Daymond John
Appearances
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
Damon, welcome to the show. I take all the small steps by myself first. I beat myself up. My team looks at me and says, are you kidding me? We're doing this for $7? It's not the $7. It's the action. It's the proof of concept. And then when I get all those bugs out of the system,
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
I mean, entrepreneurship is a very hard business, right? What do they say, right? You give up 40 hours to work 80 and often because you are an entrepreneur, you're usually of so much service to others that you don't take care of yourself. And, you know, you'll say I'll get an hour less sleep or two hours less sleep. You risk your family and various other things.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
And then you turn around and you realize that, you know, you know, you're not as healthy as you thought. And then sometimes it goes really good for you and you get to eat three different steaks, you know, with mashed potatoes and lobster that day when you were poor earlier. So you can't even believe you're eating caviar and drinking champagne. And other people are paying for it.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
And other people are paying for it. So it's the greatest thing ever. So you have to have this discipline. and be able to do that. But, you know, when you start really looking at your health, you know, so many people pass away due to this neglect. And then you go, what am I really working for? So entrepreneurs, the great thing about them is they're about they're about doing their homework.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
And once you see an entrepreneur start going on their health kick, they never stop. They start keep reinvesting in themselves. And it's been great. And I've had a great time. And I love seeing all my friends who are
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
I have another program with you.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
It's odd, you know, it's a good question because the main focus is every year I know right around the summertime I'm going to be entertaining, acquiring around 15 companies. And I probably come down to probably being an investor in about six or seven of them, which is your Shark Tank companies. And then I have the companies that I previously invested in. And these are real stories, right?
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
Damon John. Damon John is known as the iconic shark from the four-time Emmy award-winning show Shark Tank. He's an entrepreneur, he's an author, an investor. Inspiring millions to dream big and achieve bigger. A self-made billionaire, global fashion mogul, and the visionary behind FUBU.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
These are people's real dreams. And you're going to have your Bombas socks that have come out of there, your scrub daddies and the stuff that are going to be massive, massive successes. But you are also going to have people that are going to struggle.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
And you can't abandon them. So that is, of course, always the main one. And with that, the challenge becomes, are they going to air? When they're going to air? If they're going to air? How much do you get them ready prior? Do they want the investment if they don't air? All that kind of stuff happens.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
And then you go to the other business that we currently have, which is everything from investing in private companies, to consulting, to sales, to this and that. And with this crazy world changing with AI and the way things are distributed, that's a challenge itself because we're trying to help the entrepreneurs, trying to help my own companies, and then we're investing in startups.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
So that becomes the secondary priority after entrepreneurs. And then it becomes, what am I pushing that year that I think is going to create substantial change? So whether it is a book,
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
uh, that I think is going to educate children, whether it is, is we just touched on like educating, um, CEOs that are right at that point that they're either going to make it or break it or whether it's, you know, world-class CEOs.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
And then I have my personal matter, which is health and then prepping for the end of the world.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
know and that's what i agree upon too because uh what happened is the world has become so visual that the people no longer make it they'll buy it they want to know who they're buying it from and what you're about but i also witnessed so many ceos who say well you know i don't want to be whether on social media or whether be known but then when something critical happens they got to go and try to find spin doctors or various other things or somebody can take down whole corporations who are
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
a kid in the park skateboarding around, but the kid in the park skateboarding around has more influence than a Fortune 1000 CEO and can take that person down. And often it's just that kid's perception of that person. And so I realized that that was something critical. And I was somebody who had taken advantage of the ability to be a publicly recognized person.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
Entrepreneurship is a team sport. I get a bunch of really amazing partners and that's what licensing is, that's what distribution is, that's what everything is.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
And when I started saying that to CEOs, even they were like, I don't know. I don't know. But you know what? Their executive assistants, their wives, their husband are like, no, my husband or my wife or my boss is a great person. They do more philanthropy than anybody I ever know. They manage 3,000 people and they care and they've been painted with a shit stick for no reason.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
I want the great work they're doing because the DNA of this company is amazing. The culture is amazing. I want them to be known.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
Yeah, but also it's good for their business. Listen, there's many people who own sports teams. There's only one Mark Cuban. There's many real estate agents. There's only one Barbara Corcoran. Many designers. There's Damon John. Cyber... Cyber crime experts? I don't know how many, you don't know them, but you know Robert. I mean, we even look at the new president.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
I mean, how many people are into real estate? But who was the most powerful man in the world? Because he was able to brand himself and walk into those rooms way before. He physically walked into those rooms. Other people are anticipating you coming. That means that you can do this. I mean, Richard Branson, I mean, how many music executives were there?
