353- What Rich People Teach Their Kids About Money with Daymond John

0:00We are at a different time and age right now where the data shows that 50 % of kids today graduating will retire with a job title that doesn't exist today. Right. So that means that no financial intelligence. You get to 17, 18 years old, you acquire$700 ,000 worth of debt for a career you don't even know you want. Hey, it's Marie Forleo and welcome to another episode of the Marie Forleo podcast and MarieTV, the place to be to create a business and life you love. So I get a text from my friend Damon John a few months ago telling me about this amazing project that he was working on all about financial literacy.

0:41You guys know how much I love money. This got me really excited. Then he told me it was all about a new children's book designed to help kids and their parents talk about money, get better with money, and have a healthier relationship with money. And I was like, you got to come on the show. Damon John is the CEO and founder of FUBU. He's also a star on ABC's Emmy Award-winning TV show, Shark Tank. Damon served under President Barack Obama as a presidential ambassador for global entrepreneurship and works with My Brother's Keeper, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, and the NAACP to advocate and empower future generations.

1:19Damon is a New York Times bestselling author, and his first children's book, Little Damon Learns to Earn, is available wherever books are sold. Oh my goodness, Damon. look look look look look look little daemon learns to earn i had so much fun reading you read the book i know i know you did because you oh my god you you that's what i do thank you thank you it's amazing so um i am so thrilled to have you back on the show and in the intro i was saying when i got the text from you and ted and i was like wait what is this project i'm like we have to talk about this um this is why i wanted to have you on first of all money is one of my favorite topics ever money influences every single part of our lives, which is so important that we talk about it, not only as adults, but with our kids.

2:02And I found this when I was doing research to prep for this. So did you know this? A study commissioned by Chase found that 59 % of adults are uncomfortable talking to their kids about money. And 82 % are looking for more resources to help teach their kids about good financial habits. So obviously this is right on time. And then we actually, I got so freaking excited about it. We bought a couple hundred books. You did. And I am so, so just in awe of that because, you know, your platform and you, yourself and your husband, you're so just amazing. And to just even be able to highlight something like that is a gift and an honor.

2:38But then you go and buy to donate these books. It's just amazing. Thank you. Well, you're welcome. But books have changed my life and books were the thing that helped me turn around my own financial life and the thought. Like, I remember thinking to myself when I had so many screwed up ideas about money in my own head as a young adult, like 17, 18, 19, 20. And I was like, why did no one teach this stuff as, you know, when we're kids? So what inspired this for you? And for anyone that's watching, they're like, oh my gosh, who, like, what are the kids' ages that this book is ideal for? I just don't know why you didn't ask me about my hat.

3:12I mean because I'm uncomfortable you're uncomfortable hold on a second speak for yourself I am not uncomfortable because you look dope AF in your hat tell me about your hat first Damon what is the wrong hat hold hold for Damon hold for Damon everyone oh okay this is the hat so the hat is like my I saw this amazing movie that I believe it should have won the Academy Award this year And it was these two guys, they went on an interview in a hat I think the movie's called Step Brothers And I realized that this is my alter ego You see, Chef Wonderful, Mr. Wonderful has a chef hat But you know, when I go and I talk to little children They don't care about my Tom Ford Brioni suit They don't care about that So if you don't meet, as we always talk about meeting the customer where they're at and the people of interest, when they see me, they go, oh my God, are you a magician?

4:14Yes. I'm going to show you how to disappear out of your parents' house by the age of 20. I'm going to show you how to turn$1 into$3. I'm going to show you how to not have to hang around certain people because you can do what you want because money's a freedom, right? So I'm a magician. And you know what? When I talk to my little baby girl and her friends, they love the hat. So the problem is with the hat is a couple of adults have said, well, the hat's a little stupid. I said, no, you know what? You got caught in that trap of growing up because if I would have left this hat around you when you were a kid, you loved Cat in the Hat.

4:48You loved Frosty Snowman. You loved Willy Wonka. You loved everybody. You know, so, you know, I wear the hat. I'm a ringmaster now. I'm turning into a ringmaster and I got three rings. One ring is going to be time for the children, time worth money, time and money to value. You see, they taught our children about the train leaving the station. But why the hell did the train leave the station? What if the train left the station a little bit later so you could play it a little bit longer or you worked harder so it left a little bit earlier and you can do more of the things that you wanted to do when you got there?

5:19That's how we teach kids these type of things, right? Right. So I'm putting on the hat for my children and your children because I'll wear anything for them. But I have three ring circuits, time, money, and then I'm going to show later on nutrition. And that is where this is going to be my legacy. I've done a couple of things in life. I created a brand called Fubo. I've been on a show called Shark Tank. But when I die and go to the grave, I want my little girls to say, because this is more than a book, I want my little girls to say, my daddy started a conversation that made it popular for everybody to come up with financial or educational tools for kids five six seven eight nine ten that wasn't being taught in school so when they're 17 18 years old they don't acquire six seven eight hundred thousand dollars worth of student debt for a career they're not sure they want to have so that they have to pay that off by 50 and 60 years old and they can't afford the American dream.

6:21And this is going to be my legacy. And I want anybody and everybody to jump in. If I want to, I'm going to highlight you, whoever it is, please jump in. But this is why I'm wearing the hat. Yes. This mission is incredible. By the way, I would like to be your partner on this mission to keep doing it and to keep sharing it. Well, I'm going to need to co, you know, because this is my alter ego. See, the best thing is I can get on a, you know, somebody with a really sophisticated, trying to be really cool and all that stuff. And where this has my alter ego, I can tell them they smell like hot dog water and I'm in my skin and when I jump out, you jump in.

