are on there. And, um, I, I had the privilege of, uh, going to, uh, Kenya with, uh, the president and the, and, and the White House-

Lewis Howes 2:06 Wow

Daymond John 2:07 ... and visiting Kenya and spreading the word of entrepreneurship-

Lewis Howes 2:11 Wow

Daymond John 2:11 ... of how it can empower you, and it can, it can, it can, um, help you feed your family and help you, uh, you know, empower others when, you know, this... unfortunately, the world we live in, when you don't have hope, other people tend to thrive off of that and ask you to, to be part of whatever their cause is, and you, you feel that that's the only hope you have. But-

Lewis Howes 2:34 Right

Daymond John 2:34 ... if now you know you can have a smartphone, you can open up a smartphone and make a couple of dollars, and you can hopefully feed your husband, wife, kids, and empower yourself-

Lewis Howes 2:42 Yeah

Daymond John 2:42 ... you're less likely to go and do some things that aren't in the best interest of, uh-

Lewis Howes 2:47 Sure

Daymond John 2:47 ... humans.

Lewis Howes 2:48 Sure.

Daymond John 2:48 You know? And mankind.

Lewis Howes 2:50 Right. Um, wanna start from the beginning, briefly-

Daymond John 2:54 [clears throat]

Lewis Howes 2:54 ... and ask who was the most influential person in your childhood growing up, and what was the biggest lesson they taught you?

Daymond John 3:01 That by far would be my mother. Um, you know, I never, I never realized the lessons that she taught me until I ended up becoming, you know, a parent myself and realizing that I ended up following all the steps, or all the mistakes I made, many of the mistakes I made, my mother had, had, had advised me that those were going to be mistakes, but she never, uh, stopped me from going down the path, because she wanted me to make those mistakes on my own and learn. Um, so she's always been, uh, the number one important mentor that I've ever had. And then, you know, life is a series of mentors. I went on-

Lewis Howes 3:37 Mm-hmm

Daymond John 3:37 ... from there, and, you know, I had one great teacher, and that's all you need is one really great teacher in school that makes you feel really special. And then I had a, a mentor who owned a, a corner store in my neighborhood, and, and he would teach me and, and explain to me, you know, his business tactics. And then my mother [clears throat] ended up having a boyfriend who I call my stepfather, who, um, who was actually of the Jewish faith. And, you know, he, he taught me that love doesn't come in a, in a, in a color or a gender, and that-

Lewis Howes 4:06 Mm

Daymond John 4:06 ... and that, um, you know, for me to be very proud of my culture, but don't be anti-anything else and respect everybody. So I, I think that gave me a, a broader look at life, and I never walked in a room with a chip on my shoulder. I also never thought anybody else was better than me, but I never thought anybody had it better than me, too, because people of all colors, uh, have challenges in life, dreams and aspirations. So those things all led me, uh, you know, to be the man that I am, and I'm-

Lewis Howes 4:34 Yeah

Daymond John 4:34 ... I'm very happy of those experiences.

Lewis Howes 4:35 Yeah. And what got you into, or being interested into the fashion world and the clothing world?

Daymond John 4:41 Um, well, it, it was this, um, new music that was coming out of the Bronx right around 1982, '83. It was called, uh, you know, rap music.

Lewis Howes 4:51 Yeah.

Daymond John 4:51 And it, it made its way into Queens, where I lived, and this music was amazing. It was fascinating. You know, before that, I would listen to music, uh, you know, great, great people like, of course, you know, rest in peace, David Bowie, and, and Rolling Stones, and Donna Summer, Stevie Wonder, Barry White. But all these people had this beautiful way of singing. They had this orchestra and everything else. Uh, and they, they touched on some of the political issues in the world. But this music that was coming out of, uh, the Bronx, uh, named rap, it was kinda like our version of Twitter today, I always say.

Lewis Howes 5:22 Yeah.

Daymond John 5:22 It was like a disruptive technology, because I started to hear about other kids, their hopes and their dreams, their aspirations, the plights of the neighborhood, things that I wouldn't be able to see on the news.

Lewis Howes 5:33 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 5:34 And they were putting it in a rhythmic form, and, uh, it was starting to educate us, and it came with a way not only to, to listen to music, but a way to walk, talk, and even dress.

Lewis Howes 5:43 Yeah.

Daymond John 5:43 And you felt like you were part of this society if you wore your Adidas with fat laces on, or you knew how to breakdance. And-

Lewis Howes 5:50 Mm

Daymond John 5:50 ... and, and that's where I sort of find my identity as a young man. Uh, so, uh, that, that's really where fashion started-

Lewis Howes 5:57 Right, right

Daymond John 5:57 ... um, with me. I wouldn't know- ... till, you know, I was about 12 years old. Uh, I wouldn't know till probably about another 10 years, 15 years that maybe we should all do something, uh, that we love.

Lewis Howes 6:11 Right. [laughs]

Daymond John 6:12 I tried everything else.

Lewis Howes 6:14 Yeah.

Daymond John 6:14 But n- I never thought about fashion. It's kinda like, you know, you bust your butt to go, uh, and, a- and work and make a living, and then you go out and at, on the weekends, you kinda snowboard and do all the stuff like that, but you never thought about busting your butt-

Lewis Howes 6:28 Snowboarding

Daymond John 6:28 ... building snowboard or, or, or, yeah-

Lewis Howes 6:30 Right, right, right

Daymond John 6:30 ... or snowboarding and making money.

Lewis Howes 6:32 Like Rob Dyrdek, your buddy Rob Dyrdek.

Daymond John 6:33 Ex- exactly. Rob's, yeah, Rob's in the book as well, of course.

Lewis Howes 6:36 Exactly. Yeah, that's interesting. So how old were you when you sold your first article of clothing?

Daymond John 6:42 How old was I? Um, how old was I? It was, uh, I wa- I, I know the date. It w- I know exactly the date.

Lewis Howes 6:49 [laughs]

Daymond John 6:49 It was 1989, Good Friday, 3:00 in the afternoon, 37 degrees outside.

Lewis Howes 6:54 Mm.

Daymond John 6:54 I stood outside the Coliseum Mall in 1989, so I was 20 years old.

Lewis Howes 6:58 Wow, okay.

Daymond John 6:59 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 6:59 Cool, 20 years old.

Daymond John 7:00 20 years old.

Lewis Howes 7:00 What was, when did you have, uh, how old were you when you said you had the passion for-

Daymond John 7:04 I had the passion at 10, 11-

Lewis Howes 7:06 10, 12, okay

Daymond John 7:06 ... 12. Well, I had a passion for fashion earlier on in my life prior to that as well, but it was really my mother was dressing me because we didn't, you know, not... Really, when I was four or five or six, because we didn't have money, enough money to go buy clothes-

Lewis Howes 7:18 Right

Daymond John 7:18 ... so she would sew 'em.

Lewis Howes 7:19 Interesting, okay.

Daymond John 7:19 And sometimes the pocket would be hanging off in the back somewhere-

Lewis Howes 7:21 Sure, sure

Daymond John 7:22 ... but it was okay.

Lewis Howes 7:22 So what gave you... What did, when did you decide that you had the permission to go create your own things or sew them in the basement and then go sell them? What gave you that, you know, belief in yourself-

Daymond John 7:33 Well-

Lewis Howes 7:33 ... that you could create this?

Daymond John 7:35 I, I, d- you know what? It... Again, like, like most of us start, there was no belief that I could do it, but I remember walking into a store and, um, I started to see cross colors everywhere. And then I walked in the store and I saw this picture of this guy who like, looked like a young Mike Tyson-

Lewis Howes 7:51 Mm

Daymond John 7:51 ... hanging off a pair of jeans, and it was, uh, Karl Kani. And then it just hit me. I thought prior to that, we always thought that you had to be from Italy and France to design. You had to be older and like a, you know, you know the, the guys with the, with the tape around their neck. You know, the, the tailors, right?

Lewis Howes 8:09 Sure, sure.

Daymond John 8:09 And so, or, or whatever the fashion designer had looked like in those days.

Lewis Howes 8:13 Yeah.

Daymond John 8:13 And I thought I just, I'm just supposed to buy from them.

Lewis Howes 8:15 Mm.

Daymond John 8:16 When I saw that, I was like, "Wow, that's amazing. Okay, no problem."

Lewis Howes 8:19 [laughs]

Daymond John 8:19 Uh, then I'm watching a De La Soul video, I remember, and seeing them wearing these hats. It almost looked like a ski cap, but it has like a tie on the top, and I couldn't find that hat, uh, anywhere in Queens. So I finally find one uptown Manhattan. I, uh, p- I pay for the, the hat. I come home, I show my mother, I say, "Look, Ma, I, you know, I, uh, I, I paid, uh, you know," I always say a joke, "I paid $6,000 in gas, $900 in tolls, and $20 for the hat."

Lewis Howes 8:43 [laughs]

Daymond John 8:43 "Check this out." And she goes, "That's a piece of crap. But I could... Daymond, I could show you how to sew hats like that-

Lewis Howes 8:48 Oh

Daymond John 8:48 ... so you can sew as many as you want so you can wear 'em. You don't have to do that, so go get $40 worth of fabric." I go to the store, get $40 worth of fabric. I come home. I give my mother the, the, the stuff, the, to sew the hats, and she says, "I'm not sewing this. You're sewing this."

Lewis Howes 9:00 [laughs]

Daymond John 9:00 I said, "Oh, crap, now I gotta work at this?"

Lewis Howes 9:02 [laughs]

Daymond John 9:02 I sew the hats, and then all of a sudden I have all these hats and only one head.

Lewis Howes 9:06 Right. [laughs]

Daymond John 9:07 Because it's not like I was too stupid or wasn't thinking, thank God. I didn't buy, uh, $40 worth of different fabric.

Lewis Howes 9:15 [laughs]

Daymond John 9:15 I bought $40 worth of the same fabric.

Lewis Howes 9:17 You would've needed one maybe every three years. [laughs]

Daymond John 9:19 Yeah, so-

Lewis Howes 9:20 Right

Daymond John 9:20 ... so anyway, so that, that's when it happened. That's when I went out and sold those hats in the-

Lewis Howes 9:24 Yeah

Daymond John 9:24 ... outside on that Good Friday, and I sold $800 of worth of hats in one hour.

Lewis Howes 9:28 Wow.

Daymond John 9:29 And that's when it just snapped. It just, I just said to myself, "Wait a minute. I made this with my own hands. I went and sold this to individuals, and nobody was in my way. I didn't have to get a check from a boss. Nobody told me when or to come to work or go to work. I can't get fired from this because of my color, creed, or whatever the case is. I'm responsible for what's happening here."

