THE CARDONE ZONE EPISODE 242 "FROM THE GROUND UP: A CONVERSATION WITH DAYMOND JOHN"
en
January 29, 2025
TLDR: Grant Cardone interviews Daymond John, discussing his rise from humble beginnings to global business icon. He provides insights into mindset shifts for success and overcoming circumstances.

In this compelling episode of The Cardone Zone, host Grant Cardone engages in a dynamic discussion with Daymond John, a renowned entrepreneur and branding expert known for his role on Shark Tank. The conversation dives deep into John's transformative journey from humble beginnings to becoming a global business leader.
Key Insights from Daymond John
Mindset and Growth
- The Importance of Mindset: John emphasizes that the mindset is the key differentiator between those who succeed and those who stagnate. The "poverty of the mind" is just as critical as financial poverty; achieving success requires a mental shift.
- Overcoming Adversity: John stresses that many people are held back by limiting beliefs. He encourages listeners to recognize their potential and seek out opportunities for growth and success.
Networking and Relationships
- The Power of Networking: John highlights the value of being surrounded by like-minded individuals, explaining that the people you interact with can greatly impact your success. He emphasizes establishing a network that includes investors, partners, and mentors to propel one's business forward.
- Follow-Up Discipline: To maintain meaningful connections, John advises practicing the discipline of follow-ups. Regular engagement with contacts nurtures relationships and opens doors to opportunities.
Taking Action
- Stop Waiting for Opportunities: John insists that taking actionable steps is crucial. Actions don't have to be monumental; regular small efforts add up over time.
- Setting Targets: He shares his practice of setting specific targets for meeting influential individuals, acknowledging that continuous education and improvement are necessary to reach personal and professional goals.
Business Strategies and Lessons Learned
Experience and Learning
- Real-World Learning: John's journey involved trial and error. Early in his career with FUBU, he learned the importance of understanding the manufacturing and marketing processes, highlighting that effective market understanding is a prerequisite for financial success.
- Mistakes are Valuable: John candidly discusses financial mistakes he made early on, emphasizing how true learning comes from persistent education and informed decisions.
Marketing and Product Development
- Innovative Marketing Techniques: The episode offers practical marketing insights, such as the importance of knowing your product's value proposition and how to effectively reach your target audience. John likens marketing to strategic placement in grocery stores where items are displayed to increase sales.
- Leveraging Feedback: Daymond John notes that 90% of successful products evolve from customer feedback. He urges entrepreneurs to embrace critique as a tool for improvement.
Financial Wisdom
- Understanding Money Management: Daymond warns against common pitfalls like overspending too soon in business. Instead, he promotes focusing on core operations and building solid financial foundations before seeking external funding.
- The Role of Debt: He discusses financing strategies and stresses the importance of using financial resources wisely, suggesting entrepreneurs should avoid over-leveraging themselves too early.
Conclusion and Takeaways
In this enlightening episode, Daymond John delivers a powerful message about the intersection of mindset, action, and strategy in achieving entrepreneurial success. Key takeaways include:
- Adopt a Successful Mindset: Your thoughts shape your reality—cultivate a mindset geared towards abundance and action.
- Start Small but Think Big: Take daily actions towards your goals, no matter how insignificant they may seem.
- Understand Your Financials: Learn the ins and outs of your finances and avoid common mistakes by educating yourself continuously.
- Value Relationships: Invest time in building and maintaining a strong network of mentors and peers, as collaborations can exponentially increase your chances for success.
This episode is an inspiring reminder that anyone can turn their dreams into reality with the right mindset, discipline, and strategic actions.
Was this summary helpful?
Hey, welcome to the Cardone Zone, my newest podcast where every week I'll bring to you a new celebrity, artist, athlete, some of the top people in their field CEOs from around the world running the world to give you their insights, their knowledge, and their breakthroughs. Look, these people came from nothing just like I did, so get ready with Uncle G. You're in for the ride of your life where we're gonna 10X everything you think, the way you work, the way you act, and the way you roll every single day.
Make sure you subscribe and comment. Love to see what you're talking about and get ready for today's show. What do you think? How many think, hey, I'd be doing better if I was on Shark Day? It'd be just me and me and my buddy, Damon John. I want to bring to the stage now my friend superstar, TV icon, the people shark, and my friend, Damon John! We gonna talk that shit today!
We gonna talk all that shit, you never hear a strong thing, today! This is a crowd, this is impressive. The echo is crazy, but it's all good. You look good. Thank you, man. Bro, you growing up? I am so excited. I heard my biggest fan parachuted yesterday. In here to be next to me, man. This is amazing. Why would you do that on the opening day? Who was here to see that yesterday? Yo.
Why would he do that on the opening day and take a risk like that? Because that's what entrepreneurs do. We take risks. How many people took a risk of being here today? How many people told you that you were stupid for being here today? That's what happened. When I was in the hood, everybody told me that I was stupid to go to conferences like this.
And all those people are still in the hood. Let me tell you where the hood is. The hood doesn't exist in the hood. The hood exists right here. Wow. My entire life would be in the hood. I knew I was just visiting. Remember, you know, poverty of the mind is permanent. Being broke, that's temporary.
Come on, let's get into this shit real quick, man. Dude, dude, dude, what you doing, dude? How many people are fellow sharks right here? Raise your hand. Exactly. Because if you're not, if you don't already think you're a fellow shark, then you don't need to be here. There's only two type of people in the world. Sharks and those don't realize they can be a shark. Let's get this, man. Dude, let's go. Let's move up here, man. I got to be closer, man. This is the people shark, man.
