[00:00:00] Daymond John: I was three months later in the mortgage and I only delivered 20% of the clothes and I was about to be bankrupt and homeless, lose my mother's house and also lose my business. Because I didn't have any financial intelligence and it wasn't that I spent money on lavish things. So as much as mom helped me and as great as she is, my lack of financial intelligence. I was about to lose everything that she ever worked for.

[00:00:36] Our school system is antiquated. It is teaching our children right now how to go to shop. It teaches us how to be good employees if you don't teach 'em financial intelligence in any way and how money works. The colleges are lined up to give them an issue, them six to $700,000 worth of student debt that they will not pay off until they're into their fifties.

[00:00:58] I'm gonna go and get this [00:01:00] 500, $600,000 education that I don't even know if I need.

[00:01:10] Hala Taha: What is up Young and Profiteers. You are listening to YAP, Young and Profiting podcast, where we interview the brightest minds in the world and unpack their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your daily life. I'm your host, Hala Taha. Thanks for tuning in and get ready to listen, learn and profit.

[00:01:31] Daymond, welcome to Young and Profiting podcast. 

[00:01:45] Daymond John: Thank you. Thanks for having me. 

[00:01:47] Hala Taha: I'm very excited. Yap, fam. It is a special day today on the podcast and that's cuz today we have Daymond John on the show. He's one of the world's most respected entrepreneurs and somebody I have personally looked up to my entire adult life.[00:02:00] 

[00:02:00] Damon John is an investor, he's an entrepreneur, and a philanthropist. He's the CEO and founder of FUBU, a multi-billion dollar global lifestyle brand created to represent overlooked communities. In addition, Daymond is one of the original sharks on ABC's four-time Emmy award-winning TV show. Shark Tank, which some of you may know is my all-time favorite TV show.

[00:02:20] And in fact, Shark Tank was the only TV show I allowed myself to watch for three years. When I was growing this podcast and my company, YAP Media as a Side Hustle, Damon is also a New York Times bestselling author, and he recently released his first book for children, Little Daymond Learns to Earn, earlier in March.

[00:02:37] In today's episode, Daymond and I will cover his rag star's story. We'll gain insight as to why he created FUBU and will hear his lessons learned as a seasoned investor on Shark Tank. We'll also break down how to instill financial and entrepreneurial literacy in our younger generations, and we'll hear how Daymond thinks we can instill hope in our youth.

[00:02:55] So Daymond, I'd love to start off with your incredible come up story. You grew up in Hollis, Queens [00:03:00] in New York City, and around 10, 12 years old, your parents separated and your mother ended up working multiple jobs to put food on the table. From my research, I found out that you had an early entrepreneurial itch, even as a kid and teen.

[00:03:12] You sold everything from pencil to reconditioned cars. So take us back to memory lane. What were you like as a younger kid and what were your first experiences in entrepreneurship and business? 

[00:03:23] Daymond John: I think you covered it. I was a younger kid. I was an only child. My parents and when they were together, life happened.

[00:03:29] They got divorced. I would never see my father or hear from him again after 10 years old. They were hardworking individuals. They worked day jobs. And then they come home and they would work. Trying to build little things around the house, for the house itself to build it. They would my mother would, have Lee markets on the weekends and various other things.

[00:03:47] So I'm very hardworking people. But as an only child, I wanted to create a community of friends. I had no way to play with. I think that's what entrepreneurs do, right? I always wanted to find a ways to solve other people's problems or bring them joy so I could play with them. Cuz everybody had [00:04:00] brothers and sisters, right?

[00:04:00] So end of the day I'd be like, Hey, you wanna come home to my house to play? No, I'll go with my brother and sister. I got Tonka. I don't like Tonka trucks. I make it grilled cheese sandwich. I don't like grocery sandwich. I got a cat. You wanna put my cat? I think that's also what entrepreneurs do. They go, I got a product and I got something that I really love.

[00:04:15] I thought, I just think that I made just a little bit of tweaks of something that already exists and I wanna make it better. I wanna share it with the rest of the world. Do you wanna share it with me? And that's what happened. But I also had to be creative about how was I going to help mom pay the bills because dad wasn't there.

[00:04:28] And I knew my mother worked really hard and I didn't have anybody else too. I had other siblings and I said, I gotta be the man of the house. So I found ways to make money.

[00:04:38] Hala Taha: I love that. I definitely wanna get into all your different stories about how you used to sell as a child. We can talk about that later when we talk about a little Daymond and your new book little Daymond Learns to Earn.

[00:04:49] But let's talk about FUBU first. So you have this global lifestyle brand that you created in your younger years. It stands for us, by us. How did you first skip [00:05:00] the idea to launch FUBU and what did it represent to you at the time? 

[00:05:04] Daymond John: How did I get the idea to launch it? I basically, bottom line is Timberland had said we don't make our sell out boost to drug dealers, and I was a hardworking young man at Red Lobster.

[00:05:13] And I said, I'm not a drug dealer. Why would they say that about me? But it wasn't the first time that I heard something like that. We had already been as a community of hip hop. Hip hop was very young at the time. Hip hop was brand new. But I loved it. I knew that it was something that was going to, I don't care if, I didn't know if it was gonna dominate the world like it did today, but it was dominating my world.

[00:05:30] And you insulted me. I was going out of our way, my way to buy those type of companies. So I came up with a brand FUBU for bias who's ever going to love and support and value. Now people think that number one, that this was this visionary idea. No, I was downstairs in my basement with my buddy and drinking some 40 dogs.

[00:05:47] They're like, where are you gonna name it man? We should name it Bufu. Buy us for. All right. And then we did name it BuFu first, and then we went outside with a couple of bofu shirts on and we found out at that time, Bufu meant something totally different. So we [00:06:00] go back and we change the FUBU for us by us.

[00:06:02] Now, a lot of people would think that we had made this FUBU for us by us. By what was for us by us, it was black people, and it was only for black people, by black people. Then I would be guilty of being a bigot. Just Timberland was in a sense if I did that. The story is that when my father left when I was 10 years old, I was fortunate enough for my mother to find date another man who I call my stepfather, who happens to be of the Jewish faith.

[00:06:28] He always told me, Daymond never become the thing you're fighting against, and you better be pro-black, but never anti anything else. So it was always about a color. Because I was dressing mc search and the BC boys just as fast as I was dressing. A little Cool j I Run DMC and I was wa was it generated off of an African-American culture of young men between the ages of around 12 years old to 30 years old. Who came out of the Bronx who were talking about the trials and the tribulations of the streets.

