Daymond John: Why the Best Deals Are the Ones You Walk Away From

21:55Mick Hunt:That's where ButcherBox has been a win for me. I like knowing I can open the freezer, grab a great steak or some chicken, and already have the hardest part of dinner handled. It keeps me from making that last-minute takeout decision when I really want something good at home. ButcherBox delivers 100 % grass-fed beef, organic chicken, wild-caught seafood, and more, all sourced to standards they can actually tell you about. They've already done the research and made the tough sourcing decisions, so all you have to do is decide what's for dinner. If you're looking for an easier way to get great meals on the table, give ButcherBox a try.

22:33Mick Hunt:Go to butcherbox.com slash mick to get$20 off your first box. plus your choice of free ribeye, New York strip, or filet mignon in every box for a year with free shipping always. That's butcherbox.com slash mick. Again, that's butcherbox.com slash mick. Be sure to use our link so they know we sent you. I was spending more time fielding calls and da-da-da-da-da. I didn't get any quality time. When I started to just really say, you know what, I don't want my little girls to see me with a lot of other people. I never want them to think that there's something more important than them, this and this and that.

23:11Let me just chill. Let me just even not talk to anybody. Yeah. Or let me just kind of concentrate on this small little group, one or two people, and it works out. I am meeting a great woman, right? Because I wasn't spread all over the place. Mm-hmm. Right? It's not about when you bring people in your life and business and everything else. is not that the fact that, you know, you want to change all that you start to change and you start to accept, I want to concentrate on this business, just do this for my customer. I want to concentrate on my relationship, just do this. You start to become that person that you hopefully want to be.

23:47Yeah, absolutely.

23:48Mick Hunt:Absolutely. So I want to talk about one of the most brilliant pieces of advice you've ever given me. So last few years, I've really been into investing, right? I run businesses. And you said, you know, Mick, are you doing it from your heart when you're investing? Are you really concerned about MMH? And I was like, what the hell is MMH? And they were like, that's my money, homie. Talk to us about why that is so important for new investors, even seasoned investors, that you get caught up in the story that sometimes you got to remember you're investing for a return most of the time. Well, because, you know, investing is, and I'm, I'm the king of like, if I had to give my own self shark tank advice, I would have to change a lot of things.

24:39But I make a conscious effort of doing things where I'm doing it because I just want to do it as philanthropic in my field and then it becomes something great. But when you're looking at it from your money, like what is it? I don't want to be Kevin O 'Leary, money doesn't lie. It's pretty simple. And how are you, what are you really doing it for? If you want to do it for philanthropic reasons, fine. You want to do it because you want to give people an opportunity? That's great. I see a lot of athletes who they go and do these great, what's it called, charity fundraisers. They spend a million dollars to bring a bunch of people out and they raise 700 ,000.

25:18Why just give the million dollars away, you know, to, you know, whatever, a hundred different charities, 10 ,000 apiece, and you still get the notoriety for wanting to be somebody for the community, but you didn't have to deal with traveling people from all around the country for whatever the event is. Right. It's... And then you write it off on taxes, right? Yeah. You write off a certain amount, right? Because the government incentivized you to do that. So again, what are you doing actually for? What is your money actually... It's my money, homie. How's my money working for me? The idea of a generational wealth is that you have this business, whatever it is.

26:01You put away money as much as you can. First of all, the first thing to do is you try to take advantage of the legal tax codes so that, first of all, you don't pay as much in taxes because the government themselves say art, foundations. I'll give you an example. I tell people all the time when COVID happened and the COVID bill passed, you got a hundred percent write-off if you supported a restaurant for a business meal. Okay. You understand how that's working and people always get mad when I tell them this. I have friends who did, they're decent businesses,$500 ,000 in business meals because they travel.

26:43If you went to a hotel and you went downstairs and you put the meal in the restaurant, you had a big restaurant, you know, and you had it for 20 people, you put that on a hotel card, right? That's a 50 % write-off because it goes underneath the hotel. If you just take out your credit card and put it down, that's 100 % write-off, right? So let's say you spend$500 ,000 on that. That's$100 ,000. You gave away$50 ,000 by just not moving one card to the next. times out by 20 things that happen a year from the tax code. Wow. Right? So let's say you save an average of$200 ,000 a year due to tax codes.

