Daymond John talks building your brand and honing your skills

REVOLT’s new interview series “You Good?” is hosted by Terrence J. On it, the media personality speaks to his friends about their time social distancing and COVID-19, and much more.

On this week’s episode of “You Good?” host Terrence J sat down with “Shark Tank” investor and FUBU’s founder and CEO, Daymond John. The entrepreneur discussed maintaining structure during a pandemic, how to properly build business relationships, his new book “Power Shift,” and he even gave some advice to people currently unemployed.

Daymond started his career as an entrepreneur at an early age. While growing up in the Queens neighborhood of Hollis, he held numerous jobs including handing out flyers. In high school, future mogul participated in a program that allowed him to work a full-time job and attend school on an alternating weekly basis—an experience he says fueled his entrepreneurial spirit.

The investor and motivational speaker started the hip hop apparel company FUBU while living with his mother. Seeing potential in her son, Daymond’s mom taught him how to sew and would later mortgage their home for $100,000 to generate start-up capital for the clothing brand.

FUBU has now earned over $6 billion in global sales and is also featured at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture. Check out the highlights from this week’s episode below and make sure to tune in each week for new discussions.

1. Having structure during the Coronavirus pandemic

Adjusting to life at home proved to be no easy task for millions of people who were put on home restriction in the middle of March 2020. And without the capability to go outside, keeping a daily routine presented itself to be a challenge, as well. Daymond spoke on maintaining a structure during this time.

“Routine is efficient. I wish that I could say that it was perfect, but that routine has to involve, family time, nutrition, faith, working out, advancing your career, homework, putting out fires, and meditating and getting enough sleep,” he explains.

However, the business mogul admitted that keeping up with his process hasn’t been easy. “Can I say that I’m winning on all those fronts? As for the workout thing, man, for the first three weeks, I was crazy with it, and after that, the Tetos and the Cheetos came into play,” he adds.

2. Daymond’s cameo on the Showtime series “Billions”

Terrence and Daymond chatted about what they’ve been watching during the quarantine. The FUBU founder revealed his list included Netflix’s “Tiger King,” “Extraction,” and, of course, the news and stock markets to keep him updated on all things business-related. Meanwhile, Terrence says he caught up on Showtime’s drama series “Billions,” which featured a cameo from Daymond — 34 minutes and 57 seconds into the show — in case anyone was wondering.

Daymond says that even with his television experience and a couple acting classes under his belt, filming for the show was still a bit overwhelming.

“It’s intimidating when you’re sitting across from people who made their career out of that. I’m not an actor like you,” Daymond tells Terrence. “I don’t know if the traditional is ten takes or it’s 20. I know they’re going to have to get the wide, and then the medium, and then the closeup, and then back over the shoulder at both angles.” He added, “But I love that they let me be me and that they touched on very underlying issues that we know exist. I had a great time.”

3. Daymond shares some advice with people currently unemployed

In May 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released unemployment data showing that the United States economy lost over 20 million jobs in April, with the unemployment rate spiking to 14.7 percent, the worst since the Great Depression. This left many wondering, what next? Daymond gave some helpful advice on the matter.

“What are your assets? The only thing you’re in charge of right now is your inventory. That’s it. Your assets. You cannot change that this disease is here or not. You and I, we walk into a room we couldn’t change that we were young African-American males; that’s what it is. Tomorrow I’m not going to be Asian. Tomorrow I’m not going to be Caucasian. Now, what are my assets of being that worker or that African-American male or woman,” Daymond explains.

The businessman posed the question yet again, “What are your assets? Is it the time you have on your hand? Is it your skillset? Is it your contacts or rolodex? Is it a community you’ve been a part of? Is it because you’ve got your ass whipped before, and you know now how to fight? What are your assets right now that you can use? Most importantly, your rolodex is your most important asset. You can get in front of everybody right because they’re all home on their couch fighting with their significant other and wondering how I can make more money to change my life too.”

4. Daymond talks about his new book “Power Shift”

Daymond tells Terrence that after writing four books, he assumed that he had answered all the questions asked by his audience. Yet, as more people approached, the author realized that there was still more information that needed to be taught, which drove him to write his fifth book, “Power Shift.”

“I found out that there was one more question or a couple of things that had piled over the year after my last book that people kept asking. They would keep saying stuff to me like ‘Yeah, you told me how to make money without money, but I don’t really have any power to do so or my wife divorced me and took everything from me, and I have no power,’” Daymond discloses.

“I said, ‘Why would you ever think that somebody else is in charge of your power or your direction or has the right to author you?’ If you’re 12 years old, you better listen to your parents, if you’re 15 years old, maybe. I said I have to start writing down what it is for people.”

The business mogul explained that his idea for the book came about after he realized life was about negotiating with the right people, a skill that many lacked. “I’m never going to come over to your house and take you off the couch and make you more powerful, I’m not going to do it,” Daymond says. “However, if I think you add value to me — I’m selfish — I’m going to come talk to you about it and find out how I can use your power and mine and make us both more powerful.”

5. How to properly build business relationships 

One of the many topics Daymond discusses in his book is the proper way to build business relationships. As he points out, “Life is really about what we negotiate, and people don’t know how to negotiate.”

The motivational speaker believes that many people are spoiled by the way they see business is conducted on the ABC reality show “Shark Tank.” “They think you walk in the room for eight minutes, you have hard negotiations, you get the money, and you’re gone. That’s not how it works,” Daymond tells Terrence.

He then broke down the process of adequately building business relationships. “You have to build influence. Then, you have to negotiate what’s in the best interest of the person on the other side of the table. Then, you have to honor and love that relationship, and work on that relationship forever. Whether a deal was fortified or not.”

Daymond also emphasized the importance of understanding the other person in your business relationship. “A lot of the time, just understanding that person’s point of view, their availability, the way they process the challenges, they are the most important thing to get what you want.”