Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Daymond John: Learn to Earn, How The People's Shark is Raising a New Generation of Financially-Savvy People | E216

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

Growing up in Queens, New York, Daymond John had big dreams and an early knack for entrepreneurship. He sold everything from pencils to reconditioned cars, and while working full-time at Red Lobster, he started his clothing brand FUBU. Because of the tenacity instilled in him by his mother, FUBU eventually became a multi-billion dollar global clothing and lifestyle brand. In this episode, Daymond will share his rags-to-riches story and the lessons he has learned as a seasoned investor on Shark Tank. Daymond will break down his latest book, Little Daymond Learns to Earn, a kid's book written to instill financial and entrepreneurial literacy in younger generations. Daymond will also share how we can instill hope in our youth! Daymond John is a New York Times bestselling author and the CEO and founder of FUBU, the $6 billion global lifestyle brand created to represent overlooked communities. He is also a star and original member of ABC’s four-time Emmy Award–winning TV show Shark Tank, where he invests and helps entrepreneurs grow their own businesses. In this episode, Hala and Daymond will discuss:  - Daymond’s early entrepreneurial itch - How Daymond’s side hustle became the global brand FUBU - Common Sense marketing tactics - What Daymond learned from Jay Abraham - Daymond’s mother’s influence on his life - Becoming a Shark on the hit show Shark Tank - Why most of America does not have financial literacy - How to teach financial intelligence to our kids - Daymond’s 3-dollar rule - Why kids need new national role models - How to take your parent hat off and think like a kid - And other topics… Daymond John was born with a passion for entrepreneurship. Daymond is CEO and founder of FUBU, the $6 billion global lifestyle brand created to represent overlooked communities. He is also a star and original member of ABC’s four-time Emmy Award–winning TV show Shark Tank, helping entrepreneurs and business owners grow their own businesses. His work as an entrepreneur has been recognized by Barack Obama who named him a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship, and he has won four Webby Awards for his work in creating, producing, and hosting Black Entrepreneurs Day.  He continues to work with a number of philanthropic organizations to educate and empower future generations, including My Brother’s Keeper, the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, and the NAACP, to name a few. Daymond is a New York Times bestselling author, and Little Daymond Learns to Earn is his first book for children. Of all of his accomplishments, Daymond is most proud of his role as a dad to his daughters. Win 15 minutes with Daymond John: Go to littledaymond.com, purchase your bundle, and enter code ‘YAP’ at checkout! Resources Mentioned: Daymond’s Website: https://daymondjohn.com/ Daymond’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daymondjohn/ Daymond’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesharkdaymond Daymond’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesharkdaymond/ Daymond’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSharkDaymond/ Daymond’s Podcast Rise and Grind with Daymond John: Rise and Grind with Daymond John Daymond’s Book Little Daymond Learns to Earn: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Daymond-Learns-Earn-John/dp/0593567277 LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast’ for 30% off at yapmedia.io/course. More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com   Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review - ratethispodcast.com/yap Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala Learn more about YAP Media Agency Services - yapmedia.io/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of YAP is sponsored in part by Shopify. Shopify simplifies selling online and in-person so you can focus on successfully growing your business. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com-profiting. I was three months later in the mortgage and I only delivered 20% of the clothes and I was about to be bankrupt and homeless, lose my mother's house and also lose my business because I didn't have any financial intelligence and it wasn't that I spent money on lavish things. So as much as mom helped me and as great as she is, my lack of financial intelligence, I was about to lose everything that she ever worked for.

Our school system is antiquated. It is teaching our children right now how to go to shop. It teaches us how to be good employees. If you don't teach them financial intelligence the anyway and how money works. The colleges are lined up to give them an issue, them six to seven hundred thousand dollars worth of student debt that they will not pay up until they're into their fifties. I'm gonna go and get this five hundred six hundred thousand dollar education that I don't even know if I need. What is up young and profitors?

You're listening to YAP, Young and Profiting podcasts where we interview the brightest minds in the world and unpack their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your daily life. I'm your host, Hallitaha. Thanks for tuning in and get ready to listen, learn and profit. Damon, welcome to Young & Profiting Podcasts. Thank you, thanks for having me. I'm very excited, ya fam.

It is a special day today on the podcast, and that's because today we have Damon John on the show. He's one of the world's most respected entrepreneurs, and somebody I have personally looked up to my entire adult life. Damon John is an investor, he's an entrepreneur and philanthropist. He's the CEO and founder of FUBU, a multi-billion dollar global lifestyle brand created to represent overlooked communities. In addition, Damon is one of the original sharks on ABC's four-time Emmy award-winning TV

show Shark Tank, which some of you may know is my all-time favorite TV show, and in fact, Shark Tank was the only TV show I allowed myself to watch for three years when I was growing this podcast and my company Yap Media as a side hustle. Damon is also a New York Times best-selling author, and he recently released his first book for children Little Damon learns to earn earlier in March. In today's episode, Damon and I will cover his rags to a just story.

We'll gain insight as to why he created Fubu and we'll hear his lessons learned as a seasoned investor on Shark Tank. We'll also break down how to instill financial and entrepreneurial literacy in our younger generations. And we'll hear how Damon thinks we can instill hope in our youth. So Damon, I'd love to start off with your incredible come-up story. You grew up in Hollis, Queens, in New York City,

and around 10, 12 years old, your parents separated, and your mother ended up working multiple jobs put food on the table. From my research, I found out that you had an early entrepreneurial itch, even as a kid and teen, you sold everything from pencil to reconditioned cars. So take us back to memory lane. What were you like as a younger kid and what were your first experiences in entrepreneurship and business? Well, I think you covered it. You know, as a young kid, I was the only child, my parents, when they were together, I mean, life happened. They got divorced, I would never see my father

or hear from them again after 10 years old. They were hard working individuals, they worked day jobs, and then they come home and they would work on trying to build little things around the house for the house itself to build it. They would, my mother would, you know, have flea markets on the weekends and various other things. So I'm very hardworking people,

but as an only child, I wanted to create a community, a community of friends, I had no way to play with it. I think that's what entrepreneurs do, right? I always wanted to find ways to solve other people's problems or bring them joy. So I can play with them because everybody had brothers and sisters, right? So, end of the day, I'm like,

oh, you wanna come over my house to play? No, I'll go to my brother and sister. Well, I got Tonka trucks. I don't like Tonka trucks. I make it grilled cheese sandwich. I don't like Tonka trucks. I make it grilled cheese sandwich. I don't like grilled cheese sandwich. I got a cat, you wanna play my cat? I think that's also what entrepreneurs do.