Let's move up a little closer. Move up. Move up. How close? Up close. Up close the center. Come on. I want to be close. Are we talking about marketing today? I want to be close to you. We're talking about your geniousness. We're talking about marketing today. We're talking about you, man. We're talking about you, man. That's what we're talking about. Talking about the great one. My friend. Dude, first of all, let's talk about why do you agree? Why do you agree to do this with me?
Why did I agree to do this with you? All right, well, a couple of reasons. First of all, I want to be around like-minded people, and a room full of over 30,000 like-minded people is the most effective way to grow. And I'm not lying to you. Let me tell you something. You know, when I wrote the book, Rise and Grind, and I went out to talk to Grant about his work ethics and stuff like that, he actually 10xed me in various ways of my life. Very true. Very, very true.
And you know, for being here, I wanted to be around like-minded people. Because you're too busy and too often around people who are not like-minded. And today in this audience, whether I do it or you do it, your next investors here, your next strategic partners here, your next marketers here, remember what OPM is. Other people's money, marketing, mind power, manpower. That's who's in this room. And the only thing that we will always spend, we can never get back, is time.
If you can be in a room today and meet a bunch of people, then go back to whatever you're doing and have a network filled with these people, you just saved yourself a year of having to meet other people. And that's why I love being here with you. So how do I do that? How do I leave here? These guys are going to leave here Sunday and Monday, Tuesday, whatever. How do they go back out and keep staying connected to people that are valuable?
So first of all, it's discipline, right? You have to rise and grind. You have to every single day rise and grind. See, every day we're going to rise. It doesn't mean we're going to grind. And a lot of people here are not going to take action.
the minute they leave here, but you have to take action here and the minute you leave here, whether it's one action a week, you may be busy, but you have to say, you know what, every single week I'm gonna put in one hour on this new business or one hour on my relationship or one hour on researching better ways to be with my health or 10 hours and it starts to compound. And that's how it happens. It doesn't happen overnight, nothing has happened overnight, nothing.
So do you, like, have targets? Like, do you have people this year, 2019, to make it your best year ever? Absolutely. Do you have targets of people that you want to meet? I always have targets that people want to meet. I want to get closer to my buddy, Richard Branson, because he teaches me a lot. I want to work out more with more nutritionists, because if I'm not healthy, then I don't care how much money I have, it's not going to happen. Right?
I have my buddy backstage who's a really wealthy and successful real estate investor. So I go to people like you and him to understand more real estate. You may think that a shark has everything. I know little about real estate because I knew about manufacturing, marketing, making clothes. You can't know about every single thing all the time. There's no reason to grow. So I want to be a better father to my kids. So I have to schedule that. I have to be disciplined about those things.
And where did you start learning this? Because, I mean, you didn't grow up in a place where, like, they'd call classes on this. No. You know, I came to things like this, but instead of having access to digital things that we do, I had to go and hopefully stand outside of Tony Robbins' thing and be up there if I got lucky enough. Thank you for all those up there who are doing exactly what you're doing, because you'll be down here tomorrow, right? Keep it close. Yeah.
I read as many books as I can. Thinking, go rich. Who moved my cheese? One minute manager. I went to many conferences. I would have to spend a month out of my life going to different conferences instead of being able to have some digital access as something that I can spend a month working and going at home at night and doing something. So I had to find the information. Back in the day the wheel grew up, I had to go to the library and look at goddamn encyclopedias. Remember encyclopedias?
Remember CDs? Yeah, cassettes. Just CDs? Just CDs a couple of years ago. They're not even around anymore. That's how time is changing. Okay, so next week, like a guy like you on TV and everybody knows you, man. I mean, people know you when you're walking down the street, they don't even see your face. They see you from behind. That must be that dude.
Was that, was that like a target? No. No, my life has transformed four or five different ways. I was doing things when I was younger just to make money. And I didn't love it. And I didn't understand the process of it. By 20, I started a brand named Fubu. I didn't understand anything about fashion, but I was like everybody in here. I kept educating myself on how to be a manufacturer, a production guy, a marketing person. And by 30,
I had substantial wealth. My 33, I was broke. What are we talking about, substantial? What does that mean? Let's get specific. These are our friends. My 30, I probably had about 50 million in the bank. That's substantial. Give him a 10x for a substantial. Thank you. My 33, I only had five million in the bank. Because I didn't understand the process of how money works. I would like many of us in this room.
Let's put this depreciating asset under my bed because somehow the banks are going to take it. Let me buy a house for three million, but I didn't realize to operate that house costs two million and three more million and it wasn't an income-producing property. It was something that I was spending on.
It was all these things. I paid for all the greatest advisors who all they did was sell me on how come I need to hire them every day to come and work for me instead of educating myself to understand that they were robbing me or not. So those are the things, those are the mistakes I made. However, I changed the way I was thinking. I said, no matter when I get to this level of money, I need to still keep educating myself on what to do.
So how important is money? How much time should people be putting on, getting it, keeping it, learning about how to multiply it? Well, of course, you should be learning on how to multiply it in all these other ways, but you have to learn exactly on whatever you're doing, how do you get and make more of it? And what you're doing, not chasing this ball over here, something you love, something you do. People think there's only one way to make money. Well, I just sell. And I have to have the greatest thing to sell.
No, you have to have the greatest thing to market and make sure you overdeliver. You know, let's look at a, let's look at a grocery store. There's a reason why the milk is always in the back of a grocery store. Cause you gotta go through all the aisles to get to the milk. And if you think like, let's look at a chicken in a grocery store. I'm gonna give you a chicken. You can buy a whole chicken, what do you buy a whole chicken at in a grocery store? $8?
How much do you buy a chicken for? $8? A raw chicken. All right. So you think when it goes rotted, when it starts to rot, you think if that was your inventory, you throw it away? No. Right before it goes rotten, they roast it and sell it to you for $16.