[00:06:55] Yes. But it was a cultural thing to share with everybody. And when I did actually take out [00:07:00] my first ad, my mail order ad and rap page. The first areas that bought the product were the kids in Japan who were wearing not as black based. They were tanning their skins and wearing New York Yankee hats and nick jerseys and break dancing cuz they were trying to emulate the African Americans on the streets of New York.

[00:07:18] Or it was the skateboarding white kids in Seattle, Washington that were trying to rebel within the system, that we're wearing Nirvana shirts and various other things that are saying "f" you. We are down who is rebellious no matter what color you are. So that's how I came up with FUBU.

[00:07:33] Hala Taha: I love it. And every good business has a mission beyond just what they sell.

[00:07:38] And it sounds like your company represented much more than just the clothes. It represented an identity, which is really cool. So I learned that you actually did this as a side hustle. You worked full-time at Red Lobster, for three years while you were building FUBU as a side hustle. I also grew my company as a side hustle.

[00:07:56] I grew it to 5 million in our first year. And [00:08:00] at first it was just a side hustle and I was working at Disney. So I agree with that type of approach when starting a business. And I'd love to understand from you why you decided to start your business as a side hustle. 

[00:08:10] Daymond John: I'm fortunate enough to live in Hollis, Queens or come up from Hollis, Queens.

[00:08:13] And I have no idea what's in the water from ho of Hollis, Queens. But who came out of Hollis Queens is what I'm not even gonna talk about. James Brown and everybody else who live in Hollis, Queens run DMT LL Cool J, some of the Fat Boys, salt and Pepper Tribe called Quest Onyx, Lost Boys, 50 cents, Ja Rule Intro.

[00:08:31] Aaron Hall from Guy ,Young MC. A lot of people right in this square Five miles. I was fortunate enough to see them ride by and stuff like that and all these beautiful cars and things of that nature. So here's why I created FUBU because I couldn't rap singer dance and I need to get my ass on a video set.

[00:08:48] And every time me and all the other kids get on the video set, everybody get kicked off of the video set. And I'll be like this, hold on, I'm dressing the artist now. I wasn't dressing artist. They're like, what are you doing? I'm dressing the artist. So I got to stay on the [00:09:00] video set. Now I'm on the video set and I get eat for free because of the craft services I get to watch run DMC and LL Cool J, I remember watching Biggie Smalls on that video set because I grew up with two other three other kids.

[00:09:11] One was called named Irv Gotti, the other named Hype Williams. And the other kid was a big drug dealer that Hype wrote the movie Belly about. Just came home after 30 years, but everybody get kicked off the video set, but I didn't cuz I got the shirt and now I'm able to eat craft service. Try to talk to all the video victims, who really would never talk to me, and then look at all these amazing artists creating these videos.

[00:09:32] So it wasn't a business. It was my ability, like anybody who was buying something or having something to belong to a community, and it was something that I would've paid to do. You think that when I was growing up. You know how much I would've paid to be on set to see LL Cool J do Hey Lover with Boys to Men, right there in the middle of the hood.

[00:09:54] I was still working at Red Lobster, but then all of a sudden I started to see that there was a way to get paid and more people were [00:10:00] resonating with what I was doing. This new idea of founders need to start this and raise a bunch of capital is a bunch of bullshit. That's not the way you stay in business.

[00:10:09] Because if I would've just raised capital, first of all, nobody would've invested in me. But if I did, then the kind of money that I would've had to do in the first year to keep FUBU alive, I would've never done it. But I was able to work at Red Lobster and sacrifice having a life, but I was able to do that for five years, and Red Lobster was about 10% of my time.

[00:10:29] Excuse me. FUBU was 10% of my time, then it became, and Red Lobster was 90% of my time, and then slowly 20 80, 30 70, and I was able to close FUBU down three times from 89 to 92, but then I'd be globally recognized doing $350 million, and by 97, because I kept my day job. 

[00:10:50] Hala Taha: I love that it's almost like you didn't really have this grand vision for FUBU as a billion dollar company.

[00:10:55] You just kept putting one foot in front of the other and doing what you felt passionate [00:11:00] about, and where you wanted to get involved. You just wanted to be involved in the community.

[00:11:04] Daymond John: For the people to understand right now about FUBU. During the time of FUBU, there was no internet. There was no cell phones, and there was only and cross colors who had happened prior to us.

[00:11:16] If I sold you a shirt on the street, there was no way for me to sell you another one. I would've to find you. There was no way for me to sell you another one. If I took a picture and put out an ad, I would take a picture today. By the time the ad came out, it would be six months from now that somebody would see it. And then the stores, if I sold it to a store today, I couldn't sell it online.

[00:11:36] I would be selling something to a store that wouldn't make it to the store, and for one year. It was a very slow period of time and building this communication and things of that nature. It was a very hard time to do it, but I knew that I would wake up before everybody and go to sleep after everybody.

[00:11:49] There's four of us on the FUBU hang tag. When I first went to the department stores, they said, we can't have your clothes here or you gotta take the hang tag off. I said, why? He said, there's four African Americans on a hang [00:12:00] tag. You look like a gang. We don't want people coming in here and having shootouts and shoplifting.

[00:12:04] You have shootouts in your store or because you have a size 32 and I wanna buy your the size 32, and I'm arguing with you, what kind of shit are we talking about it? So it wasn't the way it is today, and I couldn't reach the customers directly because there was no internet. So this was a very challenging time in comparison today.

[00:12:20] And by the way, the hip hop community at that time was a very homophobic community. So when I was hanging out with the artists a lot of times and their crews and my boys were like. I'm gonna go back and sell drugs. I'm like, I don't sell drugs, man. I can't do that. Man, you gotta see this pattern of strawberries.

[00:12:34] I got a pattern of a strawberry shirt. I'm gonna go home and make strawberry shirts and strawberry looking hats. It's gonna match my sneakers. They were like, huh? It wasn't a very welcoming time. There were no known male designers at the time. Really but it was a great time. It was not easy, and thank God it wasn't.

[00:12:50] Hala Taha: And so I know that you had pretty limited resources and you were a really scrappy entrepreneur. You described yourself as scrappy in an interview that I read. So I'd love to understand what are some of the [00:13:00] guerrilla marketing things that you did as a scrappy entrepreneur? 

[00:13:04] Daymond John: You gotta have common sense and a lot of people try to overanalyze things and everybody thinks. That analytics you gotta an analyze things cuz analytics show everything.

[00:13:12] If you scrape the right data from analytics it. You call up Blackberry or Blockbuster and Kodak, see how that analytics is working for them. They're no longer around now. I was scrappy, so I had money for 50 shirts one time to buy. Now I have an idea here. I'm gonna buy 50 shirts. Now I wanna give them away to a couple of music artists and their friends.

