Goal Setting for Success: A Conversation with Shark Tank Investor Daymond John

Michael Rivo: Welcome back to Blazing Trails. I'm Michael Rivo from Salesforce Studios. I'm here with Rachel Levin. We are the team that brings you Blazing Trails. Hello Rachel?

Rachel Levin: Hello, Michael. It's great to be here again.

Michael Rivo: Today we have another great episode of Blazing Trails with Daymond John. He's an entrepreneur, investor, bestselling author, and most of us probably know him from Shark Tank. Daymond was featured in our stories of resilience program, a series where small business leaders share true and inspiring stories of how they've navigated these challenging times. Rachel, tell us what we're going to hear today.

Rachel Levin: Well, we're going to hear from Daymond and his story is really kind of the stuff of legends. He started his lifestyle brand FUBU when he was in his 20s, just selling hats and hip hop concerts. He obviously recognized that this was more than just music. This was a movement and he ended up creating a$ 6 Billion empire. So it's a pretty good record there for success.

Michael Rivo: Yeah. And it's a great story of grit and determination. Some of the things that really resonated with me is his idea around the secret of success being, how you react to failure. And how data is so key to understanding how to deliver the right thing to the customer at the right time. And most importantly, what he looks for when deciding to invest in a company.

Rachel Levin: Yeah, I think that last one is key for our listeners who are big Shark Tank fans.

Michael Rivo: Absolutely. Well, let's get to it. Here is Daymond John and conversation with Paul Pedrazzi, SVP of Product at Salesforce. Enjoy the show.

Paul Pedrazzi: My name is Paul Pedrazzi. I am the senior vice president of product here in our essentials business. If you're not familiar, essentials is the easiest way to get started with Salesforce. It's designed and built for small companies and solo entrepreneurs. So I am pumped for today. So here's, what's in store for you today. We're going to begin with a fireside chat with Daymond John, founder and CEO of FUBU, and one of the co- stars of the hit ABC show Shark Tank, probably where you know him from. So as we go, you'll hear things that interest you jot them down, jot down those questions. You will get a chance at the end of the hour here to ask them. And when you do, please remember include your name, include your company and include your location. And so with that, I'd like to jump into the conversation with Daymond. So Daymond, welcome. Thank you for joining us today.

Daymond John: Thank you for having me and sorry about that issue. Let's get this party started.

Paul Pedrazzi: Yes. It was very 2020. I thought we were through all of that stuff, but we're going to make a work. Glad we're talking. And I wanted to maybe first started touching on your journey. It's a very inspiring journey. Most people know you from Shark Tank where you invested millions of dollars, your own money supporting budding entrepreneurs, really helping them succeed. But before you were a TV icon, you were a guy with a dream, right? You started FUBU a street wear brand living by this mantra, For Us, By Us. Hollis, Queens, a few friends, some help from your mom. That story is amazing. And I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing a bit of that origin story and the lessons that you took that we can learn from that experience.

Daymond John: Yeah, sure. Well, to respect the time we have, listen right around the'80s, there was this new, I would like to call it a disruptive technology coming out called hip hop. And it was something that the music artist no longer had to play an instrument or be able to harmonize it. It was just kids in the street. Some of them they had hopes and a lot of their dreams, aspirations and hip hop was something that you just listened to or something you live and came with the way you walk, talk, and dress. However, this emerging music is very much like today's Instagram or Twitter or Snapchat. We didn't know what was going on in the streets of Campton or the streets of Florida. But through this music, the kids were communicating. We were also communicating with the way we dressed, but when we would go and support a lot of different companies, they would clearly say," We don't want African- Americans wearing. We don't want rappers wearing. Or hey, I made a size for 32, why are you wearing a 36? I do not want you wearing it." Now, why am I wearing a 36? Because I'm 14 years old and I probably will only buy one pair of jeans the next four years so I'm going to grow into it. How about that? But they didn't understand the issue that were going on in the community, but they didn't want us to wear it. So I came out with a company and I said," Who's ever going to value and low the people they sell to? And I'm going to come up with a name, FUBU, For Us, By Us." And a lot of people thought it was about color, but it wasn't because I wasn't going to be a bigot. You never want to become the thing you're fighting against. And I didn't want to be a bigot like the other companies were. It was about a culture. It was about a culture to really highlight the beauty of this art that came from the streets of New York. And what did I learn during the course of that time? I learned that I had to save a quarter of the steps. I learned that I had to be obsessed with my customer, absolutely obsessed. I learned that I would fail more than I would succeed, but because I was taking affordable steps, I can act, I can learn and I can repeat it again a little more wisely. I learned that entrepreneurship was a team sport, that I needed various other people. I learned about the value of OPM. And OPM is not other people's money, it's other people's manufacturing, mind power, manpower, mentorship, but I don't make any money off those other clothing lines who disrespect us or other people's mistakes. And those are the things that I learned. And I learned that people all want to be part of a community and they want you to transition them in their lives. Whether they're transitioning to the same more time, whether you're transitioning to be a better person who can add more value to your family, to your customer and to your community or a simple thing. Right now, if you're home and you're depressed, Tino's and some chinos will transition you for just the moment. Not that I'm saying it's good for you but you are transitioning someone.

