Daymond John & Peter Tuchman with Tsvetta Kaleynska | Money, Branding & the American Dream - The Money Signal: From Main Street to Wall Street

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_03 (00:00):
Mainstream media is pumping that fear factor in
there in a big way.
They catastrophize all thatstuff.

SPEAKER_01 (00:04):
When I walked in the room, that I needed to be able
to influence other people.

SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
What is that one skill that you want to see in a
founder?

SPEAKER_03 (00:11):
I don't believe that AI is going to take the jobs.

SPEAKER_01 (00:13):
I didn't have any money.
I didn't have a famous S name.
I didn't have an education.

SPEAKER_03 (00:19):
Hi, I am Peter Tuckman, known as the Einstein
of Wall Street.
And going back to 1650, therewere 26 brokers who would stand
under the tree with wheelbarrowsand they would go out to the to
the bottom of Manhattan, whichwas called uh uh uh New
Amsterdam at the time, and boatswould come in from all over the
world with commodities on there,whether it was spices or

(00:40):
chocolate or or tobacco, andthen they would fill their
wheelbarrows, bring them up tothe tree, and they would wheel
and deal.
It was the corner.

SPEAKER_01 (00:46):
I did not know that.

SPEAKER_03 (00:47):
Yep.
And so that went on from 1650 to1792.
And in 1792, their descendants,because they those families
stayed there and their childrenstayed there, wrote up an
agreement called the ButtonwoodAgreement.
And uh, our word is our bond.
The basis of the businessdealings going forward, a
handshake is a consummation of abusiness deal.

(01:08):
And the certain standards thatwe follow uh should be carried
through in what ended upbecoming the stock exchange.
The first building was built in1850 called the New York Stock
and Exchange.
And then uh that was just sortof a just sort of an umbrella.
People all people would comeunderneath it and sell products.
Uh, and then in 1903, thisbuilding was built.

(01:28):
And they issued 1,300 somewhatuh seats on the exchange at the
time, like a taxi medallion.
It was a limited number ofseats, which gave you the right
to trade stock.
And the price of a seat and thevalue of a seat has gone up and
down over the last hundred andsome years uh based on the
economy, how many stocks werelisted.
And so the price went from youknow 15,000 to 100,000 before

(01:51):
the crash of 1929 to 8.5 millionwhen we went public in the 90s.
And so, you know, this placewhat's what differentiates us
from any any other market in theworld is the human element.

SPEAKER_01 (02:02):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (02:02):
Right.
And that's what's exciting.
That's one of the things that Ihighlight, you know, as a
broker, that's the thing.
NASDAQ in Midtown is a fullyelectronic marketplace.
We have human beings here thatare still engaged in trading.

SPEAKER_01 (02:16):
Obviously, technology is well, you know, I
got a little history to break toyou.
You know, I don't think that conthat consummation of a handshake
or keeping your word is um well,really, you know, what I you
know, I don't think it washonored that long because I was
a foot messenger for FirstBoston uh when I was doing a
co-op class in high school, andevery time I walked down here, I

(02:37):
got robbed by somebody.
Yeah.
So I don't know if they well, Iguess it didn't carry through
all the way.
Um I bought V I bought V CRs, itwas wet newspaper in them.
They felt real though.
Yeah.
I understand.
Those bonds were not real bonds.
Okay, good.
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (02:55):
You're from you're from New York.

SPEAKER_01 (02:56):
Oh, I'm I'm born and bred in New York, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (02:59):
Born and bred in New York.
And uh you literally, when Ithink of you, I just think of
what an inspirational story youhad uh from where you started.
To just think about the factthat you are uh your company,
some of them are listed, NASDAQlisted.
I'm not sure if you have any onNICE specifically.
But thinking about that journey,like what's that big lesson that

(03:20):
you've taken from buildingyourself up and building those
companies, literally from whereyou started, to think of the
fact that you're here and you'reon global multi-billion dollar
operations.

SPEAKER_01 (03:32):
Uh although it's I pinch myself every day.
Uh, you know, I uh as you sawprior to this, I was taking
pictures and stuff like that.
I've been here probably 40times.
It never gets old.
You know, um looking at thatStatue of Liberty that promised
me a little young boy that if Iif I did everything that uh I
did within my powers to becomesuccessful, that she would grant

(03:54):
me liberty and success.
So it it never gets old, youknow, being here.
Um uh or you know, waking upevery day.
You know, Tony Roberts liked tosay that you the you can't have
two emotions.
Uh you can't have you can't beselfish and be grateful at the
same time.
Um so I wake up every day andI'm absolutely grateful for the

(04:15):
the liberties this country hasoffered me, for the people that
are supporting me, and you know,for you know, being raised
hopefully by a very strongmother that that that taught me
that I could be anything I wantto be.

SPEAKER_00 (04:26):
That's so inspiring.
And once again, I couldn'trelate actually more to this
because I'm an immigrant fromBulgaria.
I just became a citizen threeyears ago after 18 years of
believing in the same thing thatyou just mentioned, and Lady
Liberty and also the Americandream.
Peter, do you what do you thinkwhen it comes to being here, you
know, 40 years?
Damon said he's been here 40times.

(04:48):
You've been here for 40 years.

SPEAKER_03 (04:49):
I've been here for 41 years.
You know what?
You guys remind me that so myparents are Eastern European uh
Holocaust survivors.
They unfortunately spent fouryears in in Auschwitz, and so
their whole history wasdecimated.
And they came here with thatsame dream, the American dream.
They met in a displaced personcamp, fell in love, and came to
the States.
My father became a doctor, anduh, you know, and so this was

(05:11):
not guaranteed for me either,right?
And um uh and so, you know, uh,but I was I was brought up with
unconditional love, superpowerful mother and father, and
uh, you know, and taught whatwhat what education meant, what
family meant, what money meant,right?
I mean, you know, I had aperiod, there was a one

(05:32):
situation in as I was going frombeing a teletypist, you know,
the way people became brokershere back in the day was you
started as a squad or a runnerand you moved your way up to
become a broker.
It used to take 13 to 15 years.
Yeah.
And there was a period of timewhere it was a short period of
time when I was, I was a clerk,I was making$23,000 a year, and
I got in Ivan Boskey, who thefirst Wall Street movie is made

(05:54):
about.
He was he claimed that he washearing voices about takeovers,
and it turned out he had a guyup at Goldman Sachs who was, you
know, with the phone under thepillow under the pillow.
And I was offered a job by him,uh, making$85,000.
He worked in the same booth asme.
And I immediately said, Oh myGod, somebody finally realizes
how great I am.