Oh, oh, you think that's garbage? After that roasted chicken goes rotten? When that roasted chicken is about to go rotten, you know what they do? They chop it up and put curry on it, and it's at that grocery store's buffet. And now they sell it to you for five dollars a pound. And they got eight pounds.
It's a thinking in the process of how what you have, you can make gold. And before you check out the checkout county, you got to buy some Reese's Pieces or some energy drinks or whatever the case is. Everything you have, there's various different streams of income. So stop chasing all these other ways, understand how to market exactly what you have and over provide for the customers you're selling to. So how do I find that thing? I'm just telling you the truth, you know?
So how do I not get distracted? You know, you grew up with nothing, right? I grew up with nothing. When you're trying to get that first $8, how do you know where to go? Is it the chicken? Is it chicken? Is it t-shirts? Is it hats? Is it shoes? Well, first of all, you're going to have to pee on a lot of hydrants. You're going to have to see how many people out there really value your product, your service, your sales, whatever you have.
and you want a total stranger, somebody who doesn't give a shit about you, to buy it from you. Whether it's $2, $20, $100, because if grandmother's always going to, grandma always told me my fugu shirts look great, because she loved me. But you want a total stranger to buy it. That's why you see on Shark Tank, we say, what's your sales? Now, somebody will think, well, I can't go on the Shark Tank unless I have a million dollars of sales. Now, if you have something that costs $2,
and you told me you drove your car outside the mall you open the trunk and you sold a hundred dollars worth of that two dollars item in a half an hour well that's wrong come over to me we're going to replicate that outside every single mall in every single country around the world is proof of concept that's what you need and proof of concept is not always uh... a dollar it's like you said don't go on the social media for friends going social media mark and find customers because if i see you have uh...
A thousand likes on one of your videos. I'm saying you're saying something that's resonating with people. You are solving a problem and we need to monetize that. Tences is now. Tences, the decade is Shark Tank. Yeah. How many dumb pictures have you seen? Well, first of all, thank you all for being part of Shark Tank Nation. Absolutely. How many
I've seen massive amount of dumb pitches. However, don't mistake that on if it was a dumb product, because I can't say it was a dumb product. It was the person did not know how to relay that information in a short enough amount of time. The product could be a sponge or anything else. I mean, think of some of the biggest companies in the world. If you don't have to have something crazy, you can have a sugary soda called Coca-Cola.
Right? The number one selling product in product history over anything else has been the Rubik's Cube. So it's never the product. It's the person and the execution and your ability to share it with somebody quickly, concisely, and make them feel like you have just solved the pain and over provide for them. When they're doing that to a five or six guys like you and Cuban. By my image, by the way, did you see the image? I didn't see the image. OK, I'll have to show it to you later.
Should that guy be trying to impress the pitch, the guy that's pitching the sharks? Should he be focused on one of you guys? The whole group? Because I think a lot of people are going to leave here next week and do pitches.
Well, first of all, they should be getting out the information in a timely manner and the energy and the infectiousness of the pitch should be there. Your love and your passion and what you have should be very exciting because somebody needs to say, I want to take this ride with that person no matter what because this is infectious and whether this pitch works out or this business works out, we're going to do something together. The second aspect should be, how do we make money? Here's my vision.
And the third, to really be about what are you going to do to keep this company on the tracks and keep it going? After that, if you see any level of interest, then you start to dig in deeper to the person who's giving you a level of interest. You know, a lot of people get mad when people talk negatively about them on social media. How many people, when you see them with social media on your internet,
You get upset when they talk shit about you. I mean, I'm human, raise your hand, right? But the reality is, they took the time to give you feedback and in corporations, 90% of the most successful products came from customer complaints. From customer complaints. Again, your friends are gonna tell you they love you.
You know, Heinz had an issue. They couldn't sell more ketchup for years. They went around to everybody's house. They go in the house. The ketchup bottles were all upside down in the refrigerator. How does the Heinz bottle look now of ketchup? They're upside down. They increased their gross sales by 20%.
So that's the problem. You have to tell people how it resonates. And then when you have an interest from somebody, you got a closed deal. You don't overthink it. If somebody's ready to give you something and you know you have something of value, close the fucking thing. Yeah, and I see you do that a lot. Like you're over, you're trying to get another point, another five point, close the deal. How do I know what a good deal is though? When you know what a good deal is when somebody says, I'm interested or tell me more, how do I buy? You don't go, you don't start talking about more shit.
You know, it's proven, anybody here have a retail store? All right, if you have a retail store, let me tell you something to increase your business by 10%. If it's a female-orientated retail store, and females shop 10 times every one time a man shops, if you put a couch or a chair or a place where a male can sit while the female goes shopping, you'll increase 10%. And make sure you have a register, you'll close the deal.
These are small lessons that can improve all of our businesses greatly. And it doesn't mean you have to have a retail store there, then maybe your retail store's online. Close quickly when somebody shows you interest. You can always return the goods if they're not happy. But what if the deal, let's say I'm in front of you guys and I know I need 100 grand and I'm willing to give up 10 points.
And you guys start doing your little deal. I mean, is that show or is it like, should I try to get another point out of these guys? When am I being greedy? And friend, do I need to just be like, who's the guy I want to do? So it all depends, right? If four sharks are out and one is in, then you better pay attention to that because that's your only buyer. If one shark starts asking questions, you don't want to sit there and start pitching more. You want to say, let's get into the nooks and cranny of it.
Because you want all the other sharks to start getting hot and bothered because they hear that there's a feeding frenzy going around. You want to give out as much information as possible when it's being requested. But you want to be very open to saying, I want to do this deal. Where can we meet in the middle? They say the best deals are always done when both parties feel like they've gotten over on each other or they've lost on each other. So it always means that as you have some level of interest, you have to engage that person.