[00:13:30] But if I give 'em away to all the cool kids, they're gonna wear it one time and get rid of it because they don't wanna be seen twice in it. But wait a minute, all the guys that wear four x and five x and six x, the big guys in the neighborhood. They have limited choices. They can either go to Rochester big and tall and get a big old white shirt, big old black shirt, or gotta spell, pay a lot of money to get something custom made.

[00:13:49] I'm gonna make those FUBU shirts for them, and I'm gonna name 'em Fubu, and I'm gonna say on the back, official security. Fubu, right? FUBU Nation or something like that. I give out these shirts to 50 [00:14:00] guys. Those 50 guys didn't wear it one time. There's the only stylish shirt they had. They wore it 10 times a month.

[00:14:05] By the way, you know where these guys were? They were in front of the red ropes at clubs. They were the body guards for those music guards. They were the big, joyful guys in the neighborhood. They were huge billboards. So now all of a sudden the music artists are saying, Hey man, I like that FUBU stuff. Why don't you tell that Gotti, gimme some fubu.

[00:14:20] You know what they said? No, man. Cuz you know what you're gonna do. He doesn't have a lot of money. You're gonna wear it one time, throw it away, and then he ain't gonna give me nothing. You better wear it and you better wear it in the next video. That's guerrilla marketing, right? But what else did I do?

[00:14:32] I saw these security gates. These storm gets to the pull down right now in front of the stores, right? They're graffiti on 'em. I look at them and I look at the bus stop. I go, wait a minute. How much people pay right there to put that whatever, that poster in the bus stop, that's twice as big.

[00:14:44] I go to 'em. Hey, can I clean up your gates? I'll take that profanity off. Can I put a local company on there? Name US kids and people are gonna know that you support a local company but wouldn't come support you. I don't care. I spray paint 300 gates from New York City, New Jersey, authorized Uber dealer.

[00:14:58] I didn't care. The, you were selling Chinese food. You're an [00:15:00] authorized Uber dealer. What else? I I finally started making money. When you think that you made money that all of a sudden there's no problem all of a sudden, you know what happened? MTV is 30 seconds for 30 seconds. It's like I don't know.

[00:15:11] $10,000 for 30 seconds. To run a commercial, but BET is like $500. Why? More people, according to the Neil's ratings, watching M T V, I'm from the hood, ain't nobody was paying for that cable in the hood. And by the way, in the projects, it ain't one person in the house is 19 in the house. And because there's not a lot of stations out there. This shows stuff for African Americans.

[00:15:35] They're not watching 15 seasons, they're watching one. I own the entire damn network for the same money would've been for empty because I just had common sense. You just have to have common sense sometimes. 

[00:15:49] Hala Taha: Let's hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors. You hear that sound?

[00:15:56] You should know that sound by now. Young and Profiteers, but in case you don't, that's the sound [00:16:00] of another sale on Shopify. And the moment another business dream becomes a reality, Shopify is the commerce platform revolutionizing millions of businesses worldwide. Whether you're selling t-shirts or an educational course, Shopify simplify selling online and in person so you can focus on successfully growing your business.

[00:16:19] Shopify covers every single sales channel from in-person POS systems to an all-in-one e-commerce platform. It even lets you sell across social media marketplaces like TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. Shopify is packed with industry leading tools ready to ignite your growth, and they give you complete control over your business and your brand without having to learn any new skills in design or code.

[00:16:40] And thanks to 24 7 help and an extensive business course library. Shopify is there to support your success. Every step of the way. So I started my Shopify store three months ago, and I've already made over $120,000. In fact, this month alone, we are projecting that we're gonna break a hundred thousand dollars with my new [00:17:00] LinkedIn masterclass, and the backend is completely powered by Shopify since day one.

[00:17:05] With Shopify, I was able to completely focus on the growth of my course. I made sure that I had time to spend on my course content, my student experience, and the promotion of the course itself. I didn't have to worry about the backend. I didn't have to worry about how I was gonna collect payments, how I was gonna set up a chat system, how I was gonna manage analytics and data, because Shopify did all of that.

[00:17:27] The platform is super easy to use. It's totally plug and play, and it just took a few days to set up our store and boom, we are ready to start selling. Logging on to Shopify is one of the highlights of my day. I probably log on to Shopify 50 times a day. I love going into their amazing analytics. It is so much fun.

[00:17:45] I'm able to see every single person in the world. Where they are on the site, what part of the buying process they're in. I can literally see that if I go on LinkedIn live and do a LinkedIn masterclass teaser. That 20 people logged on and there's eight people checking out, and it's such [00:18:00] a rush. Like what a dopamine rush every time.

[00:18:02] What's incredible to me about Shopify is no matter how big you wanna grow. Shopify is there to empower you with the confidence and control to revolutionize your business and take your business to the next level. Now it's your turn to get serious about selling and try Shopify today. This is possibility powered by Shopify.

[00:18:20] Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/profiting. That's all lowercase. Make sure you type it in all lowercase. That's shopify.com/profiting to take your business to the next level today. Again, go to shopify.com/profiting all lowercase and sign up for a $1 per month trial period shopify.com/profit.

[00:18:41] I love that. That reminds me of a quote that one of your early mentors told you Jay Abraham, who also came on the show in the past, and he told you everything in the world is a source of something, that you can find and make work for you. I love this quote, and I'd love to understand how you use that advice in your early career.

[00:18:59] Daymond John: A hundred [00:19:00] percent. So every transaction ever in the world. Somebody makes a profit even when somebody's losing bank going bankrupt or when somebody's throwing out garbage. There is always something that there is another person that have a need, and we all know the Red Paperclip story.

[00:19:13] It is just how do you target it and package to those that need the need or have the need for it. I've made it work in multiple type of ways. Obviously FUBU was paying attention to kids that, that were being neglected. I'll give you an example. The first time I got $50,000 in order is they didn't wanna gimme $50,000 cause they knew that if I, they gave me a young starving kid they gave me $50,000.

[00:19:35] I was gonna buy a brand new Hyundai with rims and I was gonna keep 'em clean. I didn't do that and everything is something. So normally somebody would've went to the banks and whatever and said, got turned down by it. I also didn't have a company where you can invest the money and do it because I didn't have a company.

[00:19:52] I go to somebody else and I realize what the something was. Manuel, a guy who was screen printing shirts for me was screen print shirts for let's say 6025 cents. So I'm thinking, what does [00:20:00] this guy need? Number one, he wants to screen print the shirts, but I don't have the money to give it. But he also wants to extend his business.

[00:20:06] And if he gave me a shot, it doesn't mean anything. I'm one kid. He doesn't know if I'm gonna be anybody. Why don't I go and have him sign a contract with me, that I will let the store buy directly from him and give him the $50,000? But here's what I'm gonna do. Instead of him charging me 6 25 for the shirt. I'm gonna have him charge me seven for the shirt.