SPEAKER_01 (06:12):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (06:13):
And I went to my father, right?
And my father, you know, it wasan immigrant who did money, he
did not have a relationship withmoney.
And he said, beware of money.
He said, You may be great andall, but I don't know if you're
worth$80,000.
And he said, I would just sit onit for a couple of days and
before you make that decision.
And I was, you know, as a youngkid, I was 25 when I got here,
and you know, finally somebodysees how great I am.

(06:34):
And so I decided I would listento him.
And uh on Saturday morning, hecalled me, said, Turn on, you
know, there were five TVchannels at the time, right?
He said, Turn on the news.
And it showed Ivan Boskyindicted for insider trading.
And so I never took that job.
And uh it sort of taught me, youknow, there have been people
along the way that that have,you know, where who have lost

(06:55):
have lost their way when itcomes to greed and with money.
And, you know, I I'm I wake upwith gratitude as well for every
day.
You know, I've said it a numberof times that this wasn't, none
of this was guaranteed.
Along the way, I had years whereI wasn't making any money.
I had a wife and a couple ofkids.
You know, I've had my IO I whenI almost died from COVID.
I mean, there have been so manydifferent challenges that we go

(07:17):
through.
And so without gratitude, you'vegot nothing.
And, you know, and and you don'tburn bridges, and that whole
perspective is is so important.
And uh, you know, being here 41years, I don't know where the 41
years went.
Right.
You know, I I'm I I I love thefact my son and I, when I got
here, there were 70market-making firms, they were
all family businesses, right?

(07:38):
Grandfather started and camehere and they grew.
And who else would you trustwith money and with your
business?
And that's how this place wasbuilt.
And my son and I, I brought myson on as a partner about seven
years ago.
We're the last father and sonteam on the floor of the stock
exchange.

SPEAKER_01 (07:52):
Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_03 (07:53):
And uh I I love that part of it.
It was always my dream to havehim here with me, and especially
as this place has changed andwhatnot.
But, you know, it's uh I don'ttake it for granted at all.
It's amazing.
And, you know, and I'm alwaysmoved by, you know, your story
is is incredibly moving.
And, you know, I and you know,we've heard it.
Look, I'm I've been a Shark Tanksince uh fan since day one.

(08:14):
Oh, great.
You know, uh I mean, literally,we the whole family would sit
and binge wash it.
I could pull up so many funscenarios that, you know, uh of
you on the show, things thatyou, you know, uh look, you were
very uh forthcoming about thefact when someone would come on
the show who you did not feelwas appropriate to be there,
yeah, and you're saying you'retaking a spot on that carpet

(08:38):
that could have been taken bysomebody who needed to be on the
air.
And and and I I it always movedme because that's so such a so
true, right?
And and you were maybe only theonly one who's sort of stood up
for that uh that uh you knowapproach.
And you know, and of course, ifyou know, the next thing would
be those people would probablysort of cry a little bit and you
know and not end up with a deal.

(08:59):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (09:00):
But anyway, um well I think to the same point, um
everyone loves Shark Tank, butthere have been obviously
different sharks along theyears.
I think the show started what,2009?

SPEAKER_01 (09:11):
2009.
We're on our 18th season.
I think it's 2009.
Yeah, I mean, think about it.
Uh the 40 years you've been onon the floor.
I've uh almost 20 years, I'vebeen on that damn seat sitting
next to Kevin.

SPEAKER_00 (09:23):
Yeah.
Well, not only that, I thinkShark Tank, again, is another
big fan of Shark Tank.
The first TV I got was actually,I only had ABC because again, I
was pretty broke when I came asan immigrant.
And I remember seeing you, and Ithought to myself, oh my God,
this is so amazing.
And again, the American dream.
But it's more than just being onShark Tank because to a certain

(09:45):
extent, you have made Shark Tankwhat it is and your presence
there and the branding thatyou've added to Shark Tank and
that really niche personalitythat you have has really
contributed to the show'ssuccess as a viewer.
Obviously, I can't say on thebased on the ratings and how
likable, you know, or unlikablethe personalities are, but the

(10:06):
way that it's been done has beenmasterful.
But I really want to hear moreabout you and the type of how
did you become a brand?
You were successful before SharkTank, but then you got on Shark
Tank, you excelled that show.
How did you actually become abrand yourself?

SPEAKER_01 (10:22):
Well, I think that everybody whether you're in
control, your narrative or not,you're a brand, right?
And I had always realized thatas a young kid growing up, you
know, only 30 miles away fromhere, um, that I didn't have any
money, I didn't have a famouslast name, I didn't have a an
education.
Uh, you know, though I I gotleft back in seventh grade and
never went I never I I barelyfinished high school.

(10:45):
But I knew that when I walked inthe room that I needed to be
able to influence other people.
I was an only child.
But, you know, growing up arounda lot of drug deals and various
other things like that, I I knewthat I wasn't tough.
I didn't want to fight.
Um, so I wanted to find a way,but I didn't want to be
sheepish.
So I had to find a way to createa brand.
Wait a minute, how do I create abrand?

(11:07):
What's in it for the otherpeople in the room?
How do I make them feel special?
And and it really, you know, asI started branding myself,
understanding that, how do Imake them, how do I become that
person where they come, wherethey go, you're a value.
And then I started to find myway in in the brand.
I, you know, and I realized, youknow, I try to say to people,
whoever you are, whether you'rein the mail room or the CEO, can

(11:30):
you put yourself in two to fivewords, right?
Can you can you describeyourself like Apple think
different, Nike, just do it,food, boo, for us, bias, white
castle, what you crave?
Because if you can't define whoyou are, when you walk in the
room, you leave it up to them tointerpret that.
And so, first of all, you needto understand who you are as a
brand.
Because a lot of brands are notglossy.
I mean, I I joke, but I'mserious.