Because every single one of us has been there when somebody ignored us, when we were just window shopping or asking a question. How many people have been ignored when you were window shopping or asking a question? They thought you didn't have the money. They thought you were a woman. They thought you were black. They thought you were tall. Window shoppers are by far your best ambassadors. I'll tell you why, because we all know that when I would grant or I buy something,
We generally don't brag about it. We work hard for it. It's not to be put in other people's face because we know we work hard for it and this is our, our love. But when a person was aspiring to buy something, whatever it is,
When they look at that bag in your store and you keep ignoring them, they get pissed off. They talk bad about you. When they look at that bag in that store and you say, listen, whenever you're ready for it, it's here, they go tell every goddamn person they know for the next six months, you know why I'm working? They get that bag in that store. You know why I'm working? Oh, one day I'm gonna get that bag. When you get somebody, you better get that bag. Windows shoppers are by far the most effective ambassadors in the world.
See, you're saying treat everybody, everybody, all the sharks, all the customers like their whales, really, like their buyers. Anybody shows you interest, you know, everybody in the world wants to feel special. And anybody that shows you interest in any level, you have to make them feel special. Now, okay, maybe they'll screw it up and you have your right to say screw you after that. But don't you want to walk into a party and everybody go, grants here! Or do you want people to go, fucking grants here. I get a little buff. I know.
Me too. So, okay, so like you were doing, let's talk about your street corner days, all right? Now, I also want to talk about, because I asked this guy, I said, look man, is a business owner? I want to know about that Shark Tank. I want to know how to walk in a room, get five guys bidding on my deal. Yeah. This is what he's going to, he's going to talk, we're going to talk about Damon on demand in a second. Because I said, I want to know how to control two guys in a room,
Get the other three to pay too much. I'ma make a big play at this, so I need a lot of that consulting from you. But I wanna go back to the days when you were in Brooklyn, right? Yep. Brooklyn of Queens, yeah? Broke. Broke. Dead broke. Dead broke. Living with your mama. Living with mom. Paying my bills. But living with mom. You were paying your part? Absolutely. How much were you paying? I was paying almost all of it and letting her do other stuff because, you know, I started working at 10. I haven't stopped since then.
Where was your dad? Dad had left. Never saw him again after you told him. When was your dad leave? My dad left at 10. Your dad left at 10? He died. We wouldn't be here though. We wouldn't be here. We didn't have to learn how to be men at an early age. I agree with that. And I wouldn't be here without my mother who showed me how to be a man. So shout out to moms. Shout out to mamas. 10x for moms. 10x the mom. God's greatest gift to this planet. No doubt. Women. Women. Women. All right.
You're selling it? What are you doing at 10? What's your deal? At 10 years old? Yeah, man. What are you selling? What are you doing at 10 years old? I was trying to scale at 10 years old, right? I would shovel snow in the winter. I'd rake leaves in the summer. I couldn't... In the summertime, because you always knew when leaves... I mean, the fall time, you always knew when leaves were coming, I couldn't get to all the lawns that I wanted to rake.
So I would, I would charge them about $3 an hour, right? And the other kids that were too lazy to go around to all the houses, I would have them work for $1.50 an hour. And I would have like 30 lawns going per hour. I was scaling. I was telling us, dude, but why? What was driving that? How many, how many? I know people that are 30 that aren't doing that. You know what we're driving? I'll tell you what we're driving that. I was driving down the block. I was in my mother car one day. I was driving on the block.
And she looked and she said, you see the car we're in? You see these buildings around here? You see all this? It all started with one person with one idea. And there's absolutely no difference in you than anybody else, whether it's Henry Ford or whether it's at that time it was Donald Trump or the buildings, you know? And she was like, why can't you do it?
And I didn't have an answer. Were there brothers and sisters? No brothers and sisters. You're the only one. Just me and mom. That's cool, man. So you think that gave you the impetus? Of course it gave me. You know, listen, most of us either succeed or fail out of fear.
We either fear going out and doing something, because everybody around you said, you can't do it. It won't happen. It's never been done before. You're going to embarrass us, or you're going to embarrass yourself. And it doesn't mean that they mean bad for you, but they may have grown up at a different age, or generation, or something else. And the other fear is, if you don't get out there and bust your ass, you're going to be like these other drug dealers in jail, or dead, or dead, Damon, or Damon.
You didn't have money to go to college, and you didn't take the effort to go to college, so you're not gonna have anything in life if you don't, so you better get a hustle on, a legal hustle on one way or another. So fear is a huge motivator, but you can use it to your advantage. And you need strategy with the fear. Of course, but your strategy only comes from getting as much information you can from all the sources available for you, and then acting on the information.
You know, most people aren't successful until they're eight or ninth or tenth company. Why? They started the first one. They didn't have distribution. So it failed. The second one, they had distribution, but they didn't have funding. It failed. The third one, they had distribution funding, but they didn't have marketing. You know, and by the time you get to 10. Yeah, yeah, yeah. By the time you go on bankrupt seven times. Yeah. By the time, and then you start to scale. Yeah.
The Cardone Zone. Get ready with Uncle G. Make sure you subscribe and comment. Love to see what you're talking about. The Cardone Zone. Get ready with Uncle G. We're going to 10x everything you think and the way you roll every single day. So what do people do? How do you fast track that? OK? We talked about the last couple years. I'm like, look, you really need something online where people can tap into
your failures, shortcuts, the hacks. You've helped me so much with my business, like even the brand. And vice versa. And the branding and the, and really this guy, give this guy a big hand because. Thank you. Like that show they do. Thank you. They can't pay him. Like, I don't know how much money you make out of that show, but it can't be like. We don't make money because we invest in oil and companies. So, and so, and we invest probably three or four or five times more than what we make on the show. Did you ever buy a company you didn't want just because somebody else was bidding on it?