Paul Pedrazzi: I love that. So much to go. Especially now, we've got this world where you're talking about iterating and growing and taking some steps, learning, adapting, and I love that idea of learning from what everyone else is doing and bringing that in. That's genius. So maybe that's one of the secrets, but I'm wondering, we've got these seismic changes, we've got social change really massively going on political change, a lot of turmoil, public health emergency. And I think it's reminded us that in life, kind of like in business, change is the only constant. It's just, that's what we have to contend with. And somehow you've managed to not only stay relevant, but thrive actually. You've thrived over the last three decades founding and I think'92 was FUBU. And so you've done it in this fast moving industry and maybe, what's allowed you to do that? You've moved and adapt and morphed and changed and adapted in this ultra competitive world. What lessons can we take from that? And what lessons can our audience grab hold of as they face change for the first time in their business?

Daymond John: Yeah. So I think you're right. So what happened? I know my why, I get very, very deep into my why. 12 days ago or whatever it was the first of the year I do it every year. I write my obituary and I write two obituaries. I write one as a person that loved me and a person that would write about me that felt that I delivered everything in the world to them. And I write the other one as a person that felt I could do more in the world and I let them down. And I write that obituary and I reflect on that obituary on how can I be the one that really... And I put myself whether in my mother's position, my wife's position, or my kids position on both sides. So I know my why. Then I know that in any industry that I've been into, that I've had to educate myself extensively with what's going on in the industry, how am I going to go about doing it? And who do I need to help me along this journey? And how can I assist them more importantly than they assisting me and they will return the favor and on the value to me. And then I started going out and taking affordable steps and I failed. And I also write goals and I have goals setting techniques that I read. I read 10 goals before I go to bed every night and the same 10 when I wake up in the morning. Six of them expire in six months, the other four expire in two years, five years, 10 years and 20 years. And that creates my North star, my compass. And the reason I'm reading before I go to bed, is because science has said that over 70% of the things you dream about is either what you are fearing is going to happen to you, or you hope is going to happen to you. So I want it to be the last thing I think about the same as we all know, when you look at some crazy movie, then all of a sudden your dreams are all screwed up. And the reason I read it in the morning is because I want to take one action towards it. And I have failed in all those areas. You said I started FUBU in'92, you correct. But I really started in'89. I failed three times up until 1992. And then FUBU became a global brand in'98. And 2004- 2005 we went down and I acquired various other brands, Kappa, Ted Baker, Married to the Mob, or Crown Holder. And I failed at all those brands and I finally had a new acquisition in 2006. I believe it was called Coogi, started doing really well. I'm dyslexic. I put out a book in 2006 and it did okay. My second book failed. My three next books became New York times bestseller books. I went on to a show that almost got canceled the first three years of the show. And now I'm on 12th season with five Emmys'. And I want to get a little physical and they said, I may have a little nodule on my thyroid, but one hour of surgery became three and a half hours of removing stage two cancer that was slowly moving to my lymph nodes. So it was the size of a golf ball. And I'm cancer free now and I'm here to share with everybody about early detection. There's many failures I've had in my life and if I were to stop when I failed, then I would have never really hit that gold mine that happened afterwards of success. And my first marriage was a failure because I was too busy. You don't give a young man millions of dollars and you leave your wife at home with two little girls and your wife sees you more on TV than she sees you in person. And instead of that marriage where those two little girls, I was like, how much money can I make to get to these little girls? Now while I'm married and my other two girls are amazing, my ex- wife was amazing. But I'm now married to my new wife and my little four year old girl is, how much love can I do this little girl? So you learn through life and you fail often but it's after those failures that teach you the valuable lessons that you need to move forward.

