0:01

Welcome everybody to the first episode

0:03

of Big Money Energy, where

0:05

I speak to very successful, self

0:07

made people to learn exactly how

0:10

they did it. We cover the stories in between

0:12

the paths of their successes and how they overcame

0:14

the obstacles in their way. And specifically, I

0:16

talked to people who not only have big Money

0:19

Energy, but those who started with nothing,

0:21

because I really really want to learn how

0:24

you went from nothing to something,

0:27

because big money Energy is the vibe you get from

0:29

someone who is succeeding at life in every direction.

0:31

And today we have Damon John.

0:34

And in this episode, if you were interested

0:36

in anything relating to entrepreneurship,

0:39

building wealth, and learning from failure,

0:41

you need to stick around. We go

0:43

through his first business, selling pencils

0:45

and getting beaten up. We talked about his bankruptcies.

0:48

We talked about dealing with morons, how to

0:50

be a shark, and most importantly,

0:53

how you go from forty bucks to

0:55

six billion. All

1:02

Right, today is an insanely,

1:04

insanely special day because

1:06

my guest is none other than Damon

1:09

John. Hey, Damon, how are you?

1:11

I'm good man? Now you look good with like the leather

1:14

and the Yankees had, and I'm trying to be

1:16

cool. Now. If you don't know Damon, I

1:18

don't know who you are, and I don't know why you're even listening

1:20

to this, because you should. Damon is a serial entrepreneur,

1:23

investor, TV personality, five

1:26

time best selling author. He's got his new

1:28

book out right now, Power Shift, which is incredible.

1:30

He's also on a little TV show, Um,

1:32

I can't remember, it's a fish the fish

1:34

Hit the fish Bowl, Shark Shark

1:37

Tank. That one nominated for fifteen

1:40

Emmy's one four of them, which

1:42

is amazing. Damon, thank you for being here,

1:44

Thank you for having me. Yeah, man, how's your day? So

1:46

for it is great? It's Monday. I'm calling

1:48

it more on Monday. Yeah. There's

1:51

a lot of morons on the world, man, there are, dude,

1:53

It's amazing. So I'm really excited

1:55

about that because that means I can make more and more money,

1:57

and so that everybody listening can make more and more

1:59

money because morons buy more stuff.

2:02

Well, morons and idiots, and if you have common

2:04

sense and you're willing to work hard and bust your

2:06

ask for the morons won't. So it's more on

2:08

Monday. I gotta gotta got it right because you

2:10

can outwork everybody else who's just because

2:12

they're just not doing getting information from one

2:14

source and or they're idiots. I mean, it's really

2:16

More on Monday. I'm telling you now. You know, it's funny.

2:18

I moved to New York City in two thousands six when I graduated

2:21

college, and a way to make money for me

2:23

when I first got here because I was trying to be an actor,

2:25

and I was before I ever got into real estate. In two

2:28

I would do little things like I passed up flyers

2:30

on the street for gyms, like I would

2:32

do odds and end jobs. And one of the things that I

2:35

got was like a stock photo

2:37

job modeling Fu Bou nice.

2:40

Yeah. I don't know where those photos are because

2:42

I think they were burned. But I was probably

2:44

the worst Foo Boo model not anyone

2:46

has ever seen. Do

2:48

you remember those? Do you remember those? I didn't

2:51

remember yours? No?

2:53

Maybe not? I mean thinking about that, that that was probably about

2:55

fifteen years ago. I mean, but we always had really attractive

2:58

and people we felt fit the part.

3:00

And you know what, I think a good point of it is that

3:02

a lot of times, you know, talking about More on Monday,

3:05

A lot of times people thought that food was

3:07

only for people of a certain color, and we wouldn't have

3:09

used obviously not not the color that

3:11

they're thinking, different color, and obviously

3:14

we had probably used the photo because

3:16

you know, we we used people of bolt colors and

3:18

our ads. We thank you man, thank you for being part

3:20

of the brand. So listen, one thing I want

3:22

to start with this. I'm gonna keep it super simple

3:24

and let's see how you respond. Okay, how did

3:27

you go from nothing

3:30

to something? And what does that mean to you?

3:32

Um? I went through it through massive

3:35

amount of failures. Um, but I was failing

3:38

small and quick and now learning

3:40

from them. I went through

3:43

life as a series of mentors. So I went

3:45

through so many different mentors to try

3:47

to obtain the information that I didn't know I had

3:50

that I didn't know what to do, because when you start out

3:52

and anything, you don't know what you don't know.

3:54

I went through a lot of soul searching and realized

3:57

what was my why and why was I doing this?