Lewis Howes 9:50 Yeah.

Daymond John 9:50 "And I will either fail because of every decision I make, or I'll succeed because of every decision I make."

Lewis Howes 9:54 Was that the first time that you made money on your own as an entrepreneur, or were you-

Daymond John 9:58 No. No, no, no. I made money on my own and lost money on my own as an entrepreneur. Uh, you know, I started my first business... It took me a long time to really decide what I wanna do and what was my first business. It took me forever to decide my first business. My first business, I finally decided what I wanted to do when I was six years old.

Lewis Howes 10:15 Wow, okay.

Daymond John 10:15 Took me forever, right?

Lewis Howes 10:16 [laughs]

Daymond John 10:17 I was, uh, selling pencils in, in school.

Lewis Howes 10:19 Wow.

Daymond John 10:19 Uh, and then I would, then I would go ahead and, and, and sell candy. And then when I, when, when, when it snowed, I would shovel snow in the winter, rake leaves in the, in the fall. And, and then I remember when I used to shovel snow, I used to go and kids would wanna help me because I started getting, you know, everybody on the blocks that I wanted to. I would travel about three miles and, and take care of it. Kids would wanna help me, so I would tell them, "Okay, no problem. Here's what you're gonna do. If you're gonna help me, I'm gonna let you work. I'm gonna give you a couple... s- Let's split the money with you."

Lewis Howes 10:49 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 10:50 "But you gotta do a, a spring cleanup for free-

Lewis Howes 10:53 Mm

Daymond John 10:53 ... so we can go back into spring." And then I would go to the, to the owners of the house and say, "Well, everybody else on the block, if you shovel, if they shovel your snow, they're charging you $3. If I shovel your snow three times during the, the winter, I'm gonna give you a, a, a free spring cleanup."

Lewis Howes 11:08 Mm.

Daymond John 11:08 So I was leveraging all those little guys in the neighborhood.

Lewis Howes 11:11 [laughs] I love it.

Daymond John 11:12 Ah, man, that was a great business.

Lewis Howes 11:13 [laughs] Now, when did you realize that you kind of... You know, the $800 first day w- might've been a great first day.

Daymond John 11:20 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 11:20 But when did you realize, like, okay, I have something actually that is consistently getting results? I mean, was it just easy for you after that?

Daymond John 11:27 N-

Lewis Howes 11:27 For the next year you were just making 800 bucks every day, and then it just kept growing? Or was there like, oh, there's some dry spells here, or I need to change where I'm promoting it?

Daymond John 11:35 Like anything in business, it was always, uh, a dry spell here, a dry spell there. But in all reality, you know, my friends and I, we loved selling the hats. Why? 'Cause there was a reason to talk to girls on the street.

Lewis Howes 11:47 There you go.

Daymond John 11:47 Right? And then-

Lewis Howes 11:48 That's why we do a lot of things.

Daymond John 11:48 Of course we do. [laughs]

Lewis Howes 11:49 That's why we do a lot of things. [laughs]

Daymond John 11:50 Everything, right? If we didn't have women in the world, we'd all be walking around barefoot and just, you know, no teeth, right?

Lewis Howes 11:55 Exactly.

Daymond John 11:56 But, um-

Lewis Howes 11:56 [laughs]

Daymond John 11:57 ... then I would start going to the Black expos, where there was like a, basically a market on the road, and I would try to sell shirts there. Why?

Lewis Howes 12:03 Yeah.

Daymond John 12:04 Because girls were there.

Lewis Howes 12:05 Right, right.

Daymond John 12:05 But also, we started... We were really passionate about- ... what we were doing and-

Lewis Howes 12:11 Right

Daymond John 12:11 ... and we started getting that high when we sold stuff at a Black expo, you know, and then we'd go to another one and we'd see somebody wearing it. And I go, "Wow."

Lewis Howes 12:20 That's pretty cool.

Daymond John 12:21 And that's when they came back and started saying, "Man, you know, I tell everybody about this shirt, and they asked me for it, so I need to buy three now because I gotta buy-"

Lewis Howes 12:28 Wow

Daymond John 12:28 ... "for everybody." And we started saying, "Wow." Right? And it just became so, uh, exciting. I, I would've normally paid to go to the Black expo.

Lewis Howes 12:36 Right.

Daymond John 12:37 To go around and buy stuff or see stuff. And then, you know, we happened to live in Hollis, Queens. There's a lot of music artists in Hollis, Queens. You know, obviously, uh, Salt-N-Pepa, Run-DMC, LL Cool J, A Tribe Called Quest. A lot of them come from there. We didn't really know them, but we knew all their friends.

Lewis Howes 12:51 Uh-huh.

Daymond John 12:51 But then all of a sudden we heard, we, we're saying, "Well, can we get something in a video?" And they'll go, "Yeah, come on down." We go down to the video and there's craft services. It's free to eat.

Lewis Howes 13:00 Wow.

Daymond John 13:00 As much food as you want. You get to see somebody like LL Cool J performing a song. There's video vixens running around.

Lewis Howes 13:07 Girls everywhere.

Daymond John 13:08 I would've paid to go there.

Lewis Howes 13:09 [laughs]

Daymond John 13:10 Meanwhile, I'm going, they go, "Hey, put on a shirt."

Lewis Howes 13:12 Yeah.

Daymond John 13:12 And they put on a shirt, and I, then I'd say, "Man, I don't have any money to... I have a small company, so I really can't afford to lose that shirt. Can I have it back?"

Lewis Howes 13:19 Really?

Daymond John 13:20 Yeah. And they would give it back.

Lewis Howes 13:21 They give it back?

Daymond John 13:21 And they would give it back, yeah.

Lewis Howes 13:22 Wow.

Daymond John 13:23 There's only one rapper who never gave, um, the shirt back to me. Old Dirty Bastard, of course.

Lewis Howes 13:29 [laughs] Okay, awesome.

Daymond John 13:31 If you expect to get anything back from, from a man named Old Dirty Bastard-

Lewis Howes 13:33 [laughs]

Daymond John 13:33 ... there's bigger issues.

Lewis Howes 13:34 Exactly. It sounds like, you know, what you did... Uh, when was this? What, what years, years were you-

Daymond John 13:39 This was, well, well, honestly, I opened FUBU in '89 and I closed it three down, three times because I, I, I ran out of capital from '89 to '92. So the story really goes from '89 to around '96.

Lewis Howes 13:52 Okay, cool. So 20 years ago, you were essentially the, the true, uh, branding expert who was leveraging the, the Instagram influencers of today.

Daymond John 14:02 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 14:02 You were leveraging the, you know, music stars, the, the MTV stars-

Daymond John 14:06 Yes

Lewis Howes 14:06 ... and getting that social media out there on MTV-

Daymond John 14:09 Sure

Lewis Howes 14:09 ... uh, as opposed to on Instagram, which is what brands are doing today.

Daymond John 14:12 Correct.

Lewis Howes 14:12 They're trying to find the top influencers and get their brand-

Daymond John 14:14 Yeah

Lewis Howes 14:14 ... their, their clothing on them.

Daymond John 14:16 Yeah, we always call FUBU the first hashtag of clothing, you know? So-

Lewis Howes 14:19 There you go.

Daymond John 14:19 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 14:19 I like it, I like it. What was, what would you say was the biggest challenge, um, once you started to really take off and grow?

Daymond John 14:26 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 14:26 Um, obviously as a small business owner, when a trend hits and everyone wants your, your product, how did you handle that and what was the biggest challenge?

Daymond John 14:35 Scalability was very hard because it was how do I go and finance and, and, and underwrite, you know, these things? You know, where, where will I get the capital? How, what's the turnaround time?

Lewis Howes 14:46 Yeah.

Daymond John 14:46 And I didn't have any financial intelligence at the time.

Lewis Howes 14:49 Right.

Daymond John 14:49 So, you know, my journey-

Lewis Howes 14:51 You could sell and you could hustle and promote.

Daymond John 14:52 I could sell, I could hustle, but you know, my journey, I, I, I almost failed or, and lost everything several times, uh, throughout that journey because I just didn't know how to use the tool of money.

Lewis Howes 15:04 Yeah, yeah.

Daymond John 15:04 And, um, and, and it's so hard to try to acquire all that knowledge within the same time. How do I acquire the knowledge of branding, marketing, distribution, manufacturing, warehousing, shipping, financial intelligence-

Lewis Howes 15:16 Customer support, yeah, right, right

Daymond John 15:17 ... customer support, you know, return on goods, you know, consumption. You know what I mean?

Lewis Howes 15:20 It's impossible.

Daymond John 15:21 It, it's so hard. So of course, I had to start leveraging as well and creating a bunch of strategic relationships-

Lewis Howes 15:27 Mm-hmm

Daymond John 15:27 ... because I knew I needed that. I knew I needed that because, you know... Listen, you know, when you tell somebody to stop smoking, you know, a couple of times and, and, and after the 10th time, they know they're, they already have a problem with smoking. They don't wanna listen to you. Listen-

Lewis Howes 15:43 Mm

Daymond John 15:43 ... forget it, I'm not even gonna address it. I'm gonna start smoking. When you have a business, you have to answer the call-

Lewis Howes 15:47 Yeah

Daymond John 15:48 ... or you're closed.

Lewis Howes 15:49 Right.

Daymond John 15:49 Right? So you have to plug the dam, and I knew I had to plug the dam. So I started just creating ver- a lot of strategic relationship, and that's actually The Power of Broke.

Lewis Howes 15:59 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 15:59 Because it is the fact that, you know, if I would've had money when I went to those video sets, I would've paid the director, I would've paid the producer, I'd have paid the, the-

Lewis Howes 16:09 Artist

Daymond John 16:10 ... the rapper-

Lewis Howes 16:10 Yeah

Daymond John 16:10 ... everybody else, right? I'd a... If you gave me, uh, $20,000 at that time and I heard that LL Cool J will wear my stuff for $5,000 and the director wants $5,000 to wear it, they're getting the money.

Lewis Howes 16:23 Of course.

Daymond John 16:24 Right?

Lewis Howes 16:24 Yeah.

Daymond John 16:24 And they're gonna wear it. But I got into 30, 40 videos with $0, right? Because I had no way to do it and I had nothing to lose. You couldn't take anything from me. I didn't have anything.

Lewis Howes 16:34 Right. Yeah.

Daymond John 16:35 Right?

Lewis Howes 16:35 Exactly. [laughs]

Daymond John 16:36 So, so-

Lewis Howes 16:36 You couldn't even give him your shirt.

Daymond John 16:38 Right.