Paul Pedrazzi: What strikes me when I hear you talk about that is how similar business and life are. You talk about, you're going to run into failures well, they're going to be on both sides, but it sounds like the key is just keep going. It's only a failure if you stop. You got to just keep going, keep learning and finding your why. I don't hear enough people talk about that. It's like, you need that in your life. You need that in your work. And one of the things that struck me about your story was this notion of just grit and persistence, which goes along with, yeah, you're going to run into a wall. You have to go around it or find a way around it. And early in your entrepreneurial journey in'89 and'90 and'92, as you'd mentioned, your mom actually mortgaged her home. You guys did that to get... Frankly, I cannot imagine the guts it took to make that kind of a step. And so what I'm wondering is one, were you nervous in that moment? And where did the courage come, particularly because you are bringing now obviously a close family member in, financial ties, not an easy situation, how did you make that happen? I'm amazed you hit off the dime there.

Daymond John: Nerve wrecking. My mother saw me working really hard four or five years on this or six years. And then I went to Vegas and as the story goes, I came back with$ 300,000 worth of orders. I did not have any financial intelligence and I didn't have the right mentors in those areas. So I went around and I got turned down by 27 banks. And listen, I know how my loan application sounded, I would have turned myself down too. And my mother said, I want to do this for you, I can see how hard you're working. But I was also contributing to the house, I was paying half of the mortgage since I was 14 years old because my mother and I were a team. We're just me and my mother and still, my mother's still around so I'm very blessed. But she said," Here's the deal, you have$ 300,000 in orders. I'm going to go and take all the money we can out of this house. You're going to manufacture the clothes and then you're going to deliver and put the money back in." My mother goes and gets a hundred thousand dollars loan on my house. And I have no idea how because our house was, 75. So till today I haven't asked my mother what she did for the rest of the money. Shout out to moms. And my mother moves out and my friends move in. I turned my house into a factory, but I didn't have any financial intelligence and the hundred thousand dollars that I had, I turned around three months later, it was$ 500 left. And I was three months late in the mortgage, they were going to take my home. And that was a scariest moment of my life because my mother and I thought that that home was going to be our Nestech forever. Because I was spending money 90 days ahead of time buying more goods. I was paying for my machines, my staff. I was paying for shipping and buy account receivables, 30, 60, 90 days. And that was the scariest moment in my life. And that's when my mother told me what OPM was and that's the point she said,"You need OPM. You need a strategic partner." I said," What the hell is that?" She said," I need$2, 000." I was working at Red Lobster at the time. I go Red Lobster, I sling in many biscuits as I can. And in one month I come up with$2, 000. She said," I have an idea." I give my mother money." What's this brilliant idea?" She takes the money and says," I'm going to put an ad in the newspaper." And I said," That has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life. Mom, give me back my money. I forbid you to do it." So ladies, when a man in your life, any man in your life forbids you to do something, what do you do? Here's how the add went,"$ 1 Million in orders need financing." 33 people called that ad. 30 of them were loan sharks, really nasty people. 40% interest living in adequate collateral. I mean nasty people, people named Kevin O'Leary really, really nasty people. What three of them were real and one was Samsung's textile division and they called and we ended up doing the deal and I would be$ 30 Million worth of sales in the first month of closing that deal.

Paul Pedrazzi: Wow. That's an astounding story. I don't know if everyone caught that. But while Daymond was starting this business with his mom, sewing machine in the hand was also working at Red Lobster. That just says it all I think about determination. And in the end, it's one of your most visible successes, right?$ 6 Billion, probably more now in sales, that's billion with a B, you've got the Shark Group where you've helped other businesses now become successful, Bubba's Q, Bombas socks, just to name a few. And what I'm interested in and what might help some of the audience here who is starting their business and running their businesses, when you're on Shark Tank, you have to make split second decisions, invest, don't invest like spur of the moment. That's all. You have very little information. How do you make that call? How do you evaluate these companies? And if you end up working with them, imagine working with someone who's watching today, what would you tell them to focus on, to take their business to the next level?