3:59

And what did I want to get out of it? And what was my

4:02

line in the sand and what I would agree

4:04

upon or not agree upon. I

4:06

went through a lot of common sense too. You know, I looked

4:09

around, and everybody said you can't do what I was. I was

4:11

like, well, why

4:13

all these buildings here, in all these cars here?

4:15

Who who did it? You know? Was it

4:17

was it the gods who did it? Or was it one person

4:19

with one idea that took one action. I

4:22

was like, this common sense, you can do this something.

4:25

And I just read a lot. I read, I read a lot,

4:27

and I and I and I noticed that the things that I would

4:29

read if I found

4:31

the same underlying

4:34

truth in these twenty or

4:36

forty books that were written by different people

4:38

at different times in their life, in different times

4:40

in history, what are they all lying to me? Like?

4:43

It's it's right there, it's right

4:45

there. Just a lot of common sense and drive.

4:48

So so you saw success

4:50

from other people and that's what drove you. That was

4:52

your kind of your wire driver?

4:55

What was the what was the why? My why initially

4:57

was get some funky sneakers from for myself

5:00

because mom wasn't making any money. Why

5:02

why make her work for mine? Uh?

5:04

Then it was supporting a household of me and dressed

5:06

my mother honestly, but I didn't want to be on the streets. And

5:08

then then then I made mistakes going

5:11

through their own businesses to try to make money, thinking

5:13

that you know, I was going to be a bazillionaire by twenty

5:16

and I was in and I was broke by twenty

5:18

because I was doing it only for money I had. I had no passion

5:20

to drive for it, so sure I didn't want

5:22

to work on it. Then my wife became wait

5:24

a minute, it's an untapped market that that we're

5:27

being neglected by all the big designers.

5:29

They think that hip hop kids are like, you know,

5:31

or rappers or whatever or not

5:34

a value. And I want to make clothes

5:36

for people who I love the

5:38

genre music, you know. And that's when I

5:40

created Foobu and it was forced bias was by

5:42

the culture. I mean, I would I would dress the beastie

5:44

boys. I would address at local J run D

5:46

M C, Salt and Pepper. And that was my wife then.

5:48

And then my wife would change over the lives over

5:51

my time of running a business

5:53

to say, Okay, everybody's gonna laugh at me if

5:55

this thing fails, uh, and they're gonna think I

5:57

hit the lotto or that one by the Apple.

5:59

I gotta keep going because my egos

6:01

in place. And then I had two little

6:04

baby girls and my wife, and then employees,

6:06

and my wife just kept changing. What was your first

6:08

business? You mentioned cars,

6:11

and my first business was selling pencils

6:13

at six years old. My pencils at six

6:16

Was there a good return on those pencils? Amazing

6:19

return? Because what I what I realized

6:21

when the boys like the girls in school at that age,

6:23

they would try to knock their teeth out. So

6:26

I think there's gotta be a way I can make a profit over this, right,

6:29

So I would out to find these pencils. I would scrape

6:31

the paint off the pencils, and I'd paint the names of the prettiest

6:33

girls in school and the pencils, and I walk over the guys and

6:35

go, you don't want to knock or teeth out. If you buy this

6:37

box of pencils from me with your lunch money, you're

6:39

gonna be able to sit with the girls and give them the pencils.