Lewis Howes 16:38 You took it back. [laughs]

Daymond John 16:39 I, I took it back, right? And I said, "I got you later."

Lewis Howes 16:41 Yeah, right.

Daymond John 16:41 Right? Old Dirty Bastard said, "You got me now." But-

Lewis Howes 16:43 [laughs]

Daymond John 16:44 ... [laughs] you know, when, when you have, when you, when you, when you working with the power of broke, it does a couple of things. Number one, it makes sure that you learn the process yourself. You can't afford to hire anybody else. So all those-

Lewis Howes 16:58 Mm

Daymond John 16:58 ... people out there who b- who pay $40,000 for a website when it really costs five-

Lewis Howes 17:02 Right

Daymond John 17:02 ... right, you can-

Lewis Howes 17:03 Or you could leverage it by bartering or something.

Daymond John 17:05 Whatever the case is, right?

Lewis Howes 17:06 Yeah.

Daymond John 17:06 So you have to learn the process. And what happens during that period of time of learning the process is that when and if and hopefully you get to the point that you are successful, nobody can tell you lies. You can't have somebody say, "Well, I'm not gonna tell you about shipping because, you know, you're firing me and I gotta go." Work it out yourself. I say, "Get the hell out of the way. I've been doing this for eight years myself," right?

Lewis Howes 17:30 [laughs] Yeah, yeah.

Daymond John 17:30 You, you know, you, you, you get and you learn the process, number one. Number two is because you don't have a lot of capital, you focus on the only thing that you can do. You don't drown in opportunity. You don't take a bunch of money and go, " [sighs] We should try a bunch of stuff."

Lewis Howes 17:47 Right.

Daymond John 17:47 Here you go. Here's 10,000, here's 10,000, here's 10,000, here's 10,000, here.

Lewis Howes 17:50 Go. [laughs]

Daymond John 17:51 Yeah, you go, "All right, what are we gonna do with this hat-

Lewis Howes 17:55 Yeah

Daymond John 17:55 ... right now?" You know? So that's the process.

Lewis Howes 17:59 Mm.

Daymond John 18:00 And that process is very, very important. Also, you learn and it brings out the character of who you have around you when you operate the power of broke.

Lewis Howes 18:10 What do you mean by that?

Daymond John 18:11 Well, if you, if you, if you're busy, "Let's open a business today. Let's go take a 10,000, let's go take a $100,000 loan." Well- What happens when the money goes away?

Lewis Howes 18:21 Mm.

Daymond John 18:21 Because when I didn't have anything, people worked with me for free, and I, I saw who rose to the challenge, I saw who jumped ship, right? I saw who was problem-solvers and problem creators.

Lewis Howes 18:32 Right.

Daymond John 18:32 And, and that's the process of activating the power of broke. Because-

Lewis Howes 18:36 Mm

Daymond John 18:36 ... to tell you the truth, the m- the people who activate, activate the power of broke more than anybody else are the people who are successful.

Lewis Howes 18:43 Yeah.

Daymond John 18:43 'Cause that's how they stay successful.

Lewis Howes 18:44 Would you say that those individuals have a powerful vision and that are really great at enrolling others in that vision?

Daymond John 18:50 They-

Lewis Howes 18:50 Is that the key ingredient, or-

Daymond John 18:52 Well, well, first-

Lewis Howes 18:52 ... in getting the team to do it essentially for...

Daymond John 18:54 Absolutely. But it's not that they have a powerful vision and they've enrolled any, everybody in the vision, but there's no reason for everybody who is enrolling into it to jump on a sinking ship or a bad idea. You see, we're gonna get A on our report card, sometimes we're gonna get an F.

Lewis Howes 19:10 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 19:10 So if my power of broke concept, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm creating FUBU, they didn't wear it because I was giving the shirts away. They wore it because they had to dig in their pocket and they had to pull out their hard-earned money and buy it. Now, if you go out and you give 100 shirts away to all your friends and family, even if it's the nastiest looking shirt, someone's gonna feel bad for you, usually your mother-

Lewis Howes 19:32 [laughs] Right

Daymond John 19:33 ... and they're gonna come to you and say, "Boy, son, I wore this at the store and they loved my shirt."

Lewis Howes 19:40 [laughs]

Daymond John 19:40 Right?

Lewis Howes 19:41 Yeah.

Daymond John 19:41 'Cause that's Mom.

Lewis Howes 19:42 Yeah, right.

Daymond John 19:43 Go try to sell that shirt to 100 people who couldn't give a crap about you-

Lewis Howes 19:46 Right

Daymond John 19:46 ... who gotta dig in their pocket-

Lewis Howes 19:48 [laughs]

Daymond John 19:48 ... for $10. You wanna get a, a, a, you wanna get a, what do you call it? A, a focus group?

Lewis Howes 19:53 Yeah, yeah.

Daymond John 19:54 Try going to Harlem like I used to and selling-

Lewis Howes 19:57 And sell it-

Daymond John 19:57 ... shirts and telling-

Lewis Howes 19:58 On the streets [laughs]

Daymond John 19:58 ... on the streets. Oh, they're gonna give you the focus group for free.

Lewis Howes 20:01 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 20:02 Exactly. They're either gonna love it or not. So would you say the power of broke is more of a mindset or a way of being? What do you think?

Daymond John 20:09 It is a mindset.

Lewis Howes 20:10 Yeah.

Daymond John 20:10 It is an absolute mindset. It, it is a way to think, and it is a way to know that, um... listen, i- if you really think about it, well, I can't come up with anything, I can't come up with any time anything of substance in my life, relationship, whether it's personal relationship with family, friends, loved ones, you know, uh, that money ever was the reason the relationship worked. Other w- it never was. It was always a byproduct on a working relationship.

Lewis Howes 20:39 Mm.

Daymond John 20:40 You know? It's like you're going out and getting a... dating a hot girl, right?

Lewis Howes 20:43 Yeah.

Daymond John 20:43 Your first date, "Hey, how you doing?" Pull up to, in a Bentley. Next day, buying her roses. Next day, buying her, oh, everything, right?

Lewis Howes 20:50 Jewelry and everything.

Daymond John 20:51 And jewelry all the time, right? Month later, you lose your, your job or you got sued for a billion dollars or whatever and-

Lewis Howes 20:57 Mm-hmm

Daymond John 20:57 ... you lost everything. She's probably gonna be like, "Well, I was so used to the roses."

Lewis Howes 21:00 Right.

Daymond John 21:00 "What happened?" You know? But... and I'm not saying that just about women or, or men, but-

Lewis Howes 21:04 Sure, sure

Daymond John 21:05 ... but it w- if, if things are built on a, on a poor foundation, there's nothing there.

Lewis Howes 21:09 Right. Right. Right. Gotcha. So what about, you know, people say, "This is great and all. I'm a struggling entrepreneur, so I'm gonna instill this power of broke." But what about you? Do you still have this with all the, the wealth that you've created? How do you create that when you have a, you know, an abundance of income, essentially, or people may think, uh, when you could put money into things and invest a- and try these different things?

Daymond John 21:31 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 21:31 How do you...

Daymond John 21:32 How do I exercise the power of broke?

Lewis Howes 21:33 Yeah.

Daymond John 21:34 So it-

Lewis Howes 21:35 When you have the funds.

Daymond John 21:36 Yeah, exactly. So it, it takes an average of 60 to $75,000 to create a clothing line.

Lewis Howes 21:43 Mm.

Daymond John 21:43 A first sample clothing line.

Lewis Howes 21:44 Right.

Daymond John 21:45 It takes about nine months to, to get it fully done.

Lewis Howes 21:48 How many samples? Like, one sample or like a-

Daymond John 21:50 Uh, you know, a, a line of, let's say, 24 pieces.

Lewis Howes 21:52 Okay.

Daymond John 21:53 Um, i- it... s- I'm sorry. If you're paying a designer, you're not doing it yourself, I would say $150,000.

Lewis Howes 21:59 Gotcha.

Daymond John 21:59 Right? I don't do that. So if I have something, great logo, g- whatever the case is, I will go and get a tailor to maybe sew up four pieces and average about $1,500.

Lewis Howes 22:09 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 22:09 Then I go and find an Instagram star or a video if I could. I give them 1,000, 1,000, maybe 3,000. I put the stuff out and I go and watch the phone. S- anybody calling?

Lewis Howes 22:21 [laughs]

Daymond John 22:21 Anybody calling? Anybody calling?

Lewis Howes 22:22 Anyone want this?

Daymond John 22:23 All right. You liked it? You liked it? All right. Let's, let's do another shirt.

Lewis Howes 22:26 Right.

Daymond John 22:27 Nobody calling? We're good. Cut bait.

Lewis Howes 22:30 Sure.

Daymond John 22:30 I can do whatever I want.

Lewis Howes 22:32 Yeah.

Daymond John 22:32 Right? I could put out a book called, uh, you know, Power of Broke, and I can hire a lot of great publicists and take out ads and everything else like that.

Lewis Howes 22:40 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 22:41 Or I can schedule nine times, reschedule nine times with you to come over here-

Lewis Howes 22:46 Mm

Daymond John 22:47 ... and beg you to be on your podcast-

Lewis Howes 22:48 [laughs]

Daymond John 22:49 ... and call another, uh, 10 guys like you, uh, you know, Adam Carolla and all these people-

Lewis Howes 22:54 Yeah, yeah

Daymond John 22:54 ... and, and, and go out there and bust my butt and use the power of broke myself and send it out to 100 ambassadors, call them personally and say, "Hey, what do you think about any changes? What can I do-

Lewis Howes 23:03 Mm-hmm

Daymond John 23:03 ... for you?"

Lewis Howes 23:04 Yeah.

Daymond John 23:04 Stop over at the store and start just signing out of nowhere. I just pull up in a Barnes & Noble and just start signing like crazy. I have to activate the power of broke because-

Lewis Howes 23:10 Right

Daymond John 23:11 ... you know what happens. When you have a sales staff and people, the number one person they're selling is you on how good of a job they're doing-

Lewis Howes 23:18 Right

Daymond John 23:18 ... and how maybe you didn't give them the right materials.

Lewis Howes 23:20 Sure, sure. Yeah. Okay. So how can someone learn this? Is, is this something that everyone can learn, this-

Daymond John 23:25 This absolutely-

Lewis Howes 23:26 ... mindset?

Daymond John 23:26 ... is something that everybody can learn, and that's why in the book, I don't want people to think that I have a, you know, I have this magical touch, this secret sauce.

Lewis Howes 23:35 Right.