They go, I got a product and I got something that I really love. I thought I just think that I made just a little bit of tweaks to something that already exists. And I wanna make it better. I wanna share it with the rest of the world. Do you wanna share it with me? And that's what happened, but I also had to be creative

about how is I going to help mom? Help mom pay the bills because dad wasn't there and I knew my mother worked really hard and I didn't have anybody else to and had other siblings and I said I got to be the man of the house. So I found ways to make money. I love that. I definitely want to get into all your different stories about how you used to sell as a child. We can talk about that later when we talk about a little demon and your new book, Little Demon learns to earn. But let's talk about Fubu first. So you have this global lifestyle brand that you created in your younger years. It stands for For Us By Us. How did you first get the idea to launch Fubu and what did it represent to you at the time? Well, I get the idea to launch it. I basically bottom line it represent to you at the time? Well, I had to give the idea to launch it.

I basically bottom line is Timberland had said we don't make our sell up boost drug dealers and I was a hard working young man at Red Lobster and I said I'm not a drug dealer. Why would they say that about me? But it wasn't the first time that I heard something like that. We had already been as a community of hip hop. Hip hop was very young at the time. If I was brand new, but I loved it. I knew that it was something that was going to,

I don't care if I didn't know if it was going to dominate the world like it did today, but it was dominating my world. And you insulted me. I was going out of my way, my way to buy those type of companies. So I came up with a brand, Food Before the Buys, who's ever going to love and support and value. You know, people think that number one

that this was this visionary idea. And no, I was downstairs in my basement with my buddy and drinking some 40 dogs. I'm like, what are you going to name it, man? We should name it Bufu, or Bias for us. All right. And then we did name it Bufu at first. And then we went outside with a couple of Bufu shirts on and we found out that time Bufu meant something totally different.

So, to go back and change the Fufu for us bias. Now, a lot of people would think that we had made this awful for us bias. What was for us bias? It was black people. And it was only for black people by black people. Well, then I would be guilty of being a bigot just like Timberland was in a sense if I did that. But you know, the story is that, when my father left when I was 10 years old, I was fortunate enough to run mother to find a date another man who I call my stepfather

who happens to be able to Jewish faith. He always told me, Damon, never become the thing you're fighting against and you better be pro black whenever anti anything else. So it was always about a color because I was dressing MC search in the BC boys just as fast as I was dressing. Hello, Kujee, I run DMC and I was a generated off of an African-American culture of young men between the ages of around 12 years old to 30 years old who came out of the Bronx who were talking about the trials and tribulations of the streets. Yes, but it was a cultural thing to show with everybody. And when I did actually take out my first ad, my mail-order ad and wrap pages, the first areas that bought the product were the kids in Japan who were wearing not as blackface. They were canning their skins and wearing New York Yankee hats

and Nick jerseys and breakdancing because they were trying to emulate the African Americans on the streets of New York or it was the skateboarding white kids in Seattle, Washington, that were trying to rebel within the system that were wearing Devon and Shers and various other things that are saying, F you, we are down who is rebellious no matter what color you are. So that's how I came up with Fubo. I love it. And every good business has a mission beyond just what they sell. And it sounds like your company represented much more than just the clothes it represented an identity, which is really cool. So I learned that you actually did this as a side hustle.

You worked full time at Red Lobster for three years while you were building Fubu as a side hustle. I also grew my company as a side hustle. I grew it to $5 million in our first year. And at first it was just a side hustle, and I was working at Disney. So I agree with that type of approach when starting a business.

And I'd love to understand from you why you decided to start your business as a side hustle. So I'm fortunate to live in Hollis Queens, or come on from Hollis Queens. And I have no idea what's in the water from Hollis Queens, but who came out of Hollis Queens is what I'm going to talk about James Brown and everybody else who live in polished cleans.

Rundi MC, L.O. Koojee, some of the fat boys, Salt and Pepper, Tribe Quilt, Quest, Onyx, Lost Boys, 50 cents, Jarul, Intro, Aaron Hall from Guy, Young MC, a lot of people, right? And this square five miles. Now it's fortunate to see them ride by and stuff like that and all these beautiful cars and things of that nature. So here's why I created Fugal because I couldn't wrap a singer dance and I needed to get my ass on a video set. And every time me and all the kids get on the video set, everybody get kicked off of the video set.

And now, if I let you just hold on, I'm dressing the artist. Now, I wasn't dressing the artist. And I'm like, what are you doing? Dressing the artist. So I got to stay on the video set. Now, I'm on the video set Now I wasn't dressing the artist. And I was like, what are you doing? I'm dressing the artist. So I got to stay on the video set. Now I'm on the video set and I get eat for free because of the craft services.

I get to watch Run DMC and LLQJ. I remember watching Biggie Smalls on that video set because I grew up with three other kids. One was called, named Irv Gotti, the other's name, Hype Williams. And the other kid was a big drug deal that Hype wrote the movie, Belly, about just came home after 30 years. But everybody kicked on the video name, Hype Williams, and the other kid was a big drug deal that Hype wrote the movie, Belly, about.

It just came home after 30 years. But everybody kicked out the video, said, but I didn't because I got the shirt, and now I'm able to eat the craft services. I tried to talk to all the video vixens who really would never talk to me. And then look at all these amazing artists creating these videos. So it wasn't a business. It was my ability like anybody who was buying something or having something to belong to a community.

And it was something that I would have paid to do. You think that when I was growing up, you know how much I would have paid to be on set to see L.L. Kooj do hay lover with boys, the men right there in the middle of the hood. So I was still working on a real hospital. But then all of a sudden I started to see that there was a way to get paid and more people were resonating with what I was doing. This new idea of founders need to start this and raise a bunch of capital, is a bunch of bullshit. That's not the way you stay in business because if I would have just raised capital, first of all, nobody would invest it in me. But if I did, then the kind of money

that I would have had to do in the first year to keep food more alive, I would have never done it. But I was able to work at Red Lobster and sacrifice having a life. But I was able to do that for five years. And Red Lobster was about 10% of my time. I mean, excuse me, food was 10% of my time. Then it became and Red Lobster was 90% of my time.