[00:20:24] So he is gonna make more, but now I'm gonna connect him with the store and they're gonna buy more goods from him in different ways. I was able to do that. He made more on the goods. The store was sure that they were gonna get the goods. I gave up zero, my company and I got a finance. So everything is something in a different way.

[00:20:39] You don't take something you have and say, I just don't have nothing cuz there's somebody who wants to bought and trade for it. Jay Abraham is the master of trading and that's why a lot of people get very literal in the fact that we need money to make money. But the best way that Jay Abraham said it is O P M is other people's mind power, manpower, manufacturing, marketing, mentors, and sometimes like Timberland, other people's [00:21:00] mistakes.

[00:21:00] There's always ways to make profit. You don't have to be so literal that it is a dollar. 

[00:21:05] Hala Taha: That is such good advice. I wanna talk about your mom and then we're gonna move on to financial literacy and talk about Shark Tank. So your mom was a huge help to you, especially when you were first starting out with FUBU.

[00:21:17] I learned that at one point you had $300,000 in orders. You needed a bank loan, you were rejected by 27 banks. And then your mom ended up taking a hundred thousand dollars loan out on the house to support you. Which you of course obviously probably paid her back a million times over for it. Let's talk about your mom.

[00:21:34] What was her influence on like you growing up, and do you feel like you would've had such a successful business without the support of your mother? 

[00:21:42] Daymond John: I wouldn't have had a successful business, without the support of my mother, because first of all, if she wasn't around, I wouldn't be alive. So she gave me birth.

[00:21:48] But to talk about the business, no, because first of all, way before the business that we will get into Little Damon learn to earn, my mother gave me the mentality to understand how to hustle and to always be working, creating ways to think about the value for the [00:22:00] customer. Always having common sense.

[00:22:02] So she was a great entrepreneur and is still a great entrepreneur thinking person. And most, when people talk about being an entrepreneur, I always. The number one entrepreneur is in every day as a mother. Nothing against dads, but when a woman risks her life to bring a life into this world, there's nobody's, no book is gonna show her step by step on what to do with this life.

[00:22:19] She's gonna have to figure it out. Pivot Bob Weave. I said that my mother was very creative and so yes, she was huge in regards to me and my business, and then getting to the part of funding my business. There's a story of mom. It's got a hundred thousand dollars loan on my house. First of all, she wouldn't have taken it out just to take it.

[00:22:37] This was after six or seven years of her seeing me do food while I have $300,000 in orders. Then she goes, all right, I see you working on this. You have $300,000 in orders. I'm gonna take this loan out for a hunt. She took out all she could in the house. Now I have no idea how she got a hundred thousand dollars, cuz the house was worth 75 till today.

[00:22:55] I haven't asked her what she did for the rest of the money and she got a hundred thousand dollars. She goes, this is all I. [00:23:00] Damon, you can't go I don't want you to think that somebody else is gonna be able to manufacture this for you. This hundred. Remember, Alibaba is not out. Internet doesn't exist. I don't know who to check out.

[00:23:09] She said, you can't give our money to people that you don't know and just trust them. You're gonna have to learn to sew this stuff yourself and create. And she, so I create a factory in the middle of my house. But the real story is at the end of the day, that right before I got that deal. I was three months later in the mortgage, and I didn't deliver.

[00:23:27] I only delivered 20% of the clothes, and I was about to be bankrupt and homeless, lose my mother's house, and also lose my business. Because I didn't have any financial intelligence, and it wasn't that I spent money on lavish things, but as any operator would know today. That I was paying for raw goods 90 days ahead of time to get the goods in.

[00:23:45] I'm paying for machines. I'm paying for a staff, I'm paying the ship again, the internet doesn't exist. I don't know about factoring. You didn't get. What do you call it? Pre-orders. There was none of that crap out there. There was, the store would give you the money [00:24:00] in 30 and 60, 90 days. I was flush out of the cash because I just, it wasn't where we are today.

[00:24:07] So as much as mom helped me and as great as she is, my lack of financial intelligence. I was about to lose everything that she ever worked. 

[00:24:15] Hala Taha: But then you ended up becoming an international global brand and doing really well. 

[00:24:20] Daymond John: Only by the way, cuz of mom. Cause you know what she did? She came home, she says, you ran outta all the money.

[00:24:24] I have one last idea. I says, what? She says, I need $2,000. I go back to Red Lobster and I sling as many biscuits as I can and after one month I come home and give her $2,000. I says, what is this bright idea you have Marsh? She took the money and put it in her pocketbook. I'm gonna take an ad in the newspaper.

[00:24:42] In the newspaper. I said, that's gotta be the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life. And you know what happened? She took an ad in the newspaper. I said, I forbid you to do it. So de she definitely did it. And the ads read $1 million in orders, need financing. 33 people call that ad. 30 of 'em, Malone charts.

[00:24:59] Three of them [00:25:00] were real because if you look on Sharks Tank, what did she basically do? She put on in the world. We have proof of concept. We just need funding. And that's what. 

[00:25:09] Hala Taha: I love that. Okay. This is a perfect timing to get into your Shark Tank journey and understand how you ended up getting on Shark Tank, because I learned that you actually initially rejected the offer twice.

[00:25:21] So tell us that story. How did you end up on Shark Tank? 

[00:25:24] Daymond John: I go back to my desk at the time, and you know how that was back then? I don't know how many people know, but we, we had hard lines. We still had, we had phones at the time, cell phones at the time. But my normal, recording had 50 people on there.

[00:25:35] I checked all the recordings. 48 of them were, I wanna borrow this, or I want to sell you some whatever stocks of bonds, or, I wanna open a new store, but two of them are real. And one was a guy named Mark Burnett's office. Mark Burnett, the famous producer. And he said, Hey, I want to put you on a show called Shark Tank.

[00:25:51] And we was like, all right, great. I love it. He is you're gonna have to spend your own money. And I was like, Click these goddamn pimps in Hollywood. I heard, dude, I heard, damn. I heard the [00:26:00] black people didn't get paid. But that's one thing. But damn, now we have to pay. And then it was oh seven.

[00:26:05] A lot of people weren't buying more clothes when they couldn't pay their rent. And I had 10 clothing brands and eight of them were dead. So I went diversify my portfolio and get pitched other things like electronics or whatever the case is to take a more real estate. In the stores. And so then I said, okay, I'm gonna do the show.

[00:26:21] They said, you can't do any of the show but hours. I said, okay. But I have a, I have three friends that are opening a store in California and I'm gonna be on a new cable show. Three separate times, three minutes a piece, nine minutes total. Can't do any of the show, but hours. Then I said, all I have to pass respectfully.