Daymond John 23:35 And that's why, as you've seen in there, there are many people that you and I know-

Lewis Howes 23:39 Mm-hmm

Daymond John 23:39 ... that I've interviewed and I've learned from in that book. 15, over 15 people that have, um, have accomplished massive success in their life, you know?

Lewis Howes 23:49 Right.

Daymond John 23:49 I love talking about the p- Rob Dyrdek, as you say-

Lewis Howes 23:51 Yeah

Daymond John 23:51 ... started off as a skateboarder.

Lewis Howes 23:52 Yeah.

Daymond John 23:53 No money at all. Uh, uh, Kevin Plank, the CEO-

Lewis Howes 23:57 Yeah

Daymond John 23:57 ... of Under Armour, $4 billion annual sales, didn't have enough money to pay a toll, uh, when he, uh, started his company, so they wrote him a ticket at the toll booth.

Lewis Howes 24:06 Wow.

Daymond John 24:06 Or, or Mark Burnett, the head of my show, right? AB- uh, ABC Shark Tank. The man was a Special Forces or one of those type of things in, uh, in, in, i- in the, the military in Europe. He comes over here. First job, a nanny.

Lewis Howes 24:22 Wow.

Daymond John 24:22 He was a nanny. Second job, selling T-shirts on Venice Beach.

Lewis Howes 24:25 Mm.

Daymond John 24:26 Right? Or let's look at, I always joke about it because I put up a post about, um, [smacks lips] Steve Aoki.

Lewis Howes 24:32 Oh.

Daymond John 24:32 Say, "Oh, da, da, da, Operating The Power of Broke." Everybody hit me, you know, everybody judges things without reading. Steve Aoki's dad had, um, Benihana's. He was rich.

Lewis Howes 24:41 Mm.

Daymond John 24:41 Yeah, well, that actually hurt him because when he went to the, the hood to play music and be down with the clique, the keep-it-real artist guys-

Lewis Howes 24:52 Uh-huh

Daymond John 24:52 ... they were like, "Take your rich butt home."

Lewis Howes 24:55 [laughs]

Daymond John 24:55 "Don't come around here, little rich boy."

Lewis Howes 24:58 Yeah.

Daymond John 24:58 And then when he went to Dad and said, "I need some money to do this and that," Dad said, "What are you doing? I came to this country with nothing, and if you don't work in this company with me, I'm not giving you a dime."

Lewis Howes 25:10 Mm. Yeah.

Daymond John 25:10 "So stop spinning those stupid little records." Now the man does $30 million a year-

Lewis Howes 25:15 Wow

Daymond John 25:15 ... and he's the most touringest DJ in the world.

Lewis Howes 25:17 Amazing.

Daymond John 25:18 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 25:18 Amazing. I love it. Uh, so what do you recommend people... [sighs] What's the first step in this process of, of learning this and understanding this? What do you recommend if people don't, don't know? Besides reading your book, obviously, but-

Daymond John 25:31 No, no, of course

Lewis Howes 25:32 ... yeah

Daymond John 25:32 Like, you know, and, and [clears throat] I, I don- So first of all, let me, let me be very clear, and I've had to make sure that I, I wanna acknowledge one thing. I'm not glamorizing not having resources in your life.

Lewis Howes 25:44 Right.

Daymond John 25:44 Right? Because we all want to be able to take care of our family and have medical-

Lewis Howes 25:49 Mm. Yeah

Daymond John 25:50 ... and, and, and have the things and an education-

Lewis Howes 25:52 Right

Daymond John 25:52 ... things like that. So-

Lewis Howes 25:53 That's why people go on Shark Tank.

Daymond John 25:54 Exactly, right?

Lewis Howes 25:55 To get resources.

Daymond John 25:56 Ex- exactly.

Lewis Howes 25:57 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 25:57 So do not get me... Don't make me say, "Oh, so I'm supposed to feel good about not having any money?"

Lewis Howes 26:01 [laughs]

Daymond John 26:01 Not at all.

Lewis Howes 26:03 Sure.

Daymond John 26:03 But make that hunger. If you're gonna be there-

Lewis Howes 26:05 Yes

Daymond John 26:05 ... tap into that hunger instead of, instead of complaining or feeling sorry or thinking that something needs to happen, right?

Lewis Howes 26:11 Right.

Daymond John 26:11 It's, so-

Lewis Howes 26:11 Yeah, I was just gonna say, it's more of an exercise of hustling, essentially, and using that hunger as opposed to, "Let me just throw everything I have at it and see what works."

Daymond John 26:18 Right.

Lewis Howes 26:19 Yes.

Daymond John 26:19 And as I go through all those people, I wanna show you that there's no one way to go to your l- get to the level that you consider successful. But with this day and age of social media and technology-

Lewis Howes 26:32 Mm-hmm

Daymond John 26:32 ... where there is no, uh, barrier to entry anymore of meeting and getting out to people-

Lewis Howes 26:38 Yeah

Daymond John 26:38 ... you can have what we call a proof of concept and test your idea. So I go through there step by step on what to do. So, so now in any business, no matter what, you need to have a proof of concept.

Lewis Howes 26:47 Yeah.

Daymond John 26:47 Meaning, "Hey, I may think that my cupcakes are tasty, but let me see how many people buy them."

Lewis Howes 26:55 Yeah.

Daymond John 26:56 Now, if you can't even make a cupcake, I'm sure you can film a 30-second video on your phone and tell, a- of you making it or telling people about it, and you can get proof of concept if you have 10,000 people views your video.

Lewis Howes 27:09 Right.

Daymond John 27:10 Whatever, likes.

Lewis Howes 27:11 Yes.

Daymond John 27:11 Whatever the case is, right? And then you take that, and then improve on it and improve on it, and start, and start the process, right? Before, it wasn't that easy necessarily.

Lewis Howes 27:21 Right.

Daymond John 27:21 You know, before, when I made a shirt, I had to go and either sell it on the corner or sell it to somebody, and then I had to find the person the next day to selling it to them again. Um, and then, or if I sold it to the store, who'd they sell it to? Who walked by and pick it up? Unless I'm gonna sit in the store all day-

Lewis Howes 27:36 And see. Yeah, yeah

Daymond John 27:37 ... uh, who? Was it a woman? Was it a man? Was it a kid? Did they buy it for himself? Was it a gift? Did they buy it to wash their car with? I, I have no idea. Did they haggle over the price? Now, you know.

Lewis Howes 27:46 Yeah.

Daymond John 27:46 You're on the computer, you go boop. Oh, somebody bought it. It... Oh, yeah, uh, it's a 18-year-old kid, lives in California-

Lewis Howes 27:51 Exactly

Daymond John 27:51 ... loves to skateboard, has a pit bull, and has a bad case of dandruff.

Lewis Howes 27:54 [laughs] Exactly.

Daymond John 27:56 Right? And so, so this is where we are today.

Lewis Howes 27:58 Mm.

Daymond John 27:59 So you can test your concepts very, very easily, and you can then be more equipped-

Lewis Howes 28:04 Mm

Daymond John 28:04 ... to go out to the world. And you'll find funding. There's so many ways of getting funding now.

Lewis Howes 28:08 Yeah, yeah. Um, I'm curious, and I don't really want, wanna talk too much about Shark Tank, but I'm just curious since we're doing-

Daymond John 28:12 Yeah, we can talk about all, all of them

Lewis Howes 28:14 ... yeah. Who has been the most, um, inspiring person to you from the seven seasons you've been on? The, the person that came on where you just like w- they like blew you away, that you wanted to go talk and learn more from them, or you were just inspired by their story so much that-

Daymond John 28:29 Um

Lewis Howes 28:29 ... maybe someone you invested in or someone you didn't in, or someone-

Daymond John 28:32 So, it... Yes. Very, very hard to say because there were so many.

Lewis Howes 28:37 Right.

Daymond John 28:37 You know, and I, and I truthfully, uh, the person who learns the most from Shark Tank, uh, whether the viewers or anybody else, is me. I learn from... I joke about the other Sharks, but all, all joking aside, I learn from them, and I learn from these young men and women who are coming up here, and they're doing business an entire new way.

Lewis Howes 28:53 Yeah.

Daymond John 28:54 And, um, there's some in the book. There's one or two in the book, but, you know, let me, let me think of others. I mean, there was this young lady I did a mo- a deal with for, uh, what's it called? Uh, fresh, uh, picked moccasins, leather moccasins. She went, and I believe she, uh, she took aluminum frame windows, and I think she went and melted down solid aluminum to make one pair of moccasins. And then sold-

Lewis Howes 29:16 Mm

Daymond John 29:17 ... more, and then made another pair of moccasins. Now she's doing, you know, couple of, couple of million dollars. Or Little Mo, he's in the book. Little Mo Bridges, you know, he came on the show. Young man, very laser-focused on making bow ties, h- him and his mother.

Lewis Howes 29:29 I remember this one, yeah.

Daymond John 29:30 And I, I, I looked at them and, and remembered, and they remind me of my relationship with my mother. And he was gonna do a deal and takes Kevin O'Leary's offer, which is not wrong, because he came on the show w- to ask for, for, for capital and resources-

Lewis Howes 29:44 Sure

Daymond John 29:44 ... and Kevin O'Leary stepped up to the plate. But I, I told him that if he would've taken that $30,000, you know, if I would've taken that back then with the FUBU days, it would've been worth a couple hundred million dollars, right?

Lewis Howes 29:55 Mm.

Daymond John 29:55 Because of, uh, you know, the percentage. So he d- he decided to decline the deal. I became his mentor. And honestly, I barely help the kid. He helps me more than I help him.

Lewis Howes 30:04 [laughs] Right.

Daymond John 30:04 Because I g- I turn on TV, he's the fashion correspondent on the NBA Draft, right?

Lewis Howes 30:09 Wow.

Daymond John 30:10 Doing about $300,000 in business. I go and I take him onto CNBC one day because I say, "Hey, I wanna introduce you to Mo, and I wanna take Mo out to Fashion Week in New York." Uh, um- Oh, shoot. What did I forget?

Lewis Howes 30:25 [laughs]

Daymond John 30:25 What's the name, what's the name of the big, big retailer in Dallas that, uh... Neiman Marcus.

Lewis Howes 30:32 Mm.

Daymond John 30:32 The CEO of Neiman, one of the hi- one of the highest retail outlets-

Lewis Howes 30:35 Right

Daymond John 30:35 ... in the world, calls the show, and I've never been to Neiman Marcus, and I pick up the phone, "Yeah, how can I help you? You know, you want my Coogi brand," and all that. And she's like, "Uh, let me speak to Mo."

Lewis Howes 30:46 [laughs]

Daymond John 30:48 It-

Lewis Howes 30:48 Wow

Daymond John 30:48 ... all my life, I've never talked to this person. She wanted to speak to Mo.