And then slowly, 20, 80, 30, 70, and I was able to close full with down three times from 89 to 92, but then I'd be globally recognized doing $350 million and by 97 because I kept my day job. I love that. It's almost like you didn't really have this grand vision for Fubu as a billion dollar company.

You just kept putting one foot in front of the other and doing what you felt passionate about it and and where you wanted to get involved. You just wanted to be involved in the community. But the people don't understand right now about Fubu during the time of Fubu. There was no internet. There was no cell phones and there was only call can I and cross colors who would happen prior to us. If I sold you a shirt on the street,

there was no way for me to sell you another one. I would have to find you. There was no way for me to sell you another one. If I took a picture and put out an ad, I would take a picture today, by the time the ad came out, it would be six months from now that somebody would see it. And then the store is,

if I sold it to a store today, I didn't sell it online, I would be selling something to a store that wouldn't make it to the store and for one year. It was a very slow period of time in building this communication and things of that nature. It was a very hard time to do it, but I knew that I'd wake up before everybody

and go to sleep after everybody. There's four of us on the Fubu Hangtag. When I first went to the department store, as I said, we can't have your clothes here, or you gotta take the hang tag off. I said, why? I said, this four African Americans on a hang tag, you look like a gang. We don't want people coming in here and having shootouts and shoplifting. You have shootouts in your store or because you have a size 32 and I want to buy your size 32 and I'm arguing with you, what kind of shit are we talking about it? So it wasn't the way it is today and I couldn't reach the customers directly because there was no internet. So this was a very challenging time comparison today. And by

the way, the hip-hop community at that time was a very homophobic community. So when I was hanging out with the artists a lot of times and their crews and my boys were like, yeah, I'm going to go back and sell drugs. I'm like, I don't sell drugs. I can't do that. And I'm like, I mean, you've got to see this pattern of strawberries. I got a pattern of a strawberry shirt. I'm going to go back and sell drugs. I'm like, I don't sell drugs. I can't do that. And I'm like, I mean, you've got to see this pattern of strawberries. I got a pattern of a strawberry shirt. I'm going to go home and make strawberries. Sure, it's a strawberry. Look, it has to match my sneakers.

They were like, huh? It wasn't a very welcoming time. There were no known male designers at the time, really, but it was a great time. It was not easy. And thank God it wasn't. Yeah. And so I know that you had pretty limited resources and you were really scrappy entrepreneur. You described yourself as scrappy and an interview that I read. So I'd love

to understand what are some of the guerrilla marketing things that you did as a scrappy entrepreneur? You got to have common sense and a lot of people try to over-analyze things and every way things well with analytics. So, you know, you've got to analyze things because of analytics, short of thing. If you scrape the right data from analytics, it is. You know, you call up Blackberry or Blockbuster and Codex, see how that analytics is working for them. They're no longer around.

Now, I was scrappy. So, I had money for 50 shirts one time to buy. Now, I have an idea here. I'm gonna buy 50 shirts. Now, I want to give them a way to a couple of music artists and their friends, but if I give them a way to all the cool kids, they're going to wear it at one time and get rid of it because they don't want to be seen twice in it. But wait a minute, all the guys are aware of 4x and 5x and 6x, the big guys in the

neighborhood. Well, they have limited choices. They can either go to Rochester, Big and Tall and get a big old white shirt, big old black shirt, they've got to spell. It's pay a lot of money to get something custom made. I'm going to make those Fubu shirts for them and I'm going to name them Fubu and I'm going to say on the back official security of Fubu, Fubu Nation or something like that, I give out these shirts to 50 guys. Well, those 50 guys in where at one time there's only stylish at that. They wore it 10 times a month. By the way, you know what these guys were?

They were in front of the red ropes at clubs. They were the bodyguards for those music cards. They were the big joyful guys in the neighborhood. They were huge billboards. So now all of a sudden the music card is saying to them, hey man, I like that fool. So why don't you tell that guy to give me some food? But you know what they said?

No man, because you know what you're going to do? He doesn't have a lot of money. You're going to wear it one time, throw it away. And then he's going to give me nothing. You better wear it. And you better wear it in the next video. That's the real marketing, right?

But what else did I do? Well, I saw these security gates, these storm gets it a pull down right now in front of the stores, right? They're graffiti on them. I look at them and I look at the bus stop, I go, wait a minute, how much people pay right there to put that post in the bus stop?

That's twice as big. I go, hey, can I clean up your gates? I'll take that profanity off. Can I put a local company on there, name our, our, our kids and people going to know that you support a local company, who will come support you? I don't care. I spray paint 300 gates from New York to New Jersey, authorize who would deal her? I don't care to use other Chinese food, you're an authorize who would deal her. What else? Well, I, I finally started making money when you think that you made money that all of a sudden is no problem. Well, all of a sudden, you know what happened? MTV's 30 seconds for 30 seconds,

it's like, I don't know, $10,000 for 30 seconds because to run a commercial, but BET is like $500. Why? Well, more people, according to the Niels ratings, watching MTV, I'm from the hood. Ain't nobody was paying for their cable in the hood. And by the way, in the projects, a one person house is 19 in the house. And because there's not a lot of stations out there that show sulfur African

Americans, they're not watching 15 season, they're watching one. I own the entire damn network for the same money would have been for empty because it just had common sense. You just have to have common sense sometimes. Let's hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors. Young and Profiters, do you have a brilliant business idea but you don't know how to move forward with it? Going into debt for a four-year degree isn't the only path to success. Instead learn everything you need to know about running a business for free by listening to the Millionaire University podcast.

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also came on the show in the past, and he told you, everything in the world is a source of something that you can find and make work for you. I love this quote, and I'd love to understand how you use that advice in your early career. Oh, 100%. I mean, you know, service transaction ever in the world, somebody makes a profit even when somebody's losing bank, going bankrupt or wants somebody's throwing out garbage. There is always something that there is another person that have a need and we all know the red paper clip story. It is just how do you target an impact to those that need the need or have the need for it. I've made it work in multiple type of ways. Obviously, Pugul was, you know, paying

attention to kids that were being neglected. I'll give you an example. The first time I got $50,000 in order, well, you know, they didn't want to give me $50,000, so they knew that if I, they gave me a young starving kid, and they gave me $50,000. I was going to buy a brand new Hyundai with rims, and I was going to keep them clean. I didn't do that. Everything is something. Normally, somebody would have went to the banks and whatever, and said, got turned down by it. Well, I also didn't have a company where you can invest the money and do it because I

didn't have a company. Well, I go to somebody else and I realized what the something was. A man, a guy who was screen printing a shirt for me was screen printing a shirt for let's say $6,025. So I'm thinking, what does this guy need? A number one, he wants the screen printing a shirt, but I don't have the money to give it to him. But he also wants to extend his business.