(11:51):
Old Dirty Bastard was the olddirty bastard.
It doesn't matter.
You have to be very true withyour brand.
And then I started to say, well,I want to be known as an
operator.
So if you look at Fubu, we had acouple ways of putting out Fubu.
Of course, we we had the theaccess to LL Cool J.
So if you liked LL Cool J, cool.
What if you didn't like LL CoolJ?

(12:11):
What if you were from the WestCoast at that time?
He was an East Coast rapper.
Well, then we put models in theclothes.
Okay, what if you didn't, whatif you think you look better
than the models?
Well, then we put the founders,these four guys are making, and
then we just put product.
We would break it out becauseyour brand is different things
to different people.
I then got onto the show SharkTank, because I was a brand
prior to Shark Tank.
I was known as somebody whobacked the Kardashians or every

(12:35):
rapper, every artist would cometo me for my advice on how to
create their brand.
So they said, We want you on theshow.
And then on the show, I startedto find my way.
My initial brand on the show wasthe people shark.
Very, very uh, you know, veryclose to what you were saying,
because I would say stuff likemost Americans don't have$50,000

(12:58):
in the bank.
Most Americans don't have$10,000in the bank.
This is unrealistic.
And so people started feelinglike I was that voice for them.
And then as the years went on,we developed more brands of that
from from me.
So there's there's a lot,there's like I think everybody's
seven different brands.
A father, you know, uh an artcollector, a biohacker, an

(13:20):
educator, uh financial whiz, ahard-working man.
I think everybody's like sevendifferent brands.
Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 (13:26):
And I also from building not only yourself up as
an entrepreneur, I understandthat in the last few years
you've been very focused onbuilding other CEOs as
entrepreneurs, but also asmoderators and uh people who do
good in the world.

SPEAKER_01 (13:40):
Yeah.
And so I call that CEO access.
It's been something that I wassuper passionate about because
for the first f uh I don't know,10, 12 years on Shart Tank, I
was building myself.
Now remember, I I don't ShartTank from building myself
because when I would walk in theroom with the Kardashians or
somebody else or a lot of thesebig uh artists uh before Shar
Tank, people would talk to themand not realize that I'm also a

(14:02):
partner and I'm also doingthings.
So I say to myself, wait aminute, I should start doing
that same method I'm doing forsome of these people, I should
start doing it for myself, andthat's how I got into the show.
Now, after about 10 years ofbeing on the show, the
glossiness of being on the showwasn't there for me anymore.
Thank God I love the show.
By the way, it changed my life.
Right?
But I no longer I was already apresidential ambassador.

(14:24):
I already can get everypresident on the phone that I
want.
I can already, I can do this,this, and that.
But what am I doing better?
And and so I call myself thePeople Shark, and I remember I
was at dinner with a guy, and hehas a very large company, and he
said, help brand me.
I said, No, no, I'm I'm here forthe everyday people, the
founders and this and that,because you're good.

(14:44):
And he was like, I know I'mgood, but help brand me so I can
help my people more.
I said, Why do you want me tohelp brand you because you can
help your people more?
He's done so much.
And he said, if you help me, Ican get my 2,000 people to think
like me and help more people.
And I said, Holy crap, I'mbecoming the thing I'm fighting
against.
Uh, you know, and so I startedbranding CEOs after that and

(15:08):
managing CEOs.
But then the whole worldchanged.
It got to the point whereeverybody wants to know who is
behind the company or brand.
And CEOs, whether you're the guyon McDonald's who didn't play it
the right way, who should havelived it up a little bit longer
after after they they theyfumbled the ball there, he
should have been in on the jokelater on.

(15:28):
I realize that all thesecompanies, organizations,
they're branding the product,the gift, the services, but
who's branding the personheading the ship?
And with the volatile, uh, thevolatility today with AI and
everything, if you're a CEO andyou're invisible, you're
vulnerable.
And if you're vulnerable, you'rereplaceable.
And that it was really moreimportant for CEOs to understand

(15:50):
that they had to brandthemselves.
And it's a fiduciary duty to thecompany to brand yourself
because if a kid in the mailroom gets pissed off who has
10,000 followers and sayssomething on social media that
is really not what you did, wellnow by the time you get spin
doctors and everything else,that thing is gone.
And guess what?
100 people lose their job.
10,000 people lose their job,you lose your job.

(16:13):
So it's an obligation.

So that's what I started to do: brand them, get them on podcasts (16:14):
undefined
like this, get them on publicstages, TV, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 (16:21):
That's so incredible.

SPEAKER_03 (16:22):
You know what I want to bring up though, because it's
curious.
If you watch, you know, there'sa couple of how how TV works and
how they'll have spin-offs andshows.
And one of the things that oneof the channels did was they
started to tell CEOs stories,like who was Colonel Sanders?

SPEAKER_01 (16:35):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (16:36):
Right.
And, you know, who was the guywho started White Guests?

SPEAKER_01 (16:38):
40, 40 or 40, or 30 or 30 of the company.

SPEAKER_03 (16:40):
Exactly.
Yeah, right.
Or Tom Carvel or any of thesethings.
And they realized that that is,you're not, you're the company
became the company.
But you know, there are thereare CEOs or heads of companies
that actually were the definingdifference that made that
something company so special,right?
I mean, whether it was whetherit was um uh uh Walt Disney or

(17:01):
whatever it was, but nobodydidn't really know.
They knew them, they were thehead of the company, but they
didn't know what they did.
They didn't know because it canbe uh it can be as simple as a
little pivot from here to therethat made that company
successful and/or not.
So I think what you're doingthere is amazing because there's
a story.
Look, I'm a storyteller.

SPEAKER_01 (17:17):
Well, you're the prime example of it, right?
I I was saying you beforethere's a million, whatever, uh
what is that, real estatebrokers, one Barbara Corcoran,
million people who've investedin airlines, one Richard
Branson.
And argument's sake, you know, Idon't want to, I'm not getting
into politics, but there's a lotof real estate developers.
But somebody learned how tobrand himself in the 80s and the
90s, and now he's probably themost powerful man in the world.
There's a million stock brokers.