27:26You didn't put that in your Bitcoin or your bonds or whatever the case is. And so after 10 years, think about what that is, compounding and various other things. That's only$200 ,000 on what you save. We're not talking about what the business made. Yeah. Right? You think about your business and that's what's supposed to happen, right? Then you obviously can go and you educate yourself. I know, you know, insurance, you go get long term, you know, health life, life. Right. So that, you know, by the time you're 70 years old, 80, if you want to go and get, you know, live in a retirement home, it's not$300 ,000 a year because you pay it ahead of time and it's nothing to you.

28:05But$300 ,000 a year, if you saved, you know, you save$3 million, you only got a 10 year runway. way. You can't even hand it down to your kids. So again, it's all these financial things that you think about as my money, homie. What am I doing? Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love it. So I'm looking at - I actually should probably get Halel on here. You got me, Halel. He's, he's a great attorney about asset protection, about these type of things. I need to tell them personally too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Absolutely. And we'll get them on the show. Yeah. You're part of the crew. I should have hit you up with a long time ago.

28:38Mick Hunt:All good. All good. I am the most colorblind person in the world. I can't even draw stick figures either. I am colorblind. Like red and green struggle, light blues and purples struggle. Oh, you're like a dog. Pretty much. Pretty much. But you, sir, as we look at this amazing backdrop that we have here, have shark art. Yeah. One, let's give a shout out to the artist. So this artist is named Daniel Mazzoni. I believe it was Canadian, or I'm not sure, or Long Island. But anyway, let me tell you the story about this. This is a flag that was in 9-11. I believe it was either at a fire station or 9-11.

29:21They salvaged and they got the flag. If you look at the arms, the arms are actual uniforms from men who were at 9-11 from the Brownsville Fire Department and that other one right there. and it's, you know, the, you know, justice, right? Mm-hmm. You look at some images down there, and it's glossed over, and it actually, when it hangs, it hangs with the overalls of the fireman outfit. It reminds us of 9-11. It reminds us of justice, you know, it reminds us of the people. And I think, you know, that artists, the reason why I do this stuff about art, I love the art, but artists, I think, are our last people with free speech.

30:03and it brings to light so many things of joy and pain and suffering our lives. But the reason why I wanted to highlight ours, especially, and thank you for putting this in back of us, is because I realized there's so many other things that we can do as people that doesn't cost us anything. You know, if I like Mick Hunt, I know he's doing a lot. Let me just tag him. You know, if I go to a restaurant, a school restaurant, if 200 people a day tag the bodega, that they went to because they had a great sandwich. Just tag it. Not just the sandwich, but tag it. How much, how high would their rating go on Yelp and Barrage for the things and change that family's life?

30:45It's a hard, struggling family. So what I did with this was I realized that I had a backdrop DamonJohn.com, look boring. But a friend of mine said, hey, you know, artists, you know, if you are if you're an actor, If you're a musician and you're an athlete, hopefully you get to the big stage, right? You get ABC, you get Netflix, you get NFL, NBA. And if you don't get to that level, and if you get to that level, you have great management and all these people. If you don't get to that level, you may even work in the system. You may be an acting coach. You may be a nutritionist for the NFL. You may be a broadcaster.

31:23You may be somebody who works on the team. Millions of positions. Artists will never have a position.

31:29Mick Hunt:Here's something I wish somebody had told me earlier. Your money should work for you, not nickel and dime you with fees. That's why Chime caught my attention. Chime is changing the way people bank. They're not like traditional old banks that charge fees and gatekeep perks and rewards. Chime offers the most rewarding fee-free banking with no overdraft fees, no monthly fees, and no minimum balance fees. You can get 5 % cash back on the Chime card in a category you choose, like gas or groceries while building credit through regular everyday spending with no credit check. You can also grow your money faster with a savings rate that's nine times the national average.

32:09Mick Hunt:And if you're ever in a pinch, SpotMe lets you overdraft up to$200 fee-free. Join the millions already banking fee-free with America's number one choice for banking. Head to chime.com slash mick. That is chime.com slash mick. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes. Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services and Chime card provided by Chime's bank partners. Qualifying direct deposits required. Terms and limits apply. Go to chime.com slash disclosures for details. Listen, I love a great meal. What I don't love is getting to the end of a long day and realizing I still have to figure out what's for dinner.