And if he gave me a shot, it doesn't mean anything. I'm one kid, he doesn't know if we're gonna be anybody. Why don't I go and have him sign a contract with me that I will let the store buy directly from him and give him the $50,000, but here's what I'm gonna do. Instead of him charging me $625, for the shirt I'm gonna have him charge me $7 for the shirt so he's gonna make more,

but now I'm gonna connect him with the store and they're gonna buy more goods from him in different ways. I was able to do that. He made more in the goods, the store was sure that they were going to get the guzz. I gave him zero of my company and I got a finance. So everything is something in a different way. You know, take something you have and say, I just don't have nothing because there's somebody

who wants to water and trade for it. Abraham is the master of trading. And that's why a lot of people get very literal in the fact that we need money to make money. But the best way that Jay Abraham said it is OPM is, other people in mind, power, manpower, manufacturing, marketing, mentors, and sometimes like Timberland, other people in the States, there's always ways to make profit.

You don't have to be so literal that it is a dollar. That is such good advice. I wanna talk about your mom, and then we're gonna move on to financial literacy and talk about shark tank. So your mom was a huge help to you, especially when you were first starting out, which Fuba, I learned that at one point, you had $300,000 in orders. You needed a bank loan. You were rejected by 27 banks. And then your

mom ended up taking $100,000 loan out on the house to support you, which you, of course, obviously, probably paid her back a million times over for. Let's talk about your mom. What was her influence on like you growing up? And do you feel like you would have had such a successful business without the support of your mother? I wouldn't have had a successful business without the support of my mother because, first of all, if she wasn't around, I wouldn't be alive. She gave me birth, but to talk about the business, no. Because first of all, way before the business, we will get into little learning to earn. My mother gave me the mentality to understand how to hustle into all of the working, creating ways

to think about the value for the customer and always having common sense. So she was a great, great entrepreneur and is still great entrepreneur thinking person. And most, you know, when people talk about being an entrepreneur, I always say, the number one entrepreneur is in every day as a mother. Nothing against that, but when a woman risks her life to bring a life into this world,

there's nobody's, no book is going to show her step by step on what to do with this life. She's going to have to figure it out. Pivot, Bob, weave. And so that my mother's very creative. And so, yes, she was huge in regards to me and my business, and then getting to the part of funding my business. So, I mean, there's a story of mom to got a hundred thousand dollars alone in my house.

First of all, she wouldn't have taken it out just to take it out. This was after six or seven years of her seeing me do food. Why, $300,000 in orders, then she goes, all right, I see you working on this. You have $300,000 in orders. I'm gonna take this loan out for a hundred, You know, she took out all she couldn't have. Now I have no idea how. She got $100,000 because the house of worth 75 till today I've been asked what she did for the rest of the money. But she got $100,000. She goes, this is all I have. But Damien, you can't go, I don't want you to think that somebody else is going to be able to manufacture this for you. Remember, Ali Baba's not out and it doesn't exist. I don't know who

to check out. She said, you can't give our money to people that you don't know and just trust them. You're gonna have to learn to sew this stuff yourself and create an issue. So I created a factory in the middle of my house. But the real story is at the end of the day that right before I got that deal, I was three months later in the mortgage

and I didn't deliver, I only delivered 20% of the clothes and I was about to be bankrupt and homeless, lose my mother's house and also lose my business. Because I didn't have any financial intelligence and it wasn't that I spent money on lavish things but as any operator would know today that I was paying for raw goods 90 days ahead of time because the goods in, I'm paying for machines,

I'm paying for a staff, I'm paying the ship. Again, the inner nut doesn't exist. I don't know machines, I'm paying for a staff, I'm paying the ship. Again, the interduke doesn't exist. I don't know about factoring. You didn't get what you call it pre-orders. There was not that crap out there. There was the store. It would give you the money in 30 and 1690 days. I was flush out of the cash because it wasn't where we are today. So as much as is, this mom helped me and as great as she is, my lack of financial intelligence, I was about to lose everything that she ever worked for. But then you ended up becoming an international global

brand and doing really well. Only by the way, because of mom, because you know, if she did, she came home, she says, you ran out of all the money. I have one last idea. She says, what? She said, I need $2,000. I go back to Red Lobster and I sling as many biscuits as I can. And after one month, I come home and get me a $2,000, I says, what is this bright idea you have, Ma? She took the money and put her in a pocket book and said,

I'm gonna take a add in the newspaper. It's in the newspaper. I said, that's gotta be the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life. And you know what happened? She took an add in the newspaper. I said, my, but big did you do it? So she definitely did it. And the ads read $1 million in orders, need financing. 33 people call that a 30-million-dollar chart, but three of them were real. Because if you look on chart and what did she basically do? She put out into the world.

We have proof of concept. We just need fun and that's what happened. I love that. Okay, this is the perfect timing to get into your Shark Tank journey and understand how you end up getting on Shark Tank because I learned that you actually initially rejected the offer twice. So tell us that story.

How did you end up on Shark Tank? I go back to my desk at the time. You know how that was back then. Well, I don't know how many people know, but we had hard lines. We had phones at the time, cell phones at the time, but my normal recording had 50 people on there. I checked all the recordings, 48 of them were. I want to borrow this or I want to sell you some whatever stocks are bonds or I want to open a new store, but two of them are real and one was a guy named Mark Brinett, Solvice, Mark Brinett, the famous producer. And he said, Hey, I want to put you in a show called Shark Tank and was, all right, great. I love it. You know, he's like, you're going to have to spend your money. And I was like, click this God damn pimps and Hollywood. I heard that I heard them.

I heard the black people didn't get paid, but that's one thing. But damn, now we have to pay, and then it was 07, a lot of people weren't buying more clothes when they couldn't pay their rent, and I had 10 clothing brands and eight of them were dead. So I went and diversified my portfolio and get pitched, other things like electronics or whatever the case is to take a more real estate

in the stores, and so then I say, okay, I'm gonna do the show. They said you can't do any of this show, but hours is okay. But I have a, I have three friends that are opening a store in California. And I'm going to be on a new cable show three separate times, three minutes a piece, nine minutes total. Can't do any of the show, but hours. Well, then I said, well, I have to pass respectfully. Thank you. I'm a man of my word. I'm not a, I don't know, reality star actor actress. That's not what I do. And then I get a, I sat the past, thank you.

