Daymond John, CEO of FUBU and The Shark Group | The Brave Ones

I was just always wanting to create things and just sell so I said I'm gonna come up with four letters well letters are gonna change the world and empower a culture not a color and I came up with food for us bias and if you're wearing this across the street and I'm wearing it over here we silently know that we all love hip-hop I love giving the knowledge to people to let them go out and become who they want to be and tell them no don't go out and borrow money use the power of broke I like to see them work their way up that's how I got it rise & grind this is how you do it I love educating people so they can go up and empower themselves [Music] so if you have the opportunity to ask demons on a question what would it be [Music] [Applause] hey guys doing I'm wanting to come here and personally come and hang out with you guys you ready all right I am gifting these 10 MacBook Pros and I'm also gonna give my digital curriculum it's called daemon on demand I used to buy the shirts like champion sweatshirts and put these FUBU patches over it and then people start out it was full-on man you know this is a little something some so I heard you have a couple of questions [Music] I start with $40 don't listen to anybody else to tell you can make it and understand that you're gonna fail through the process but that's only gonna make you stronger so I grew up in Hollis Queens suburb of New York City and it was a lower middle class area as a great time you know when kids just would go outside and play on the block and play stickball as a child he was very curious in a very good way at school when I was in the first grade I would go and find pencils I would scrape the paint off the pencils that paint the names of prettiest girls in school when the pencils and go and sell it to the guys in school um but then I found out that the girls would pay two times the amount of money for the same exact pencils with their names on it so I started selling the pencils to the girls I sent him to camp a couple of years thank you this 15 16 or something like that so I told him whatever money he could save up I would match it so that he could buy a car he came back from Camp with $800 he would sell his sneakers tell me mom send me some more snacks it was always about business around 1984 to 1986 the community got divided crack is - cocaine what an atom bomb is - a regular ball crack came into the community and the only people that we could look up to with a big drug dealers it got so bad in a my neighborhood that a cop named Edward Burns was protecting a witness for a trial and the drug dealers in my neighborhood will go and assassinate him gunmen killed him with three shotgun blasts early Friday I had to figure out another way to keep him busy all the time so that he wouldn't get involved in these drugs most of my friends would go over to this part of our community and want to aspire to be these drug dealers and many of my friends were dead or in jail at the age of 16 to 17 I was losing a friend every three months [Music] but then all of a sudden we started to see you know these music artists driving by in the same neighborhood they were just as well you're even more wealthy than these crack dealers but they were selling music it was LL Cool J Run DMC salt and pepper Tribe Called Quest's ja Rule all of them are from Hollis Queens and I realized at that time wait a minute I can make money doing something I love and I just wouldn't be part of it hip-hop was this voice of the streets and it was our version of today's Instagram with Twitter and the kids are communicating through this music about their love their hopes their dreams or aspirations we lived on a Main Street farmers Boulevard and him and his friends would dance in the street when certain cars would pass of course Run DMC was gonna pull over and go wait a minute I've been waiting for a dancer like you all my life come on tall with me that didn't happen he was a hip-hop kid wore the clothes that the hip-hop generation wore during the time that rap started to really emerge I would wear Reebok shoes Fela the LEAs and Levi's we would have to if you had any money you can go to the dry cleaner and get the tailor to put a permanent crease all the way down the idea with hip-hop is to you know show out and be seen and you want to stand out in the crowd so how do you do that well you have to put your own spin on things in hip-hop there's a lot of remix or sampling fashion is the same so we took the brands that existed in those days and times and gave it our own spin I saw this tie top hat and I couldn't find it anywhere in Manhattan he goes uptown and he brings back this ugly looking hat it looked like a stocking cap ma look at this hat I paid $20 for the Hat $6 in gas and $37 in tolls I says for that those aren't the words I use she said go to the store get $40 with a pair you come back I'm gonna show you how to sew hats like that so I'll go out and stand on the corner of the Colosseum all in 165th Street and Jamaica Queens on Good Friday 1989 at 3 o'clock it was 42 degrees outside and I would sell $800 worth of hats in one hour Damon gone the way to affordably make the Hat and make a profit which quickly showed him that there was a market there was a need and a customer that would turn my life from black and white to Technicolor concept of FUBU started materializing because we had heard that a bull company had said that we don't make our boots for drug dealers and I just got pissed off you just called me a drug deal and I'm a hard-working man or a lobster we were all sitting in Damon's house hanging out and someone picked up the newspaper and saw it like wow why is it that every time a company starts to blow up and get rich off our back anyone to turn around and say we don't want