I made that mistake just because I wanted to say I beat Mark Cuban in a deal. Yeah. And guess what? It didn't work out. Because I was buying it for the wrong reason. Yeah. That's good. That's a good note right there. But let me tell you something. I think the number one reason why you see when people scale, it's one thing that comes in different ways. Number one is mentors.
Because mentors are going to do three things in your life. They're either going to tell you, don't take in money too soon, don't spread yourself too thin, or don't scale too fast. Because we all want to have a million products or a million services. Number one, so that's a mentor. Number two, if they acquire information or do homework on how to keep improving daily.
acquire information or do homework on how to keep growing daily. And number three, customer feedback. And if you look at all three of them, what is it? It's all information. It's all homework. That's exactly what it is. It's all, okay, let's talk about the geeks today that are filthy rich. It's data, it's analytics. That's what it is.
That's the only thing that separates us is the information we take in and then we go out and execute it. But, you know, when I started my deal, Damon, like, it took me three years to make money, right? I was making, I went from a job making, paying me a hundred. The job that paid me 36,000. I was going through savings. Can any, can any relate to this? Going backwards. If I had a guy like you that I could plug into, because you're not going to take my phone call, I mean,
Got out there right here, call you tomorrow and say, hey, I need some advice. You can't take all their calls. I can't take all of it. No, I can't. OK, I didn't think so. So other than watching Shark Tank, how do I tap in to somebody that's already played the game in one? Well, you have various ways to tap into us, right? You see us offering information every single day on Facebook, on Instagram, and our social media following. And that's that, right?
You have our books or whatever cases, but then you have obviously I put together curriculums. You know, I, you know, I, I shared with our family here last year. No, no, we have a lot of people not that weren't here. So I told them about demand. So what I do with Damon on the man is I put together eight hours.
of every single thing from how are you going to grow your business? What's the difference between a trademark or a patent? Where do you find funding? When you have funding, what do you use funding for? A lot of people will go out here and I shared it last year. A lot of people will say I have a patent, I have two patents, I have three patents. I have 100 patents and I've never been able to defend one of them. They cost me 50,000, 75,000, 20,000 each. However,
I have one trademark. It cost me $2,500. It's called Uber. I've been able to defend that every single time around the goddamn world because you can't put Uber or Nike or anything like that on your product because of a trademark. So if you just look at it like that, if you don't want to spend $50,000 or $100,000 something you'll never need, then maybe you need $2,500 on this. And by the way,
Don't think because your daughter or your son is named Pookie, that you can have a trademark on the Pookie. Because if that's the case, then you try that. No, no, no, I can't use Pookie. He's taken by my cousin. Because if that's the case, you'll go get a trademark on the Pookie. It doesn't work because guess what? If that was the case, then I would name my next son or daughter, BMW, Mercedes, Tommy Hilfig, a Ralph Lauren, NBA.
So little things like that that I put in Damon on demand can save you tons of money. Listen, I put in there, I told you already, I made $50 million worth of mistakes and it took me 20, 30 years to understand that I put in there the 20, 30, $50 million worth of mistakes I had because I didn't have access to Grant Cardone or my attorneys that I have now. Now I have all that on a platform
Because it's hard to get all this information in one place, and I have eight hours of that. Where does it push to? Does it push the phone or computer? It's digital. It's on a platform, right? And we're going to give it all for, obviously, to put that out there. And I've even up the platform now because my book, Rise and Grind, the great book. Who read Rise and Grind? Say 10x. Rise and Grind. 10x.
My book rise and grind, you can have all the information, but if you don't rise and then you grind and apply it with discipline, then what are you doing? You know, when I was in a corner in Brooklyn, I got up before everybody. I went to bed after everybody, and I made sure I talked to every single person and followed up with them. Those were leads and people that can give me valuable information. That was the rise and grind.
And, you know, this is what he did with that book, just a little hack for you guys. This goes back to what we were talking about marketing. He collaborated with, how many different people? I collaborated with, like, 15 people, but in Rise and Grind, and in this, you know, this day-and-run demand offer I'm gonna give you today, I have six hours of content nobody's ever seen with people like Gary Vee, Katherine Zated Jones, my man here, Grant Cardone,
Oh, the movement watched guys that I met them when they were doing $1 million, I think they just got bought out for $150 million last year. Wow. All online. Watches. Two young kids, they think of they were about 23 years old. That's where the world's going. We don't need retailers anymore. My bombous company was Shark Tank? How many people know bombous socks? Look at them, right?
It won't start like doing $800,000. This year they're going to do $120 million. Think about that. So how many of you here have applied for a patent before? Because some lawyer said go get a patent. Or a friend said go get a patent. Yeah. You're going to say in there, hey, man, you're going to show me when to get one and when not to. I show you when to get one, when not to.
Maybe you need a DBA, you know, not an LLC. Maybe you need a, you know, all these things are in there. But when do you need funding? You know, a lot of people don't realize that the one reason, the number one reason why small businesses and startups fail is actually overfunding. It's overfunding.
meaning what i mean meaning you know what i want to open up something and i'm gonna go get a hundred thousand dollar loan i have no sales at all but now i'm gonna buy i'm gonna pay for a twenty thousand dollar website set of a one thousand dollar facebook page so you're not saying that that is the problem it's a approach it's the approach is spending the money i'm not you know i'm not gonna get a customer base i'm gonna keep trying to sell a theory on how much advertising and marketing i need but i don't even have a product yet i'm telling everybody i'm coming soon
So when do you need funding? Well, you need funding at different stages. When you have orders that you can't fulfill and taking out private equity or whatever the case is, is at a higher margin. It's at 8%, 9% when you may be able to get factor in from the bank. You may be able to get a small business loan that's back, right? It's when you need new machinery. So you could be more productive. So this is when you need funding. But you're saying in some cases, a guy shouldn't be going to the shark tank. He should be going to the bank.
