You don't need money to make money: A conversation with Daymond John

Daymond John, nicknamed “the people’s shark”, started with $40 in his pocket and an idea. He turned that into a multi-million dollar apparel company, FUBU. Today, he is a highly influential consultant and motivational speaker, the CEO of FUBU, creator of his marketing firm The Shark Group, and appears regularly as an investor on the highly acclaimed show “Shark Tank.”

As one of the keynote speakers at the 2023 BenefitsPRO Broker Expo, John shared his thoughts with attendees on everything from investing and financial literacy to starting a business and goal setting.

7 key takeaways from Daymond John’s keynote:

Entering into a partnership: “It’s not what you should consider about the partnership, it’s have you asked the person what they are in the partnership for? … Why is the person investing? Why are we doing it?”

Financial literacy: “If they [schools] don’t teach us any financial intelligence at a young age, and then at 17 years old we can acquire student debt of $700,000, that we will not pay off until our mid-50s, then we are setting up our children to fail.”

Disruption: “Disruption is going to come, but you don’t know where it is going to come from. You have to be well rounded and very vulnerable. I think that the biggest challenge with entrepreneurs is that we don’t want to be vulnerable. But what I found is that success comes from being vulnerable.”

Starting a business: “Try to put yourself in two, five, or 10 words. What are the words that describe you and your business? If you don’t know what you stand for, you leave it up to others to interpret.”

Goal setting: “You have to know your why. You are the only person that has the blueprints to why you are taking these actions… Once you know your why, then you know the goals you want to accomplish.”

Selling and prospecting: “Educate yourself on the target. What is your unique selling proposition? Whatever you’re selling is not new… It’s a new form of delivery”.

Building trust in negotiations: “When I leave a negotiation, I ask myself: Did I find a way to relate to that person? … When I walk into a room, I can talk about children, marriage, health, and various things to connect. But then I have to ask the right questions.

“[In negotiations] I used to write ‘here’s what I’m trying to accomplish’… I took all the guessing out of the room because we assume other people know our intent.”