[00:26:36] Thank you. I'm a man of my word. I'm not a, I don't know, reality star actor or actress. That's not what I do. And then I get a, I set the pass. Thank you. I get a call about. A couple of days later from a book agent, not even my agent said, I heard he gave up a show on a ABC with Mark Burnett for three girls named the Kardashians that that nobody will ever hear of.

[00:26:53] And he said, you could be on ABC, you could be the new black Ponzi. I said, no can't do it. I get a call from the [00:27:00] producer of the Kardashians, I think two days later, and she says, I don't think you really fit the model. We don't want you on the show no more. You're fired. And then I get a call from Mark Burnett one hour after that and he goes I heard you're available.

[00:27:11] And so Chloe Kardashian found out that I was gonna turn down the show because I was representing the girls. And she said that the world needs to know who I am, and she would never get in my way. That's why Chloe fired me. 

[00:27:23] Hala Taha: What a good story. Having the Kardashians involved and all that, and it was totally fate.

[00:27:28] So I'm gonna share a little story about how Shark Tank has impacted my life. Then we're gonna get into your new children's buck. So Damon, I actually, my family was one of the first families impacted by C O V I D in March, 2020. And I remember going to my parents' house, my mom, my dad, my uncle, my brother all had covid.

[00:27:47] I ended up being quarantined at my parents' house for three months because I got sick. None of my friends wanted to hang out with me. I was working from home, from Disney, and my dad ended up getting so sick. He was in the hospital and basically was dying for [00:28:00] three months, and I remember being so depress.

[00:28:02] I was binge watching Shark Tank every single night. Sorry, I'm gonna cry. And you guys got me through it because that was me, my dad's favorite show. And that's when I decided to take this podcast and really turn it up a notch. I started my own company called YAP Media. It's a social media agency.

[00:28:21] The company blew up. My first client paid us $800 a month. My second client was $30,000 a month, and then I kept getting one huge client after the next. And I have to say that Shark Tank was one of the main reasons, why I was inspired to become an entrepreneur. It taught me so much. I literally only watched that show for three or four years and didn't allow myself to watch any other tv.

[00:28:44] And you've just been a huge inspiration, so thank you. 

[00:28:46] Daymond John: Wow. I can hear how passionate you are about it. We wanted a show initially thinking it was gonna be great opportunities to get great deals, and the show became something bigger and better and Mark Cuban then being the tech guy is when everybody else.

[00:28:58] The show was gonna be canceled the first [00:29:00] three years. It wasn't doing well, like it hasn't done in many markets, but the data showed that it would jump in three, four years because it's very hard to explain that show. Who wins. Are they in, is it on Discovery Channel during Shark Week? Are they, do they get dumped into some shark, sharks or when do they get the money?

[00:29:14] And Mark Cuban found out that it was one of the top shows. Watch kids and Parents together, and kids five to 15. And the ones taught in school. And all these famous celebrity entrepreneurs at the time that many of 'em been on our show. After that, they wouldn't go onto the show because they didn't know who a Damon, Barbara, or Kevin and whatever was.

[00:29:31] Cause they were like, they're not famous. But Mark Cuban said that this is helping American families bond to be together and creating, new sharks. I'm gonna go on this show. So Marco's on the show and now he can walk onto Jimmy Kimmel. He can walk onto the late night show because he's Mark Cuban.

[00:29:47] We couldn't walk on there and cause of him Season three. The show's outta here. And what it is an institution. It is a, it is one of the only shows on TV that families like a daughter and a [00:30:00] father could watch. It's the only show on TV, where you cannot know what it is to be an entrepreneur, but then, wa watch it for two years straight and walk into the room and know the questions that a millionaire and billionaire are gonna ask you.

[00:30:11] And that's why he is, it's a huge honor to be on the show and to have that experience that you have shared with. 

[00:30:17] Hala Taha: I really thank you for all your work on that show. So let's talk about financial literacy. What did being on Shark Tank teach you about financial literacy in America, or the lack of it?

[00:30:27] Daymond John: It told me that we are not taught financial literacy in America. It taught me that most of the people that come on the show on, not most, but a lot in the earlier days. They were only in those situations because they did not have financial literacy or financial intelligence. And there was nothing wrong with them, and nothing wrong with that because we weren't taught it.

[00:30:45] As I go through the data of, 65%, a lot of winners and athletes are bankrupt three years after leaving the league or winning the lotto because they weren't taught that. It's not the, everybody wants to call that. That's why people call athletes big dumb athletes. No, they're not. They're the most [00:31:00] prime beings and understanding of running plays and understanding how to be the ultimate person.

[00:31:06] That remember, there's only 3000 professional athletes all combined in the United States. Do you know how rare that is? But it doesn't mean that they understand finance. I know. Who does not understand? Often finance doctors, they don't, they know how to cut you open and save your life, and that's way more important.

[00:31:21] But we're not taught that. And that's why we are in the jam. We're in, we are a country of renters now because the American dream is moving away from us, the American dream of buying a house. At a certain, price and a growing in equity and then you raising your family and then the house is worth a lot of money.

[00:31:37] You take that equity out of it. You then go and move to a very small place and reduce your imprint, and you live off of that for the rest of your life. That American dream is gone and it's going away because we don't have financial intelligence. And that's the point and that's the problem. 

[00:31:52] Hala Taha: So I know, Damon, that you've written multiple bestselling books and you basically have made it your life's work to pass on [00:32:00] your hard-earned business acumen.

[00:32:01] How come you're focusing on children now? 

[00:32:04] Daymond John: How come I'm focusing on children now? Why? How? Do you have any children yet? 

[00:32:09] Hala Taha: Not yet. No. 

[00:32:10] Daymond John: You have nieces, nephews? 

[00:32:11] Hala Taha: Yes. 

[00:32:12] Daymond John: How old are they? 

[00:32:13] Hala Taha: They are six and eight. 

[00:32:15] Daymond John: Six and eight. My perfect. That's my target market. And the best thing, guess what about those six and eight year olds?

[00:32:21] They don't have credit cards, but those six and those eight year old, by the way, I gotta put this on, sorry. 

[00:32:28] Hala Taha: What does that represent? 

[00:32:29] Daymond John: What does this represent? 

[00:32:30] Hala Taha: Yes. 

[00:32:31] Daymond John: When I'm talking to a 6 or eight year old, do you think they give a shit about my $10,000 Tom Ford suit when I'm sitting on tv? 

[00:32:40] Hala Taha: No. 

[00:32:41] Daymond John: You gotta meet your customer where they're at.