(17:39):
Million of them.
Why am I knew who you were along time ago and you branded
yourself the right way?
And I can't see anybody in ourfield and outside of our field
who see you and don't, they'renot one question away from, oh,
Peter, right?
You want to be the, oh, Peter,sure I know Peter.
And and and and so you have theability right now, because how

(17:59):
you branded yourself, you havethe ability to go into any
market you want to.
I just uh I'm not into sportsheavily, but they did this thing
called Fanatics Fest a couple ofdays ago.
I've gotten options to be youuse us uh trading cards as an
asset class for a long time.
I've been watching Steve A.
Okie called me, this guy calledme, that guy called me.
I didn't want to get into that.

(18:20):
But as soon as I decided, wait aminute, I do retail, I do
automated um vending machines.
Right.
I just did a deal with TomBrady, and now I'm rolling out
the the the the with Tom BradyCardwall.
With that team, I'm rolling thatdivision out.
I don't know anything aboutsports, but you know what I
know?
I know about retail.
And I know brands, and Tom Bradyand Cardwall is a brand.

(18:40):
I can turn it on as soon as Iwant if I have a level of
interest.
When you don't brand yourselfthe right way, you're held in a
box.
Damon, don't you make t-shirts?

SPEAKER_02 (18:49):
Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 (18:50):
You know, and that's all they know about you.
Curiously enough, we went toFanatics Fest the other day and
we met the gentleman, Garam,who's the starter of Comic-Con.

SPEAKER_02 (18:58):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (18:58):
And the first thing he said to me was, we were there
with King Saladin, and uh who'san artist who's a close friend
of mine.
And uh the gentleman who is theguy who makes the cards, right?
He's the he's the father ofcollectibles and credit cards,
said, You know what?
Why don't we make an Einstein ofWall Street baseball card or

(19:19):
collectible card?
And it'll be all those photos ofyou that everybody knows you
from.
That's exactly right.
And we'll put it in a littleplastic thing.
And like, and I love I loveeverything you're saying.
Thank you for I'm I'm I'mhonored and humbled by what you
said, you know, because youknow, I'm also writing a book,
and the the title of the book isI didn't plan on any of this.

SPEAKER_02 (19:38):
Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 (19:39):
I did not know this, you know, when I was a broker on
the floor and stuff, I didn'tknow, you know, uh who I was
going to become.
Yes, right.
I did know that I had thefoundation and and and the
background to to do to make theright decisions.
Although trust me, I didn't,there was a long period of time
where I took a left when Ishould have taken a right.
But, you know, and and and tobring back a point that you made

(20:00):
now, you know, we're we're in awe're in society with social
media and the and the newscycle.
You can be guilty before you'rebe proven innocent.
Absolutely.
Right?
Somebody can say something aboutyou public opinion will
completely be down.
It will take you completelydown.
So if you're not, all right, ifyou don't stand for something,
you'll fall for anything, right?
So if I am not if I've not builtenough of a brand of my own that

(20:22):
will not tumble when when whenit's someone shakes it.
Yeah.
And I I'm so happy you said thatbecause it uh I'm reminded every
day by Tsveta that you knowwhat, that the slightest pivot
in the wrong direction orsomebody saying something wrong,
whether it's true or not, cancan completely blow the whole
game up.

SPEAKER_01 (20:41):
You know, and let me share with you the thought of
branding.
People think that you got to bethis clean brand.
You don't.
Like I joke about Kevin O'Leary,one of my closest friends, blow
him to death.
But Kevin has a brand where he'sthe only person who can call you
a piece of crap with a twinklein his eye, and he can get away
with it.
If I said anything like Kevinsaid, done.

(21:02):
Yeah.
You know, the ones who get thepass, Snoop Dogg can say
anything he wants about anybody,call him a B, but then yet he's
with Martha Stewart, then he'ssmoking weed, then he's in the
Olympics.
His brand is that brand.
So you don't always have tothink your brand needs to be
this tight, tightened a brand.

SPEAKER_00 (21:20):
Yeah.
I love as a marketer myself.
I've worked at in New York City.
I've grinded through themarketing agencies, and I
understand how hard it is tobuild a brand because brands
they don't want to just be abrand.
They want to be on TV, they wantto have a collectible car, they
want to be on podcasts, theywant to have something to wear.
So they are everywhere, right?

(21:41):
And what you're doing with theCEO access is actually amazing.
Because it's one stop shop.
You go in and you get service.
So if I'm a CEO, I don't have togo and hire five PR agencies, my
TV booking agent, et cetera, etcetera.
I just come in and I am a CEO,so I should probably jump the C.

SPEAKER_01 (22:00):
You know, listen, you know how I was able to do
this?
Because I've gotten screwed byeverybody.
So when you get screwed byeverybody, you know how to say,
listen, you use this PR agency,you only use it for three months
or six months because they'regoing to burn out their Rolodex.
All right, here make sure youhave this spin one ready but on
deck.
Here's your asset protection.
Uh here's how you get courtsideto be on, but you got to get

(22:22):
camera seats.
You know, here's how you here'swhy a buyer wants you on a
public speaking stage.
Not because they really careabout what you're saying.
They want your unique uhpositioning on this because all
the information is out therealready.
You know, so you gotta kind oftrain people on how other people
would take them in and have themready.

(22:43):
Yeah, you know, it's a team too,right?

SPEAKER_03 (22:45):
It's a team.
I've learned that from herbecause uh suddenly we we got
together.
Like last week I spoke atChristie's.

SPEAKER_01 (22:51):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (22:51):
Like I was on stage at Christie's, and that that
that would have been thefarthest thing from my, but
literally they were sleepingwhen the two other people before
me were talking, and I came on,and I was surely the uh a long
shot to be at Christie's.
And they were just banging onthe people who were very proper
with their finger sandwicheswere banging on the table and
standing and applauding when Istarted talking about whether it

(23:13):
was the markets or whether, youknow, inspiring young people in
financial literacy or whateverit was.
It's amazing that you it's it'sa much bigger game than we can.

SPEAKER_01 (23:22):
So so something like that, of course, right?
You lead up to you're gonna bethere, obviously, you capture
the footage, you add that withyour sizzle to various other
things, and then you reach outto different organizations that
are in that Christie's type offollowing and say, why was he
here?
Did you hear why he was here?
So forth.
Then you also go to press andvarious other things, and you
show them Christie's, you showthem stock market, you show them

(23:43):
this and that, you put onesizzle, they get a FOMO going,
You better call Peter.
Why don't we call Peter?
I never knew about Peter.
Are you crazy?
Right?
And so, you know, that that'show the branding goes, right?
You package that and you go to10 agencies that represent
speakers and you go, here's ourunique angle for all your
clients.