6:42

I get to talk to them, and then the guys would

6:44

try to knock my teeth out. So

6:47

I was about to throw the pencils away, and I remember

6:49

one of the girls saying, Hey, that's my name

6:51

on that pencil. Is that mine? I was like, yeah,

6:53

it is. The girls paid me two

6:56

times the amount of money that I was trying to sell it to

6:58

the guys for. It's a market idea right

7:00

there, But my principle made me close that business

7:02

after one month. What where's that

7:04

principle right now? And what do they do? She had no

7:06

vision. That's exactly the problem, because one of the boys

7:08

squealed on me and told her that I was stealing the pencils

7:11

from the guys that I hated in school. So my cost of goods

7:13

with zero I think. I

7:15

think it was a good business, but there was some personal risk

7:17

involved in in the selling pencils

7:19

to two people business when you're six, right,

7:22

Uh, as far as it us. If

7:24

they punched your lights out, right, if they knocked you out, but then

7:26

they're still a return I guess if the girls. But listen,

7:28

I practiced the oldest form of self

7:30

defense there is running. Yes, you

7:33

can never cash me. I was really

7:35

short and really fast. The question, though,

7:37

like, was your and I know your why has

7:40

changed over the years, but you know, don't

7:42

go back to when you're ten years old. I'm just thinking, like what

7:44

motivates you to come up

7:46

with different business ideas and think about different

7:49

ways to make money. I know back then it was like sneakers

7:51

and make some cash, But was it al also to

7:54

do something different? Like where you was there a hunger

7:56

for you to create something instead

7:58

of just you know, making money. Because we talked to a lot of

8:00

people too. It's it's just the

8:03

money, right And you can see it on them, you can smell

8:05

it when they walk in the room. Yeah,

8:07

the people that I've always met that have been

8:09

really successful entrepreneurs. Okay, yeah,

8:11

if you're in the financial trade market

8:14

and the systems like that, and it

8:17

is money, but they still love to kill. They still

8:19

love the game, the game, They still

8:21

love the way that their mind works, you

8:23

know what I mean. I don't care if you're a professional gambler. It

8:25

money is the outcome, but they still love the chase,

8:28

the game, the way they break things down,

8:30

the way they see opportunity. My real y

8:32

came around with Foo and that was when I found

8:35

my love. I love fashion ever since I was

8:37

ten years old, and I loved hip hop ever since I

8:39

was ten years old. I blended them together when I

8:41

was nineteen, not realizing that I can make money

8:43

off them, and then I failed a bunch of times up

8:45

until nineteen and I would I would still fail with Foobo

8:48

from nineteen to twenty two. I would close it three

8:50

times by running out of capital. But then I

8:53

started it again and that's where

8:55

the real love came. They came around, like when I

8:57

close it, but then people saw us saying, I have what that shirt from

8:59

you, and I really want to it again. I started again.

9:01

I closed it and I kept closing it, but it kept calling

9:03

me back. And that's when I found my real love

9:05

and my really my real why. Yeah. I

9:08

was just giving people what they want. You

9:11

know, it did a lot of things. It gave people what they want.

9:13

I would I would make a shirt and then somebody wear it

9:15

and I would and they would wear it a certain way, and I would go

9:17

I never thought about it like that, that ship

9:19

is hid I love, you know, or

9:22

somebody when they boughted, I felt like they

9:24

said, and you know, I know that you feel this way. You

9:26

know you have to feel this way, and being successful

9:28

what you do is I made them feel like they've arrived

9:31

in some way or another, even if it was

9:33

that one moment that they took a girl out

9:35

or they were out with a guy and they were wearing their

9:37

brand new food blue shirt, right

9:40

like statement piece. But yeah, for that moment, they

9:42

felt like they arrived and I would I would address

9:45

people for the rest of my life for free if I could have. I just

9:47

loved it. So what happened in what

9:49

was that shift? I mean what? Because you

9:52

shut it down a couple of times and brought it back and

9:54

I've read and we know you know how how important

9:56

your mom was to a lot of this, right, Yeah, and ninety

9:58

two, I realized that I was going to make a stand and

10:01

I was not going to quit this thing, and I need to

10:03

educate myself more. And I brought in uh

10:05

partners, my three other partners that are still

10:07

my partner still today. And I had already made

10:09

all the mistakes prior, so now

10:12

I knew what I didn't need to do. You know a lot of people

10:14

who were successful in business, they go to things and

10:16

they may have five or ten businesses. The first business

10:18

they didn't have enough funding, so they shut it down. The second

10:20

business they had enough funding, but they didn't have distribution.

10:22

They shut it down. The third one they had funding distribution,

10:25

but they're legal wasn't in order. Boom

10:27

boom, boom boom by by business and attend. They're

10:29

like, holy sh it, I you know, I may have something

10:31

here. I think that's super important

10:33

to all the listeners that are watching and listening

10:35

now who are growing up or

10:37

are learning how to start a business. And they are They've

10:40

got Instagram, they've got Twitter, Facebook,

10:42

Snapchat, TikTok. How do you get the word

10:44

out about clothing? Um

10:47

the way you guys started in the early nineties,

10:49

without millions and millions and millions of

10:51

dollars to spend and commercials and

10:54

magazine ads. How do you do that? You

10:56

know? And that's exactly what I

10:58

know. We'll get into power ship about. It's about

11:01

the building of influence prior

11:03

and that's what we're talking about. I'm gonna tell

11:05

you now, if I if social media

11:07

was out when I started, Bubu

11:10

would have not been a six billion dollar brand. It would

11:12

have been a hundred billion dollar brand over the years, because

11:14

like you look at a Nike right now doing about thirty billion

11:16

a year, right, we would have probably done about ten billion

11:19

dollars a year annually. For how had you

11:21

started now? Had I start it now, I

11:23

mean I had to literally I sold

11:25

your shirt, I had to find you. The

11:28

Internet did not exist, cell

11:31

phones didn't exist. I had to find

11:33

where you lived to sell you another shirt. And

11:35

how did you keep track of all those customers

11:37

and to be able to build your fanily school. I

11:39

used to keep their phone number. I used

11:41

to tell them book like literally at a book. I had a

11:44

book. I used to tell them, you know, listen Friday

11:46

nights. You know I'm gonna be in the corner of the Apollo

11:48

Theater at twelve o'clock when that

11:50

thing lets out. I'm telling you now, you better

11:52

be there to get your shirt first, because I'm gonna

11:54

sell out that. Not only was I giving them

11:56

consistency of where I was going to be, I

11:59

was telling I knew their aims, and I was telling them

12:01

where to find me. I promised. I kept

12:03

that promise. I don't care if it was ten degrees.