I get a call about, I don't know, a couple of days later from a book agent, not even my agent said, I heard you gave a book a show on ABC with Mark Burnett for three girls named the Cardiscus that nobody'll over here row. And he said, you could be on ABC, you could be the new black bonzi. I said, no, can't do it.

I get a call from the producer of the Kardashian, I think two days later, and she says, you know, I don't think he really fit the model. We don't want you in the show no more, you're fired, goodbye. And then I get a call from Mark Burnett one hour after that, and he goes, so I heard you're available. And so, Chloe Kardashian found out that I was going to turn down the show because I was representing the girls, and she said that the world, he said, oh, who I am. And she would never get in my way. That's why Chloe fired me.

What a good story. I mean, having the Kardashians involved and all that and it was totally fake. So I'm going to share a little story about how Shark Tank has impacted my life. And then we're going to get into your new children's book. So Damon, I actually, my family was one of the first families impacted by COVID in March 2020. And I remember going to my parents' house, my mom, my dad, my uncle, my brother all had COVID. I ended up being quarantined at my parents' house for three months because I got sick. None of my friends

wanted to hang out with me. I was working from home from Disney, and dad ended up getting so sick. He was in the hospital and basically was dying for three months. And I remember being so depressed, I was binge watching Shark Tank every single night. So I'm going to cry. And you guys got me through it because that was me, my dad's favorite show. And that's when I decided to take this podcast and really turn it up. And not I started my own company called Yat Media. It's a social media agency. And that's when I decided to take this podcast and really turn it up a notch. I started my own company called Yat Media. It's a social media agency. The company blew up. My first client paid us $800 a month. My second client was $30,000 a month and then I kept getting one huge client after the next.

And I have to say that Shark Tank was one of the main reasons why I was inspired to become an entrepreneur. It taught me so much. I literally only watched that show for three or four years and didn't allow myself to watch any other TV. And you've just been a huge inspiration. So thank you. Wow. I can hear how passionate our about it. You know, we wanted to show initially thinking it was going to be great opportunities to get great deals. And the show became something bigger and better. Mark Cuban, then being the tech IE is, when everybody else, the show is going to be canceled the first three years.

It wasn't doing well. Like it hasn't done in many markets, but the data showed that it would jump in three, four years because it's very hard to explain that show. Who wins? Are they in, is it on Discovery Channel during Shark Week? Are they, do they get dumped into some shark, you know, sharks? Are, when did they get the money? And Mark Cuban You know, sharks are one of the get the money.

And Mark Cuban found out that it was one of the top shows watched kids and parents together. And kids five to 15 and the ones taught in school. And all these so-called famous celebrity entrepreneurs at the time, many of them have been on our show after that. They wouldn't go on to the show because they didn't know who would name in a Barbara Kevin in whatever it was. Because they were like, they're not famous, but Mark Cuban said that this is helping American families bond to be together and creating you know new sharks

I'm gonna go on the show so Mark goes on the show and now he can walk on the Jimmy Kimmel He can walk on the late night show because he's Mark Cuban We couldn't walk on there and because of him season three Because he's Mark Cuban, we couldn't walk on there and because of him season three, the show is out of here. And what it is, it is an institution. It is one of the only shows on TV that families like a daughter and a father could watch. It's the only show on TV where you cannot know what it is to be an entrepreneur, but then watch a two-year straight and walk into the room and know the questions that a millionaire

and billionaire are going to ask you. And that's why it's a huge honor to be on the show and to have that experience that you have shared with me. Yeah, I really thank you for all your work on that show. So let's talk about financial literacy. What did being on Shark Tank teach you about financial literacy in America or the lack of it. It's all mean that we are not taught financial literacy in America. It taught me that most of the people that come on this show, not most, but a lot of the earlier days, they were only in those situations because they did not have financial literacy or financial intelligence. And there was nothing wrong with them and nothing wrong with that because we weren't taught

it as I go through the data of 65% of a lot of winners and athletes of bankrupt three years after leaving the league or winning the lotto because they want to what that it's not that you know everybody wants to call that that's why people call athletes big dumb athletes know they're not they're the most prime beings and understanding of running plays and understanding how to be the ultimate person that remember there's only three thousand professional athletes all combined in the United States. You know how rare that is?

But it doesn't mean that they understand finance. I know who does not understand often finance, doctors. They know how to cut you open and save your life, and that's way more important. But we're not taught that, and that's why, that's why we are in the jam we're in. We are a country of renters now, because the American dream is moving away from us.

The American dream of buying a house at a certain, a certain price and a growing inequity, and then you raising your family, and then the house is worth a lot of money. You take that equity out of it, you then go and move to a very small place and reduce your imprint, and you live all for that for the rest of your life.

That American dream is going. And it's going away because we don't have financial intelligence and that's the point and that's the problem. So I know Damon that you've written multiple best selling books and you basically have made it your life's work to pass on your hard earned business acumen. How come you're focusing on children now?

How come I'm focusing on children now? How come I'm focusing on children now? Why, how, do you have any children yet? Not yet, no. You have a niece and nephews? Yes. How old are they? They are six and eights. Six and eight?

My perfect, that's my target market. The best thing, guess what about those six and eight year olds? They don't have credit cards. But those six and those eight year old, oh, by the way, I got to put this on, sorry, excuse me. What is that represent? What is this represent? Yes.

When I'm talking to a six and a eight year old, do you think they give a shit about my $10,000 Tom Ford suit when I'm sitting on TV? No. No. You got to be your customer with your rat. And when I put this one, guess what? You're going to do magic? Oh, I'm going to do some magic. Yeah, I want to teach you how to make one dollar and the two

I want to teach you how to be successful I'm gonna teach you how to get out of your mommy and daddy's house whenever you want to so All right, let's get into the story here. This is a little game learns to earn Let me tell you something this is the first book in history that I see like it's kind because we are not taught Financial intelligence and school and the reason because we are not taught financial intelligence in school and the reason why we're not taught is not because it is a scam. It's not our school system is antiquated. It is teaching our children right now how to go to shop.

