WEBVTT - Daymond John 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:05.320 Welcome everybody to the first episode of Big Money Energy, 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:08.200 where I speak to very successful, self made people to 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:11.719 learn exactly how they did it. We cover the stories 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.360 in between the paths of their successes and how they 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.200 overcame the obstacles in their way. And specifically, I talked 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:19.840 to people who not only have big Money Energy, but 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.200 those who started with nothing, because I really really want 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:27.480 to learn how you went from nothing to something, because 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:29.479 big money Energy is the vibe you get from someone 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:32.280 who is succeeding at life in every direction. And today 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.519 we have Damon John. And in this episode, if you 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:40.400 were interested in anything relating to entrepreneurship, building wealth, and 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.599 learning from failure, you need to stick around. We go 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:46.879 through his first business, selling pencils and getting beaten up. 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:50.200 We talked about his bankruptcies. We talked about dealing with morons, 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.519 how to be a shark, and most importantly, how you 0:00:53.560 --> 0:01:03.120 go from forty bucks to six billion. All Right, today 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:07.440 is an insanely, insanely special day because my guest is 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:11.880 none other than Damon John. Hey, Damon, how are you? 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:13.520 I'm good man? Now you look good with like the 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:17.039 leather and the Yankees had, and I'm trying to be cool. Now. 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:19.200 If you don't know Damon, I don't know who you are, 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:20.880 and I don't know why you're even listening to this, 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:25.280 because you should. Damon is a serial entrepreneur, investor, TV personality, 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.399 five time best selling author. He's got his new book 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.040 out right now, Power Shift, which is incredible. He's also 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:33.520 on a little TV show, Um, I can't remember, it's 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:37.440 a fish the fish Hit the fish Bowl, Shark Shark Tank. 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:42.000 That one nominated for fifteen Emmy's one four of them, 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:44.560 which is amazing. Damon, thank you for being here, Thank 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:46.480 you for having me. Yeah, man, how's your day? So 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.080 for it is great? It's Monday. I'm calling it more 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.360 on Monday. Yeah. There's a lot of morons on the world, man, 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.880 there are, dude, It's amazing. So I'm really excited about 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:57.640 that because that means I can make more and more money, 0:01:57.640 --> 0:01:59.640 and so that everybody listening can make more and more 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.360 money because morons buy more stuff. Well, morons and idiots, 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:05.480 and if you have common sense and you're willing to 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:07.800 work hard and bust your ask for the morons won't. 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.079 So it's more on Monday. I gotta gotta got it 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:12.639 right because you can outwork everybody else who's just because 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.040 they're just not doing getting information from one source and 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:17.240 or they're idiots. I mean, it's really More on Monday. 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:19.200 I'm telling you now. You know, it's funny. I moved 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:20.720 to New York City in two thousands six when I 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.400 graduated college, and a way to make money for me 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:25.000 when I first got here because I was trying to 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:26.800 be an actor, and I was before I ever got 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:29.440 into real estate. In two I would do little things 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.239 like I passed up flyers on the street for gyms, 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:34.280 like I would do odds and end jobs. And one 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:36.360 of the things that I got was like a stock 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:41.040 photo job modeling Fu Bou nice. Yeah. I don't know 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.440 where those photos are because I think they were burned. 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:46.440 But I was probably the worst Foo Boo model not 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.760 anyone has ever seen. Do you remember those? Do you 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:53.840 remember those? I didn't remember yours? No? Maybe not? I 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:56.320 mean thinking about that, that that was probably about fifteen years ago. 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:59.240 I mean, but we always had really attractive and people 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:00.880 we felt fit the part. And you know what, I 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:03.160 think a good point of it is that a lot 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:05.280 of times, you know, talking about More on Monday, A 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:07.480 lot of times people thought that food was only for 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:09.480 people of a certain color, and we wouldn't have used 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:13.079 obviously not not the color that they're thinking, different color, 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.680 and obviously we had probably used the photo because you know, 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:18.960 we we used people of bolt colors and our ads. 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:20.760 We thank you man, thank you for being part of 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:23.040 the brand. So listen, one thing I want to start 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.079 with this. I'm gonna keep it super simple and let's 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:29.120 see how you respond. Okay, how did you go from 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:33.280 nothing to something? And what does that mean to you? Um? 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:37.160 I went through it through massive amount of failures. Um, 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:40.480 but I was failing small and quick and now learning 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:44.960 from them. I went through life as a series of mentors. 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:47.840 So I went through so many different mentors to try 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.000 to obtain the information that I didn't know I had 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:52.000 that I didn't know what to do, because when you 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:54.640 start out and anything, you don't know what you don't know. 