12:06

I was there that day so people could expect

12:08

you at night. Also, I was getting feedback. Here's

12:10

the best thing. You want feedback. You

12:12

stand on the corner of the Apollo

12:15

Theater at midnight when those drunk

12:17

people let out, and they would tell me about what

12:19

they thought about my and my mother. You

12:22

want feedback, Oh my God, and

12:25

it grew us safer behind Instagram in

12:27

person, much safer. But I

12:30

had to work with my partner

12:32

and I we worked it for about

12:34

eight years like that, and I don't care

12:36

eight insistency. Yeah, it had to be consistent.

12:46

When did you get into office space?

12:49

When did you first kind of take a step back and

12:51

realize, you know, what, things are gonna be okay,

12:53

and they might be better than okay

12:55

if we keep doing this. Yeah, it was never gonna be okay.

12:58

It was either gonna be guys, all right now

13:00

the real journey is starting, right,

13:03

we're playing at a big level. Nineteen

13:05

nineties seven, UH

13:08

Samsung's textile division and this guy

13:11

named Bruce and Norman gave me a call and

13:13

they gave us an opportunity um to

13:15

to come up there and were the agreement.

13:18

I think we had to sell five million dollars worth of clothes

13:20

and five in in three years to keep

13:22

this distribution deal that they were going to distribute

13:25

our clothes. It's like a record label

13:27

getting a record, you know, million and three

13:29

years. Yeah, but I did thirty million dollars in three

13:31

months. And because we had already

13:33

built up this influence for ten years or nine

13:35

years, all of a sudden, they gave you a megaphone, gave

13:38

us a megaphone. They were like, okay, now we

13:40

can manufacture and distribute, do what you

13:43

do best. And that was it. We were dressing

13:46

everybody in every single video. We were every

13:48

place, we want, every corner, and

13:50

those ambassadors that we had built that influence

13:52

with, somebody would say, hey, you

13:54

know, I'm the Foobu guy who I'm the fooble

13:57

girl in Detroit And we would have a

13:59

hundred of the holes in Detroit, a hundred of

14:01

those in Atlanta, a hundred of those

14:03

in Carolina Organic. And this

14:05

is viral before was viral, right, we build

14:08

this relationship with l J. He goes and puts

14:10

Foobu in the gap ad, he does a gap

14:12

at and he puts for us by us on the low in

14:14

the gap at. Gap spends thirty million dollars

14:16

airing that commercial. It's a Foolbu

14:18

commercial. They're basically airing um.

14:22

So many big things had happened at that time

14:24

for us, But it was a culmination of

14:27

if you really think about it, I started in eighty nine.

14:29

By that time, nine years or

14:31

whatever, the cases of just

14:33

just pounding the ground. Now, it's

14:36

going back to what you talked about. You know, one of the things

14:38

I think people don't really understand these days

14:41

when they like when they look at somebody like you and

14:43

they say, okay, successful, Yeah, I know he's got

14:45

some sort of backstory. But is the red lobster

14:47

working red Lobster? That is a hustle

14:50

that people just don't get anymore. Like what you

14:52

said, your your job when you started

14:54

was you worked at Red Lobster. The majority of your day

14:56

was working Red lobster, right, and then

14:58

it was getting food off the ground,

15:01

watching it failed, getting it back off the ground, watching

15:03

it fail. What was the red Lobster

15:05

to you? Yeah, just like you with the flyers, Red Lobster was

15:07

my basis. I had to keep the lights on. And

15:09

everybody talks about, you know, burn

15:11

the bridges and quit your day job there.

15:14

Whoever said that's an idiot, because if

15:16

you look and I worked the Red Lobster for five years

15:18

and I got paid thirty thousand dollars a year,

15:20

I had medical I was taking all the food

15:22

home, so now I didn't have to pay for food anymore.

15:25

I was having an entire staff of red Lobster come

15:27

to flea markets with me on Saturdays

15:29

and helped me. I was trying to sell the customers right

15:31

if they bought their shrimp, do you want a T shirt? You

15:34

know? And then at the same time my house,

15:36

I was renting out all the rooms in my house. I

15:38

had four rooms, so I was renting a while out for twenty

15:40

five dollars a week to strangers. And I

15:42

was sleeping on the couch. So now I had some

15:44

of the mortgage paid. I was working all those hours of

15:46

red Lobster, and I had to do that for five years.