We needed to learn how to go to shop when we were at war and we needed to understand the trade and the skill. It teaches us how to be good employees. However, if we are not teaching them at first grade, second grade, how a dollar works, what is compounding interest? And not in same what's compounding interest? We don't tell them that they're supposed to be in school.

We not supposed to be talking about how much does it was to get $6,000 out, $8,000 out? No, when we start talking about if a train leaves the station at 6 and arrives at 9, what's it worth? That's time. And when we break it down in the way of, and if you do this, you either have to leave later

so you can have more time to play with your friends or more time to eat candy. Or if you do that, then you start to break down and let them understand how to understand financial intelligence because here's the problem. If you don't teach them financial intelligence to anyway and how money works. Well, then, in 16 and 17 years old,

the credit card companies are lined up and they all have CFOs. The colleges are lined up and they all have CFOs. They're lined up to give them an issue, them six to seven hundred thousand dollars worth of student debt, that they will not pay up until they're into their fifties because they don't have financial intelligence.

And what are they going to do? They're going to spend that on the education that I didn't even show if they want. The stats and the data is 50% of the kids that are graduating today will retire with a job title that doesn't exist today. If I told you 20 years ago, you're going to be an AI expert or a podcaster or a paper click manager or a social media manager or a drone operator, you would have said, what the hell is that? I'm going to go and get this $500, $600,000 education that I don't even know if I need.

But now, don't be wrong. It is not a scam because by the way, they teach you finance and accounting in college. But you just took the $600,000 loan and now they're going to teach you finance and accounting in college. But you just took the $600,000 loan and now they're going to teach you finance. Well, you might as well just enroll in the Navy. I'm going to teach you how to swim after you're out in the ocean in a war with 20-foot swells. You can't do that. Yeah. And that's why this is going to be my legacy of my life for. This is what I am going to the grave for because here's why. This is what I call my three-peat. I changed the world in the way that African Americans as well as culturally

people thought of African Americans and the culture of hip-hop because Fubu is the number one exported hard goods in American history. I would also affect and change the world at the 14 years being on a show that shows families that you can do this If somebody who laying on the couch, they decided and understood what it is to be a shark and there is going to be kids Who are right now watching me on shark tank will grow up and they will change the world and be bigger and better than I ever will be But this is what I'm going to the grave with because it's not about a book This is about teaching our kids financial intelligence and this is about getting the school system and other people to say there's a whole lot

of financial intelligence, financial literals, literacy, things out there. And oh my God, Atlanta, you just put this into the school system and this started to work better. Detroit, why aren't you doing something similar with other products out there? Houston, why aren't you Arizona? And I wanna make it a thing for people to start to say,

this is good. I want Chase to say, why don't we come up with financial intelligence programs that we gift to schools? And then when I die, I want my little girls to say, my daddy's starting to move me that everybody got behind. We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors. Hear that sound, young and profitors. You should know that sound by now,

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respect her. She's been a guest on YAP. She was a former social client. She's a podcast client, and I remember when she came on Young and profiting and she talked about her conviction marketing framework It was like mind blowing to me. I remember immediately Implementing what she taught me in the interview in my company and the marketing efforts that we were doing and as a marketer I really really respect all Kelly has done all Kelly has built in the corporate world Kelly secured seven promotions in just eight years But she didn't just stop there. She was working in I to five. And at the same time, she built her eight figure company as a side hustle and eventually took it and made her full-time hustle. And her strategic business goals led her to win the prestigious Inc 500 award for the

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Tune into the Kelly Road Show available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I love that. I hear the passion in your voice on this, and it's really, really moving. So, do you feel like kids right now don't have the right role models? Do you feel like kids today are actually worse off than they were 10, 20 years ago in terms of this? Just today have the right role models. I'm not going to be the old phobia. I'm not going to be the old phobia.

I'm not going to be the old phobia. I'm not going to be the old phobia. I'm not going to be the old phobia. I'm not going to be the old phobia. I'm not going to be the old phobia. I'm not going to be the old phobia. I'm not going to be the old phobia. I'm not going to be the old phobia.

I'm not going to be the old phobia. I'm not going to be the old phobia. I'm not going to be the old phobia. I'm not going to be the old phobia. I'm not going to be the old phobia. I'm not going to. Hahaha. It's that wrong role models that are showing them that all of a sudden they are just, you know, it's easy to be rich. Kids have other role models and unfortunately, have come from really bad areas and all they're doing is talking about what they know because that's all they have

because they have been marginalized and come from a lot of systemic issues. But kids have other role models who have overthrown governments by not picking up a gun, by picking up something called Twitter. Kids have other role models who are their age, who are like the generation before us have destroyed this planet. I'm going to take all the plastics out of this ocean. I let the law.

I have a little girl one day and I said, what do you want to be when you grow up? She's about four years old. She said, what do you want to say? She said, I want to pick up trash. I said, what do you want to be when you grow up? She's about four years old. She said, what do you want to do? She said, I want to pick up trash. I said, what? I'm paying $60,000 for you to pick up trash. This has nothing to do with the great men and the great women in our cities who bust their ass

to pick up trash to make sure that we don't have diseases and rats and roaches. But then I said, why do you want to pick up trash? You know my little girl said to me what her big beautiful eyes? What's that? Cause I want to pick up trash? You know my little girl said to me, what her big beautiful eyes? What's that? Because I want to clean up the world, daddy. Now, picking up trash to her may be reducing the carbon imprint on this planet.

It may be taking plastics out of our waterways that then go into our bloodstream. So there are a lot of role models for kids out there, but the problem is today's generation of children, your nieces and nephews, they don't have any national role models. Why? Because after five or six years old, they tap out a Peppa Pig, Daniel Tiger, Thomas the train. When I grew up, I had a national role model. I had Mr. Rogers, the role of whatever case is, even what Mr. Caldwell was putting out, I had the Muppets, we all went around. Not even Mike, older kids had Steve from Blue's Clues,

during the Explorer. Now who are the kids have? They pick up an iPad and there's a thousand splintered families showing how to play with toys and they're more excited about unboxing than creating what's in the box. But guess what? I'm the only, and this is sad. I'm the only African-American man on a national television show for 14 years that does not come from music sports or politics. And I've been in these kids room for 14 years. I don't have a superpower.

You don't need to know, think that I was the only one who could dunk a ball like and sing it. My dumb ass can do it. You can do it. I love that. So let's talk about what's inside this book, Damon. So I believe that you're teaching kids about entrepreneurship, financial literacy. And basically in your book, Little Damon, he wants to buy a music poster.