Exactly. Do you? A lot of times you can't, you shouldn't go to Shark Tank. You don't need a partner too soon in business. You don't need a partner too soon in business. I'll give you an example. When I first had my first $50,000 order, the t-shirt manufacturer manufactured my shirts with $6.
The store wanted to give me $50,000, but I didn't have the money, so once I had to pay for the goods, I went over to the t-shirt manufacturer, I said instead of charging me $6, pardon me $7, but I want you to ship the shirts directly to the store. The store was happy because they didn't want to give some crazy kid like me when I didn't have no money, $50,000, but they gave another local business $50,000.
The manufacturer was happy because he knew that he was working with the store and he probably made more money. I made the order, they delivered the order and gave up zero percent of my company. Now, if I would have went on the shark tank and Kevin O'Leary would have offered me his normal 30 percent and royalties
Well then after I would have sold those goods, if I got a million dollar order, I would have only had 70% of the company left. Kevin O'Leary said, well I already have my 30% if you need another half a million dollars, well I need another 30, 40%. Now I would have only had 30% of my company left and I'm working for Kevin O'Leary. You guys get this? You sell 30%, find out you need more money. You sell more.
So you have to find other ways of finding funding for your companies where it could be strategic relationships. It could be distribution. But do not go out and raise money too quickly because it will hurt you. Where do I go get this information? I go online. I have a Google when to fund, when to. No, that information is not online because so many people online are trying to sell you.
loans. They're trying to sell you these things so you can go and have a 20% or 15 or 9% because that's their business is telling you something so they can charge you the interest off of it.
That's why I put it all in Damon on the Man and this new Rise and Grind platform because I wanted people to know this because I see these questions every day on Shark Tank. I see these questions every day on my Instagram, on my Facebook, people write in. And I see the number one reason why people fail if nobody's giving this information in a step-by-step process. Because if somebody goes out and spins, they got rise and grind, they're hustling, they're want to go do well, and then they go do something stupid. I mean, stupid.
We'll take the rise and grind out of you. Oh, you don't? Listen, you're great? Absolutely. If you do something stupid and you have issues at your home because financial issues are usually the number one reason for separations and stress, if you do something stupid, you start it off in a bad place. If you have $1,000 or you're going to go to Vegas and play $1,000 Blackjack Hand,
No, you're going to go to Vegas and play a thousand one dollar blackjack hands. Or maybe not go to Vegas right now. But listen, no matter what you got a gamble, right? We're going to have to take a little bit of a gamble, right? I'm going to take these affordable steps. And every single time I act, I learn. And then I repeat it again more wisely. So how do I tap into that? How do I not, you're telling me,
Because I think the internet is dangerous for for business startups. It is. I think people are wandering around getting lost and mostly getting confused and going into. Do I go left or do I go right? I would rather pick a guy like you. Like with anybody with anything you that you go you go into credible, whether it's a trainer or whether it's a real estate investor or whether it's a local business, a store.
You need to know that it's been around for a while. You need to hear what the reviews are, hear who people are. Always do your homework and research again. And that's why it took me 12 years, because I started Shark Tank 12 years ago. You only first started seeing it 10 years ago. I took me 12 years to come up with this platform because I needed to obtain all the information and all the tough questions that people didn't know. And then I needed to make sure that I
got it and put it in a soluble way that you can execute it daily. You need to be able to take this information and not wait for 10 years for it to mature. You need tomorrow. Understand that you just saved $20,000 on a trademark versus a patent or you understood what type of banks to call. You understood target marketing or your analysis of your market tomorrow, not 10 years from now.
You're working tomorrow to become better for the next day. And that's the type of information I need to put in there because I hate seeing people fail. When we did an Instagram live, I could not believe how many people were asking. Where do I get funding? Where do I find a partner? Where do I get manufacturing?
How do I get connections in China? What is licensing? How do we even understand licensing? How do I get ready to license something? A lot of the companies that we don't invest in in Shark Tank once we do the deal, the main reason we don't invest in them is because we can't put the money in them. They're not set up to take in funds.
They come to us with a, you know, a box full of receipts. And I don't know what the hell these receipts come from. So a lot of times you can get as far down the line as you want, but you can't even take in the money. You're not set up to take it in. I don't care. This building right here has a foundation. The foundation is strong. If your business has no foundation, you're not going to be able to even to take it in. How do you do that?
I mean, I did it by making mistakes. How many of you here just wandering around just trying to figure it out without like a book? I wandered around for 15 years trying to figure this out. And I got screwed most of the time. And it was just because I didn't know what somebody was telling me because I didn't have a database to go back and say, what the hell are they saying to me? I spent five years in college. You didn't go that way, right? No. Good for you. Congratulations. I spent five years in college.
I don't know what I spent on that, 100 grand, plus five years. I didn't know what to look for. So when I see what you created on how to start a business, how to manage a business, how to fund the business, where to get the manufacturing, when to get the patent, when to do, none of that was talked to me in college. Five years. No, it's not going to be taught to you in college. I mean, you're going to hear some of these area. But again, college is a place, OK, if you want to know about financing and you want to understand how to look at a P&L sheet, that's fine.