32:48Mick Hunt:That's where ButcherBox has been a win for me. I like knowing I can open the freezer, grab a great steak or some chicken, and already have the hardest part of dinner handled. It keeps me from making that last-minute takeout decision when I really want something good at home. ButcherBox delivers 100 % grass-fed beef, organic chicken, wild-caught seafood, and more, all sourced to standards they can actually tell you about. They've already done the research and made the tough sourcing decisions, so all you have to do is decide what's for dinner if you're looking for an easier way to get great meals on the table give butcher box a try go to butcherbox.com mick to get 20 off your first box plus your choice of free ribeye new york strip or filet mignon in every box for a year with free shipping always that's butcherbox.com mick again that's butcherbox.com mick be sure to use our link so they know we sent you.

33:47And the addiction runs very high in art, the art community. And so even if you don't get to NFL, you may go get a job as a stockbroker or something else. An artist, no matter what job they get, they're always going to create art. And if they ever get anywhere, that somebody buys a piece, now they want them to die. Yes. So I said to myself, why don't I just start highlighting artists and they will loan me a piece. I actually was sitting in here. I just saw randomly some other art up here. I'm going to highlight those pictures, post them. And that's it, man. You know, hopefully if we all did that, you never know one or two artists or five or 20 or a hundred go, Hey, you know what?

34:27Somebody pick up my piece. Hey, I got, I got highlighted in the museum and that's it. You know, it doesn't cost us nothing.

34:34Mick Hunt:Again, you do so much for people. did you know that this was who you were destined to be no i'm an only child and that's why i do so much okay because when everybody went in to play with their brothers and sisters i had to find a way to convince people to stay outside and play with me hey i'll let you play with my baseball you like tonka trucks i got three of them you know what i mean i want you come why don't you come over my house i got a twin a twin brother you ain't got no 10 brother why don't you come over and see. I got a dog. You want a grocery sandwich? I can cook. So, you know, I was just trying to find friends.

35:14Mick Hunt:Speaking of cooking, I'm going back into all my memory bait now. So there was a conversation you posted on Instagram, I think, when you ate like a year old turkey leg or something from the freezer. Two. Two year old. Two year old. Two year old. Why? Why not? Why not? Why not? All right, let me break it down to everybody here. Let's do that. Like my wife, who's like, that's a leftover. Well, it was a two-year-old leftover, though. That's a different thing. King crab season has not been open for four years. So anybody here eating king crab legs, it's four years old. So I got to tell you something about food and all you people out there that are so pressy.

36:00Let me tell you something. You know that chicken that the night that you go, oh, that chicken looks dated. Right before that chicken rots, you know what they do? What? They cook it. And then they put it in this round rotisserie. You go, oh, I'll take that chicken right there. And right after that chicken that they cook before it gets old, they chop it up and put it in gravy and they put it in. So all of you people right now with worms, parasites, I promise you there is some person in the background of that food trying to make a profit. And you're eating it like, yeah, I don't eat leftovers. Again, I'm fine with leftovers.

36:51Somebody right now is running to the bathroom.

36:54Mick Hunt:Yes. I'm fine with leftovers, but two and four-year-old leftovers. I'm fine with leftovers, but two and four years old. That's called dry age. No. As they put on your menu. No. Dry age. Jerky? No. I've never seen dry aged chicken on a menu though, or turkey legs. They left out dry age fart.

37:20It's called jerky.

37:21Mick Hunt:No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, all right. So you can be fasting for a week after this. I pretty much am. I pretty much am. I also want to let the viewers and listeners understand this because, again, you are my advice guru when I need something, because, again, I can only do two things max. But I was building social media. And I said, damn it, man, I'm struggling on the content that I put out. I don't know if it should be under this brand, that brand. I don't know who I'm talking to. And you said, Mick, you're doing it wrong. You should always talk to five to seven people. And then you broke it down to me, the five or seven people that you do all your messaging for and you don't care about anything else.