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:57.240 I went through a lot of soul searching and realized 0:03:57.280 --> 0:03:59.320 what was my why and why was I doing this? 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:00.680 And what did I want to get out of it? 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:03.200 And what was my line in the sand and what 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:07.000 I would agree upon or not agree upon. I went 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:08.760 through a lot of common sense too. You know, I 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:10.640 looked around, and everybody said you can't do what I was. 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:14.240 I was like, well, why all these buildings here, in 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.039 all these cars here? Who who did it? You know? 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:19.040 Was it was it the gods who did it? Or 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.760 was it one person with one idea that took one action. 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:25.440 I was like, this common sense, you can do this something. 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:27.279 And I just read a lot. I read, I read 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:28.919 a lot, and I and I and I noticed that 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.800 the things that I would read if I found the 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:37.120 same underlying truth in these twenty or forty books that 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.159 were written by different people at different times in their life, 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:42.159 in different times in history, what are they all lying 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:45.320 to me? Like? It's it's right there, it's right there. 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:49.000 Just a lot of common sense and drive. So so 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:52.359 you saw success from other people and that's what drove you. 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.320 That was your kind of your wire driver? What was 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:57.920 the what was the why? My why initially was get 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.320 some funky sneakers from for myself because mom wasn't making 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.359 any money. Why why make her work for mine? Uh? 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:06.800 Then it was supporting a household of me and dressed 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:08.240 my mother honestly, but I didn't want to be on 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.200 the streets. And then then then I made mistakes going 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:13.599 through their own businesses to try to make money, thinking 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:15.440 that you know, I was going to be a bazillionaire 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:17.720 by twenty and I was in and I was broke 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:19.640 by twenty because I was doing it only for money 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:21.400 I had. I had no passion to drive for it, 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:23.960 so sure I didn't want to work on it. Then 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:26.039 my wife became wait a minute, it's an untapped market 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:29.039 that that we're being neglected by all the big designers. 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:31.160 They think that hip hop kids are like, you know, 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:35.479 or rappers or whatever or not a value. And I 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:38.240 want to make clothes for people who I love the 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:41.040 genre music, you know. And that's when I created Foobu 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:43.200 and it was forced bias was by the culture. I mean, 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:45.240 I would I would dress the beastie boys. I would 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:47.719 address at local J run D M C, Salt and Pepper. 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:49.479 And that was my wife then. And then my wife 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:52.800 would change over the lives over my time of running 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:55.360 a business to say, Okay, everybody's gonna laugh at me 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:57.560 if this thing fails, uh, and they're gonna think I 0:05:57.640 --> 0:05:59.719 hit the lotto or that one by the Apple. I 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:02.800 gotta keep going because my egos in place. And then 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:05.800 I had two little baby girls and my wife, and 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.520 then employees, and my wife just kept changing. What was 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:12.520 your first business? You mentioned cars, and my first business 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.120 was selling pencils at six years old. My pencils at 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:19.719 six Was there a good return on those pencils? Amazing return? 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:22.080 Because what I what I realized when the boys like 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:24.360 the girls in school at that age, they would try 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.200 to knock their teeth out. So I think there's gotta 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:29.000 be a way I can make a profit over this, right, 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:30.880 So I would out to find these pencils. I would 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:32.560 scrape the paint off the pencils, and I'd paint the 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:34.279 names of the prettiest girls in school and the pencils, 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.039 and I walk over the guys and go, you don't 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:37.320 want to knock or teeth out. If you buy this 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:39.680 box of pencils from me with your lunch money, you're 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:41.160 gonna be able to sit with the girls and give 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.120 them the pencils. I get to talk to them, and 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:46.120 then the guys would try to knock my teeth out. 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:48.920 So I was about to throw the pencils away, and 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:51.120 I remember one of the girls saying, Hey, that's my 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:53.920 name on that pencil. Is that mine? I was like, yeah, 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:56.880 it is. The girls paid me two times the amount 0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:58.240 of money that I was trying to sell it to 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.800 the guys for. It's a market idea right there, But 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:03.320 my principle made me close that business after one month. 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:05.960 What where's that principle right now? And what do they do? 