You don't have any profits, so you don't have any sales, and how can you look at a P&L sheet? How can you do that? So tell me about Damon on a Man. So Damon on a Man is something that we created about a year ago, and we've been improving it ever since. And it is eight hours, as I said, of $20 million worth of mind mistakes, and how all this stuff we put the most commonly asked questions from my chart tank years, or privately speaking, or my consulting
has been put there from finance to marketing to who's your strategic analysis of your customer. When should you advertise? Should you advertise customer acquisition and all that? But I wanted to, you know, I wanted to 10x people here because you and I always talk about how can I keep 10xing people. So this time I came and I decided I'm going to 10x everybody.
I'm gonna give you more than is all my Damon on Demand because I'm gonna give you six, and I have to even write it down so much. I'm gonna give you my Rise of Grind mastermind group that's six weeks of training with Damon on Demand. I'm gonna give you access to my exclusive Facebook group that's interaction with me and everyone else in my team. I'm gonna give you webinars with me.
Access to recordings of my content, like I said, Gary V. Catherine Zeta-Jones, my movement watch guys, they started off with $1 million, they just sold for excess of over $100 million to Movato. I'm going to give you never seen videos, never seen videos, or autographed copy of Rise and Grind, personally autographed by me, access to Damon On Demand for a full year. If you don't access it after a year, then you really don't want to do it.
And this kind of content is not just something you watch. You've got to take lessons and case studies on here. You've got to answer these questions or it's going to kick you back to this area where you've got to do it all again. It's going to kick you back. You're not going to go through this thing comfortably. I watched the video. You have to interact with this thing. And it's going to test you. So you're taking them down a path. If you guys haven't seen this, it's freaking wonderful. Because it takes them down a path. And it tells you go left.
tree, a tree trunk, and it's going to tell you which way the patent. Because lots of we get information and we send it to us too fast, so we misunderstood it, and then we still go off the wrong path. So what this does is, no, do you understand this? All right, what's the difference? And you asked her, yes, I understand it. You say the difference, and it's wrong. It's going to kick you back. And by repetition, that's how we always learn. By repetition, it will take you down that path. You will walk in that room, I think. Think about it like this.
Before Shark Tank came out, how many people knew about the words, or let me say it a different way. After Shark Tank came out, how many people now know the words, margins, royalty, you know. Part of the American licensing. All those words came from you watching Shark Tank, and now you can have an educated conversation in a room.
How many people talk to your significant others or your kids or other people? And they pitch you an idea. And because of what you learn on Shark Tank, you know the questions that millionaires and billionaires would normally ask you. What are your sales? What are your margins? Where's your distribution? All that stuff is in there to give it to make it your natural form of a conversation. Because when you go in a room and you talk to a store owner or an investor,
If you say something that's not part of the lingo, they know you don't know what the fuck you're talking about. You tell me you bought a patent. They overspent. Yeah. Hey, yeah. How you doing? I got a t-shirt and I have seven patents on the t-shirt. I'd be like, get this asshole out of here. Yeah. Yeah. Are you going to spend? I mean, how many of you are in an industry? I want to spend a million dollars on a website. I want to spend a million that last week. It is? Yeah. He's like, I got the website. I want to create this website. It's going to be a million dollars. I'm like, that's stupid.
How many people here are in the industry, whether it's real estate or medical, and you have this way of talking, it's not a code, it's just what you know how to talk about. And if I came in the room and I was an average person and I said some shit to you that you've never heard, and I'm telling you how great my product is, how many people in this room would say, would spot me as either uneducated or a scam artist?
That's exactly what the lingo is. That's exactly what the lingo is in business. Yeah. If you came in a room and you told me about fashion and I said, well, what's the FOB on this thing or what's the LDP? You would say, what? Well, FOB is how much you pay first on the boat when leaving another country. Oh, wow, wow. LDP is landed duties paid.
when it gets to a country. So if I say, hey, what's the FOB? He'd be like, ah, I don't have my key fob on me because I, um, I didn't get into my apartment yet. Okay. This person does not know what they're talking about. So this gives you the understanding and you have the, the nomenclature of business and partnerships and entrepreneurship. It's communication. Yeah. And without communication with communication, the only thing that separates us from animals.
That's it. Okay, what can you do for us? All right, so the here's our friends. People love you, by the way. Give this man a big hand if you love it. Thank you. It's a good dude right here. My fellow shark, thank you. Hang on, hang on. And just so you know, before for me to get access to this guy, I wanted access so bad, I flew him from Miami to Vegas on my plane. I didn't know him. I was out here at Art Basil. Yeah.
I was over served one night. Oh, hang over. So I woke up a little late and I like to fly commercial about 80% of the time. I like it, man.
Like, stop it. And they said, hey, this guy, you heard of Grant Cardone that I know you guys kind of in your circle have been talking to each other. He's going to Vegas, and he said you want to get a jet. And I said, well, there are a lot of people on there. I know Grant, but he's a lot of, I mean, I kind of know Grant, but a lot of people didn't know me. He didn't know me. No, no, no, I know who you were. He lying. No, I know who you were. He doesn't like a lot of, he's like, is there a lot of people on the private jet, but he likes flying commercial. No, I know me, I do.
All right, him and I always object on this. All right, you want to hear my deal? Let me tell you my deal. It takes $60,000 to go round trip to LA from New York, flying private. $60,000. All right. First class tickets for me and two of my buddies, wherever the case may be,
is what? $6,000? Brown trip? He's only going to save about four hours. Brown trip. All right. For $54,000, fuck you. I'll hang around for four hours. Hang on, hang on. I'm just keeping it. Give him a big hand. Give him a big hand.