SPEAKER_03 (24:02):
And of all the sharks, really, I mean, that is
something that you have done,which is you've you came with a
brand and you build a brandthere, but you took it you took
it way, way outside the box.

SPEAKER_01 (24:12):
The market was already huge.
You know, Barbara was uh she didher thing.
Kevin does it really well too,though.
Kevin, believe it or not, Igotta tell you, if you ever look
at him on on like hisinterviews, where he's he's like
this.
Like flipping, he's notflipping.

SPEAKER_02 (24:28):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (24:29):
That is very, very calculated.
Yes, absolutely.
And so you're going, this awhole he's not taking himself
that serious.
He's crazy.
It's very, very calculated.
These are very calculated risks.

SPEAKER_00 (24:41):
I love actually that you said not take yourself
seriously.
I always say, like, what we do,I'm always grateful that I'm
alive.
Thank God we're all healthy,we're here, but not taking
yourself seriously sometimes isactually a very important trait.
Don't take this seriously.

SPEAKER_01 (24:54):
Everybody, nobody else cares.

SPEAKER_00 (24:55):
There you go.
I always say that.
Nobody cares.
You mentioned actually uhexpensive mistakes.
Let's pause and take a stepback.
Because I'd like to hear aboutthe most costly mistakes that
you have made in your journey.
If you had to like point to thisone thing, like I wish I'd be.

SPEAKER_01 (25:10):
The most mistakes I ever made in my journey was
thinking that I didn't need toroll up my sleeves and dig deep
into it.
And I left it up for everybodyelse to do.
So when we started really makingmoney, I would spend six
million, ten million on newclothing brands, but I didn't
really know the brand itselfthat well.
And I was like, but I'm DamonJohn, I can get it out there.
But the operators may neededhelp here or there.

(25:32):
Now, don't get me wrong, ifyou're talking about it from an
investment standpoint, uh, Iwant to take some stock and
bombers, those are greatoperators.
I'm talking about when I said, Ican roll it in and do
everything.

SPEAKER_02 (25:40):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (25:41):
Uh when not realizing that you need
strategic partners foreverything.
You know, I like to telleverybody there will be nobody
will ever outwork me, and bothof you should feel that way
about yourself.
But guess what?
I can't do it by myself.
And when you start to understandthat, that was the most
expensive mistake I made.
But I think uh prior to that, ifanything else, was um I didn't
have financial intelligence whenI was coming up because we

(26:03):
weren't taught that in schools.
You know, I didn't know whatcompounding interest was, what
FICA was, uh, you know, allthese type of things.
Uh and I had to learn thatlater, but thank God I did
because I had a business thatwas still kicking out cash.
If I didn't learn that, uh Iwould be like 65% of lotto lotto
winners and athletes who werebankrupt three years after
leaving the league or winningthe lotto because they could

(26:24):
have had a hundred milliondollars, but they didn't know
how to spend it.
Instead of buying one house, youbought seven.

SPEAKER_02 (26:28):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (26:28):
Uh and then now, uh, you know, where I'm at today,
out of all those mistakes, uhover the last two, I read I read
the book Psychology of Moneyabout five years ago, really
great book.
But now where I'm at today, eventhen, is you know what?
I don't buy anything anymore.
I either trade for it or I um Ijust don't buy it.
Because there were two commentsmade to me by two separate

(26:50):
people.
One person said to me, In 50years, everything you own,
somebody else will own it.
And the other comment was, andeverything you do own owns you.

SPEAKER_02 (27:03):
Uh huh.

SPEAKER_01 (27:03):
Meaning you buy this beautiful piece of painting.

SPEAKER_02 (27:06):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (27:07):
Wow, do we have insurance on it?
Is the clean the clean ladybetter not touch it?
You know, we'll go we'releaving.
You know, by the way, what if wehave when we're gone for the
summer, if there's a leak, uhand stuff like that?
It owns you.

SPEAKER_02 (27:18):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (27:18):
Every your car, your when I had 10 cars, my friends
drove nine of them.
So when I started doing that, Istarted getting really small.
I started getting really smallin my life.
And guess what?
It freed up probably about twoto three hours of my day.

SPEAKER_00 (27:34):
And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (27:35):
In thinking which suit I'm gonna wear.
I don't know.
I just went to, you know, BrooksBrothers and I brought 10 suits.
I need to wear it.

SPEAKER_03 (27:43):
I just wear the black one with the t-shirt.
Keeping it simple.
You know, it brings me to twodifferent things.
One of my you you uh you saidtalked about what words describe
you, and one of the things that,you know, I I want I want to
address the the f and financialliteracy has become sort of a
word that is it doesn't have thepower it once had, but it's a
matter of what we put behind ituh about educating the community

(28:04):
about money that you said yougrew up in, you didn't know any
of that stuff.
And look, we know that 90% of alot of winners go broke and
athletes who are being given uha large look, MC hammer.
I mean, you could you could pulla million out of a hat.
One one of the things that, andit's not my line, and I always
admit that it's not my line, isthis investing in stocks, not

(28:24):
stuff.
I don't know if you've everheard that shtick that I do, but
I did it with a young man callediShow Speed.
No, I want to hear it.
Okay.
So basically investing in mostthings that we buy, we're the
greatest consumer generation ofall time.
Everybody just needs to buythings.
I gotta have what I want.
Two o'clock in the morning, I'mon Instagram buying something
and having it shipped.
It's paying more than it wascost me to buy it to have it
shipped to me yesterday becauseI gotta have it.

(28:46):
And uh most things that we buygo down in value the minute we
buy them.
Okay.
Just just uh just a fact.
That's it.
And so the way I'm able toexplain it, it's just it's just
a it's a it's it's a mentalityabout in investing and spending
money.
Okay.
So basically, iPhone.
I uh this young gentleman namedISO Speed, he's the number one
um streamer in the world.