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:08.480 She had no vision. That's exactly the problem, because one 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:10.120 of the boys squealed on me and told her that 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:11.800 I was stealing the pencils from the guys that I 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:13.760 hated in school. So my cost of goods with zero 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:16.440 I think. I think it was a good business, but 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:19.120 there was some personal risk involved in in the selling 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.400 pencils to two people business when you're six, right, Uh, 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:25.440 as far as it us. If they punched your lights out, right, 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:26.880 if they knocked you out, but then they're still a 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:29.560 return I guess if the girls. But listen, I practiced 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.720 the oldest form of self defense there is running. Yes, 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.560 you can never cash me. I was really short and 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:39.120 really fast. The question, though, like, was your and I 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:41.840 know your why has changed over the years, but you know, 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:43.640 don't go back to when you're ten years old. I'm 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:47.000 just thinking, like what motivates you to come up with 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:49.880 different business ideas and think about different ways to make money. 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:51.840 I know back then it was like sneakers and make 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:55.000 some cash, But was it al also to do something different? 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:57.160 Like where you was there a hunger for you to 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:00.240 create something instead of just you know, making money. Because 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:02.000 we talked to a lot of people too. It's it's 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:04.720 just the money, right And you can see it on them, 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:07.600 you can smell it when they walk in the room. Yeah, 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.080 the people that I've always met that have been really 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:13.760 successful entrepreneurs. Okay, yeah, if you're in the financial trade 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:17.440 market and the systems like that, and it is money, 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:19.960 but they still love to kill. They still love the game, 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:23.120 the game, They still love the way that their mind works, 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:24.240 you know what I mean. I don't care if you're 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.200 a professional gambler. It money is the outcome, but they 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.080 still love the chase, the game, the way they break 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:32.679 things down, the way they see opportunity. My real y 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:35.320 came around with Foo and that was when I found 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:37.480 my love. I love fashion ever since I was ten 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:39.400 years old, and I loved hip hop ever since I 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:41.440 was ten years old. I blended them together when I 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.040 was nineteen, not realizing that I can make money off them, 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.120 and then I failed a bunch of times up until 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:48.040 nineteen and I would I would still fail with Foobo 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:50.280 from nineteen to twenty two. I would close it three 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:53.480 times by running out of capital. But then I started 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:56.240 it again and that's where the real love came. They 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:58.040 came around, like when I close it, but then people 0:08:58.080 --> 0:08:59.360 saw us saying, I have what that shirt from you, 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:01.520 and I really want to it again. I started again. 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:03.160 I closed it and I kept closing it, but it 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:05.320 kept calling me back. And that's when I found my 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:08.360 real love and my really my real why. Yeah. I 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:11.520 was just giving people what they want. You know, it 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:13.360 did a lot of things. It gave people what they want. 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:15.000 I would I would make a shirt and then somebody 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:16.360 wear it and I would and they would wear it 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:18.040 a certain way, and I would go I never thought 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:20.800 about it like that, that ship is hid I love, 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.040 you know, or somebody when they boughted, I felt like 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:25.720 they said, and you know, I know that you feel 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:27.800 this way. You know you have to feel this way, 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:30.000 and being successful what you do is I made them 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:32.680 feel like they've arrived in some way or another, even 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:34.720 if it was that one moment that they took a 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:36.560 girl out or they were out with a guy and 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:40.439 they were wearing their brand new food blue shirt, right 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.000 like statement piece. But yeah, for that moment, they felt 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:45.280 like they arrived and I would I would address people 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:46.480 for the rest of my life for free if I 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:48.600 could have. I just loved it. So what happened in 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:52.760 what was that shift? I mean what? Because you shut 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:54.440 it down a couple of times and brought it back 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:56.200 and I've read and we know you know how how 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:58.480 important your mom was to a lot of this, right, Yeah, 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:00.360 and ninety two, I realized that I was going to 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:02.200 make a stand and I was not going to quit 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:04.240 this thing, and I need to educate myself more. And 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:07.400 I brought in uh partners, my three other partners that 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:09.600 are still my partner still today. And I had already 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.480 made all the mistakes prior, so now I knew what 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:13.959 I didn't need to do. You know a lot of 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.160 people who were successful in business, they go to things 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:17.880 and they may have five or ten businesses. The first 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:20.000 business they didn't have enough funding, so they shut it down. 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:21.880 The second business they had enough funding, but they didn't 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:23.960 have distribution. They shut it down. The third one they 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:27.600 had funding distribution, but they're legal wasn't in order. Boom boom, 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:29.720 boom boom by by business and attend. They're like, holy 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:31.720 sh it, I you know, I may have something here. 