- Well, be honest, when you first heard, I always ask
people, I've been a part of, you know, reality shows.
When you first heard about shark tank,
did you think it would do as well as it has done?
- No, no, no, no, absolutely. I said, I said
it will never work. Why, why do people want to just see us
all argue and do what we do every day? And I said,
the only reason I'm going to do the show is if Mark Burnett,
the producer will listen to my three smoking hot TV ideas
that are going to change the world. So I went to breakfast
with him. He knocked down all the ideas before
the oranges came. And then I said, I'll do the show.
- Oh my god I love (laughing) And that is Hollywood.
- That's Hollywood. I did it so crappy.
I don't remember that.
- But at the time we're like, this is it.
We've all had those moments. Well, wait,
when you were starting out, you sold hats and shirts on the
streets in Harlem, right? I didn't know that.
- Yeah. I sit right outside the Apollo theater and this is
what we all try to tell people on shark tank,
do you have customer feedback? So the cause I came up being
baptized by fire, standing outside at midnight, when the
Harlem, when Harlem theater wasn't Apollo let out and
everybody was drunk and happy.
They told me about what they thought about my shirts and my
mother. Right. So, so you got real customer feedback.
And I was like, okay, you know, so this is exactly where I
started. And that's why we love seeing all the people that
have real customer feedback.
- Oh my god. That's bold. That's like I used to cocktail
at a comedy club and drunk people can be mean.
- Oh you cock tailed at a comedy club?
- Yeah and the drunk people can be vicious.
- Yeah, they are. They are definitely opinionated.
- But if you can survive it, you'll make it.
Um, so, so what are, what are three things that someone
needs to nail down before bringing an idea to an investor?
- Their numbers. They have to know their numbers because if
you don't know your numbers, then you're going to, you know,
you either have to increase sales or reduce costs, right?
They have to know who their customers are. You know,
I sold to a very particular customer, a young man between
18 and 35 would pay 39 for this type of
shirt and not 49. Right. Cause if you do not know who your
customers are, then you're using our money as tuition.
And then the next thing and the last and most important one,
how do you convey this message and this value to your
customer? Everybody has, there's nothing new in the world,
right? Snuggy sold a blanket with two holes in it.
Facebook is a, you know, a different form of a chain letter,
right? A great chain letter, but there's no new,
nothing new in the world. You have to have
a new way to communicate. You may make it
lighter, faster, stronger, but you gotta be
able to share where it adds value.
- Wow. Good advice.
- I feel like I just became a part of the merger.
Like sometimes I feel like I'm
at a board meeting. That's amazing.
- That's the truth.
- That's amazing that your mind thinks like that though.
It's it's not everyone's mind.
- It's always about the customer. Right? All of us have our
own problems. The only time we invest in anything is we feel
that somehow it's made for us in somebody solving a problem.
If you can't communicate that to somebody,
you don't have a business.
- You're not gonna win. Wow, okay.
- Well, you've got an event coming up called Black
Entrepreneurs Day. So, so what's that all about?
- Black Entrepreneurs Day, uh you know, we saw all what was
going on the last two years. I, I thought I looked out in
the streets and I saw people of all colors coming together
for, you know, to fight injustices.
But a lot of these kids were burning businesses instead of
building businesses. And I said, who's going to give them
the inspiration and the money and the knowledge on how to
create businesses. I called up a bunch of people and a bunch
of corporations that were going to give money.
So I'm giving a quarter million dollars away and grants of
25,000 a piece and live from the Apollo theater.
I'm going to be interviewing amazing people like Tyra Banks,
Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Hart, having Khalid perform.
So from the most famous theater in black culture,
giving away money and showing other people who have made it,
but more importantly, their mistakes and great people like
you helping support to get the message out.
- But wait, the most, the coolest part of that is that you
used to sell hats and shirts. You're going full circle baby.
- I'm going full circle. I got in the building.
And I'm going to rub that stump, famous stump
and I'm going to be up there and they gonna be like,
it's not about you. I'm like, yes it is.
- So inspirational, I love it.
- Thank you, thank you.
- The black entrepreneurs day event will stream live on
Daymond John's Facebook page at 7:00 PM. Eastern Thursday,
October 14th. Visit blackentrepreneursday.com for more
information everybody you got to check it out.