Daymond John: Well, so the pictures around, how we don't know anything about those people and we have an hour and we go back and forth and in that time I'm doing various different things. Number one, I want to hear your story and I want to hear how you, not only has succeeded, but I want to hear your failures and how you had the resilience and the passion to push through those and you still want to continue to push through those. I want to hear your inventory, what you know, what you don't know. If you know that you don't understand CRM, listen, every business you can't know everything. I was a designer, you think I understood at the same time, manufacturing, warehousing, clearing quota from China, social media marketing? Social media wasn't out but, whatever, accounting, CRM but you can't know everything. So I want to know, do you know your shortcomings and where you know that you need help? I want to know who your customer is. A lot of the times you see people on there and they say," Well, a customer's, everybody." No it's not. And if you don't know your customer, then you are looking for me to give you money for tuition. I need to know that you know your customer. My customer was very simple. It was 18 to 30 years old, loved hip hop, would pay a little bit higher for the goods, lived in New York city most likely loved sneakers as well. And I knew that the clubs they would hang out with and then they did pay 39 for a screen printed shirted and 49 for an embroidered shirt and 69 for a sweatshirt. I knew exactly where they were 65% of them bought black, 25% of the sales were white. In- between created another couple of dollars and they like two very specific logos. And they all love triple X, no matter what. Even if you are a hundred pounds at that time, you were wearing the triple X shirt because you never wanted a woman to call you small. So what I would do, I would take the small shirts and cut the labels out and put triple X in them."There you go little man." So you have to know every single thing about your customer. And then what does the Shark add value? Well the Shark is not a crutch, the Shark is another asset but you still got to run the business. Because if you think this Shark knows everything, well then FUBU would be Nike and it's not. You have to still run your business. And last but not least, I got to like you. I got to personally like you. If I don't like you, I won't buy one of your sponges. I don't have to buy the company. And if I want to make money, I don't have to talk to you. You know why? Because if I send my money over to Salesforce, I send my money over to Apple, or I send my money over to Tesla, they're not going to dust off Steve Jobs and he's going to ask me about any problems they're just going to be the same, you made money or not? And I ain't got to listen to them. So I've got to like you, whether you're selling me something from Salesforce or whether I'm investing in you or whether you're coming into my office to work for me. Am I going to be happy to get on Zoom with you, maybe eight hours a day, five days a week for the next five years of my life?

Paul Pedrazzi: Yeah, it's such a great point. Sometimes in business we get so focused on our product or our brand and we forget there's a human connection going on there too. And it's easy to miss that. We all want to be around people we like, that we have fun with, that we connect with, that give us energy that don't drain us energy. So I'm crosstalk full on with you. COVID- 19 forced a whole reset in the world of business, everything seems to have changed almost overnight. How is that impacted your business? And what I'm really curious about is how you've leveraged technology to adapt and change into this new normal that we're all facing.

Daymond John: Yeah, of course. First, using technology, how you... As I always say, trying to be one step away from the money. I grew up in a business where I maybe brought out there and maybe a retailer or a buyer they didn't buy it, they stock and maybe the kid would take it out of the back and put it on a rack and then maybe somebody will pick it up and hopefully that person is not one of those... If you've been to a store where you've had something in your hand, you can't find a register or the line is too long, and then maybe they didn't end up purchasing. So how can you use the data and the information to communicate with your consumers one- on- one and over deliver to them as well as taking in the information on how they're doing and where are they in their lives? And how can you have empathy for whatever they need? And empathy doesn't happen in sorrow, it means an understanding of where they want to go. We use Salesforce now to track our leads and our customers and make sure that all the entire team who are now working virtually are on the same page and there's transparency. So in the event that there is a ball drops and there's a problem or an issue or a celebration or a proposal needed or a proposal adjusted, it needs to be addressed. And we're using technology internally way more than ever before. So this is extremely a great time," the rise of the machines" to either you're going to be John Connor trying to kill the Terminator, and somehow you'll never be able to kill. Or you're going to be George Jetson, where the damn machines, wake you up in the morning and shave you and bathe you and take you to work and slide down the tube to your desk. This is a great time to be in such a place where you have so many tools at your fingertips.