Lewis Howes 30:52 Wow.

Daymond John 30:52 So.

Lewis Howes 30:53 Amazing.

Daymond John 30:53 Very inspiring.

Lewis Howes 30:54 That's very cool. What would you say is a ritual that you, is a non-negotiable for you every single day, something you do in the morning or at night or-

Daymond John 31:02 Uh

Lewis Howes 31:02 ... throughout the day, something every day that you do?

Daymond John 31:04 I read my goals.

Lewis Howes 31:05 Hmm.

Daymond John 31:06 I read my goals, not every day, but I read them five days a week.

Lewis Howes 31:09 Right.

Daymond John 31:09 I read them in the morning be- uh, when I wake up, and I read them at night, uh, before I go to sleep. I have, uh, nine goals that range from, um, uh, business to health to family. Uh, six of them, uh, expire every six months, and-

Lewis Howes 31:24 Really?

Daymond John 31:24 ... yeah, and two of them, um, uh, so six of them expire in six months, two of them expire in, uh, five years, and one expires in 20. Um-

Lewis Howes 31:34 Wow

Daymond John 31:34 ... and, uh, you know, they're, they're very, very detailed in, in what they are. And the reason is I just want, I wanna read, I wanna, I want them to be the last thing I-

Lewis Howes 31:43 Huh

Daymond John 31:43 ... I think about when I go to bed.

Lewis Howes 31:44 Huh.

Daymond John 31:45 And, um, I reset them every six months. Um, but I notice that as the date comes up, I start to have this, um, anxiety.

Lewis Howes 31:55 [laughs]

Daymond John 31:55 All right? And-

Lewis Howes 31:56 If you haven't achieved it yet. [laughs]

Daymond John 31:57 Yeah, if you haven't achieved it.

Lewis Howes 31:58 I get it.

Daymond John 31:58 And, and most of them, you're not gonna achieve if you really set aggressive ones-

Lewis Howes 32:01 Right

Daymond John 32:01 ... but you're gonna get there 50, 60, 70%-

Lewis Howes 32:06 Pretty close to it, right? Yeah

Daymond John 32:06 ... bang. Then reset it for a longer-

Lewis Howes 32:09 Mm

Daymond John 32:09 ... period of time with another, a higher, a goal to reach.

Lewis Howes 32:12 Yeah. Okay. What, what got you into setting goals, or w- what's the process for you-

Daymond John 32:16 [clears throat]

Lewis Howes 32:16 ... and why is this so important?

Daymond John 32:18 Uh, the third time it settled in, the third time... I, I read this book the first time when I was 16. The third time I read the book, I was 19. I read the book every year, is Think and Grow Rich.

Lewis Howes 32:31 It's a great book.

Daymond John 32:31 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 32:32 They're doing a documentary right now. Did they approach you?

Daymond John 32:34 No, they didn't. I mean, they sent me some, um, leather bags, some really special ones.

Lewis Howes 32:39 Sure, sure. Yeah.

Daymond John 32:39 Um, but yeah, they, um, maybe they don't know how to get ahold of me. It's pretty hard.

Lewis Howes 32:43 Oh. Well, if you want, let me know.

Daymond John 32:44 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 32:45 They, they reached out to me to do it anyways, so.

Daymond John 32:46 I, I would love it.

Lewis Howes 32:47 Yeah.

Daymond John 32:47 Um-

Lewis Howes 32:48 It's a great book.

Daymond John 32:49 Absolutely.

Lewis Howes 32:49 Got a couple of them up there, yeah.

Daymond John 32:50 [laughs] Yeah, y- yeah. So many editions. Uh-

Lewis Howes 32:52 Yeah

Daymond John 32:52 ... you know, if we could only be so lucky to be like-

Lewis Howes 32:54 [laughs]

Daymond John 32:55 ... like, like Napoleon Hill, right?

Lewis Howes 32:56 It's amazing.

Daymond John 32:56 Um, so, so, so that, that's where it is, and the ritual is pretty simple. It's, it's, you know, um, if I say, "Hey, I need to, I need to lose X amount of pounds, uh, you know, by this date, I'm going to..." And then what's the process? Well, I'm gonna drink six bottles of water. I'm gonna drink one green drink a day.

Lewis Howes 33:14 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 33:14 I'm gonna do cardio in the morning, and if I can slip in some weight training at night. I'm not gonna eat out till 7:00 PM. I'm not gonna eat fried foods and/or meat. And in return for that, I will be healthier-

Lewis Howes 33:25 Mm-hmm

Daymond John 33:25 ... and I will be able to live a longer, prosperous life and be in my daughters' lives-

Lewis Howes 33:30 Mm

Daymond John 33:30 ... longer, and to make sure that I'm there for them.

Lewis Howes 33:33 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 33:33 And so, you know, what is the goal? How are you gonna get to that point? When does it expire?

Lewis Howes 33:37 Yep.

Daymond John 33:38 You know, and what do you, what is the reward for the goal?

Lewis Howes 33:41 Sure. Why... You know, I do 6 and 12 months goals myself. Why do you think six months, I think you said a year, and then, or five years and then 20?

Daymond John 33:49 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 33:49 Why that timeframe for you?

Daymond John 33:50 Um, you know, m- this is the timeframe I picked. So I, I think six months is a reasonable time to accomplish something and/or say to yourself, "What's wrong with you? You've been talking this crap-

Lewis Howes 34:01 [laughs]

Daymond John 34:01 ... for six months," right? I think that also in six months you can see the change because-

Lewis Howes 34:06 Yeah

Daymond John 34:06 ... if I sit there every morning and I sit there and say, "I'm gonna have a green drink or a banana for breakfast," then that's one less time that I'm gonna have that everything bagel with sour cream and, mm-

Lewis Howes 34:17 Mm-hmm

Daymond John 34:17 ... salmon and all that stuff.

Lewis Howes 34:18 Right.

Daymond John 34:18 And by, you know, by the time the six months go, I probably done that 40 times, 90 ti- and you start to see the difference in what it is.

Lewis Howes 34:27 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 34:28 So the five-year one, I wanna be somewhere in, you know, what do, what are we gonna do, do in five years? I don't know. And then 20-year one-

Lewis Howes 34:36 Yeah

Daymond John 34:36 ... is always gonna be about that kind of as you look over or as I look over my family and my health and-

Lewis Howes 34:43 Your legacy

Daymond John 34:43 ... my legacy to some extent.

Lewis Howes 34:44 Yeah.

Daymond John 34:44 And hopefully-

Lewis Howes 34:45 Sure

Daymond John 34:46 ... I'll, hopefully I'm gonna have to reset the 21-

Lewis Howes 34:48 Right

Daymond John 34:48 ... the 20-year goal.

Lewis Howes 34:49 Sure, sure, sure. Can you share with us one of them, or did you keep them pretty private?

Daymond John 34:53 No, I share with you one, a little bit.

Lewis Howes 34:54 Yeah.

Daymond John 34:54 The, the, the losing weight one.

Lewis Howes 34:55 Yeah, yeah.

Daymond John 34:56 When I get back into my training mode, that's what I am.

Lewis Howes 34:59 Yeah.

Daymond John 34:59 Uh, that's what I do. Um-

Lewis Howes 35:01 Do you have a specific weight you wanna get at?

Daymond John 35:03 I, I, I always, I always, well-

Lewis Howes 35:05 [laughs]

Daymond John 35:05 ... usually when I, when I shoot Shark Tank, I'm always a 168. Um-

Lewis Howes 35:11 Why 168? Is that just the way you are? [laughs]

Daymond John 35:12 That's just the way my body works, right?

Lewis Howes 35:14 Yeah.

Daymond John 35:14 I get to 168, and then when I'm off-season, I usually get up to about 185 during the winter.

Lewis Howes 35:20 Wow.

Daymond John 35:20 And then if it's a r- if I'm really, really, like, uh, traveling too much, can't do it, I can get as high as 193.

Lewis Howes 35:26 Wow. You like to hibernate. You like to hibernate.

Daymond John 35:28 No, you know what? It's just being on the, it's just being on the road, bad sleeping habits.

Lewis Howes 35:31 Yeah. Yeah.

Daymond John 35:31 You know what I mean?

Lewis Howes 35:32 It's tough, man.

Daymond John 35:32 Um, and it's just hard.

Lewis Howes 35:33 I'm sure this book launch is not helping you either.

Daymond John 35:35 Uh, no, not at all.

Lewis Howes 35:36 [laughs]

Daymond John 35:37 Not at all.

Lewis Howes 35:38 I love it. I love it. Uh, what is another ritual in the morning that you do? Let's say when you're in your home, you're in a good routine, you're not traveling, what's another part of the ritual that you follow?

Daymond John 35:48 It's gonna be, it's gonna be getting up, and it's gonna be, um, just, it's answering emails. I mean-

Lewis Howes 35:53 Yeah

Daymond John 35:53 ... you know, hon- because you want to-

Lewis Howes 35:54 Bringing so many opportunities

Daymond John 35:55 ... you wanna... No, you, no, you just wanna get them out of the way-

Lewis Howes 35:57 [laughs]

Daymond John 35:57 ... before you get to the office, 'cause you're never gonna get to them after that.

Lewis Howes 36:00 Yeah, yeah.

Daymond John 36:00 Uh, my next book is probably gonna be called Death by Email.

Lewis Howes 36:03 [laughs]

Daymond John 36:03 You know what I mean? Because-

Lewis Howes 36:04 Sure, sure

Daymond John 36:04 ... I don't know. These emails, man, kill me.

Lewis Howes 36:06 What do you think's, um, something that wealthy individuals or people that you've been around who have built multimillion-dollar businesses or billionaires, what do you think are two or three things that they think or do differently than people that don't make that?

Daymond John 36:24 Uh, the billionaires I've seen, they- First of all, I'm not saying it because of the book, but the, they ac- they, they use-

Lewis Howes 36:33 The Power of Broke

Daymond John 36:34 ... The Power of Broke.

Lewis Howes 36:35 Sure. Sure.

Daymond John 36:35 They, they'll spend a billion dollars on a party, 'cause that's a party. But they're very disciplined and they won't-

Lewis Howes 36:43 Hmm

Daymond John 36:43 ... spend that on launching a company. They will, they will act like they don't have anything.

Lewis Howes 36:48 Hmm.

Daymond John 36:49 Um, winner mentality, number one. Number two is they write down everything.

Lewis Howes 36:54 Really?