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:34.560 I think that's super important to all the listeners that 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:37.800 are watching and listening now who are growing up or 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:39.760 are learning how to start a business. And they are 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.720 They've got Instagram, they've got Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok. How 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:47.560 do you get the word out about clothing? Um the 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:50.880 way you guys started in the early nineties, without millions 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.679 and millions and millions of dollars to spend and commercials 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:56.679 and magazine ads. How do you do that? You know? 0:10:57.600 --> 0:10:59.600 And that's exactly what I know. We'll get into power 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:03.480 ship about. It's about the building of influence prior and 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:05.679 that's what we're talking about. I'm gonna tell you now, 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:08.880 if I if social media was out when I started, 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:12.200 Bubu would have not been a six billion dollar brand. 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:14.080 It would have been a hundred billion dollar brand over 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:15.720 the years, because like you look at a Nike right 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:17.960 now doing about thirty billion a year, right, we would 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:20.280 have probably done about ten billion dollars a year annually. 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.079 For how had you started now? Had I start it now, 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:26.120 I mean I had to literally I sold your shirt, 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:30.280 I had to find you. The Internet did not exist, 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:33.560 cell phones didn't exist. I had to find where you 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:35.880 lived to sell you another shirt. And how did you 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:38.240 keep track of all those customers and to be able 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:40.640 to build your fanily school. I used to keep their 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.199 phone number. I used to tell them book like literally 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:44.559 at a book. I had a book. I used to 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:46.600 tell them, you know, listen Friday nights. You know I'm 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:49.280 gonna be in the corner of the Apollo Theater at 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.080 twelve o'clock when that thing lets out. I'm telling you now, 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:54.320 you better be there to get your shirt first, because 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:56.600 I'm gonna sell out that. Not only was I giving 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:58.920 them consistency of where I was going to be, I 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:01.000 was telling I knew their aims, and I was telling 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:04.000 them where to find me. I promised. I kept that promise. 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:06.320 I don't care if it was ten degrees. I was 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:09.079 there that day so people could expect you at night. Also, 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:11.920 I was getting feedback. Here's the best thing. You want feedback. 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.760 You stand on the corner of the Apollo Theater at 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:18.880 midnight when those drunk people let out, and they would 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:21.400 tell me about what they thought about my and my mother. 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:25.719 You want feedback, Oh my God, and it grew us 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:30.160 safer behind Instagram in person, much safer. But I had 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:33.160 to work with my partner and I we worked it 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.199 for about eight years like that, and I don't care 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:47.360 eight insistency. Yeah, it had to be consistent. When did 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.600 you get into office space? When did you first kind 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:52.120 of take a step back and realize, you know, what, 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:55.079 things are gonna be okay, and they might be better 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:57.040 than okay if we keep doing this. Yeah, it was 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:59.199 never gonna be okay. It was either gonna be guys, 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:03.240 all right now the real journey is starting, right, we're 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:09.599 playing at a big level. Nineteen nineties seven, UH Samsung's 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:12.280 textile division and this guy named Bruce and Norman gave 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.080 me a call and they gave us an opportunity um 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:18.079 to to come up there and were the agreement. I 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:19.800 think we had to sell five million dollars worth of 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:22.320 clothes and five in in three years to keep this 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.640 distribution deal that they were going to distribute our clothes. 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:28.040 It's like a record label getting a record, you know, 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:30.520 million and three years. Yeah, but I did thirty million 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.680 dollars in three months. And because we had already built 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.120 up this influence for ten years or nine years, all 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.440 of a sudden, they gave you a megaphone, gave us 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:41.520 a megaphone. They were like, okay, now we can manufacture 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:44.480 and distribute, do what you do best. And that was it. 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.839 We were dressing everybody in every single video. We were 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:51.600 every place, we want, every corner, and those ambassadors that 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.320 we had built that influence with, somebody would say, hey, 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.080 you know, I'm the Foobu guy who I'm the fooble 0:13:57.120 --> 0:13:59.880 girl in Detroit And we would have a hundred of 0:13:59.880 --> 0:14:02.640 the holes in Detroit, a hundred of those in Atlanta, 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:05.880 a hundred of those in Carolina Organic. And this is 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:08.800 viral before was viral, right, we build this relationship with 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:11.480 l J. He goes and puts Foobu in the gap ad, 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:13.480 he does a gap at and he puts for us 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:15.600 by us on the low in the gap at. Gap 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:19.440 spends thirty million dollars airing that commercial. It's a Foolbu commercial. 