15:48

I would have to do two million dollars in sales

15:51

and food to take the same money

15:53

away from there, and I wouldn't have done two million

15:55

dollars of sales. I was sleeping next to sewing machines,

15:58

you know, I was. I had a old eat

16:00

up car gelopy. I mean that thing was.

16:03

I don't know where it is, but you should find that car.

16:05

It's not trust me, it's not around anymore. It's

16:08

not around anymore. It can't be. And now you're

16:10

successful and everybody knows it too.

16:13

Why shark tank, I mean, is it

16:15

just because you're you're hungry for more. You

16:17

want to meet more people, you want to help more people. You

16:19

invest in all these different businesses. You know, that's

16:22

it sounds almost like a stupid question, but it's kind

16:24

of not because you've You've

16:26

lived so much life and had so much

16:28

business that people could only even dream of.

16:30

Why Shark Tank is? Why? Why has changed on

16:32

Shark Tank? You know? Initially when I turned

16:34

down the show because they said I couldn't do any of the show while

16:36

doing Shark Tank, and I was representing

16:38

the Kardashians and I was doing various things with

16:40

the Kardashians, so I said no. Chloe Kardashian

16:43

fired me off the show because she heard that I was turning

16:45

down Shark Tank because of her. Then I heard

16:47

that on Shark Tank you have to use your own money. I'm

16:49

like, these these guys in Hollywood a pimps.

16:52

You suppose to get paid to be on the show. Are you crazy?

16:54

And then somebody said to me, well, Daman,

16:57

you're only getting pitched clothing ideas.

16:59

And I had ten clothing comings at the time, and eight

17:01

of them were dead. This is oh, seven oh eight, when

17:03

retail not working. I said, I'll go on the show because

17:05

if I'm talking to a retailer. I want to take a more

17:08

real estate in their in their area, and I only have

17:10

clothing. So I'll go and get some lotions I'll get

17:12

I'll get electronics, I'll get whatever. So then when i'm

17:14

talking to you, I'll go can I be in these other departments?

17:16

And because we have a nurtured relationship, like

17:19

we always talking about, you'll say yes. I'm more comfortable

17:21

with you because I know you're a good vendor. You've

17:23

been a good vendor record for years. Something goes wrong,

17:25

you'll take it back. We have a good relationship going

17:28

there. Then I start to realize the power

17:30

of it the show, and I start to realize I'm learning

17:32

more on the show than the people on the

17:34

show. I don't learn too much from the Morons on

17:37

the Other Sharks, they're the chairman of

17:39

Moron. But I learned

17:41

from these other kids who are coming up now. All of a sudden,

17:44

they're selling clothes a different way, their online,

17:46

they're doing social media conversion, they're

17:48

doing this, they're doing that, And I'm learning all

17:50

these other industries and I'm applying

17:53

it to myself. I wasn't thinking about what

17:55

we do now content creation. I wasn't thinking

17:57

about all these other things. I would have been

17:59

like my old up like some of like colleagues

18:02

in the industry, would have been the same old guy going, let

18:04

me make a shirt. Hopefully a buyer buys it.

18:06

Hopefully they put it on the rack in a dying retail

18:08

environment, and maybe somebody walks by the rack and

18:10

buys it. I would have been that same person. But

18:13

again, shark Tank has grown to something

18:15

else and it changed my Why Yeah,

18:17

so how many different businesses are you involved with?

18:19

Now? You remember I would say that a shark town

18:22

by eight um. But and I know it sounds

18:24

daunting. So let me clara, let me my

18:27

jaw just dropped. Let me clarify that one

18:29

third of them are the walking dead giving them

18:31

the money, or we've done a deal and they're dead and

18:34

or they are trying to come around. There's nothing for me

18:36

to do. They call them up and ask them for the money. Now, I

18:38

mean, I'm a partner, right and things

18:40

may work out, it may not. Another third of them,

18:43

like bomba Socks, are brilliant. They don't

18:45

need me. If I call them, I may suck it

18:47

up. They don't need me at

18:49

all to call them and say, Yo, you should make the locals

18:51

bigger. They'd be like, thank you, Damon click. So

18:54

now the ones I got a concentrar on the ones

18:56

right on the fence, they're gonna move either over

18:58

to one of those other lay means, and they call

19:00

me when they need me, and we work it out and they

19:02

need your help if they need my help. Absolutely, And I'm here.