Paul Pedrazzi: Yeah, it's amazing. I definitely feel more like the George Jetson these days walking six steps to my desk, but maybe we'll make that transition. I love the notion of technology as this vehicle for adapting to change. And our CEO, Mark Benioff talks about business overall as this platform for change as well. And sometimes I think people think they need to be big to make a big difference. Okay, Daymond, it's about to get real. I think you're probably pretty good at live audience work, but we're going to do it. We're going to try it again today with some Q and A.

Daymond John: Go on.

Paul Pedrazzi: So we've got some questions coming in. I've got them over on the monitor and you're ready to go? You're ready to do this?

Daymond John: I'm ready.

Paul Pedrazzi: All right. Let's make it happen. The first one we've got, it comes from Twitter @ dreadypineapple. And do you have any tips for staying motivated, especially during these times when things are slow?

Daymond John: Yeah. So I already said the couple of things that are important. What is your why? Are you really doing it for yourself or are you doing it because society, various other people? Then take inventory. What are the assets that you have? You're not going to be able to be in control of various other things because so many other things are happening in this world. What do you have on hand? Is it time on hand? Is it education? Is it the people around you? If you do not have the right people around you, how do you go find the right people around you? Life is a series of mentors. Take affordable steps as well. And those are the only things that I can really say because, to give somebody advice not knowing what assets and what liabilities they have is very difficult. These are all very personal matters. So it really is something that you have to tap into every single thing that you can do within your control, educate yourself, mentors, take affordable steps.

Paul Pedrazzi: I love you mentioned mentors. One of the questions that came through from Christine in the Q and A, which is," What is the best way to find a mentor?" I'm sure you get this question quite a bit. Any advice for Christine here?

Daymond John: Yeah. So there are various different forms of mentors. There are mentors who you will never meet. Napoleon Hill is my mentor and he's been dead for quite some time. He wrote a great book and various people will do. There are other ways of grabbing live content and are talking to people here. If you're talking about a physical mentor, first of all, find somebody that you would like to be. And that does not mean that they have to be in your space. When somebody goes to raise capital, they usually have a board that is very diverse. Somebody is excellent in manufacturing, somebody's excellent in financing, somebody's excellent in marketing. Also, when you seek the mentor, understand what is in it for the mentor, the line of people talking to mentors who's saying, well," Just help me." Well, that line starts here and end somewhere in the Brooklyn bridge. But most successful people want to mentor you, they may be in your company right now, but what you have to do is, what's in it? So one of the greatest pitch for me, that a kid had been for me a couple of years back and said," Mr. John, I know that you are the Petco board for a foundation for saving animals. I don't have any money, but I just want to know, can I speak to you once every month? And if you do that, I am going to donate five hours on the week, a week towards the local ASBC shelter to save the little hoarded friends of ours. And if possible can you give me one hour a month?" And I ended up giving the kid five hours a month because, the kid put the value proposition in front of me here and I realized he was worth the trouble.

Paul Pedrazzi: I think that's cool. You made me think any quick book recommendations? Talking about Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich any other top two or three?

Daymond John: You know, I'm dyslexic. So I like to read little books. But Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow, I love Blue Ocean Strategy, I love the Greatest Salesperson in Babylon. Of course, anything on Genghis Khan and how he strategically thought over many, many years when preparing for a war. And it's simple books, Who Moved My Cheese? And One Minute Manager, especially. In our business, One Minute Manager is this simple, but the bottom line of this, don't assume you know what your job is. And don't assume as a boss that you know the person you are directing knows what their job is. Make sure you have the criterias and the ways to communicate so there are little room for mistake. But a lot of times we go through life saying," Well, I assumed that that person knew that was their job." Did you tell them?" Not really?"

Paul Pedrazzi: Yeah, you know it's so simple, but we skip the basics, we skip the foundation and we want to jump to the advanced stuff.

Daymond John: And you learn these things in relationships too. I remember my first wife, she'd always would say," I'm cooking for you. I wanted to be a good wife and eight o'clock you're not eating your food." I'm like," Babe, I don't want to do that. I just want to come home and not talk about anything in my world. I want to hear about your world for the first hour.""No, but I cooked for you.""Babe, I got to go to dinner with three different clients every single day that I don't like. I am already 40 pounds overweight. The last thing I want to do when I come home is eat again." But her perception and my perception were two totally different things.