[00:32:43] And when I put this on, guess what you gonna do? Magic. I'm gonna do some magic here. I'm gonna teach you how to make $1 to two. I'm gonna teach you how to be successful. I'm gonna teach you how to get outta your mommy and Daddy's house whenever you want to. All right, let's get into the story here.

[00:32:56] This is Little Daymond Learns to Earn. Let me tell you something. This is the first book in [00:33:00] history that I see, like its kind because we are not taught financial intelligence in school. And the reason why we're not taught is not because it is a scam. It's not our school system is antiquated. It is teaching our children right now how to go to shop.

[00:33:16] We needed to learn how to go to shop when we were at war, and we needed to understand the trade and the skill. It teaches us how to be good employees. However, if we are not teaching them at first grade, second grade how a dollar works. What is compounding interest and not in insane what's compounding in.

[00:33:35] We don't tell them that they're supposed to be in school. We're not supposed to be talking about how much are they're supposed to get, two $6 an hour, $8 an hour. No. When we start talking about if a train leaves a station at six and arrives at nine, what's it worth? That's time. And when we break it down in the way of, and if you do this, you either have to leave later so you can have more time to play with your friends or more time to eat candy, or if you do that, then you start to break down and let them understand how to understand financial intelligence, [00:34:00] because here's the problem.

[00:34:01] If you don't teach 'em financial intelligence in any way in how money works. Then at 16 and 17 years old, the credit card companies are lined up and they all have CFOs. The colleges are lined up and they all have CFOs. They're lined up to give them an issue, them six to $700,000 worth of student debt that they will not pay off until they're into their 50.

[00:34:23] Because they don't have financial intelligence, and what are they gonna do? They're going to spend that on the education. They're not even sure if they want the stats and the data is 50% of the kids that are graduating today, will retire with a job title that doesn't exist today. If I told you 20 years ago you were gonna be a AI expert or a podcaster, or a pay per click manager, a social media manager, or a drone operator, you would've said, what the hell is that?

[00:34:48] I'm gonna go and get this 500, $600,000 education. That I don't even know if I need.

[00:34:54] But now don't get me wrong. It is not a scam cuz by the way, they teach you finance and then counting in college. [00:35:00] But you just took the $600,000 loan and now they're gonna teach you finance. You might as well just enroll in the Navy.

[00:35:07] I'm gonna teach you how to swim, after you're out in the ocean in a war with 20 foot swell. You can't do that. And that's why this is gonna be my legacy on my life's work. This is what I am going to the grave for because here's why this is what I call my three-peat. I changed the world and the way that African Americans, as well as culturally people thought of African-American and the culture of hip hop.

[00:35:30] Because FUBU is the number one exported hard goods in American history. I would also affect and change the world at the 14 years being on a show that showed families that you can do this. If somebody was laying on the couch. They decided and understood what it is to be a shark. And there is going to be kids who are right now watching me on Shark Tank. Who will grow up and they will change the world and be bigger and better than I ever will be.

[00:35:54] But this is what I'm going to the grave with cuz it's not about a book. This is about teaching our kids financial [00:36:00] intelligence. And this is about getting the school system and other people to say, there's a whole lot of financial intelligence, financial literacy things out there. And oh my god, Atlanta, you just put this into the school system and it's starting to work better.

[00:36:12] Detroit, why aren't you doing something similar with other products out there? Houston, why aren't you Arizona? And I wanna make it a thing. For people to start to say, this is good. I want Chase to say, why don't we come up with financial intelligence programs that we gift to schools? And then when I die, I want my little girls to say, my daddy started a movement that everybody got behind.

[00:36:39] Hala Taha: We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors.

[00:36:46] I love that. I hear the passion in your voice on this and it's really moving. So do you feel like kids right now don't have the right role models? Do you feel like kids today are actually worse off than they were 10, 20 years ago in terms of this?

[00:36:58] Daymond John: Just so they have the right role [00:37:00] models.

[00:37:00] I'm not gonna be the old phobia.

[00:37:05] Listen, I'm using Brown now. Kids have wrong role models that are showing them that all of a sudden they are just, it's easy to be rich. Kids have other role models that unfortunately have come from really bad areas, and all they're doing is talking about what they know because that's all they have.

[00:37:25] Because they have been marginalized and come from a lot of systemic. Kids have other role models who have overthrown governments by not picking up a gun, by picking up something called Twitter. Kids have other role models who are their age, who are like the generation before us have destroyed this planet.

[00:37:42] I'm gonna take all the plastics out of this ocean. I looked along, I'm a little girl one day, and I said, what do you wanna be when you grow up? She's about four years old. She said, what do you want? I said, what do you wanna do? She said, I wanna pick up trash. I said, what? I'm paying $60,000 for you to pick up a trash?

[00:37:57] This has nothing to do with the great men and the great women [00:38:00] in our cities. Who bust their ass to pick up trash to make sure that we don't have diseases and rats and roaches. But then I said, why do you wanna pick up trash? My little girl said to me, what her big, beautiful eyes? 

[00:38:11] Hala Taha: What's that?

[00:38:12] Daymond John: Because I wanna clean up the world Daddy. Now picking up trash to her may be reducing the carbon imprint on this planet. It may be making, taking plastics out of our waterways that then go into our bloodstream. So there are a lot of role models for kids out there, but the problem is today's generation of children. Your nieces and nephews, they don't have any national role models.

[00:38:34] Why? Because after five or six years old, they tap out of Peppa Pig, Daniel Tiger, Thomas the train. When I grew up, I had a national role model. I had Mr. Rogers, Steve Roth, whatever the case is. Even what Mr. Coy was putting out I had the Muppets, we all went around that. Even my older kids had Steve from Blue's Clues Dora the Explorer.

[00:38:56] Now who do the kids have, they pick up an iPad and there's a thousand [00:39:00] splintered families showing how to play with toys, and they're more excited about unboxing, than creating what's in the box. Guess what? I'm the only, and this is sad, I'm the only African American man on a national television show for 14 years that does not come from music, sports, or politics.

[00:39:17] And I've been in these kids' room for 14 years. I don't have a superpower. You don't need to know. Think that I was the only one who could dunk a ball. I can sing if my dumb ass can do it. You can. 

[00:39:30] Hala Taha: I love that. So let's talk about what's inside this book, Daymond so I believe that you're teaching kids about entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and basically in your book, Little Daymond, he wants to buy a music poster.

[00:39:43] He doesn't have enough money to buy it. And then his mom points out that, hey, you've got talents that you could use to solve problems, and little DAymond becomes an entrepreneur. So what are some of the lessons. If my Young and Profiteers go out by this book for their young kids, what are some of the lessons that they're gonna learn and their kids are gonna learn?