38:07Mick Hunt:I thought that was the most profound thing. And it changed my whole social media strategy so much. So that I know you don't normally charge for this, but can you tell the people, the five to seven people? Yeah, sure. So I have to only live with myself. Is my social media the greatest for everybody? No, not at all. I know people out there who are, I'm on, I'm on CNBC 40 times a week, ABC, you know, I'll be on The View, I'll be on this and that. I got that same 1.2, 1.3, whatever on each platform or LinkedIn is a little bit better. I'm not going to do anything unless I, unless my mind will only explode if another category or area I'm in, people discover me and they just like what I'm bringing to that area.

38:54The same way that I was a fooboo guy, but all of a sudden you understand that you think I'm the fashion person, but then you see I understand the concept and the fundamentals of business. Now the business audience find me. Actually the fashion audience doesn't really check with me. I'm cool with that. So I'll never explode or I won't explode past where I'm at. I've accepted that. And I don't want to. Because honestly, if I do something crazy out there and I explode, well, those people are short-stayed because I'm not going to do it again. Unless I turn it on there all the way and then I won't be happy with myself.

39:31So I'm pretty simple. You know, when I post something, you know, I post something that I'm a spiritual person and I don't like to push my beliefs on others. but would God appreciate what I'm posting or would he look at me as a negative way? Then the next thing is my family. Will my wife be at a grocery store and somebody say, you know what your husband posts? It could be anything. It could be something that's disrespectful to women, disrespectful to religion, violence. Now let's get to number three. The people that I work with, my staff, my team, ABC. I don't want somebody calling ABC going, yo man, this guy's, I happen to like some stuff that may be off color, we all do.

40:11But ABC, they're gonna be like, is this your guy? You know, my staff, I don't want them saying, I don't want somebody to say to them, is this the asshole you work for every day? This person says something that's misogynistic. Are you crazy? You know, like, and then, you know, the next couple of people would be in there, young kids or entrepreneurs who are looking up to me and I shouldn't do anything that makes them feel like, I'm letting them down. Yeah. And then the forward thinking ones are the ones who are checking for me. I want you to know who I am. Right? So Chase, all these other people, all these big companies, this is what he's about.

40:49And the last but not least are the ones I want you to know who I am, because this is what I'm not about. Don't come to me and you want me to do all this and that, because if you see all this, then I'm a hypocrite if I take your deal.

40:59Mick Hunt:Yeah. You know? Yeah. Amazing. Again, for everybody watching or listening, That strategy changed my life. And it's not even a strategy. It's just the way that I do things now. I'm not trying to please everybody, but I also don't want to upset the people that matter the most to me. And so that really touched me. You know, you can be very, you know, I think people think that you have to be so hard one way or another. Like I was telling my staff the other day, I said, you know, we have a lot of opportunity out there. we can drown in opportunity. That's my biggest issue and my biggest shortcoming.

41:37I want to do a lot of things. Now, I understand that. I know how to cut it all out of the way. But if I don't do a lot of things on my own side, well, I'm going to do it for Shark Tank anyway, because that's my obligation. So why don't I have some of my vested interests in this kind of diversifying of the portfolio? However, don't wait around for deals that somebody's taking you, taking two, three weeks, six months, and they're just messing around. This needs to be a, yo, you want to do this or not? Yeah. Well, my lawyers are this and that. Well, then your lawyer is the boss because let me, you know, then I'm working for that person.

42:11Yeah. Cut it. And so I say it because why should you cut it? Well, they either don't value the opportunity. They don't have the money or the resources. They don't know what they should be doing. and at the end of the day, all of those people take a long time with these things, they're going to be the biggest pain in the ass when you get married. If somebody is very complicated on dating, that was the best they could be. Oh, now you're about to really see their ass. Yeah. Get out of it. It's okay. And you know when you get out of it, you know what happens? Like I said before, you make room for new opportunities.

42:57Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Be willing to walk away. Walk away is the most powerful thing you can ever do in your life. And you at least leave with your dignity. You feel comfortable about the situation and you go, it's not here because I've decided that it's not here. I left everything on the field with them. Mm-hmm.