you wearing our stuff Timberland must have thought that everybody in Jamaica Queens we're construction workers or mountain climbers for Damon it was about how do I create a brand that young people that african-american youth can relate to and aspire be proud of because these brands prior to mine were not specifically catering to the urban youth but I came up with pool for us by us so there was a tremendous void and opportunities that these new entrepreneurs quickly saw and seize that moment I would get up at six o'clock in the morning I would deliver or as many hats as I could or t-shirts I probably need to get to Red Lobster about two o'clock I would then come home and show the labels on things or whatever until three four o'clock in the morning one of his partners J Alexander Martin who had attended fi T had learned about the magic show while being a college student and he told Damon that that was something they needed to participate in it's not pulling rabbits out of hats it's men's apparel Gil in California is held in Nevada don't ask me why and this is where all the stores will go and buy all the products that you end up seeing in the stores Damon the FUBU guys didn't have the budget to be able to create a full-fledged exhibition at the magic show they rented sweet at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas to show their power and they would invite retailers to come and purchase goods now at that time at the tradeshow there were no african-americans so it's pretty easy for the security to spot the six guys walking around with a pro was talking about they were able to write up $300,000 in orders for goods come out of my mother defeated and say I got turned out my 27 banks and my mother will go why don't we take all the money we can out of this house you get the clothes made then you'll get that $300,000 you'll put the money back into the house and we'll be okay and my mother goes out and gets a hundred thousand dollar loan we were on 42nd Street and I told him you see those billboards and those big signs I said your name is gonna be up there one day my mother decided to move out it takes two weeks to sell all the furniture we can in the house anything we can't sell we chop it up and burn it in oil drums outside buy a bunch of industrial sewing machines I buy a bunch of fabric I hire a bunch of seamstresses and my friends move in so that we can all they can all pay fifty hours a week rent that first floor of the house I didn't know what I was doing and $100,000 is $500 left and I'm three or four months late on the mortgage I'm about to lose the house I'm not delivering the clothes in time the story's about to drop me the competition is coming up and my mother comes home and says I have one last idea why don't we just take an ad in the newspaper an ad set million dollars in orders need financing the whole bunch of shady characters called and you know 22 things it was a whole it was a whole mob with people that called I mean brilliant who would think to put out an ad in a newspaper to say hey I can make you money I've got these orders I have to fulfill who you be in partnership with me you want to hooking up with Samsung and that was like the best move today the first terms would be that I would have to sell five million dollars worth of clothes in three years to keep the deal because they were gonna set up supply chains and logistics and all that but I would end up selling thirty million dollars at the close in three months so we were already cleared of that debt and we were just just ready to rock and we just kept going around ninety eight we would probably hit about three hundred and fifty million dollars in sales annually we would compete with all the major brands even though 350 million dollars a year and in my world is not a lot if you look at the Nikes and all those people who were doing five and ten billion dollars he or however we were taking shelf space from them and they were starting to now want to do things like us we were in Africa we had Milan Turkey Saudi Arabia France Germany Japan Korea all over it spokes youth of all cultures being unified by that concept for us pious I just remember standing on that street corner and saying this is for us bias I understand what you want to where you want to say when I want to wear and if you're wearing this across the street and I'm wearing it over here we silently know that we all love hip-hop the idea of shark tank is you have five of the smartest business people in all the land Mark Burnett and the team called and left a voicemail they said um yeah so you're gonna be spending your own money I said bye click [Music] [Applause] [Music] when I started coming up with FUBU it was also a reason for me to be on the video set however I would have paid to go on the video set to see some of these artists that I absolutely adored but now I had a Hasson t-shirt so when the security came and kicked everybody off I would hold my hat up and go hey I'm here for the artists they didn't have the marketing dollars to support the branding and building of a Empire so they themselves made it their business to show up to every major music video and be friends with the directors and provide the Wardrobe we didn't even know it was called product like we just knew that we needed to get out close scene and we still literally put the clothes off artist as soon as they finish like I only had 10 shirts and I would put those in ours and as soon as they dropped them or put them in their dressing room I was taken back from them anyway LL Cool J is you know the main artists that we love him and Run DMC with the main artists that we love for my neighborhood I was able to go on the tours and because we had on our license you know farmers Boulevard Hollis Queens we immediately told security we're ELLs cousin so L had 19 