[00:39:59] Daymond John: First of all, I [00:40:00] want them to take their parent hat off because as you became a parent and adult. It was a trap you had to grow up. So first of all, I want you to think like a kid. So first of all, when Little Daymond opens up this business, guess what happened there? First he fail. Horribly. I love this teacher that ends is in my teacher's group.

[00:40:18] I got advisors, I got teachers. You know what she tells her kids? She says, Monday is this kind of day. Tuesday is this kind of day. You know what? Wednesday is Wednesday's curve ball. Wednesday. And then she has Thursday and Friday. Our kids and I taught curve ball Wednesday, right? We always think things are gonna go well.

[00:40:32] So Daymond's first business fails. He comes back depressed. What I wanna do, I said what happened? Mom says, you gotta find out what are your friends' best skills cause you need. Entrepreneurship is a team sport. You may have, you may be a single owner, entrepreneur, but you are working with very other people to get you goods.

[00:40:49] Then Daymond tries and finds a way to get his friend. You can sing, you can dance, you can draw. Let's start to sell these things, cuz I want you to draw it, but I want you to stand outside and sing. You're gonna get people over to our booth. [00:41:00] Why? With this, oh, you are really good at math. And all of them start to profit off of it.

[00:41:05] And not little Daymond starts. At the end when they divvy everything up cuz they gotta reorder and whatever the case is, everybody gets to profit. And that is another key because our kids grew up thinking a boss is somebody who tells you to get coffee. A boss is the first of the office, the lasts to leave.

[00:41:22] The one who thinks everybody for their success and blames only one person for their failure. And that's the key. But I don't wanna read my to my little girl anymore, princesses and pony books because how many times am I gonna read to my little girl, to wait around for some prince because there's gonna be some glass slipper. That you're gonna drop or to pull your hair outta some damn tower because a prince is gonna come around.

[00:41:45] I'm trying to teach my little girl how to sell glass slippers. I don't wanna teach my little boy if I had a little boy that the webs are gonna come out his wrist or he's gonna fly, no. You know what? If he thinks that the Avengers are great because they [00:42:00] all come together to use their superpowers to stop evil.

[00:42:02] All his little friends have superpowers. Why don't you bring your superpowers together? To bring joy to your friends and to create something, and create fun things that you love? And if you fail at making money at least you had fun. You're the super friends. You are the little Avengers. That's the critical thinking that kids need to know, and that's what Little Daymond learns to earn is about.

[00:42:22] And I want the parents to take their goddamn parent hat off. When I read Capture in the Rye as a kid, I read it one time and said, what the hell am I doing? I read it one time. A kid is repetitive. You don't read this book once. You read it once a month to them because they go out and they go, oh man, they didn't get it the first, second time, but they love the way you told a story.

[00:42:42] Maybe the third month they go, wow, my friend knows how I to do this. And you know what? After they get tired of in a year or two year, you do, you give it to another family. 

[00:42:50] Hala Taha: I'd love this mission. I wanna help you. I have a lot of successful listeners who listen to the show. How can we help you get the word out?

[00:42:57] Daymond John: How many successful? You know what? When is this gonna be out? 

[00:42:59] Hala Taha: [00:43:00] This is gonna be out March 27th. 

[00:43:02] Daymond John: March 27th. I'll tell you what I'll do. You know what? Here you go. Just help me and spread the word because we have a great program. Buy one, gift one because it's you. They buy, book and go to littledaymond.com and you will.

[00:43:17] They'll enter into something where one person will be picked by your crew. That I'll spend the 15 minute one, one-on-one with. And give them all the advice I can on how to become more successful or do something else. But at the end of the day, it's just about getting the word out. You know what? And double dare everybody else to take on the same journey and come out with other products like this. That I will highlight on my platform.

[00:43:38] To give them a voice to hopefully just change this narrative in our country. 

[00:43:43] Hala Taha: And do you see Little Daymond moving on to have some sort of a t I could totally see a TV show or something like that. 

[00:43:49] Daymond John: Little Daymond will move on to having more things and more ways. But because, but we're coming up with a system children understand what to do with $3, [00:44:00] $300, 3000, 3 million. People don't understand America how it's supposed to work. The first dollar goes to what you have to pay for. The second goal is for an investment, and the third goes for what you would like to have, but don't have to have. But what do we do as Americans?

[00:44:12] We put number three as number one. We never get the number two. And number one we'll get to at the end or we get kicked out. So start to learn that we have systems that we will be bringing out. But what do you wanna do with your kids' day? Show 'em the $3. You know what else to do? You know your nieces and nephews, you know what to do with them?

[00:44:29] Every year get them. You want to get them a toy, right? Of course. Because they're kids, right? When you get them something, buy a your boy, the boy he likes trucks. Buy 'em one, share. And Caterpillar but him a little Caterpillar truck, cause it's Cher he's Susan Caterpillar. He's going, what the hell is that?

[00:44:47] Buy him a Caterpillar truck and taking a picture of you with him and the truck at that time. And that's for Christmas and for a birthday. Then, I don't know what he likes, but maybe likes, I don't know, whatever the Toy it is, or buy a Cher and Mattel. I don't know if it's a public company.

[00:44:59] Before you know it,[00:45:00] and every parent can do this. American girl I think is on my Mattel or something like that. Before you know it, by the time they're 16 years old, that one Cher would've changed to this amount. They would've been like if you would've put that in the bank, you would've got three, 4%.

[00:45:13] But you put that there. It averaged out to probably about 15, 16, 17%. Here's the picture of me or my auntie my truck with this, with that, you gotta get them accustom of these things in the way that they think about it. Remember a kid, they see one quarter and two pennies. They think the two pennies is more than the one quarter, but if they see one quarter equate to how many damn gummy bears they can buy against two penny.

[00:45:34] Now they know the difference. Little things we gotta do. 

[00:45:37] Hala Taha: I love this, Daymond, thank you so much for your time. I wanna be respectful of your time. I'm gonna end the show with two last questions. The first one is, what is one actionable thing our Young and Profiteers can do today to become more profitable tomorrow?

[00:45:50] Daymond John: It all depends. They have to reinvest in whatever they love, right? But financial intelligence is a thing to be more profitable about, and if you want to have more financial intelligence, and [00:46:00] you are concerned about the way to do it. How can I meet you exactly where you are? Not me. But the same way that you have all those accounts on Instagram, where you know all the places to go for dinner, all the bags you wanna shop for, or all the places to travel.

[00:46:14] Put on 30 accounts that have something to do with financial intelligence, but do not buy anything. And I'm telling you now, after a year or two years of scrolling through there. You'll have a way better understanding the same way that you watched Shark Tank to become who you are. I almost went bankrupt three times, two times when I was poor.

[00:46:32] And one time when I had 10 million, I did the same thing and I watched a show Call Man Money by Jim Cramer every single day for two years. And guess what happened after that? Nobody could mess with me when it came to financial intelligence. 