43:13Mick Hunt:I'm cool. There it is. There it is. I know you're busy. I know you've been gracious with your time. I'm gonna get you out of here on my quick five, five rapid fire questions. Sure. All right. From Queens, the greatest rapper from Queens is? Tell Uncle Jay. Don't do it. Don't do it. The best athlete to come out of Queens is? I wouldn't know. Kenny Anderson. Kenny Anderson? Yeah, I know Kenny. I know them all. I know Ron and Tess. I know them all. I just don't know what the greatest... The greatest athlete is Kenny Anderson, you think? Yeah. There's no famous like big, big, big... I'm talking like...

43:50Kenny Anderson. Statue. No. No? Okay. They've got to be.

43:55Mick Hunt:Kenny Anderson. He was the GOAT. No, Kenny's great. Kenny's great. I know so many of them, though, from Queens. Kenny Smith. Yeah. Kenny Anderson. Bunch of Kenny's. Mark Jackson. Mark Jackson. I know Mark, too. I know them all. I just got, yeah. I've never been heavy into sports like that. I know. I know. Fermented pickles or fermented cabbage? Pickles. All day long. When you come off a fast, what's the first thing you eat? Avocado. You taught me that. I had to get used to it. I had to get used to it. Yeah, you don't want anything heavy. Yep. The best advice you've received in the last 12 months.

44:28The best advice I've received in the last 12 months. Oh, good question. So many things. Good question. The best advice I've seen in the last 12 months. It's something I already knew, but it's cut more people off.

44:45Mick Hunt:Mm-hmm. You know, after COVID, I think we're looking at what's going on with people mentally after COVID, with social, with AI coming around, people are screwed up in the head. Yeah. And I think it's time to just cut as many as you can off and get narrow and deep, because we're going to run around, we're going to run into some really big issues. And I think you need that really tight unit of people when it gets dark that you can rely on. Forget having 100 people, you have an army of three, you're invincible. Yeah. Yeah, you taught me that too. You taught me that too. For everybody listening or watching, what's one thing you want them to know that you have going on, you have coming up?

45:26Mick Hunt:Selfless shameless plug for my mentor, Damon John, right now. Well, first of all, I want to talk about this, man. How to be a good leader. I want people to read that because that's important, you know, because, you know, leadership is important. And when you learn this stuff, you learn a lot about yourself and how to lead. What do I have going on. So I have sharkgevity where it is, uh, you know, I'm just talking to people about biohacking and very, and biohacking, fancy word for longevity. And why am I the expert in this? Because I'm the weakest person on the planet when it comes to food and I have a horrible travel schedule and I'm, I hope, I don't think I'm intimidating looking like a lot of these guys who, that I love and respect, I get from like scientists, like Gary Brecker's body.

46:12I mean, it's like Superman, right? You'd eat ass free, Dr. Amen. So what I do is I, that's the most important thing to me is to share with people the, you know, what longevity is, how to slowly increase your ability to live longer. And the way I do it is by showing you my faults, showing you what I'm going through. And I always say, if I'm putting a hundred different, I'm probably putting a hundred toxins, bad toxins in my body a day. We all are. If I can reduce that to 60, it adds up.

46:45Mick Hunt:Yeah. I mean, if I can show people how to do that and then get people like you to say, hey man, I'm gonna start the fast. You're gonna go down your own rabbit hole of doing that. I highly doubt knowing you that you're gonna ever go back. If you do it for a long period of time, you're gonna start saying, this is part of my life. You would feel horrible going back. No, it is so easy, the days that I'm not doing the 40 hours, to do 18. Yeah. Like, I don't even think about it anymore. It's like, oh, I ain't getting tomorrow if you fail. Right. And tomorrow, after that, eat a big-ass piece of chocolate cake, eat whatever you want, and reset it on Monday, and just try again.

47:23There you go. Right? That's it. There you go. So, that's what I think. So, those are the two things. Oh, I shared a bunch of things. So, first of all, art. I'm a Shar Jevity. And then I'm still, you know, the person I have a lot of, I have a lot of partners on Shar Tank. And I hopefully I'm the face of entrepreneurship and show people that if I could do it, everybody else could do it.

47:45Mick Hunt:Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been my mentor, the legend himself, Mr. Damon John. Thank you, brother. Appreciate it, man. Right here in my head. There you go. You've been plugged into Mick Unplugged. Don't just listen. Take action. rate and subscribe follow me on social and get the full experience at mithuntofficial.com keep building keep leading and most importantly keep dominating