(29:08):
He has 185 million followers,he's worth, he's 20 years old,
he's worth about 80 millionalready today.
And uh, the fortune fortunalityof meeting him recently, and we
we uh he was on a 37 city touraround the country, and he made
his money by sort of doing, youknow, uh jumping in front of
cars, going 80 miles an hour,doing sort of wild stuff, and he
got the attention of Tom Bradyand a number of other people.

(29:30):
So I I was asked if I would goand welcome him to Wall Street.
And uh so I did.
I met him down at the bolt andwe started talking, and I was
trying to get across a message,which is so I said, uh, do you
own the iPhone?
He says, Absolutely.
I said, and every time the newiPhone comes out, do you buy the
new iPhone, even if your iPhone15 is not broken?
He goes, Yeah, of course.
Right.
And so I said, Well, think aboutthis.

(29:52):
The iPhone now is$1,000.
If the iPhone, if your iPhone'sbroken, legit buy the new
iPhone.
But if it's not, and you wentout, instead of buying the new
iPhone, you went out and boughtfive shares of Apple stock,
right?
Then, you know, at the end ofthe day, their iPhone 17, you
would now have right 200 sharesof Apple stock worth a half a
million dollars, as opposed to adrawer with 17 broken iPhones.

(30:15):
And so that everybody gets that.
Everyone gets that idea that ifwe invest in stocks and not
stuff, you know, then we'regonna be building some kind of
your answer between yourliabilities with each year.

SPEAKER_01 (30:26):
You know what I do for my uh all the kids in my
life, meaning, you know, mynephews and everything else.
So every year I buy them whatthey want, right?
I'm not what they want, but Igive you the example I'll buy my
niece, you know, four or fiveBarbies, right?
We take a picture of theBarbies, but then I also buy her
stock and Mattel and that thatmatched the same price as the
Barbies.
And so now we have 10 years of Igo, where are the toys?

(30:50):
Nowhere.
Look at your stocks.
And she understands that.
And and I've always I've neverbeen a highly educated man, like
I said.
Uh the only thing I I did inschool notable is I liked the
seventh grade so much I took ittwice.
But if you go off says yourbuddy Jim, yeah, he'll tell you,
I beat the streets three yearsin a row on his show by calling
the stocks.
And what were they?

(31:11):
They were the ones I like.
They were the Amazons, they werethe Shopify.
I even shorted BlackBerrybecause I said this, they're not
listening.
It's not going.
And you will tell he'll tellyou, I beat the streets three, I
was one the number one callerthree years on in a row.

SPEAKER_00 (31:25):
So uh Damon has written financial and
educational kind of like booksfor kids.
So I have two kids, and once amonth we sit down and we read
Little Damon Likes to Earn.
And that's an um an incrediblebook just because it tells us
the thought process of like Thesimplicity.
Yeah, the simplicity of how kidsshould ingrade it in their

(31:47):
thought process of like how theycan go and actually earn their
own money.
Again, AI is coming here.
We hear all the time that it'shere to take our jobs.
And I don't know what my kidswill do in 20, 30 years' time
when they grow up.
But I love the book and I lovethe fact that you've put in the
energy to help the kidscomprehend.
And I'd say probably it'samazing that they're starting

(32:08):
early.

SPEAKER_01 (32:09):
Your parents are learning from that book too.
They are.

SPEAKER_00 (32:11):
But here's the question back to both of you
guys.
So, all right, we'll teach thekids how to or and we'll give
them my the ideas, hoping thatAI hasn't taken their jobs in
20, 30 years' time.
But when it comes to financialsavviness and education, how can
a parent, and coming from twosuccessful people who understand

(32:33):
uh money, money building wealth,and also compound interest and
saving, what's the best lessonthat we could give our kids and
how can we educate either theparents or both the parents and
the kids?

SPEAKER_01 (32:45):
Well, you know, that's a good question.
Um I'll take a little stab atit.
Uh, you know, kids are gonna dowhat they see you do.
So you gotta clean your houseand make sure and a lot of
parents don't want to talk aboutmoney because they didn't grow
up understanding it, they'reafraid of it, and there's
nothing wrong with that.
They should understand that.
The way that I got out of myslump or my lack of knowledge is

(33:07):
I actually started watching MadMoney and a little bit, and then
I started asking my accountantswhat were they doing instead of
just doing that stuff.
But then there's always there'sso much, you know, I I I did
Little Damon Learns Earn, whichbecame, thank God, a New York
Times bestseller, because Iwanted more notable people and
definitely the educators to seethat there was a path there that

(33:29):
that could then follow methrough that and educate our
families.
But with AI who may take thejobs, the information is there
on how to be a better parentwith financial.
You can say, I have aneight-year-old.
This he likes art, this, this,and this and that.
I'm only making$30,000 a year.
What are some financial toolsand or habits that I can do

(33:51):
right now with discipline, withmoney that I should know right
now?
And how do I explain it to aneight-year-old in that way?
And then what should I do?
You can literally take the thingthat we're afraid of and use it
and weaponize it right now tomake yourself better.

SPEAKER_03 (34:06):
You know, and I I look, I don't believe that AI is
going to take the jobs.
And I think that and I that'sone of the main things that I
try and tell high school kidsand college kids, because
they're very they look,mainstream media is pumping that
fear factor in there in a bigway.
They catastrophize all thatstuff.
And the bottom line is you'veheard it, even some of Bill
Ackman, some of the bigger hedgefund guys, said, well, then if
that's what you're afraid of,then look, read up on and study

(34:29):
everything that goes into AI.
Learn how to code, learn how todo things so that you may find a
job within that sector.
Surely AI is going to, and datacenters are going to pervade the
world.
But if that's where you thinkthe jobs are going to be, then
learn what you need to do to getemployed within that sector.
That's one thing.
The second thing I remembered Iwas going to say when a

(34:49):
13-year-old asked me what stocksI should invest in.
And I said to him, walk down thestreet, uh, walk down the
corridor at school and look atwhat sneakers everyone wears,
what phone they are on, whatcomputer they use, what they do
in their spare time, what socialmedia they're on, and then buy
yourself a share of every one ofthose things.
Because as the greatest consumergeneration of all time, what I

(35:11):
like and what I use, we are suchloyal consumers.
I wear the same jacket, uh, samekind of jacket, same kind of
sneakers, same kind ofeverything.
I'm always on this.
And though at the end of theday, that is that loyalty is
what makes a company a goodcompany in lots of ways.
I wanted to talk about thisfinancial literacy thing.
So there's, you know, there'sthe change of the law of NIL,

(35:33):
right?
With the athletes are now beingable to have access to money at
a much younger age.
And I was approached by uhKendrick Perkins, uh, one of
the, he was a he was a ballplayer um and he now is a
newscaster, but he was also sortof given the job of trying to uh
figure out how do we um uh dobetter for the young.