By the way, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold
Judge a man not by what he says, but by what he does. He got on the plane with me and flew to Vegas. And that's true. And let me tell you the flip side of that. Let me tell you the flip side. Also, I do book private when I think the check and or the relationship is bigger than the cost of the travel. When I have six or eight people,
timely manners to get there. And I do think it's a proper investment at the right time. So I think Grant will agree, don't try to fake it till you make it when you make your first couple of dollars. So this is all in perspective.
You know, I wouldn't take, right now, I'm not gonna take a tour bus from my office in Manhattan to my friend's house in Queens, unless there's a reason. So Grant is actually smart about it because at a certain stage, yes, you can write it all along and do what you need to do. I just don't want the message to be, get a private jet immediately. Earn that damn private jet. That's right, everybody knows that. Okay. The point is, a lot of people don't know what a lot of people think differently than that, Grant. Yeah.
But the point is, why are basketball players a lot of winners bankrupt three years after the league? Because they quit making money. Because they stop making money and they spent it on things they thought they needed instead of something that's going to be instant producing. No, they stop making money. Like real estate. They stop making money. Money quit coming in. Yeah. They didn't overspend. They quit getting. They quit getting money and they invested the money they had. They wasted the money they have. I agree with that, OK? But the point of the story is, if I'd have called you up and said, hey,
Mr. John, let's fly to Vegas on Southwest together. We're gonna stop it. I don't get down like that, homie. I don't know what you're trying to do. Exactly. You guys understand? Stalker. That day, I needed a jet. And by the way, that's 60,000 he probably paid. He's probably gotten 300,000 worth of free speaking engagements from me and all kind of shit.
That was good money. That was good money. What I paid. I'm just telling you guys, you guys got to use money. Use money to get access. That's the point. Use money to get education. I don't mean education that you got to sign up for in a month.
and go to class when they're there, when you're there, when you want it, when you need it, you can get access to this guy. You're not gonna get on Shark Tank, folks. It would take you months, okay? This is a way to get access to this guy on your phone, your tablet, and your computer.
And you need data at your fingertips right now. It's killing you to hustle and push and shove, and then get hit. Failures don't teach me anything. They beat me up. I want to learn from his failures, so I don't have to have my own. 100%. Give this man a big hand, come on! Miami! Give him a big hand!
Hey, welcome to the Cardone Zone, my newest podcast where every week I'll bring to you a new celebrity, artist, athlete, some of the top people in their field CEOs from around the world, running the world, to give you their insights, their knowledge, and their breakthroughs. Look, these people came from nothing just like I did, so get ready with Uncle G. You're in for the ride of your life where we're gonna 10x everything you think, the way you work, the way you act, and the way you roll every single day.
Make sure you subscribe and comment. Love to see what you're talking about and get ready for today's show. The Cardone Zone, where every week I'll bring to you a new celebrity, artist, athlete, some of the top people in their fields to give you their insights, their knowledge and their breakthroughs. So get ready with Uncle G. Make sure you subscribe and comment. Love to see what you're talking about.
with the Cardone Zones.
Was this transcript helpful?
Recent Episodes
THE CARDONE ZONE EPISODE 243 "THE FIGHT FOR SUCCESS: A CONVERSATION WITH JORGE MASVIDAL PLUS A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE"

The Cardone Zone
In this hard-hitting episode of The Cardone Zone, Grant Cardone sits down with MMA legend Jorge Masvidal to explore the undeniable parallels between the world of martial arts and business. They say sales is a contact sport—if I hit you, you might buy. Grant and Jorge break down the mindset, discipline, and relentless hustle required to win in both arenas. Next, Grant takes a rare personal turn as he reconnects with his former school teacher, Charley Whitman. Together, they reflect on Grant’s early years, the lessons learned in the classroom, and the journey that led him to success. This episode is a unique mix of grit, wisdom, and nostalgia that you won’t want to miss. Follow The Cardone Zone on all social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Tune in on Sirius XM Business Radio, and visit GrantCardone.com and GCTV.com for more exclusive content!
February 05, 2025
THE CARDONE ZONE EPISODE 241 "THE BUSINESS OF MUSIC AND THE ART OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP"

The Cardone Zone
In this episode of The Cardone Zone, Grant Cardone interviews global music sensation Usher, discussing his business of music, strategies, risks, and lessons. Meanwhile, guest host Elena Cardone talks to Spanx founder Sara Blakely about building a billion-dollar fashion empire and the intersection of fashion, functionality, and female empowerment in business.
January 22, 2025
THE CARDONE ZONE EPISODE 240 "BUSINESS THROUGH THE LENS OF FASHION AND SPORTS"

The Cardone Zone
Grant Cardone interviews fashion icon Tommy Hilfiger and sports powerhouse Alex Rodriguez on The Cardone Zone, discussing their journeys to building global empires in different industries; they share insights into creativity, entrepreneurship, and athletic discipline in business.
January 15, 2025
THE CARDONE ZONE EPISODE 239: "MULTIFAMILY INVESTMENT SECRETS & THE FUTURE OF CRYPTO"

The Cardone Zone
Grant Cardone and real estate broker Robert Given discuss multifamily property investments strategies and market insights on The Cardone Zone; later, Jarrod Glandt interviews crypto expert Jordan Fried about cryptocurrency's origin, blockchain evolution, and future in global economy.
January 07, 2025

Ask this episodeAI Anything

Hi! You're chatting with The Cardone Zone AI.
I can answer your questions from this episode and play episode clips relevant to your question.
You can ask a direct question or get started with below questions -
What was the main topic of the podcast episode?
Summarise the key points discussed in the episode?
Were there any notable quotes or insights from the speakers?
Which popular books were mentioned in this episode?
Were there any points particularly controversial or thought-provoking discussed in the episode?
Were any current events or trending topics addressed in the episode?
Sign In to save message history