cousins on the tour and we go there and we would push speakers around and do whatever and then you know sometimes ll would give us a job hey Damon you know he give me a bag of his dirty underwear and say you going back to Hollis Queens take this home to my grandmother LL Cool J had started in the hip hop business as a young adolescent by the time FUBU came around he had transition from just being a hip-hop artist yeah moved into acting both television and film it was a perfect opportunity for Damon to capitalize on a pre-existing relationship and friendship and formalize it into a substantial business relationship we would then sign LL Cool J to be our spokesperson LL took it so far from Justin regular duty he got called by the gap to do an ad and he he just felt that they didn't really respect hip-hop they were trying to use the vehicle only to bring customers in their store unbeknownst to the gap I guess they gave me complete okay for LL Cool J to write rap lyrics that he's going to recite in the commercial gritty ready to go for a spotless on the lope he would say for us by us on the low it shook up the gap they would spend millions of dollars airing a FUBU ad not knowing it the entire hip-hop community were just dying laughing I couldn't believe it even happened everybody in the hood was like oh my god to be able to hustle maneuver and navigate a gap commercial to push FUBU think about that that's hustling FUBU got its first national TV campaign at a zero dollar expense we had this beatty reality show that we were supposedly supposed to be like the first B TV alley show so everybody was on board except David and we were like dude like this is a great opportunity for us and you know I don't know I don't know Mark Burnett and the team called and left a voicemail on my my office phone call back and they say well we want you to be on a show we saw you on a couple of other shows and we know that you know how to break down a pitch and are you interested in a show I said absolutely they said um yeah so you're gonna be spending your own money I said bye click Daymond John is a fashion mogul and branding expert I call myself the people sharp because other people have said you really are here for the people and I just really enjoy investing in people since the very beginning of of Shark Tank myself and my family actually what kind of shark tank junkies the idea of shark tank is you have five of the smartest business people in all the land in theory this category got hot for a second is downtrending I would have to take a gamble with you and it would be it would be let's take a risk let's do it together what you really have here five self-made people who made something of themselves and people come in they have a dream they have an idea and we help fund it our product is asleep and sanity saver for parents and babies everywhere as people are pitching him he's able to see if they have what it takes because he's been in those shoes before you got a deal buddy bang what's been the most successful investment thus far well I have two one is called al Bubba Baker's boneless ribs I'm glad I got that all out that is my most successful and my other one is called bomba socks you know they give you no pair of socks or the homeless or everyone that they sell our company is bombas and we're here today seeking $200,000 in exchange for a 5% equity stake and they came in they were talking about us and I'm doing socks well I got a warehouse with a million pairs of foolish socks all along our number one shark was Damon he's the one with the apparel experience it just seemed like the best fit for us you know that scene in those movies in the ER where they're bringing the patient and hardest slowly it was an item that didn't cost that much but the margins were huge and they were growing and I bet on them and it's been an absolutely amazing ride and education for me you have a deal Damon's really good at finding winners and he's very good at mentoring people we text and call on a regular basis he shows up to meetings with us it's really been an incredible relation I love working with budding entrepreneurs because it reminds me of me when I was younger it gives me that that energy I'm giving them the fundamentals but they're giving me the updated knowledge on how to do business and I love working with them they make me smarter every single day and they realize I had a rock sized marble stage to cancer in my throat [Music] [Applause] I have been holding back the secret to success for many years I finally found out what it was really I didn't want to share it way but I'm going to show you today it's a good day okay work bust your butt get up before everybody go to sleep after everybody and bust your butt that's it sorry that's it what can others learn from daemon bottom line is just hard work pays off no matter what you can make it happen it's all on you and that's why daemon is who he is hope is the bedrock of this nation the belief that our destiny will not be written for us but by us the first time I met Barack Obama he was not president he was running for president and I walk up to him and he goes one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time I turn around and look for Henry Ford or Bill Gates and nobody's around and it's me when I met President Obama he complimented me on how great of a son I raised we call them our ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship they do not have to be confirmed by the Senate I would become a presidential ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship a page ambassador under President Obama we've got a shark here named Daymond John as a mom my heart was like out of my chest so it was just a total honor something I never never dreamt up it has just been a great journey working with him I didn't really realize that I