(35:55):
For look, think about it.
1% of 1% of the athletes who aregetting that money are gonna go
pro, right?
And that's gonna leave a wholebunch of other young athletes
who do not become professionalathletes, who get a big sizable
check when they're 17, 18, and19, which, as you described,
will be gone at the age of 21because they're not getting,

(36:16):
it's not being followed up by a$40 million deal with the
Knicks, right?
And so they sort of came to meand said, why don't we do
something like, let's createsome.
I I have an academy where weteach students to day trade the
stock market.
And we created a course, youknow, when in during COVID,
right, before COVID, there wasno accessibility to the market
for most people.
You have to be an accreditedinvestor, which meant you had to

(36:39):
be wealthy and and white, Ipresume.
And so they they what changedthen was Robin Hood and uh and
Weeble came along, these freetrading apps, and none of them
had an educational component toit, right?
They they gave you access to theparty, but they didn't tell you
if you drank 12 shots of vodka,you were gonna get sick.

SPEAKER_02 (36:57):
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (36:57):
Right?
They gave you access to themarket, but they didn't tell you
that if you invest in it,everyone on the internet's
telling you it's going to themoon.
Don't take financial advice fromUncle Herbie on the internet
because you're gonna lose all ofyour money, right?
So we built a course tobasically teach people how to
day trade the market.
And so I've been working on it,and maybe you can work with me
on it, is taking that group ofpeople who are going to be have

(37:22):
access to large sums of money asa high school student who won't
eventually GoPro and know how tohave some financial literacy,
right?
I mean, learn what the stockmarket is, learn the language of
the stock market, learn how today trade.
It's a skill, it's something youcan take anywhere.
And we've built this course.
We have 30,000 students all overthe world, right, who are, you

(37:42):
know, single moms, right?
Who basically, you know, had uhjust had no concept of the stock
market.
Their husbands are gone, theyhave two kids, and they found me
on the internet somewhere, andthey started to day trade the
stock market, and they've nowbeen able to it's changed their
lives.
And so that skill of being ableto be savvy and be able to
learn, right?

(38:03):
We have we have three differentkinds of courses.
We've we've partnered up with anumber of companies to make this
as uh accessible, right, and uhaffordable, right, and fun for
everybody, right?
And it's a skill that you cantake.
Uh look, a college kid can talkabout it when he goes to his
first interview, and a singlemom can do it to be able to
create this possible income.

(38:24):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (38:24):
Skills are an important thing to have,
certainly.

SPEAKER_03 (38:27):
It's it's it's part of your resume.

SPEAKER_00 (38:29):
Right of the resume.
I wonder, and I've alwayswondered, Damon, I've been dying
to ask you this ever since Iturned on the TV 20 years ago,
close to whenever I moved to theStates, which is when you look
at a founder, they walk who youare pitched millions of times.

SPEAKER_02 (38:43):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (38:43):
What is that one skill or thing that you want to
see in a founder to be like, I'mgonna give money to that guy?

SPEAKER_01 (38:51):
Well, there's two things.
The sk the skill comes after ifI feel I like them.

unknown (38:56):
Okay.

SPEAKER_01 (38:56):
I just have to like them.
You know, you know, as we talkabout AI, the things that are
gonna be more powerful today iswhat you can't buy.
You can't buy legacy history,you can't buy ethics, you can't
buy these things, and and uhinformation is overabundant.
So if I if I don't like them, Idon't need I don't need to talk
to them.
I mean, I I'll tell Peter I gotthis amount of money, you know,

(39:19):
he'll put me in, he'll put me inblue chips, he'll put me in
various other things, and theydon't wake up Steve Jobs from
the dead and ask me how to fix acomputer, I don't have to talk
to him.
I make money, I lose money.
That's it.
So, first of all, if I likethem.
The second point would be um ifthey're problem solvers and they
come with a good amount ofsolutions and or they know how
to source solutions.

(39:40):
Don't come to me.
I'm not a crutch.
I will give you 10 things to do.
Uh other people give you another10 things to do, and you sift
through them and you find theone that works for you or the
two, and then you solve thatproblem and you come back.
Uh, you know, those those arethe type of people that I want
in the room.

SPEAKER_03 (39:55):
So you're investing in the person first and then the
problem problem solver later.
Yeah because you never know.
We've heard you say it a lot onthe show, right?
That you know, then the people,yeah, they'll answer your calls.
Anybody, either Kevin will saythat as well all the time.
But it's a matter of somebodyyou don't know what's gonna get
tossed at you along the way,right?
And if you're able to, you finda problem, right?
That that those are the bestdeals.

(40:16):
Why did you make this productjust because?
No, you there was a problem andyou solved the problem.

SPEAKER_01 (40:21):
Yeah, but if that person is like, and this is
gonna be the greatest thingever.
But did you ever think of this?
No, no, no, we don't, we'regonna be the greatest thing
ever.
And by the way, this person'sdoing it all wrong and we hate
them.
Maybe they're doing it right fortheir market.
It's about you and solving thisproblem and but being open.
You know, uh Bezos would say uha founder has to have a really

(40:41):
strong vision where they want togo, and they gotta be very
flexible on the path to getthere.

SPEAKER_03 (40:46):
Pivot, pivot, 100 percent.
What was the best deal you made?
Was it the Bomba deal?

SPEAKER_01 (40:50):
The Bomba's deal is by far the Bombers deal is the
number one invested product inshark in all of Shark Tank
history.

SPEAKER_00 (40:57):
Really?

SPEAKER_01 (40:57):
Out of all 54 shark tanks around the world, just
make sure when you interview myother sharks, you just go, why
is Damon the best?
Why no say it all.
That's it.
He is the best.