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
Now Richard Branson has 300 companies, everything from Jets to Soda. And when you're powerful like that, you can take your company, your corporation and new things and you can give new life and new opportunities. to these people that work for you.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
He's like,
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
Well, you know, listen, if you thought that, you know, money was going to solve everything, you compete with everybody purely for money. Well, then if that worked, then I always say Kodak and black. Blackberry and Fridays, all of them, and Blockbuster, they'd all still be in business.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
It's all about, you know, when you don't have anything, I wrote a whole book on it, The Power Broke, and you create virality. It forces you to create something that's sticky. It forces you to create something that somebody wants to talk about. And once you start doing that and understanding that, well, You're learning how to add way more value to your customer.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
You want your customer to capture something about you, whether it's your person, whether you're a CEO or your brand, and go, and as I say, be the smartest person at the water cooler Monday morning or the smartest person on Zoom because it's sticky and they want to share it. And that's really what social media is. I found something so fascinating that I want to share it.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
Yeah, you know, I like to tell people, I say it all the time, you know, I'm Willy Wonka and it looks great, but Willy Wonka's chocolate factory is really messy. I don't have it as much in order as you think. I do have I do. And when I do get it in order, I mess it up by doing more stuff. Well, another stuff. Yeah, I do more shit.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
So but it's always I mean, look, you know, I think you and I, we have a great program. I found that you had this passion for helping entrepreneurs in this way to articulate it and brand them. I think you're a way better brander than I am when when I really think about it. And I look at somebody like you and I say, well, how do I partner up with you? I find that entrepreneurship is a team sport.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
I get a bunch of really amazing partners and that's what licensing is. That's what distribution is. That's what everything is. Co-branding, curriculums, marketing. So what I do is I usually... I take all the small steps by myself first. I beat myself up. My team looks at me and says, are you kidding me? We're doing this for $7. It's not the $7. It's the action. It's the proof of concept.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
And then when I get all those bugs out of the system, I go to a partner or somebody else and say, hey, I fixed this and I got it right. Now I need to put gasoline on it and put a bullhorn on it. And that's how I find that I've scaled businesses. And if you look at some of the greatest brands in the world, like the
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
Disney, they basically, and Mickey Mouse is great, but they have everything from networks to products to theme parks because they license out most of the stuff and find great partners. And that's what I do.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
I like the thunderstorm going up there. Thank you for having me, man.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
Yeah. So like you're saying, M&A, you're talking about licensing, franchising, various other things. So what you do is you try to find a way to master something really, really well. And so I'll give you an example about FUBU. FUBU, you know, we were really well, we were really good in doing for us, by us, young guys who love the hip hop culture.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
So we knew that at that time, you know, you can only buy like hip hop type of clothes were either really cheap made screen printed stuff with characters on them, you know, looking like a baseball cap or something. Or you had to go and buy a, let's say, Lecoq Sportif or Carhartt or Levi's and Leaves and Kangol and reinterpret it for the streets, you know.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
And actually, like if you're a breakdancer, you had to go and get the pants stitched to be closer to the leg and all kind of other stuff. So we decided that when we were going to come out with our brand, and then you could also buy kente cloth colored stuff. I don't want to wear a green or a yellow or an orange denim suit. I mean, maybe red sometimes, but not all the time.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
A lot of action. There's a lot of cracking in here.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
Why couldn't I just make really quality clothes that aren't going to rip up in the laundry that are not green because I want to represent African-American kente cloth and just make them They were affordable, but they were a little more pricey because they were investment in your clothing. So I did that. But I couldn't make ladies. I didn't know how to make bags, boots, fragrance.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
Now I can go down a learning path to doing that. You try to make shoes. You try to make sneakers. Sneakers are almost like building a car.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
Right? So what do I do? I go and find a company that is really good at sneakers, making them, but they're not good at branding. Okay, well... Why don't you license my FUBU brand? You'll get to use the name. We can clear and as long as we love the designs, we're good with that. You do exactly what you've been really good at, manufacturing.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
We will keep marketing it and you pay us a certain percentage to do that. And then if it doesn't work out in three or four years, We take the brand back. If it doesn't work out, you get an automatic renewal. So that's what licensing is. So we did that in boys boots, bags, whatever. And then we go, well, I don't know the market in Japan or Australia. Why don't we license stores?
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
because you want an operator in those properties, right?
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
They can lease it.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
You know, today, if I wanted, because the world is getting so health conscious, if I wanted to make FUBU frozen, soul food, healthy, plant-based, It's a name already.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
All right. Yeah, exactly. Let's go. I've been excited. I've been taking a tour of this place. You've been helping me and filming all day with me. So I love it. Let's get into it.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
The only thing that's important, though, is licensing is not easy in a sense that, you know, if I was making, you know, you're really great in branding yourself. And I say, Hey, Rudy, you know what? I want to make I want to make broadcast equipment under your brand.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
um you would need to share with me who is buying your brand is it women buying it for themselves are they buying it for their husband they're buying it for their kids is it is it is it influencers buying it for this why are they buying it so when we we understood the brand was young men primarily uh 18 to 34 they would pay 20 more who mostly lived in major cities.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
So now all of a sudden the person who bought the sneakers, they know what stores they could put it in. They know the pricing they can put it at. So you really have to be able to understand that. Now franchises is the same thing. I've created this great cheese steak and here is exactly the recipe. Here's how long the person needs to be in and out of the door. Here is the price.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
Here's the places it sells. Here's the themes and the names. You're going to buy the store. You're going to pay for all that. And you're going to give me a percentage every cheese steak you sell. and I'm gonna come up with new cheesesteaks and I'm gonna help market it.
Living The Red Life
Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
Evergold, yeah, yeah. He's expanding and he also has partners like Drew Brees. And he has the backend to build it. He has the backend to move it. Great product. He builds out these stores, right? And then he has great partners like Drew Brees who says, who really is passionate about it.