Daymond John 36:54 They write down everything. Um, you know, we got into this day and age where, uh, people are typing in their smartphones. They physically write down everything, and I remember one of them said to me, uh, "The dullest pencil will always remember more than the sharpest mind," which is a very, very-

Lewis Howes 37:09 Interesting

Daymond John 37:10 ... very, very well-known quote. And usually what they write, I notice that they write, uh, how to save the most on taxes.

Lewis Howes 37:21 Really?

Daymond John 37:22 Yeah. They usually write that because tax codes change often, right? And investments have certain tax benefits or not, whether philanthropy or whatever the case is, and I, and, and, and they pr- they look at it like this. They go, "Well, I can either start... I, I, I, I'll, you know, put into my pocket, uh, 200 million a year," argument's sake. "I can either go and start a new business, right, that I need to go and, um, you know, and maybe I'll get up to 100 million, 200 million and then I pay taxes on it, or how do I save on that 40 or 30% of taxes that I'm gonna have to pay away because I already have the money. Why-

Lewis Howes 38:04 Right

Daymond John 38:04 ... why lose it?" And they concentrate on that all the time.

Lewis Howes 38:08 Wow.

Daymond John 38:08 And they, and they're looking at, you know, everything. And then, and then the last thing is when I always talk to them, um, when we have conversations, they think purely on a global scale.

Lewis Howes 38:20 Hmm.

Daymond John 38:21 They'll, th- you know, we'll sit there and say, "How many, um, how many people can I get to, to walk by my, uh, my, my plumbers', uh, you know, my service place, you know, on, in, in, um, in Manhattan on, on the street?"

Lewis Howes 38:35 Right.

Daymond John 38:35 And they'll sit there and say, "How many cars are in the world?"

Lewis Howes 38:40 [laughs]

Daymond John 38:42 They're really thinking like that.

Lewis Howes 38:43 Yeah.

Daymond John 38:43 They're like, "How many cars are in the world? Hmm. How much, how exhaust comes out of them? Most exhaust pipe, carry the four, nine." That's how they are.

Lewis Howes 38:52 Sure. Okay. Interesting. [laughs] Uh, you talk about mentorships, life's about mentorships.

Daymond John 38:56 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 38:57 You've had many great mentors over the years.

Daymond John 38:58 Absolutely.

Lewis Howes 38:59 Um, who have you yet to have mentorship from that you would love to be mentored by? Or is that not something you think about right now? Like, if you could be mentored by anyone right now in the world, who would that be that you're not already getting it from?

Daymond John 39:14 Um, ooh, very, very tough. You know, I'm, I'm mentored by really amazing people.

Lewis Howes 39:21 [laughs]

Daymond John 39:21 You know, Jay Abraham.

Lewis Howes 39:22 Oh, he's a brilliant marketing guy.

Daymond John 39:24 Um, you know, so many really amazing people. Uh, I, I, I don't have a mentor... You know, maybe I met him once or twice, Richard Branson, I think.

Lewis Howes 39:35 Yeah.

Daymond John 39:35 The reason why is because he said something pretty fascinating. I didn't know Richard Branson is dyslexic like I am.

Lewis Howes 39:41 Yeah. Me too.

Daymond John 39:42 Yeah. Oh.

Lewis Howes 39:42 Yeah, yeah.

Daymond John 39:42 Now you're talking. Now I'm saying something.

Lewis Howes 39:43 Couldn't, couldn't really read at all growing up. [laughs]

Daymond John 39:45 I'm saying, I'm saying four out of the six Sharks are dyslexic.

Lewis Howes 39:47 Wow.

Daymond John 39:48 Um, Richard Branson's dyslexic, and he also somebody who... 'Cause I used to always say to myself, "Should I really focus on making FUBU Nike, and try to go there and set my goals for that, or am I too close to it?" And Richard Branson has 300 companies, and he said he's an entrepreneur that gets bored fairly quickly, and he loves the process of new companies, bringing the fundamentals of what he knows over to a new process and the discovery of that. And as I looked at myself and I said, "Yeah, I have FUBU. I love it. Don't get me wrong. M- amazing, but I have 10 other clothing brands, and now I'm on Shark Tank and I love this, this, this, this." I love the... I'm dyslexic. I love the process, and, um, I, I think that, uh, we have a... I, I just, when I heard him speak, um, we just, I just realized I have so much in common with that guy.

Lewis Howes 40:40 Hmm. So why haven't you reached out to get the mentorship yet?

Daymond John 40:43 Well, because first of all, um, I also do believe in mentorship that you should be, uh, with somebody who's extremely accessible. I don't know if he's accessible, but I know one thing: I'm not accessible 'cause I'm so busy.

Lewis Howes 40:57 [laughs] Yeah.

Daymond John 40:58 So I don't want the guy to-

Lewis Howes 40:58 You don't have the time to-

Daymond John 40:59 Yeah

Lewis Howes 40:59 ... get it if you want it.

Daymond John 40:59 Hey, man, I'll do the mentorship, and I'm like, "Yeah, I'll schedule you, uh-

Lewis Howes 41:02 [laughs] Six months

Daymond John 41:03 ... and he be like, "Did you just ask me for a favor?"

Lewis Howes 41:06 [laughs]

Daymond John 41:06 You know what I'm saying? Why you so pushy? You know what I mean?

Lewis Howes 41:08 [laughs]

Daymond John 41:08 Time is time, baby.

Lewis Howes 41:09 I love that. I love that.

Daymond John 41:10 You know? So. [laughs]

Lewis Howes 41:11 [laughs] Okay. Who was, uh, who's been the most influential mentor for you through the business side of things?

Daymond John 41:17 Um, hmm. Um, I would think Jay Abraham has been.

Lewis Howes 41:24 Yeah. Really?

Daymond John 41:25 Yeah. Yeah, because, you know, it's... No, it's really, no, no.

Lewis Howes 41:29 In terms, in terms of scaling or in terms of-

Daymond John 41:31 Very hard. Very hard. Uh, really all of them. I, I can't say that any, any-

Lewis Howes 41:36 Yeah

Daymond John 41:36 ... one person, uh, helped me more than the other, or I can't say any one person didn't have the knowledge. My mother helped me-

Lewis Howes 41:42 Mm-hmm

Daymond John 41:42 ... in the beginning. My, my-

Lewis Howes 41:43 Sure

Daymond John 41:43 ... stepfather Steve, and then, uh, my amazing partners over at FUBU. You know, I have, uh, my three, you know, f- friends who've been there all, all my life for me. They've helped me when the times are tough and I've learned from them, and then our other partners over on the other side of, of FUBU, so I don't know. Um, and I say, yeah.

Lewis Howes 41:59 Have all been great. Yeah.

Daymond John 42:00 It, amazing.

Lewis Howes 42:02 I'm curious about, uh, entrepreneurs that are looking to raise money and that, and, and you get pitched, I'm sure, every day-

Daymond John 42:08 I do

Lewis Howes 42:08 ... by different entrepreneurs, whether it be email or in person-

Daymond John 42:10 Yeah

Lewis Howes 42:10 ... in the elevator or whatever. They're probably pitching you, right?

Daymond John 42:12 Sure. Uh-huh.

Lewis Howes 42:14 What's a couple of things that, one, turn you off no mat- Like, every time it happens you're like, "Nope. Not even gonna talk to you anymore. Don't even open your mouth."

Daymond John 42:21 Yep.

Lewis Howes 42:21 And then what are a few things that are like, "Tell me more"?

Daymond John 42:24 Uh, thing that turn me off is the fact that they don't have proof of concept.

Lewis Howes 42:27 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 42:27 They just say, they just think it's a good idea, and it's, and it's my job to help you create the proof of concept.

Lewis Howes 42:34 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 42:34 So you're too lazy to do it. By the way, um, I have 100 ideas in my head too-

Lewis Howes 42:39 [laughs]

Daymond John 42:39 ... that I can own 100% off, of.

Lewis Howes 42:41 Yeah, yeah.

Daymond John 42:41 So why?

Lewis Howes 42:42 Yeah.

Daymond John 42:43 Number one. Number two is-

Lewis Howes 42:43 So get a proof of concept.

Daymond John 42:44 Proof of concept, right?

Lewis Howes 42:45 Show that there's a buzz, something.

Daymond John 42:46 Yeah, if you don't have proof of concept, and they go, "Well, I, I don't know how to get it started," well then that's what you're gonna be telling me when, when, when it is started and you're not, you don't know how to take it to the next step. I got my own headaches. Leave me alone.

Lewis Howes 42:57 Yeah, exactly.

Daymond John 42:58 The next one is, um, "Well, this is a $50 billion market, and if I only get 1%..."

Lewis Howes 43:08 1%. [laughs]

Daymond John 43:09 Oh my God. The bankruptcy market is a trillion dollar market, and I promise you're gonna get 1% with that attitude.

Lewis Howes 43:16 Right. Okay.

Daymond John 43:18 Um, those are the things that turn me off. Uh, the things that, uh, get me excited are, "I tried this and I failed, I tried this and I failed, I tried this and I failed, and then I finally, bang, found out the best way to do this. And I found out because all these other things that I failed at doing in, in, in this area, this one I knew I was onto something."

Lewis Howes 43:44 Yeah.

Daymond John 43:44 Somebody who's willing to admit their failure, 'cause any successful entrepreneur knows that you are gonna fail more than you succeed.

Lewis Howes 43:52 Yeah.

Daymond John 43:52 Right? That one, of course, that's it. And then the other one is proof of concept.

Lewis Howes 43:58 Right.

Daymond John 43:58 That's it. You know, you have the, the right to make up your own opinion, but not the right to make up your own facts.

Lewis Howes 44:03 Right.

Daymond John 44:04 So, and you see that happen all the time.

Lewis Howes 44:06 Yes.

Daymond John 44:06 Kevin O'Leary will go, "Yeah."

Lewis Howes 44:07 [laughs]

Daymond John 44:09 "How many, uh, how many, how many of you saw that stupid thing right there?" And they like, "$1 million." He like, "You're not too stupid now."

Lewis Howes 44:16 Right, right. He's like, "Oh."

Daymond John 44:17 Sales cures all, right?

Lewis Howes 44:18 Yeah. [laughs]

Daymond John 44:18 You are not looking too stupid now.

Lewis Howes 44:20 Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Daymond John 44:21 All of a sudden there's a halo over that person's head.

Lewis Howes 44:23 Right. But it sounds like for you it would have to be proof of concept, uh, that they failed a bunch and now they hit something, but also it would have to be, like, something you're interested in for you, that you're excited about.

Daymond John 44:32 Hon- yeah, yeah.