Paul Pedrazzi: Yeah. We're growing all the time. I love it. Continue back to some questions here. So we've got a question from Courtney Bailey and she says," Can you touch base on your 10 goals again? You mentioned some expire in six months, the other four in a couple years. What other steps do you take to help you reach these goals?"

Daymond John: Do we have time? That would take about five minutes.

Paul Pedrazzi: We have time for sure. Let's do it.

Daymond John: Everybody will benefit over this because I think this is the most important reason for success. The three most important reasons for success is number one, understanding your why, no matter how cold and how dark it is. Number two is setting your goals. And number three is finding mentors, which is education. So the 10 goals that I said, I said six of them expire in six months. And the others expire in two years, five years, 10 years and 20 years. This is one of the most important parts also. I do not look at social media or I do not look at emails for the first hour when I wake up in the morning. Why? Because I read my goals and in those times of reading my goals, I'm meditating and I'm taking it all in. And if you look at social media the first hour when you wake up, I promise you, everybody is skinnier, sexier, and richer than you and for some reason or another they're on a beach when that's not the truth, they're all just screwed up just as much as you and I are. And I also do not look at emails because unfortunately, you'll look at an email before you even kiss your significant other or hug your child or you're not out of the bed. You're letting everybody else's problems come into your life right there and then before you even brush your teeth. That's like a call for waking you up," Hey buddy, I got a question to ask you." So don't do that. Basically capture your goals. So here's how the goals are set. The reason why I set them for every six months is because I never hit them. If I say I'm going to make this amount of money, I make this amount and I reset it. And that's why there's six months. And the ones that are two years, five years and 10 years, you also have to visualize yourself in the goal. So I'll give you a five-year goal if you said you wanted to move some place and get this house in five years. Well, you have to close your eyes as you think about the home and what you think about, well, is it colonial or is it modern? Is it a glass door knob or is it a brass door knob? Is it a big black wooden door or is it some other kind of door? When you open the door, is it a winding staircase or is it open room and you see in the backyard? But what's in the backyard? Is it your boat on a dock in the backyard? Is it the desert? Is it a forest? Do you hear your kids running down the stairs saying mommy and daddy you're home? Is bread baking because food is almost ready? And is there a dog? You have to visualize yourself there. And that's why you set goals. The reason why you set goals is because you're trying to take over in your mind, the other goals that other people are setting, because if you're not in control of what you're thinking about, you're going to have other people say,"You can't make$10 Million in sales. You can't get that education. You can't get that new position. It's never happened in our family before. I've never heard that you're going to embarrass yourself. You're going to embarrass us." And you are consciously thinking above those goals, you become what you think about most of the time. So here's how you set the six month goals. And I'm going to show you a real six month goal. Most of my goals are all from health, to faith, to family, to work. I'm going to give one that I never hit and it's very clear. I'm going to get down to 175 pounds by June 1st and here's how I'm going to do that. I'm going to lose a pound and a half a week by drinking 10 bottles of water, walking over 10, 000 steps, substituting one of my meals with the green drink, and not eating fried foods and cutting out needs and not eating after 6: 00 PM except for fruits and various other things. And I'm also going to do weight training three days a week because the muscle eats up more then it's bad. And in return for getting down to 175 pounds, now here's the kicker, it goes back to your why. I want to live longer. I'm going to stay cancer free and I'm going to walk my three little beautiful girls down the aisle. Now, so what happens right there? I look at the target, I can imagine myself at that target. Now here's the methods of going through that target and the incremental celebration of one and a half pounds by a week. And the visualization of me walking my three little girls down the aisle at 175 pounds. And that's how you set your goals.

Paul Pedrazzi: I love that. What I really love is you're more obsessed in a way with the process and getting it done. If you miss the goal, it doesn't seem like a big deal. And I think a lot of people are like," Oh man, it's going to stress me out." And use it as this beacon and then you start your day by not getting derailed. Don't let anyone derail your day, you own your day. I just love that notion.

Daymond John: You know what? And I'm human. And do I miss a week of those? Yes. Do some other things happen? Yes. But you know what I also do? I play music. I love playing Bill Conti and Rocky things while I'm listening to it. So what happens, sometimes I'm in the car and I've been thinking about my goal, but I turn on the music and that track list of what my goals are and I'm just zoning out and it's already playing in my mind like a soundtrack.