was dyslexic until I was probably in my 30s when two-way pagers came out and he started writin to me and then he kept spelling these words wrong and I'm like that's nice spelling people started saying what the hell are you talking about man cuz it would be backwards or or I would be you know the sentences would be misplaced and then Oh GPS came out as soon as I was looking at my GPS and as Susan said right I always turn left it take me five hours to get down the block so um I started to look further into it and I got tested and you know I realized I was dyslexic for him to uh to be dyslexic I didn't really know it I just need was he's a bright mind and he got it done I'm a kid that grew up 30 miles from here it took me 30 years to get 30 miles right to the city demons of a generation when you had to select see which men think you were just stupid and he didn't listen in class when he was sent to the back of the class he has embraced dyslexia and that's why he's such an overachiever and no I'm gonna prove them wrong [Music] as much as we've shared today talking about business you don't have business without your health I have a thyroid condition and it took them about 25 years before they could pin it down and I told them when you go for your physical make sure they check your thyroid so I go down and I run through these machines for two days they said there's a nodule on my thyroid you should get it checked out I go get it checked out the doctor says you have a lump on your thyroid and I go into the surgery the surgery supposing one hour my family's outside the surgery becomes three and a half hours and they realize I had a rock sized marble stage to cancer in my throat and that it was slowly spreading to my lymph nodes into my brain I was concerned as a friend I was concerned because you know we've been best friends for five years you know I was glad that he attacked it early and got to it early so it didn't you know turn into anything else but I realized that entrepreneurs don't take care of themselves they take care of everybody else and I started to go public about it I've been having an amazing time sharing this message with people and getting people to urge your family to go get tested by themselves and I've gotten hundreds of letters of people who said they think that I saved their life I think the toughest part of a journey of an entrepreneur which a lot of people don't speak about is the dedication it takes and I'll never know with the sacrifices of losing my first marriage was worth it but I think that I'd be a workaholic whether I was working at Red Lobster or sanitation but more importantly I think that you know we're in this time where everybody glamorizes just go out and do it and be an entrepreneur or be an entrepreneur and as we look at the things that have happened such as Anthony Bourdain or Kate Spade we're in a day and age where as much as we're connected with disconnected chef and globe-trotting TV host Anthony Bourdain was found dead this morning in his hotel room in France and what happens is mental health is such a challenge as an entrepreneur and being somebody who is an advocate for people taking care of their health and I think that I try to share that as much with people through my books and through my speaking that you are human and that if you don't take care of your body whether it's the cancer that thank God I beat or your mental health then you're not gonna be good to anybody I've always taught him to look up to aim for higher to aim for bigger to aim for better I [Music] know when we started FUBU there were so many people who said we couldn't you know we would never be able to start a clothing line you wait and we went and we did what we needed to do and we proved them wrong anybody can have an idea is how do you focus apply it and then go against all odds and then still take it to the next level and that's what FUBU was all about there was literally David versus Goliath when you grow up in the situation the circumstances Damon did it's easy to believe that that's your destiny there's a certain amount of bravery that's required to say I'm gonna rise above this not in an arrogant way but I'm gonna rise above this when he inspires other people it really comes from the heart and it's genuine and it's not a ploy to get you know put himself out there it's important to Damon that people realize they can achieve whatever they want to achieve if they put their mind to it and if they work hard and it's not out of this world to have a dream no dream is impossible I'm african-american I'm short I'm dyslexic I can't play a sport I got left back my father wasn't around after 10 or 12 years old I never went to college I don't have a formal education I didn't know anything about this industry but yet I'm here and if I can do it anybody in the world can do it anybody can do it life has been so amazing to me it's not been easy I think about the things that have happened to me in the past and it made me a stronger person it's not unlike what you've been through as well you're just like me you're battle-tested you're baptized by the fire I never met a strong person that had an e-zpass don't tell people your dreams [Music]

Channel: CNBC International TV

Views: 144,536

Keywords: CNBC international, daymond john documentary, daymond john 2018, daymond john, the brave ones, daymond john interview, daymond john interview 2018, daymond john story, CNBC TV, daymond john shark tank, daymond john rise and grind, daymond john inspiration, daymond john on shark tank, daymond john on the brave ones, daymond john advice, daymond john business advice, daymond john success story, daymond john success, daymond john family, daymond john how i built this

Id: Uppdr3hmMDw

Length: 26min 15sec (1575 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 19 2018