Daymond John - Building a FUBU Empire, Shark Tank, Partnerships, & Much More!
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- 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..."

Seven dollars? It's not the seven dollars. It's the action. It's the proof of concept. And then when I get all those bugs out of the system. 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.

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. Can you talk a little about how people can expand beyond just like selling their product? So what you do is...

My name's Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast, and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life. What's up, guys? Welcome back to another episode of Living the Red Life. A very special guest. You may recognize him. Damon, welcome to the show. Living the Red Life. I like that.

i like the the thunder song going up there thank you for having me man we got a lot of lights going on yeah a lot of action there's a lot of cracking in here so yeah if you're not watching on youtube or uh streaming it go stream it because you'll see but damon uh pleasure for having you thank you for coming and uh excited to dive into the episode 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 um

filming all day with me. So I love it. Let's get into it. Good. So first question, you know, I think everyone watching, they obviously know you, but you're up to a lot, right? You're on this crazy health journey right now. You're prepping for the end of the world. Yep. And

You know, you're also running all the businesses on Shark Tank advising. You've got your high level program as well. High level program. I have another program with you. Yeah. Yeah. First question is what are the main focuses? And then the second question is how do you juggle those? 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, active.

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? 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. 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. 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. 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,

that I think is gonna educate children, whether it is, as we just touched on, like educating CEOs that are right at that point that they're either gonna make it or break it, or whether it's world-class CEOs. - Yep, yep. - And then I have my personal matter, which is health and then prepping for the end of the world. - So let's talk about, there's a lot I wanna,

pull apart but i am interested in the ceo side just to kick it off because you know i teach a lot of branding social media and uh i don't know if you agree but in the last five ten years a lot of high-level ceos that were behind the scenes are now realizing hey i need to actually grow the front end of my personal brand because of the connections and opportunity to kind of

create. And that's what I agree upon too because 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

but I also witnessed so many CEOs who say well you know I don't wanna be whether on social media whether be known but then when something critical happens they gotta go and try find spin doctors a various other things or somebody can take down whole corporations who are a kid in the park skateboarding around but the kid in the park skateboarding around has more influence than a fortune 1000 you know 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. 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, you know, 3000 people and they care and they've been painted with a shit stick for no reason. And yeah,

you know, I want them, 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. Yeah. And I think that's fascinating because sometimes it is like, you know, these ultra successful CEOs get painted in a bad light because of one thing. So almost what I'm hearing from you is not only is it good to just, you know, for the CEO to have the face for making deals and connect

connections and recruitment and culture but also it's almost a good defensive mechanism if there is ever an issue that people actually know who they are and they've got their personality and authenticity out there yeah but you know also it's good for their business yeah uh you know if you like listen there's many people who own uh sports teams there's only one Mark Cuban yeah

There's many real estate agents. There's only one Barbara Corcoran, many designers. There's Daymond John, cyber crime experts. I don't know.

I don't know how many, you don't know them, but you know Robert. Yeah. I mean, we even look at the new president. 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? 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. - Well, it's funny you mentioned Richard,

I spoke to him a few times about this and gone to his island and I said to him, I'm like, you're the OG of viral marketing, right? Like before Instagram existed 40 years ago, he's like risking his life going around the world or whatever to create viral marketing when he didn't have a budget.

And now everyone's cottoning on. But I also think you were one of the first with FUBU. Like when I see what you did there and your stories behind it and the more time I've spent with you, like listening to them, you had to get savvy. You didn't like take on hundreds of millions of dollars and just run TV ads. And yeah.

You know, I know there's one iconic story, or I'm sure there's a few, where you got a lot of publicity and free PR from celebrities and your friends endorsing FUBU kind of in a viral way that you wouldn't see through normal TV. 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...

um blackberry and fridays all of them and blockbuster they'd all still be in business it's all about uh you know when you don't have anything i wrote a whole book on the power broke and you create virality you create 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 to add way more value to your customer 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 you're, it's sticky and they want to share it. And that's, that's only, that's really what social media is. I found something so fascinating that I want to share it. Yeah.

Love it. So we talked a little about the brand side, virality side, content side. I want to just pull back to the amount of stuff you're able to do, right? Like all your own health journey and personal family stuff. And I mean, it looks like you do a great job of balancing all that for how busy you are.

How do you have the system, the teams, just a quick overview to do all these things well? - Yeah, I like to tell people, I say it all the time, 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. 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 you know 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 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. 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, you know, the 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. And I think just to talk about the license side, that's one thing I've definitely taken from you and working with Ted and stuff. I think as an entrepreneur, I know as I built my business to millions and then 10 million and beyond,

you're always just like working so hard on selling. But then you go, well, how can I, you know, get bigger faster? And it's like, well, I can add in M&A and I can add in license deals. And I think most entrepreneurs, because I didn't go to business school, you don't learn that, right? And that's what you need to go from that 10 to 100 million. It's

So can you talk a little about how people can expand beyond just like selling their product? 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 franchising.

for us, by us, young guys who love the hip hop culture. 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. 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, there was a couple. 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. 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 green?

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. 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. Yeah, yeah. 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. 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?

because you want an operator in those properties, right? And that's basically the same as the partnering thing, right? It's like you're saying, hey, instead of me going, I could figure it out. It'll take me four years and a lot of mistakes, or I just partner with someone already doing it. They can lease it. They're leasing it from you. 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. But you think I'm going to learn how to do all that? The license partnership side, I think it's fascinating for entrepreneurs because I think most entrepreneurs, especially the ones I work with a lot of zero to 10 million, they think so one lane, right? Ads to sell my product through Shopify or whatever. But I really think they have to get empowered and believe in themselves. Like, no, I can do these JV partnerships. These start getting these license deals.

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 broadcast equipment under your brand. You would need to share with me who

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 influencers buying it for this? Why are they buying it? So when we understood the brand was young men, primarily 18 to 34, they would pay 20% more who mostly lived in major cities.

So now all of a sudden the person who bought the sneakers, they know what stores they can 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.

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 cheesesteak you sell. And I'm going to come up with new cheesesteaks and I'm going to help market it. Yeah. Well, we have a mutual friend, Jeff Fenster with Evergold. Absolutely. It's a great way for him to expand. Evergold. Yeah. Yeah. He's expanding and he also has partners like Jubreeze. And so now not only does he have... 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.

there you go when it's a win-win because he has the mcdonald's model of owning the real estate side or making money off that part but then also like drew brees is an example he has the brand to blow it up and buy a bunch of stores instantly but he doesn't want to learn the manufacturing and the recipes collaboration so all collaboration great example so last couple of questions as we wrap up uh we didn't talk about the health side right like your uh

I came from a health background, a sports background, and the link between health and entrepreneurship, I think a lot of entrepreneurs are cottoning on now. So how important is health for entrepreneurship? 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 usually have 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 and then you turn around and you realize that you know um 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. 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. Um, 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, uh,

Entrepreneurs, the great thing about them is they're about doing their homework. 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 now addicted to their health. Yeah, that's great. Good. Well, we're out of time, so we'll have to save the end of the world part for another episode.

All right, we'll do it again. But it's been a pleasure. Thank you. And guys, if you want to learn more, there's a ton of ways to work with Damon. We've got an event coming up very soon in Miami. So come check that out. I'll drop the links below. Damon, pleasure as always. Thanks for having me, man. And I'll see you all with us collectively. Yep. See you guys soon. Take care.