Paul Pedrazzi: I love that. I could go on for hours about that. That's like writing my favorite topic of the world. So I'm super into that stuff. I really love it. And actually this isn't an audience question, but ever since I heard we were going to be chatting, it's been on my mind. And here it is, you founded FUBU in'89,'90 pending on the year you give it's right around the 30 year anniversary. Right? So we're right around that and I'm wondering, you lean into life, you go big, you set big goals, any big plans to celebrate? You've got to be doing something that would just be epic around this.

Daymond John: You know what? We haven't thought about what it will be, but we want to celebrate in a way that we inspire the new generation to go out and breed their own version and their own worlds of FUBU. We will see FUBU pop up in so many ways, whether it be an LGBT community, feel that they're FUBU or it'd be mompreneurs and various other things. We're just so happy that we happen to have the first hashtag when it came to clothing and that it inspires people. And I would never thought that a name I created out in my basement would become something globally recognized and we're just honored and proud. So I'm not sure what we'll do about whatever we'll do, it will be about the people and how can we get more people to be excited and to have their own version of FUBU and take the power of their culture, of their generation or their passion.

Paul Pedrazzi: It really does come out that human side of what you do. And I love it because again, business can become so sterile in some ways and oftentimes cutthroat and all about, I got to be better than that person, we have to make more than that. And you've shifted it in a way, it's more personal. Even early, it was about the community. It was about your friends coming on board. It was about your mother and you teaming up. And now it's about helping others grow and create the dream that they want and make it real and visualize it and see it and then make it happen. And I think people forget that it is all about connection and humanity. And that's what it's about.

Daymond John: A hundred percent. Once you connect with people, they want to buy for you. That's how you see in Bombas socks, they know that they're giving away a pair to people that are in need, and they're going to go out there and wave the flag and feel like they want to be a part of something much bigger. Even though they've bought one pair of socks, doesn't matter they feel good about it.

Paul Pedrazzi: Bomba by the way, 40 million pairs of socks being given away? I read that and I was like," Is this a typo?" It's astounding. And they found a way to combat homelessness and make money. And I just think that's the way of the future. I really love that idea.

Daymond John: Double bottom line and for watching your customers the same way they feel, they feel that, you can buy anything from anybody these days we're too connected. So a lot of times when they see what you're doing, they go," What are you doing for somebody else?" They want to know. And if you're stamping something on just to do it, they're going to see right through you. But if you generally care about what you're doing for somebody else, people will connect. People will love you. People will value you.

Paul Pedrazzi: Yeah. I'd buy that, especially now when every product, every business is a click away. So why work with you? It goes back to your notion of," I have to like you." And that can be in a one- on- one interaction or liking your mission and understanding your why and aligning with your why. So I think that's an important message.

Daymond John: Absolutely.

Paul Pedrazzi: Well, Daymond, I don't want to take up your whole day. Loved our conversation. I really want to thank you for taking the time to share your experience, your wisdom, your unique approach to business and honestly, to life. There was a lot of life lessons in here that I know I'm taking away. Just want to wish you continued success in'21 and beyond. Thanks for being here.

Daymond John: Thank you. And thank you everybody who watches Salesforce, thank you so much for all you do for the everyday entrepreneur as well as big companies of course. And I wish everybody health and safety. And 2020 was crazy but 2021 is going to be crazier. I mean, look at what happened only a couple of days in 2021. The first week of the year, you know what happened? Kim and Kanye announced that they're breaking up. Can you imagine that would have ever happened?

Paul Pedrazzi: All joke aside, everybody, please be safe. Love your family and value this time and 2021 will be amazing with COVID. Well then Damon, thank you.

Daymond John: You got it.

Paul Pedrazzi: All right. Well, that was amazing. So I hope everyone got as much from those conversations as I did. I want to thank you for joining us today. Have a great rest of your day.

Michael Rivo: That was Daymond John speaking with Salesforces' SVP of product, Paul Pedrazzi. We hope you enjoyed our show today and for insights on this topic and others, head over to salesforce. com/ blog for resources to help guide you through today's changing economic and social environments. I'm Michael Rivo from Salesforce studios. Thanks for listening.