Lewis Howes 44:32 You're like-

Daymond John 44:33 Yeah, no, no, I, I have to have an interest in it

Lewis Howes 44:34 ... you care about, like, women's dresses or something or what-

Daymond John 44:36 Yeah

Lewis Howes 44:36 ... you know, I don't know.

Daymond John 44:37 I have to have an interest in it.

Lewis Howes 44:38 Yeah, yeah.

Daymond John 44:38 100%, I have to have an interest, 'cause you know what? If I don't have a full interest in it, maybe I'm a customer.

Lewis Howes 44:44 Right.

Daymond John 44:44 And, and, you know, listen, you know, The Power of Broke theory is don't spread yourself too thin. You can't do every single thing in the world. And people think because I have access to capital, that people like us just walk around and buy everything.

Lewis Howes 44:57 No.

Daymond John 44:57 "Hey, how you doing? Oh, I like that locker. I wanna invest in that company."

Lewis Howes 45:01 [laughs]

Daymond John 45:02 No.

Lewis Howes 45:02 No.

Daymond John 45:03 No, man. You, you, you don't have time for that because in- investing is the i- you then gotta answer the phone call every time and-

Lewis Howes 45:10 Yeah

Daymond John 45:10 ... so, you know, [laughs] I get all the time on Shark Tank, "Oh, that person had some great idea. Why didn't you invest in the company?" Uh.

Lewis Howes 45:18 I don't have time.

Daymond John 45:19 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 45:19 [laughs] Yeah, yeah. Uh, so how much of your time is managing, uh, other entrepreneurs that you partner with, whether through Shark Tank or off of Shark Tank that you've-

Daymond John 45:28 Yeah

Lewis Howes 45:28 ... 'cause our friend Nathan, you've invested in-

Daymond John 45:29 Sure

Lewis Howes 45:30 ... CrossFit gyms and other things like that.

Daymond John 45:32 Uh-huh.

Lewis Howes 45:32 How much of your time every day is invest- or is picking up the phone and just being an advisor or setting up meetings for people and then-

Daymond John 45:38 Yeah, I, I look at, um, be- besides my companies, I really look at, it takes me about, it takes about six months out of my, my life, all the investments. And I have re-

Lewis Howes 45:48 For the year?

Daymond John 45:49 Yeah. And I have really, really amazing partners-

Lewis Howes 45:52 Wow

Daymond John 45:52 ... that allow, uh, my businesses to run and, um, and again, you know, I could probably do more business in my business if I do, but these other opportunities that I'm in, whether I win or lose, they're teaching me about an entire new way of doing business. If I wasn't on Shark Tank or if I didn't do investments like Nate and CrossFit, I would never have an insight on the new way that the world is operating. I would've still been the FUBU guy going, "Hey, uh, you know, JCPenney's or Macy's or, please buy my shirt."

Lewis Howes 46:28 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 46:28 "Hey, how you doing on social media?" I'm, "I don't know."

Lewis Howes 46:31 [laughs]

Daymond John 46:32 You know what I mean?

Lewis Howes 46:33 Right.

Daymond John 46:33 Uh, you know, and, and-

Lewis Howes 46:34 That's fair

Daymond John 46:34 ... and I'd have been at the mercy of everybody else.

Lewis Howes 46:36 Yeah, yeah. Okay. Um, couple questions left for you.

Daymond John 46:39 Sure.

Lewis Howes 46:39 That's cool. Um, what's the question no one ever asks you that they wish, that you wish they asked? Or is there a question?

Daymond John 46:47 No, you know, I've, I've been, I've been asked some really tough questions throughout these podcasts lately because, you know, you know, guys like you have been talking, talking to Tony Robbins and, and, and guys with enormous brains.

Lewis Howes 47:02 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 47:02 So your brains get bigger as you speak.

Lewis Howes 47:04 [laughs]

Daymond John 47:04 And I've been asked a lot of tough questions.

Lewis Howes 47:07 Yeah.

Daymond John 47:08 So I'm not asking for somebody to ask me questions, you know?

Lewis Howes 47:10 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 47:10 Okay. Perfect. Um, what's the biggest piece of advice besides The Power of Broke, which I want everyone to make sure to go get, what's the biggest piece of advice that you would give yourself just starting out on top of this?

Daymond John 47:25 Oh, yeah, listen, I, trust me, you and I doing the podcast, I'm not trying to make it a big wet kiss about Power of Broke.

Lewis Howes 47:29 Sure, sure, sure, yeah.

Daymond John 47:30 I'm, I'm fine with that. I wanna make sure that-

Lewis Howes 47:31 Yeah, yeah

Daymond John 47:32 ... I didn't put in the book, or I did put in the book, and, and whether I did or not, the, the advice that I would give the younger Daymond John-

Lewis Howes 47:38 Uh-huh

Daymond John 47:38 ... is make sure you have financial intelligence

Lewis Howes 47:46 Hmm.

Daymond John 47:46 I don't care even you're gonna be an entrepreneur, entrepreneur working for a company, whatever the case is. I don't care if you have money or you don't have money. Money is so hard to make, and it's 10 times harder to keep, and it's a tool. And I almost lost too many times because I was so eager to make the money, and I didn't have financial intelligence.

Lewis Howes 48:07 Hmm.

Daymond John 48:07 And many people say, "Well, Daymond, you didn't go to school or college, and should I?" And, uh, the fundamentals of business are the fundamentals of business, and you need to go and study finance no matter what. And a perfect example of that-

Lewis Howes 48:18 Mm-hmm

Daymond John 48:18 ... is all the, all the athletes that three years out of the league, over-

Lewis Howes 48:21 Broke, bankrupt

Daymond John 48:21 ... 60% of them are broke, right?

Lewis Howes 48:23 Yeah.

Daymond John 48:23 Out of the Powerball people, some of them are going to be broke-

Lewis Howes 48:26 Yeah

Daymond John 48:26 ... fairly quickly, three years, right? And it's because just... You know, if you really look at the anatomy of a bankruptcy is something that, like, you know, if you and I, uh, if I had, you know, $300,000, I'm gonna probably buy a $50,000 house, I'm gonna buy a little car for $20,000, whatever the case is.

Lewis Howes 48:43 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 48:43 If an athlete has $50 million, they're gonna buy a $7 million house.

Lewis Howes 48:47 Yeah.

Daymond John 48:47 And they're gonna buy a bunch of cars, but it's the same house.

Lewis Howes 48:50 Yeah.

Daymond John 48:50 It's just a bigger bill.

Lewis Howes 48:51 Yeah.

Daymond John 48:52 And, you know, they're not gonna understand about compounding interest and all, all the things that they need to do in life to make it.

Lewis Howes 48:58 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 48:58 'Cause money is just a tool.

Lewis Howes 49:00 Yeah. What's the best book you would recommend for someone to be more financially intelligent? If there was one book to read to hopefully understand a lot of these principles when they didn't know them, what would you-

Daymond John 49:08 Well, I, I think that, I haven't read it yet, everybody's talking really amazing about Tony Robbins'-

Lewis Howes 49:14 It's a great book

Daymond John 49:14 ... new book, right?

Lewis Howes 49:15 Master of the Game.

Daymond John 49:15 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 49:15 Yeah, Money Master of the Game. Yeah.

Daymond John 49:16 Okay. I haven't read that. And again, dyslexic, I, uh-

Lewis Howes 49:20 Yeah

Daymond John 49:20 ... so I'm sure you listen to audiobook probably.

Lewis Howes 49:22 Yeah. [laughs]

Daymond John 49:22 Right? I gotta get the audiobook. Um, of course, you know, Think and Grow Rich.

Lewis Howes 49:26 Yeah.

Daymond John 49:26 I know... No, not Think and Grow... Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Lewis Howes 49:29 Yeah. Okay.

Daymond John 49:30 Rich Dad, Poor Dad. It, it's, uh, it, it's a staple for a reason.

Lewis Howes 49:34 Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Um, three final questions.

Daymond John 49:38 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 49:38 What are you most grateful for recently in your life?

Daymond John 49:42 What am I most grateful for recently in my life? Um, you know, in, in my, in my personal life, I'm grateful that everybody, uh, has their health.

Lewis Howes 49:53 Hmm.

Daymond John 49:53 I haven't had any, um, any loss. You know, I've seen a lot of, I've seen a lot of loss in my life growing up in the neighborhood that I grew up in.

Lewis Howes 50:02 Yeah.

Daymond John 50:02 Whether people were incarcerated or they lost their lives at a very early age due to violence or drugs.

Lewis Howes 50:07 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 50:08 And that, uh, you know, hasn't been an issue with anybody in, in my life.

Lewis Howes 50:14 Yeah.

Daymond John 50:15 So... And I know it's inevitable, right?

Lewis Howes 50:17 Right.

Daymond John 50:17 And so, so that's what happens. So I think, I think on that, on a personal issue. Um, on a, recently on a business tip, um, I don't know. You know, of course my appointment to the White House, I never thought I would be meeting and sitting with the president, and I've met the last three presidents of this great country.

Lewis Howes 50:38 Wow.

Daymond John 50:38 And who would ever thought that, right?

Lewis Howes 50:40 Yeah.

Daymond John 50:41 Um, so business-wise, I would say that is one of them. And then another really great year of Shark Tank for the reason, though, that when I see that it's, it's one of the top shows watched from kids five to 15, and one of the top shows-

Lewis Howes 50:59 Hmm

Daymond John 50:59 ... watched parents and kids together. And when I see people come up to me and say, "You know what? My daughter wants to be a, she wants to open, be a shark as much as... She stopped caring about being an actress, a singer, and a dancer-

Lewis Howes 51:12 Hmm

Daymond John 51:12 ... or, you know, an athlete." Nothing wrong with that. Um, but she wants to be a shark.

Lewis Howes 51:16 Right.

Daymond John 51:16 Or when a mother comes to me and says, "My son finally came up to me and said, 'Mommy, I know what you do now at work.'" You know?

Lewis Howes 51:22 [laughs]

Daymond John 51:23 When, when you, when you see that or people say, "I decided to start a business and I'm empowering myself," and you see that a show like that, that everybody said would never work, got almost canceled, um, you know, seven years in, and people are religiously following it.

Lewis Howes 51:38 Yeah.

Daymond John 51:38 And when you see it's changing lives, that's, that's... I mean, that's why Mark Cuban does it.

Lewis Howes 51:43 Yeah.

Daymond John 51:43 People always wonder, why does Mark Cuban do it? He don't, he don't need investments, right?

Lewis Howes 51:46 No.

Daymond John 51:46 He d- he doesn't need any more TV time. You always see him on basketball shit, right?

Lewis Howes 51:50 Yeah. [laughs]

Daymond John 51:50 He does it because it's, it's, it's really empowering. As you... What am I talking about? You, I mean, this is what you do.