19:05

What's your favorite business you're working on right now? My

19:08

favorite business? Well, of course, because we're here, I'm gonna

19:10

talk about the book. But other than that because content.

19:12

But you know, I I like my I like my curriculum,

19:14

my Damon on demand. I give step by step

19:17

lessons and and the information

19:19

people need to know to run a business and understand

19:22

the difference between if you need a trademark

19:24

or you need a patent, or you need a d b A or

19:26

you need a design trademark against

19:28

a utility patent or whatever the cases. Because

19:30

in financing, when you get financing, how do you

19:32

get financing? Who do you get financing from? So

19:35

I like that one because it helps people. It saves

19:37

them from the mistakes that I made. When did you put that course

19:39

out? I put the course out about a year. It's you can

19:41

go to gaming on Demand dot com and get

19:43

that course. And you know, I'm starting

19:45

to see the students come back who are growing

19:48

their business or starting a business and saying,

19:50

this is actually working. So it's your it's your whole life

19:52

and everything you know and all if you're experts and people you work

19:54

with all boiled down in eight hours, so you

19:56

can get it. Basically, you can get your business

19:59

degree. I'll give example right now. Everybody always wants a patent.

20:01

Patent can cost anywhere from seventeen that if you do it

20:03

yourself, right, a utility patent in one of the cases,

20:05

you do it just yourself, no attorney. Of course,

20:07

you maybe three thousand dollars, but

20:10

but you could probably you know, an attorney, seventeen

20:12

thousand all the way to a hundred because how many

20:14

claims you have in a pattern. I have a

20:16

hundred patterns. I haven't been able to defend that one of them.

20:18

However, a trademark f

20:22

you be you cost dollars. You

20:24

can't put foubu on anything. That's

20:27

it now per category,

20:29

then you get more categories at three hundred four hundred

20:31

dollars. That means you have it in category twenty four and the category

20:34

seventeen and twenty five maybe

20:36

clothing. But think about it like this. Somebody right

20:38

now who has been told they need a patent

20:41

has spent fifty thousand dollars when they just

20:43

need to spend trademard

20:45

what they really they didn't know what they needed yet. If

20:56

you could go back in time and stand

20:58

in front of your twenty year old self, to go back

21:00

to in right on that corner,

21:02

that inflection point, that aha moment when that

21:04

happened, you yourself right now, right,

21:07

you take the delore and you go back there, What

21:09

do you say to him without fucking him up? Funny? I watched

21:11

the Generous of the day, Do Alive

21:13

not comedy. She was just doing her speech

21:16

or her whatever, Q and A, she

21:18

says. She She says she wouldn't tell her older, her

21:20

younger self anything because then she wouldn't be who she is today.

21:23

Me on all this hand, I get it, you're right,

21:25

um, but I would have I would have said, damon, you've got

21:28

to learn financial intelligence. You've

21:30

gotta learn how money works. Man, You've got to learn

21:32

how money works. The system has not been set

21:34

up to let you know how money works. You

21:36

are and you're the only thing you're not gonna learn in the

21:38

school system, or not the only thing, but you're not gonna learn

21:40

how financial intelligence works, because then you

21:42

can't get three hundred thousand, four hundred

21:44

thousand dollars worth of loans on the education. You're not

21:47

certain if you want, I

21:49

need a financial intelligence, I would go i'ld go home

21:51

with bankrupt three times after that.

21:53

Now, two of the times I almost went bankrupt, I didn't

21:55

have anything so bankrupt. Wasn't you know,

21:58

wasn't that you know, wasn't that much of a law it

22:00

was. It was it was almost like a you know, break even.

22:03

But after that I would I would blow about. I would

22:05

not blow because it wasn't on stupid

22:07

things, but I would go through about ten million fairly quickly.

22:09

Thank god, I'm not an athlete of somebody who peaks

22:12

at the beginning of their career. But you know, I

22:14

had many more bites to the apple and I was fine. But

22:16

I learned from that. I said that with a ten million go now,

22:19

I just didn't know how it worked. Become

22:22

financially literate. That's what you'd say to your financial

22:24

work on finding I'm still working on finding

22:26

every you know, the richest and wealthiest

22:29

people. I know, billionaires. I mean, guys

22:31

are big money. They walk around

22:33

with and they're just older, but they walk around a

22:35

book and all they do generally is

22:37

discuss or when they hear about different

22:39

ways to legally save on taxes,

22:42

that's what they write. And I always say why do you? And I noticed

22:44

like it was four different guys and said why do you do that? He

22:46

said, Well, I can either risk at all and start a whole

22:49

new business to hopefully do two hundred million

22:51

dollars a year, or I can just save two hundred

22:53

million that I already made. Why

22:55

the hell do I need to do this? Instead

22:58

of do this? But I gotta pay a billion all

23:00

the taxes. I'd rather only pay

23:02

six hundred million dollars in tax seven

23:05

hundred million dollars And why start a whole new business?