He doesn't have enough money to buy it. And then his mom points out that, hey, you've got talents that you could use to solve problems. And Little Damon becomes an entrepreneur. So what are some of the lessons, if my young and profitors go out by this book for their young kids? What are some of the lessons that they're gonna learn and their kids are gonna learn?

Well, first of all, I want them to take their parent hat off because as you became a parent and adult, it was a trap you had to grow up. So first of all, I want you to think like a kid. So first of all, when Little Damon opens up this business, guess what happened at first? He fails horribly. I love this teacher that is in my teacher group.

I got advice, I got teachers. You know what she tells her kids? She says, Monday is this kind of day, Tuesdays, is this kind of day, you know what Wednesdays? Wednesdays, curveball Wednesday. And then she has Thursday and Friday. I've just an overtot curveball Wednesday, right? We always think things are going to go well.

So Damien's first business fails. He's going back, depressed. What I want to do, is what happens. Mom says, you've got to find out what are your friends best skills? Because you need friends. The entrepreneurship is a team sport. You may have, you know, you may be a single owner entrepreneur, but you're working with very other people to get your goods. Well, then

Damon tries and finds a way to get his friends. You can see you can dance. You can enjoy it. Let's start to sell these things because I want you to draw it, but I want you to sit outside and sing. Oh, you're going to get people over to our booth by this. Oh, you're really good at math. And all of them start to profit off of it. And not little daemon starts to win. At the end, when they did everything up because they got to reorder and whatever the case says, everybody gets to profit. And that is another key because our kids grew up thinking of boss as somebody who tells you to get coffee. A boss is the first of the office, the last to leave, the one who thanks everybody for their success and blames only

one person for their failure and blames only one person for their failure. And that's the key. But I don't want to read my to my little girl any more princesses and pony books because how many times am I going to read to my little girl to wait around for some prince because there's going to be some glass slipper that you're going to drop or to put your hair out of some damn tower because a prince is going to come around. I'm trying to teach my little girl how to sell glass slippers. I don't want to teach my little boy. If I had a little boy, the webs are going to come out his wrist or he's going to fly. No, you know what?

If he thinks that the avengers are great because they all come together and use their superpowers to stop evil, all his little friends have superpowers. Why don't you bring your superpowers together to bring joy to your friends and to create something and create fun things that you love. And if you fail at making money at least you had fun. You're the super friends. You are the Avengers. That's the critical thinking that kids need to know. And that's what little Damon learns to earn is about. And I want the parents to take their goddamn parent hat off. When I read Capture in the Rye as a Kid,

I read it one time and said, what the hell am I doing? I read it one time. A kid is repetitive. You don't read this book once. You read it once a month to them because they go on, they go, man, they didn't get the first second time,

but they love the way you told the story. Maybe the third month, they go, wow, my friend knows I do this. And you know, when after they get tied up in a year to you, you know, you do, you give it to another family. I love this mission. I want to help you. I have a lot of successful listeners who listen to the show. How can we help you get the word out?

How many success? So you know what, what is this going to be out? This is going to be out March 27th. March 27th. I'll tell you what I'll do. Mm, yeah, yeah. You can, you know, here you go. Just help me in spread the word

because we have a great program, a buy one gift one. Because it's you, they buy, buy book, and go to littledamein.com, and you will, little enter into something where one person will be picked by your crew that I'll spend the 15 minute one on one with them and give them all the advice I can on how to become more successful and do something else. But then of the day, it's just about getting the word out. You know what? And double their everybody else to take on the same journey and come out

with other products like this that I will highlight on my platform to give them a voice, to hopefully just change this narrative in our country. And DC Little Damon moving on to have some sort of a TX could totally see a TV show or something like that. Yeah, you know, Little Damon will move on to having more things and more ways, but because, but we're coming up with a system. So the children understand what to do with $3, $300, $3,000, $3,000, $3,000, million. People don't understand America how it's supposed to work. The first dollar goes to what you have to pay for the second goes for an investment and the third goes for what you would like to have,

but don't have to have. But what do we do as American? Well, we put number three is number one. We never get the number two. And number one, we'll get to the end or we get kicked out. So start to learn that. We have systems that we will be bringing out, but what do you want to do with your kids? They show them the three dollars. You know what else to do? You know your nieces and nephews? You know what to do with them? Every year get them. You want to get them a toy, right? Of course, right? Because they're kids, right? Well, when you get them something, why, you boy, the boy, he likes trucks, buy him one share and catapillot. But, why him a little catapillot truck? Because it's a share, he's a catapillot, he's going, what the hell is that? Why am a catapillot truck and take a picture of you with him and the truck at that time, right? And that's for Christmas and for birthday. Well, then I don't know what he likes,

but maybe like, I don't know, whatever the toilet is, or buy a share in Mattel. I don't know if it's a public company. Before you know it, you know, and every parent can do this. You know, American girl, I think, is on my own Mattel or something like that. Before you know it, by the time you're 16 years old, that one share would have changed. This amount they would have been like,

well, if you would have put that in the bank, you would have got three, four percent. But you put that there at average, it's out to probably about 15, 16, 17 percent. Here's the picture of me on my auntie, but my truck, but you put that there at average, that's probably about 15, 16, 17%. Here's the picture of me on my auntie, but my truck, but this with that, you gotta get them accustomed, these things in the way that they think about it.

Remember, they see one quarter and two pennies, they think the two pennies is more than the one quarter, but if they see one quarter, you equate to how many damn gummy bears they can buy against two pennies, oh, now they know the difference, little things we gotta do. Yeah, I love know the difference. Little things we got to do. Yeah, I love this, Damon.

Thank you so much for your time. I want to be respectful of your time. I'm going to end the show with two last questions. The first one is, what is one actionable thing our young and profitors can do today to become more profitable tomorrow? It all depends. They have to reinvest in whatever they love, right?

But financial intelligence is a thing to be more profitable about. And if you want to have more financial intelligence, and you are concerned about the way to do it, well, how can I meet you exactly where you are and not me? But the same way that you have all those accounts on Instagram, where you know all the places to go for dinner, all the bags you want to shop for,

or all the places to travel, put on 30 accounts, they have something to do with financial intelligence, but do not buy anything. And I'm telling you now after a year or two years of scrolling through there, you will have a way better understanding. The same way that you watch Shark Tank to become who you are, I almost went bankrupt three times, two times when I was poor and one time when I had $10 million, I did the same thing and I watched a show called Man Money by Jim Kramer every single day for two years and guess what happened? After that, nobody can mess with me when it came to financial intelligence. I love that. You always got to level up young and profitors.