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:23.960 They're basically airing um. So many big things had happened 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:26.239 at that time for us, But it was a culmination 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:28.960 of if you really think about it, I started in 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:32.280 eighty nine. By that time, nine years or whatever, the 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:37.040 cases of just just pounding the ground. Now, it's going 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:38.640 back to what you talked about. You know, one of 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.080 the things I think people don't really understand these days 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:43.160 when they like when they look at somebody like you 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:45.400 and they say, okay, successful, Yeah, I know he's got 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:48.160 some sort of backstory. But is the red lobster working 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.080 red Lobster? That is a hustle that people just don't 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:53.680 get anymore. Like what you said, your your job when 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:56.080 you started was you worked at Red Lobster. The majority 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:58.560 of your day was working Red lobster, right, and then 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.760 it was getting food off the ground, watching it failed, 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.480 getting it back off the ground, watching it fail. What 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:06.240 was the red Lobster to you? Yeah, just like you 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:08.360 with the flyers, Red Lobster was my basis. I had 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.160 to keep the lights on. And everybody talks about, you know, 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.480 burn the bridges and quit your day job there. Whoever 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:16.680 said that's an idiot, because if you look and I 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:18.920 worked the Red Lobster for five years and I got 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.720 paid thirty thousand dollars a year, I had medical I 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:23.880 was taking all the food home, so now I didn't 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:25.720 have to pay for food anymore. I was having an 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:28.160 entire staff of red Lobster come to flea markets with 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:30.560 me on Saturdays and helped me. I was trying to 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:32.480 sell the customers right if they bought their shrimp, do 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:35.200 you want a T shirt? You know? And then at 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:37.560 the same time my house, I was renting out all 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:39.280 the rooms in my house. I had four rooms, so 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:41.200 I was renting a while out for twenty five dollars 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:43.720 a week to strangers. And I was sleeping on the couch. 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:45.760 So now I had some of the mortgage paid. I 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:47.520 was working all those hours of red Lobster, and I 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:49.240 had to do that for five years. I would have 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:51.720 to do two million dollars in sales and food to 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:54.600 take the same money away from there, and I wouldn't 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:56.680 have done two million dollars of sales. I was sleeping 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.200 next to sewing machines, you know, I was. I had 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:02.200 a old eat up car gelopy. I mean that thing was. 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:04.800 I don't know where it is, but you should find 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:07.120 that car. It's not trust me, it's not around anymore. 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.400 It's not around anymore. It can't be. And now you're 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:14.800 successful and everybody knows it too. Why shark tank, I mean, 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.280 is it just because you're you're hungry for more. You 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.200 want to meet more people, you want to help more people. 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:22.120 You invest in all these different businesses. You know, that's 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.120 it sounds almost like a stupid question, but it's kind 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:27.560 of not because you've You've lived so much life and 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.160 had so much business that people could only even dream of. 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:32.720 Why Shark Tank is? Why? Why has changed on Shark Tank? 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:35.000 You know? Initially when I turned down the show because 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:36.560 they said I couldn't do any of the show while 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:39.520 doing Shark Tank, and I was representing the Kardashians and 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:41.760 I was doing various things with the Kardashians, so I 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.400 said no. Chloe Kardashian fired me off the show because 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:46.240 she heard that I was turning down Shark Tank because 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:48.600 of her. Then I heard that on Shark Tank you 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:50.560 have to use your own money. I'm like, these these 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.360 guys in Hollywood a pimps. You suppose to get paid 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:55.320 to be on the show. Are you crazy? And then 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.120 somebody said to me, well, Daman, you're only getting pitched 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:01.120 clothing ideas. And I had ten clothing comings at the time, 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:02.880 and eight of them were dead. This is oh, seven 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.199 oh eight, when retail not working. I said, I'll go 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:07.240 on the show because if I'm talking to a retailer. 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:08.840 I want to take a more real estate in their 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:10.920 in their area, and I only have clothing. So I'll 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:13.399 go and get some lotions I'll get I'll get electronics, 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:14.919 I'll get whatever. So then when i'm talking to you, 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:17.000 I'll go can I be in these other departments? And 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.920 because we have a nurtured relationship, like we always talking about, 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:22.280 you'll say yes. I'm more comfortable with you because I 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:23.920 know you're a good vendor. You've been a good vendor 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:26.120 record for years. Something goes wrong, you'll take it back. 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:29.320 We have a good relationship going there. Then I start 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.439 to realize the power of it the show, and I 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:33.800 start to realize I'm learning more on the show than 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:36.000 the people on the show. I don't learn too much 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:39.320 from the Morons on the Other Sharks, they're the chairman 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.760 of Moron. But I learned from these other kids who 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:44.879 are coming up now. All of a sudden, they're selling 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:48.480