23:07

Pretty smart? That

23:09

already made it exactly. I

23:11

love that man, because you also because you have your course

23:14

and you're learning every day. Education has been

23:16

such a big part of your life

23:19

every day as you go on every day. You said

23:21

big money there, What does big money energy mean

23:23

to you? If I just said that phrase to you, what

23:25

would you think about? I can interpret in different

23:28

ways I've ever heard before until you said,

23:30

a big money energy to me means either you

23:33

know, you think of the big money Wolf of Wall

23:35

Street energy, like in a room like that where

23:37

I'm not sure that's good. I'm just saying

23:39

that, or you think of big money. They

23:42

come in when a person just has

23:44

that thing that they think big. They

23:46

operate big. You know, they just think

23:48

big. You know. When I'm out with those guys

23:50

a lot of times there they're talking

23:52

about you know, so I'm

23:55

gonna rule wealthy people and super wealthy

23:57

people. The difference between wealthy and super wealthy is the wealthy

23:59

people that I see or the rich.

24:01

I don't want to say wealth because wealthy is a lot

24:03

of different things in life. They talked

24:05

about how big their parties are, how big their houses

24:08

are, and stuff like that. They

24:10

really really rich people. They

24:13

talk about how much money they gave away this year. So

24:15

I was in the house a little while

24:17

back, and I remember this woman walking walking to us

24:19

all around and she's like, look how big this house

24:21

is, Look how big this is. And then she just came into

24:24

money and I remember somebody who

24:26

having an OVC said, wow, you live really

24:28

well. You live better than Warren Buffett. She shut

24:31

the funk up after that. So

24:34

you know, big money energy is just you know,

24:36

really really really just thinking big

24:39

and being humble. I think also, I think,

24:41

sure, talk to me about your book, power Shift.

24:43

Power Shift book number five. All right, So I wrote this

24:45

book because it was like one week that

24:48

a lot of people came to me and they were asking

24:50

me about or trying to get advice about changing

24:53

their lives and various other things. And

24:55

I'd asked them what did they do? And they a lot of people

24:57

felt that they were inundated,

24:59

or they did know where to start, or they needed a lot of

25:01

money, or they needed this, they needed that, when it

25:03

was really their mentality of how

25:06

to change your life, of what they can do with what they

25:08

have right now. And uh,

25:10

and then I also started to realize that people think

25:12

that power shift and shifting power

25:14

is either taking it away and being just

25:17

just massively mean personal

25:19

lots of time. Power shift is passing the

25:21

power onto you on the all the side of the table. You

25:23

appreciate it, and and and I wanted people

25:25

to understand how uh to become

25:28

powerful. It's a three step process. First,

25:30

you have to build influence, like you and I were talking,

25:32

right, You have to build influences, Then

25:34

you negotiate what you want for

25:37

both parties, and then you nurture

25:39

the relationship afterwards. But people are so transactional,

25:42

they're so just like this. So what do

25:44

you do when you run into a Ryan in the elevator

25:47

and you have a nineties second pitch and you didn't have time

25:49

to build influence

25:51

with them? Well, if you have

25:53

the pitch and I do a lot of pitches in here

25:56

that are rock solid, Ryan, and

25:58

damon, we're gonna look at you or at

26:00

your Instagram later on, did you build influence

26:03

through there to the right way? Because I'm gonna look at the language

26:05

and everything you're doing and how you're representing

26:07

yourself. If you happen to be taking pictures

26:10

with a massogic race and racist

26:12

friend all the time and you're wondering why I'm never

26:14

calling you back, Well maybe because I've just followed all

26:16

the things around you and realized that it's

26:19

a facade you're putting out there and this is actually

26:21

where you believe nothing wrong with that. Maybe you'll find somebody else

26:23

who's a racist, massageist, the pick who wants to

26:25

be down with you. But you know, it's

26:27

all about this, this this form of

26:29

taking power back. Because people think that

26:31

they'd be the lost power. Somebody had to give it to him.

26:33

That's why I told you that good Friday.

26:36

I realized nobody had to give me power. I was in charge

26:38

of myself. And so I have a lot

26:40

of subjects in here, from Chris Jenner

26:42

to uh, clay you Bill a guy

26:45

who is you know, Mark Vannette. But Clayton new Bill

26:47

is the producer of our show. He's had to

26:49

see thousands of pitches to get people to come in front

26:51

of the Sharks, probably like ten thousand,

26:53

Right, what got you pass clay

26:56

new Bill to go to the Sharks? I got Mark Cuban in there.