And Damon, what is your secret to profiting in life? What is my secret of profiting in life? It is three tent poles to how you're profiting in life and anybody to be successful. Number one, know your why. Number two, set goals to accomplish that why. And number three, you gotta keep learning and do your homework.

Here's the only problem. Many of us don't want to admit what our why is and many of our why is being done for somebody else, what society thinks. So here's the bigger problem. If you are saying you have the wrong why, well then what kind of goals are you going to set because you're setting the wrong goals and if you have the wrong goals, well then the education you have to enforce the wrong goals is going to be the wrong stuff. You are the only one to have the blueprint yourself. You want to be famous?

Well then set some goals to be famous. I got nothing against that. You know one of my favorite rappers are old dirty bastard and he set some goals that he was going to be an old dirty bastard and it is homework on how to be an old dirty bastard. God bless his soul but he was an old dirty bastard. That's it. I mean he was the only one who knew what he wanted to do. The problem is too many people lying to themselves

about their why. Don't do it for your mother, your father. I don't do it because you think it looks cool. You're the only one who got to sleep with yourself at night. I love that. Great advice, Damon. Thank you so much for coming on the show, guys. Little Damon learns to earn is on the shelves now if you have

Any kids make sure you cop that book right away Damon it was honestly a dream come true to have you on the show. Thank you so much for your time I really appreciate it. Thank you. I love what you do I love the fact that we had a little bit of connection and so emotional about what you do Because it's clear your passion and I appreciate you bringing me on a show and give me this opportunity Thank you to all the entrepreneurs out there about what you do because it's clear your passion. And I appreciate you bringing me on this show and giving me this opportunity. Thank you to all the entrepreneurs out there. And you know, if you think I look stupid in the hat,

I want you to know that you're playing yourself because you love Willy Wonka, you love Clint Eastwood, you love Harry Houdini, you love Rossi the snowman, it's not playing yourself. I look really cool in this. I agree, you look fly, Damien. And your kids think I look cool, so I'm gonna be attractive here, kids, because it's had and teaching financial intelligence. I look anyway, Damon. And your kids think I look cool. So I'm going to be attracted to your kids because it's had

and teaching financial intelligence. I look anyway, call me stupid. This is for our kids. I love it. Thanks so much, Damon. You've got it. Thank you. Man, young and profitors, what a dream come true.

It was to interview Damon John. I teared up in the middle of this interview thinking about how much his work on Shark Tank impacted me. Shark Tank was actually the only show that I allowed myself to watch for four entire years. When I was building YAP as a podcast, I had a full-time job and I wanted wanted it to be a huge show, and that means I needed to invest a lot of time in it. I had to remove all my unproductive time, which included things like reality TV, mindlessly scrolling on social media, and lots of things that I didn't really need to do

that was sucking up my time. And my only bit of edutainment was Shark Tank, thanks to Damon John. And I love what Damon is focused on. He's teaching financial literacy to today's youth and that is such an important job. And who better than Damon John? He's one of the most respected entrepreneurs in the world.

He's somebody that kids recognize from TV. And I'm so proud of everything Damon to accomplish in his life. From working at Red Lobster to selling hats and queens to taking Fouboo to a $6 billion company to rocking Primetime National TV, Damon is truly the epitome of the American dream. And you know, it's kind of scary

to meet your idols in real life. It's funny to think that for so many years, I would watch Damon on TV with my dad in the living room and then fast forward to 2023 he's sitting directly across from me on the screen chatting directly to me He knows my name. He knows my podcast and it's just crazy like what a surreal moment and luckily for me Damon was an absolute sweetheart Sometimes these huge celebrities come on the show and they're kind of standoff-ish and they're just not in a good mood and they have no idea who I am and they could be a little rude,

but Damon was nothing like that. He was a sweetheart and he even got a little silly towards the end after he warmed up a bed. And he goes without saying that our world and our use is a little better with Damon John in it. And if you have kids, make sure you go get Damon's new children's book. If you want to enter a chance to win 15 minutes of Damon John's time, go to littledaiman.com, purchase your bundle, and then enter code YAP at checkout. Again, go to littledaiman.com, purchase your bundle, and enter code YAP at checkout to

enter the contest. Thanks for listening to Young and Profiting Podcast. If you listen, learn and profited, share this episode with your friends and family, and take a minute to drop a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you like watching your podcast videos, check us out on YouTube, and I highly recommend that you check out this specific episode on YouTube because there are some really funny parts at the end of it. And you can also find me on Instagram, at GapappwithHalla or LinkedIn by searching my name, it's

HallaTaha. Big shout out to my amazing, talented Yapp production team, shout out to my executive producer, Jason Ames, shout out to Critty, my VP of Adop, Amelia, Greta, Paul, the whole team really appreciate everything you guys do. This is your host, H Halataha, signing off. [♪ Music playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, to be happier, healthier, more productive and more creative? I'm Gretchen Ruben, the number one best-selling author of the Happiness Project. And every week we share ideas and practical solutions on the Happier with Gretchen Ruben podcast. My co-host and Happiness Guinea Pig is my sister Elizabeth Kraft. That's me, Elizabeth Kraft, a TV writer and producer in Hollywood.

Join us as we explore fresh insights from cutting-edge science, ancient wisdom, pop culture, and our own experiences about cultivating happiness and good habits. Every week we offer a try this at home tip you can use to boost your happiness without spending a lot of time, energy, or money. Suggestions such as follow the one-minute rule.

Choose a one-word theme for the year or design your summer. We also feature segments like know yourself better where we discuss questions like, are you an over buyer or an under buyer? Morning person or night person, abundance lever or simplicity lever? And every episode includes a happiness hack, a quick, easy shortcut to more happy. Listen and follow the podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin. The On The Job Podcast from Express Employment Professionals is back for season 7. And I thought, God, I wish I knew of a woman mechanic. I would drive long distances to bring my car to a woman who was a mechanic.

And then I thought, I bet a lot of other women feel this way. I'm going to open up an old girl garage, and I'm gonna make a million dollars. Check out on the job from Express Employment Professionals, an I Heart Radio, or wherever you listen.