SPEAKER_00 (41:12):
You got it.
It's a deal.
You got it.
Um, as we wrap up thisinterview, which I really don't
want to wrap up, but I know thatboth of you guys are very busy.
We have to send Peter to work.
He's about to trade a billiondollars and you're about to go
and make a billion dollar deal.
I hope.
Um, I have one question I'd liketo ask the two of you, which is
what is the biggest money signalthat people miss?

(41:33):
If there is a money signal, whatis the biggest money signal
people miss?
A signal in the sense of uhmoney, missed opportunities,
building success.

SPEAKER_01 (41:46):
What are you sacrificing for it?
Are you willing to sacrifice tomove the ball ahead, or are you
sacrificing other things in yourlife?
And even though the ball will bemoved ahead, what will you
sacrifice here?
Yeah, I I did a post the otherday on uh one of the largest
banks in the world offered me a1.2, 1.3 billion dollar credit

(42:06):
line.
They said, I'm gonna put an MAperson with you.
I want you to acquire all thesebrands, you're you'll be a
minority vendor.
You walk in the room, peopleknow who you are.
You're the manufacturer, you'rethe star, and you're somebody we
can trust.
And I looked at it as becausethey wanted me to acquire all
these companies.
I said, that's 20 years of workand 20,000 people working for
me.
I won't see my little girl growup anymore, you know.
Um, that's not worth it.

(42:27):
So, you know, money's a greatslave, but a horrible master is
the best way to say that.

SPEAKER_00 (42:32):
Thank you.
Peter.

SPEAKER_03 (42:33):
Although I also, I mean, it's just where where, you
know, just just throwing a lotof money at something is not a
good enough reason to do it,right?
And where is where's the valuein it?
And you can uh sometimes, yeah,you know, don't work hard, work
smart, right?
And you know, and just uh, youknow, I've I've spent money on
things, you know, that I reallydidn't think of where the where

(42:54):
the value was.
So sometimes it's just a matterof a matter of uh you know
efficient uh use of money.
Uh as far as money signal, Imean it's it it's kind of
curious, you know.
Uh money doesn't buy youhappiness, we know that, but it
buys you freedom, right?
And that's super important toacknowledge, right?
I mean, everybody thinks, as yousaid, you can't you buy now,
look, Elvis Presley owned uh uhseven cars, right?

(43:15):
He had one for every day of theweek.
I mean, it's so, and it look, ifwe if we also let money work for
you, right?
We uh you ask any very wealthy,successful person that the
money, let their money work forthem.
That's how actually they became,that's how you build wealth as
opposed to riches.
I don't remember which one of itis, but if you, you know, that
let the money work for you is akey thing, you know, and and I

(43:38):
mean it's fascinating.
Money is a funny thing.
People, you know, people will,it's like Maya Angela, right?
When somebody tells you who theyare, believe them, right?
People's relationship to moneytells a lot about who they are,
right?
And and money does, you know,when you see someone, a business
partner or someone you'reconsidering doing a deal with,
and you see their relationshipto money, and whether it's, you

(44:00):
know, you're offered them to paythem more or you're seeing a
situation where money comes up,uh, you can really see the true
bones of a human being when whenmoney is brought to the table.
You know, it's a really, it's ait's a fascinating thing what it
does to people.
You know, you go back to thatfirst Wall Street movie uh where
Michael Douglas is talking, asIvan Boskin says, greed is for

(44:22):
lack of a better term, greed isgood, right?
I mean, it's fascinating whatwhat people's relationship to
money is.
And uh, and I think you reallysee people's true colors when it
comes to that.
Even if it's sitting down at atable, you know, and and paying
for dinner or generosity.
Generosity is something youcan't teach.
Yeah, right.
When somebody is generous, it'snot about that much money they

(44:43):
have in their pocket.
It's really it's from theirheart.
But I wanted to end this up.
So there's there used to be anold back in the day when we were
trading open outcry, right?
And you would have adiscrepancy, you would have an
argument with somebody, right?
Or or there was a um adisagreement about we were
trading actively and there werepeople all over the room, and
everybody used to say, How doyou know who's who and what do
you, how are you connecting?

(45:03):
You bought 100,000 shares overthere and you bought 50,000
shares.
What happens if there's aproblem where you have a
disagreement?
So back in the day, if it tookseven days for the transaction
to actually be consummated.
We never transact money on thefloor, right?
It would take days and days forthem to figure out who's who,
and then the banks wouldexchange the money.
So days later, you would have anerror.

(45:25):
I thought I bought 10,000 fromyou at a quarter, you thought
you sold me 12,000 at an eighth.
There would be that problem.
So you had a choice.
You could go to a five-governorpanel, or you could call a every
stock, every broker on the floorwas given a coin.
Okay, it was called a flippingcoin.
Okay, there was a bear on oneside and a bull on the other,
and you'd call the governor inand you would say, okay, if we

(45:46):
flip, you pick, you pick it,call it in the air.
And it could be a hundred-dollarflip, it could be a
million-dollar flip.
You got to go for the flip.
And you had a choice.
You could wait for thisfive-governor panel, or you
could go for the flip.
And everybody carried one ofthese around.
We haven't had them on the floorfor years, right?
But uh I I remade them a fewyears ago, so I wanted to give
this to you.
Oh, wow.
Right?
It's it's uh it's a limitededition.

(46:07):
Oh, it's great.
Okay, it's got a and it's gotsome of the newer stocks, got
Amazon and and Twitter on there,which doesn't exist anymore.
It's X now.
And so I just wanted you to havethat.
So it's uh it's it's it's it's agood luck charm.
It's it's good to carry, it'sgot some nice weight to it, and
it's got a bull and a bear onit.
So you can use that.
Sometimes some decisions arebetter off.
Sometimes decisions are madebetter off with a flip.

SPEAKER_01 (46:29):
There you go.
And you see, that's him casuallybranding himself.
The guy with the coin.

SPEAKER_00 (46:37):
The geniosity.
Right here, too, right?
Actual size.
I wanted to thank you both forthe time for being here.
Damon, what an honor to have youon the Money Signal podcast.
Literally from Main Street toWall Street, and here we are on
Wall Street today.

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Daymond John & Peter Tuchman with Tsvetta Kaleynska | Money, Branding & the American Dream

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Daymond John & Peter Tuchman with Tsvetta Kaleynska | Money, Branding & the American Dream