26:58

I got pit Bull, I got people you won't know in there who

27:00

are extremely successful people and how they

27:02

have used power in their lives. Look at the

27:04

Kardashians. It's a subtle power that they

27:06

use, but it's in the book on how

27:09

they have built influence over the course of

27:11

their lives and how they're so powerful.

27:13

Right, So it's a blueprint. It's a powerfue

27:15

print. It's a movement. The reason why I put so many different

27:18

subjects in there because I got I got in there Billy

27:20

Jean King, who changed the face of tennis.

27:22

You know what I mean. This is not all about money.

27:24

This is about power and movement and

27:26

giving. And that's why I put the blueprint in by Barris

27:28

different people, because you'll start to see something that underlines

27:31

other things, from body language when you're discussing

27:34

with people, to negotiation

27:36

tactics to pitching. And if

27:38

you just take one or two of them, you're not gonna absorb

27:40

the whole thing. And maybe not it's not for everybody,

27:42

but you take one or two of them tomorrow, and it starts

27:45

making you better and stronger. You keep

27:47

adding to your artillery. You're

27:49

gonna realize. I mean, the only difference with anybody in the world

27:51

is what we have ever negotiated.

27:55

That's it. Yeah, man, I live my dad negotiating.

27:57

Oh day long. Yeah. The first person

27:59

you got to go sha is a one year old Yeah,

28:01

exactly. Well, your he is

28:03

manipulative. You

28:06

will see you will see that in her. I mean I'm

28:08

sure you're seeing it now, like but when when they're

28:10

two. They know how to play daddy against

28:12

mommy, against caretakers, against teachers,

28:15

against everybody. It's a natural

28:17

thing that we have. But a lot

28:19

of people don't realize how to master A

28:21

two year old knows how to master it. They

28:24

just forget it because people move

28:26

them into a corner or they don't get what they want. But

28:29

two year old was learning. They're learning. Yeah, you know

28:31

how you learned super early on

28:33

how to how to manage people and manage expectations.

28:35

Absolutely. Yeah, awesome, man, I'm

28:38

super excited about the book. I want to

28:40

wrap up one minute. You got it for me?

28:42

Yea, guys, super quick. What's your favorite movie?

28:45

I don't know. Tropic Thunder. That's a good

28:47

movie. What you mean you people? Um?

28:52

Well, what's the worst job you ever had? Running

28:54

b X cable and burned down buildings

28:57

in the Bronx? Yeah that's

28:59

pretty bad. That's pretty bad. Do you have a favorite

29:01

quote? One is a great slave with a

29:03

horrible master. That's a good one or no

29:05

way? Wait wait, wait, don't tell anybody your problem. Don't

29:08

care that all are really happy you have

29:10

them.

29:12

What's your favorite word? Fuck?

29:15

Yeah? If you could be any animal, what animal

29:17

would you be. Come on, you know what

29:19

I gotta say on that one. But maybe it's

29:21

not that one. Maybe it's a different one. Maybe

29:24

it's like a platypus or like something weird no one

29:26

ever thought about. You're like, dude, no one knows

29:28

this, but I really, really, really uh

29:32

um. I would have to say a shark, I

29:34

guess because I'm on Pisces as well. I've always related

29:36

to it, good old Pisces. If you can

29:38

live anywhere in the world other than New York

29:41

Miami, Yeah, what's

29:43

your favorite song from the nineties? Paid

29:46

in full? I don't know if that's

29:48

that's eighties, actually Rocky, I'm paid

29:50

in full nineties? I don't know.

29:54

Sorry, what's the last

29:56

lie you told? The last lie

29:58

that I've told. I'm not going

30:00

back to Golden Corral again. Thank

30:03

you, Mann, Thank you so much for coming on. You're

30:05

the best, Damon John. Your book Power Shift everywhere

30:07

the course everyone knows where to get it. Uh,

30:10

You're the man. You've got big money energy. Thank

30:12

you, dude. I appreciate it. If

30:15

you're ready to take action today.

30:18

Based on Damon John's entire blueprint

30:20

for how he got to where he is, go to Big

30:22

Money Energy dot com slash

30:25

podcast to download an action

30:27

plan I put together for you, as

30:29

well as the show notes. That's

30:31

Big Money Energy dot com slash

30:34

podcast. Find more podcasts

30:36

like Big Money Energy on the I Heart Radio

30:39

app or wherever you get your podcasts.

30:42

Big Money Energy is hosted by me

30:44

Ryan Sir Hint and it's produced by Mike

30:46

Coscarelli and Joe Loresca and

30:48

executive produced by Christina Everett