[00:46:46] Hala Taha: I love that you always gotta level up Young and Profiteers, and Daymond, what is your secret to profiting in life?

[00:46:53] Daymond John: What is my secret to profiting in life? It is three 10 poles to how you profit in life and anybody to be successful. [00:47:00] Number one, know your why. Number two, set goals to accomplish that why? And number three, you gotta keep learning and do your homework. Here's the only problem, many of us don't want to admit what our why is, and many of our why's are being done for somebody else, what society thinks.

[00:47:17] So here's the bigger problem. If you are saying you have the wrong why, then what kind of goals are you gonna set? Because you're setting the wrong goals. And if you have the wrong goals. Then the education you have to enforce the wrong goals is gonna be the wrong stuff. You are the only one that has the blueprint to yourself, but you wanna be famous.

[00:47:38] Then set some goals to be famous. I got nothing against that. One of my favorite rappers were Ol' Dirty Bastard, and he set some goals that he was gonna be an old, dirty bastard and did his homework on how to be an old, dirty bastard. God bless his soul, but he was an old, dirty bastard.

[00:47:53] That's it. He was the only one who knew what he wanted to do. The problem is too many people lying to themselves about their [00:48:00] why. Don't do it for your mother, your father. Don't do it because you think it looks cold. You're the only one who gotta sleep with yourself at night. 

[00:48:07] Hala Taha: I love that. Great advice, Daymond.

[00:48:09] Thank you so much for coming on the show. Guys, Little Daymond Learns to Earn is on the shelves now. If you have any kids, make sure you cop that book right away. Daymond, it was honestly a dream come true to have you on the show. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. 

[00:48:23] Daymond John: Thank you. I love what you do.

[00:48:24] I love the fact that we had a little bit of connection, and so emotional about what you do. Cause it's clear you're passionate and I appreciate you bringing me on that show and giving me this opportunity. Thank you to all the entrepreneurs out there. And if you think I look stupid in the hat, I want you to know that you're playing yourself because you loved Willy Wonka.

[00:48:41] You love Clint and sweat. You love Harry Houdini. You love Frosty's a snowman. Stop playing yourself. I look really cool on this. 

[00:48:47] Hala Taha: I agree. You look fly Daymond.

[00:48:49] Daymond John: And your kids think I look cool so I'm gonna be attractive to your kids cuz it's hat and teach 'em financial intelligence. I'll look anyway. Call me stupid.

[00:48:57] Thi this is for our kids. 

[00:48:59] Hala Taha: I love it. [00:49:00] Thanks so much, Daymond. 

[00:49:01] Daymond John: You got it. Thank you.

[00:49:07] Hala Taha: Man Young and Profiteers, what a dream come true. It was to interview Daymond John. I teared up in the middle of this interview thinking about how much his work on Shark Tank impacted me. Shark Tank was actually the only show that I allowed myself to watch for four entire years. When I was building YAP as a podcast. I had a full-time job and I wanted it to be a huge show, and that means I needed to invest a lot of time in it.

[00:49:35] I had to remove all my unproductive. Which included things like reality tv, mindlessly scrolling on social media, and lots of things that I didn't really need to do that was sucking up my time. And my only bit of edutainment was Shark Tank. Thanks to Daymond John. And I love what Daymond is focused on. He's teaching financial literacy to today's youth, and that is such an important [00:50:00] job.

[00:50:00] And who better than Daymond John? He's one of the most respected entrepreneurs in the world. He's somebody that kids recognize from tv, and I'm so proud of everything Daymond accomplished in his life. From working at Red Lobster to selling hats in Queens, to taking FUBU to a $6 billion company to rocking primetime national tv.

[00:50:20] Daymond is truly the epitome of the American dream. It's scary to meet your idols in real life. It's funny to think that for so many years I would watch Daymond on TV with my dad in the living room, and then fast forward to 2023, he is sitting directly across from me on the screen, chatting directly to me.

[00:50:41] He knows my name, he knows my podcast. And it's just crazy. Like what a surreal moment. And luckily for me, Daymond was an absolute sweetheart. Sometimes these huge celebrities come on the show and they're standoffish, and they're just not in a good mood and they have no idea who I am. And they could be a little rude.

[00:50:58] But Daymond was nothing [00:51:00] like that. He was a sweetheart. And he even got a little silly towards the end after he warmed up a bit. And it goes without saying that our world and our youth is a little better with Daymond John. If you have kids, make sure you go get Daymond's new children's book. If you wanna enter a chance to win 15 minutes of Daymond John's time, go to littledaymond.com.

[00:51:19] Purchase your bundle and then enter code YAP at checkout again. Go to littledaymond.com, purchase your bundle and enter code YAP at checkout to enter the contest. 

[00:51:27] Thanks for listening to Young and Profiting podcast. If you listen, learned and profited, share this episode with your friends and family and take a minute to drop a five star review on Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[00:51:39] If you like watching your podcast videos, check us out on YouTube, and I highly recommend that you check out this specific episode on YouTube because there's some really funny parts at the end of it. And you can also find me on Instagram @yapwithhala or LinkedIn by searching my name. It's Hala Taha.

[00:51:56] Big shout out to my amazing, talented YAP production team. Shout out to [00:52:00] my executive producer, Jason Ames. Shout out to Kriti, my VP of add ops, Amelia, Greta, Paul, the whole team. Really appreciate everything you guys do. This is your host, Hala Taha, signing off.

[00:52:28] Hope you enjoyed this episode. I'm Darius Mirshahzadeh, hosted of the Greatness Machine and part of YAP Media Network, the number one business and self-improvement podcast network. So what's the Greatness Machine? The Greatness Machine. We are a badass podcast and we're about two things. We're about, people are living their passions and those are creating greatness in the world.

[00:52:43] Doing so despite the odds. Cause we know that creating greatness is not necessarily an easy road. What do I do in all my interview. In episodes, we're gonna be diving into origin stories, what makes people tick and why they did what they did to get where they're going. I interview some of the greatest minds in the world, turning their wisdom and their [00:53:00] experience into learning and advice that you can use in your life, so that you can level up and you can create some massive greatness in your life.

[00:53:08] You're also gonna get to hear solo episodes. This is like my greatest life learnings, the things I wish someone had taught me. Join me as I go deep with guests like Gabby Reese, Amanda Knox former FBI negotiator, Chris Voss, Stanford Behavioral psychologist, BJ Fogg, and my boy NHL, hall of Famer and Olympian, Chris Pronger, and so many more.

[00:53:26] You could find the greatest machine on listening platforms everywhere, so be sure to check it out. We launch episodes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Listen now.