Lewis Howes 51:55 Yeah.

Daymond John 51:55 You empower people and, and it's, it's just amazing.

Lewis Howes 51:58 That's great. That's cool.

Daymond John 51:59 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 51:59 And what would you say is your biggest fear moving forward?

Daymond John 52:02 It's always gonna be health related.

Lewis Howes 52:04 Hmm.

Daymond John 52:04 It's always gonna be why has, um, uh, God has really, really blessed me for too long, right?

Lewis Howes 52:11 Hmm.

Daymond John 52:11 You know? I was a kid, I was hanging out, I don't know how many times I was doing things that kids do, right?

Lewis Howes 52:18 Yeah.

Daymond John 52:18 And, um, why am I still just cranking along, right?

Lewis Howes 52:22 [laughs] Sure.

Daymond John 52:22 You know? I'm almost 50 years old right now, right?

Lewis Howes 52:25 Wow.

Daymond John 52:25 And, um-

Lewis Howes 52:26 You're still a young man.

Daymond John 52:27 Yeah. Yeah, I am. But I, again, I've seen people-

Lewis Howes 52:30 Yeah

Daymond John 52:30 ... not because of now talking about violence or anything else like that, I've seen people just curl over and have a heart attack.

Lewis Howes 52:36 Yeah.

Daymond John 52:36 I mean, I know last year I think I, I think I remember counting within three months 11 people that passed away un- they, and, and, and they did not realize it.

Lewis Howes 52:44 Hmm.

Daymond John 52:44 Whether it was unfortunately... In the beginning of the book, I dedicate something to, uh, my, my venture capitalist, who's an amazing man, named David Freschman. He's the one that all my Shark Tank people had to, once they, once we did the deal, they had to vet the deal-

Lewis Howes 52:59 Hmm

Daymond John 52:59 ... with David, right? And David truly believed in entrepreneurship ever since from day one, and he w- he's always somebody who was a venture capitalist, but one who taught kids and people o- of color on how to get into this business, and amazing guy. You know, he called me and said, "Hey, I'm, I'm, I'm ready to fight the biggest battle of my life, you know, right now, and I found out I have pancreatic cancer."

Lewis Howes 53:21 Hmm.

Daymond John 53:22 And in, within, you know, a very short time, you know, he, he's no longer with us.

Lewis Howes 53:26 Wow.

Daymond John 53:26 And-

Lewis Howes 53:27 Hmm

Daymond John 53:27 ... I met about, I, I, I know about 11 people that faced that last year, so you never know when we're gonna be-

Lewis Howes 53:33 Never know

Daymond John 53:33 ... you know, when, when the good man's-

Lewis Howes 53:34 Any moment

Daymond John 53:34 ... gonna call for us.

Lewis Howes 53:35 Any moment, yeah.

Daymond John 53:35 You know? And hopefully Dave is down here protecting me. Now, now he's my-

Lewis Howes 53:38 Sure

Daymond John 53:38 ... ultimate venture capitalist protector, you know?

Lewis Howes 53:40 Right. Exactly. Um, final couple questions. It's the end of the day for you, as we're talking about that.

Daymond John 53:48 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 53:48 Many, many years from now- And all of your books have been erased, Shark Tank has been deleted-

Daymond John 53:54 Mm-hmm

Lewis Howes 53:54 ... um, all your brands are gone.

Daymond John 53:56 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 53:57 And your closest friends and family are there, and you've got a piece of paper and a pen, and they say, "There's nothing else to remember you by except for this piece of paper and what you write down." And they ask you to write down three truths, the three things you know to be true about your experience in life and what they could see as a roadmap for their lives moving forward.

Daymond John 54:17 Mm-hmm.

Lewis Howes 54:18 What would you put down as those three truths for what's coming up for you right in this moment?

Daymond John 54:21 Treated everybody, uh, with respect that deserved it. Um, knew that it was, realized that it was my job to help inspire and/or move people forward.

Lewis Howes 54:36 Mm.

Daymond John 54:37 I never compromised any of, any of my beliefs, good, bad, or indifferent.

Lewis Howes 54:41 Mm, I love that. Um, final question. Before I ask it, I wanna make sure everyone goes and gets the book. Check it out. The Power of Broke by Daymond John. And where can we connect with you online? Where are you hanging out with the most?

Daymond John 54:52 Uh-

Lewis Howes 54:52 Your website or...?

Daymond John 54:53 Uh, listen, I'm, I'm on, I'm on, you know, uh, powerofbroke.com. I'm on daymondjohn.com. But, and social media-wise, I am on Twitter @thesharkdaymond, um, Snapchat @thesharkdaymond, Facebook @thesharkdaymond, and-

Lewis Howes 55:05 Instagram

Daymond John 55:05 ... IG.

Lewis Howes 55:06 Instagram.

Daymond John 55:06 Instagram.

Lewis Howes 55:07 Which one's your favorite one to hang out? Where do you spend more time on?

Daymond John 55:09 Uh, you know, listen, I, uh, you know, I listen to Gary Vee, and I, I, I wear-

Lewis Howes 55:14 Yeah

Daymond John 55:14 ... I wear a different outfit when I'm in different ones, you know?

Lewis Howes 55:16 [laughs]

Daymond John 55:16 When I'm in Facebook, I'm at the family reunion. I'm in Instagram-

Lewis Howes 55:19 Yeah

Daymond John 55:19 ... I'm wearing the, you know, the skinny jeans with the curly mustache.

Lewis Howes 55:22 [laughs]

Daymond John 55:22 I'm all, I'm all hipster-ish. Uh, you know-

Lewis Howes 55:24 Seriously

Daymond John 55:24 ... I'm on Twitter, I'm just kinda out in the park rolling around.

Lewis Howes 55:27 Yeah, yeah.

Daymond John 55:27 And I'm on, I'm on SnapChat, I don't really know what I'm doing just yet on SnapChat.

Lewis Howes 55:30 [laughs]

Daymond John 55:31 Um-

Lewis Howes 55:31 I s- I saw you post, uh, a photo of Gary Vee on In- your Instagram, uh, promoting his SnapChat.

Daymond John 55:36 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 55:37 He sent me that same text-

Daymond John 55:38 Yeah, yeah

Lewis Howes 55:39 ... with the photo, and I saw him post, everyone was posting that. I was like-

Daymond John 55:41 Of course

Lewis Howes 55:41 ... "This guy's a hustler."

Daymond John 55:42 He's a, oh, he's a-

Lewis Howes 55:43 He's a hustler

Daymond John 55:44 ... he's a monster.

Lewis Howes 55:45 He's a good buddy of mine, too, and he's got a book coming out in a few months.

Daymond John 55:47 Absolutely.

Lewis Howes 55:48 He's probably hitting you up for that already.

Daymond John 55:50 Not yet, but I'm-

Lewis Howes 55:50 [laughs]

Daymond John 55:51 ... I'm waiting 'cause-

Lewis Howes 55:51 It's coming

Daymond John 55:51 ... I'm waiting, man, 'cause-

Lewis Howes 55:52 Yeah, yeah

Daymond John 55:53 ... I'm here.

Lewis Howes 55:53 Yeah, of course. Um, okay, cool. Well, I wanna ask the, the final question, then. Um, before I do, I wanna acknowledge you, Daymond, for your incredible service to the world. I think it's incredible what you've created as an example. You're really a symbol of inspiration for so many people.

Daymond John 56:07 Well, thank you.

Lewis Howes 56:08 From, you know, when you were 20, hustling in your, your basement-

Daymond John 56:12 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 56:12 ... sewing up hats-

Daymond John 56:13 Yeah

Lewis Howes 56:14 ... to consistently over 30 years being true to who you are and-

Daymond John 56:19 Well, thank you

Lewis Howes 56:20 ... sharing your v- message and voice with the world, not just keeping it to yourself, but sharing your wisdom through your books, what you say on TV, really inspiring people. So I wanna acknowledge you for showing up in a powerful way every single day.

Daymond John 56:32 Wow. I never looked at it like that, but I, I-

Lewis Howes 56:34 Yeah

Daymond John 56:34 ... definitely appreciate it, and I think that-

Lewis Howes 56:35 Yeah

Daymond John 56:35 ... I, I, I, I'm humbled by it, but I think that I'm, I have very, very little comparison to so many people we meet.

Lewis Howes 56:41 That's right.

Daymond John 56:41 You know, Mother Teresa and-

Lewis Howes 56:43 Of course

Daymond John 56:43 ... so many amazing, amazing people. Why, th-

Lewis Howes 56:45 Right

Daymond John 56:46 ... our everyday teachers who are, who are, who are, uh, not recognized and underpaid-

Lewis Howes 56:50 Sure

Daymond John 56:50 ... who take care of our kids. I hung out with my kids for a week, I wanted to kill myself.

Lewis Howes 56:54 [laughs]

Daymond John 56:55 They hang out with our kids for, you know, eight months.

Lewis Howes 56:56 Right. Exactly, exactly.

Daymond John 56:57 But, but thank you.

Lewis Howes 56:58 Yeah, of course. Uh, m- my final question is what's your definition of greatness?

Daymond John 57:04 Ooh, definition of greatness. I don't know, you know? I would say my definition of greatness is, you know, I guess it's greatest of all time, shocking the world and making people think that... M- surprising everybody and doing something that everybody thought you couldn't do.

Lewis Howes 57:23 Mm-hmm.

Daymond John 57:23 You know? And, and, and, and feeling good about it. Uh, just, you know, testing yourself. I mean, I really, I r- I, I read a really great quote the other day, and it said, uh, "The only person that you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday."

Lewis Howes 57:38 Mm.

Daymond John 57:38 Right? And I think that's, that's greatness, testing yourself and knowing you left it all on the field, and you gave it your all-

Lewis Howes 57:44 Mm

Daymond John 57:44 ... and not, and not complaining about whatever happened.

Lewis Howes 57:47 Mm. Love it. Daymond John, thank you so much for coming on, man.

Daymond John 57:48 Thank you, man.

Lewis Howes 57:49 Appreciate it.

Daymond John 57:50 Appreciate it. Thank you for having me. [upbeat music]

Lewis Howes 57:54 Hey, guys. Thanks so much for watching this interview. I hope you enjoyed it. Make sure to share it with your friend, leave a comment and a like below. And also, we've got a lot of previous interviews on this channel, so click right here to go watch the previous interviews. And each week, we come out with more episodes, inspirational videos, and interviews. So if you haven't subscribed yet, click right here to subscribe to this channel. Again, thanks so much for being here, and I'll see you guys soon.