6:54But then when they question me about, you know, anything, I'll say, well, the GDP of India and all the bonds. And then I put the hat back on. And you're the magician again. That's right. I love it. When did you start to learn about money as a kid? Like how old were you and what was your first like money memory? Well, my first money memory was that at six years old, I used to sell pencils in class. And so my understanding of it was that money or the process of a business is solving a problem for somebody else. And hopefully you bring them joy. But if you solve a problem, you bring them joy. But actually earning money, meaning a regular job, not a regular job.

7:35My father left when I was 10. I didn't have any siblings and my mother had to start working. And I would never see her speak to my father again. My mother had to start working three jobs and I wanted to contribute. So it was about that. But I was always good in regards to processing and understanding money. I live in New York and so when it snowed, I lived in Queens. So it's called a two-fair zone. You have to take one bus to a train and then you get to the city. But I knew that when it snowed, the snow days, all the kids would go out and play snow. not I I went out and I shovel snow but I realized one thing if it's a two fair zone and people have to leave in the morning when they come home the snow is icy so I used to say to everybody listen no matter what I promise you for five dollars I will shovel your snow and you don't even have to wonder about it and then so when they would all go because they come home I said just leave the money in the mailbox so what happens is I would get all the kids to shovel the snow for 250 and I would get about 30, 40 houses.

8:34I knew they couldn't poach my customers. And then I would stay home and just watch TV and drink cocoa and get paid. So I realized about money in that sense, but I got to tell you, and I'm a normal and everyday American and growing up and thinking the more money you make, that you're going to be rich one day. And it wasn't that because if you now look at 65 % of lot of winners and athletes are bankrupt three years after winning the league or, excuse me, leaving the league or winning the lotto, well, then they didn't know how money work, right? Or if you look at the trust fund kids, well, where are the Fords and the Carnegies and the Mellons?

9:17What happens is the first generation makes it, the second enjoys it, the third destroys it. If they're not taught how to earn it and how it operates, well, then why aren't the Fords and Carnegie's and all those owning the Twitters and the Instagrams and the Facebooks and the Amazons of the world, right? And that's the beautiful thing about this country, because if you don't know whether you are poor and you can't make it, but if you're wealthy and you don't understand, well, then it leaves room for our everyday people to climb and become who they want to be. So I went bankrupt almost twice when I was broke and almost once when I had$10 million in the bank.

9:55So I was still learning about money in my early 30s. And I decided one day that I'm going to stop going, yeah, accountants, you do this, you do this, you do this, because I didn't want to seem stupid. And a lot of us do that. We go to our accountants and people and we don't go, well, tell me why this is happening. And they don't tell us because they think we know already. I was already worth hundreds of millions of dollars. So the guy said, You don't know all this? No, I didn't know all this Right? So it's a process So that's what happened With me with money, even trying to teach My oldest girls, I have three girls About money I realized that I didn't teach them I taught them some lessons You want a car?

10:39Go work, I will match that I was teaching her work ethic Which is great There's nobody I don't believe I'm an optimistic person I don't believe anybody ever wants to just be lazy. Most people want to work and maybe they don't have a focus. But I realize now going into the schools and teaching my little girl right now, I only found princess and pony books. And how many times, and should I tell my little beautiful girl, six, seven years old, should I keep telling her that one day her glass slipper is going to fall off and a prince is going to rescue her? or a prince is going to slay a dragon and rescue her or she got to throw down her hair or somebody's going to rescue her or she definitely shouldn't live with seven men, you know, seven dwarfs, right?

11:25She definitely don't do that, right? That's not going to be a good look. But I want to teach her how to sell glass slippers or make them for her friends or own the slipper factory. And I want the prince to go, damn, who owns this factory? Miss John over there owns a factory. my godson am I going to keep telling him that webs are going to come out his wrist or he's going to fly well if he loves the Avengers I have something else here you know what instead of this Thanos that's coming and I want you to believe and I want you to dream but you know who your friends are your friends are the super friends the same way that your godfather had three super friends and we created a company called FUBU or four other super friends on the Shark Tank panel or you and your community and you know how to sing you know how to dance and you gather together and anything that you buy, you can sell, anything you do for free, you can get paid for.

12:16And if I can start teaching them that at six, seven, eight years old, their minds are open to the world. They're not us adults. Oh, I never heard about that. Are you kidding me? That never happened. That's not that easy. When they're like that, all they start to do when you read this book to them and you read it to them, like kids love books to be read every week, every month. I read Catching the Rye once. I still don't know why I read it. But when your parents read this book to you, and then next week and next month you go, I want to get that. What did little Damon do? I could do that. Yes. Right?

12:53And if your parent is reading it with you, your parent's not going to go, no, you can't. Right. A lot of our parents did that out of love. They said, that's never been done before. Don't do it. You're going to embarrass yourself. You're going to embarrass us. because we grew up at a time where our education system is the same education system. It taught you a very special skill because we were in the industrial era. You needed to get up and have a skill because we were building war machines to go to war and or this country was being built. Or they wanted you to learn how to be a great employee.

13:28We are in the information age. I want to get back to that information age because I think women are going to dominate this entire planet, right? This is the century where women are going to take over and we are in trouble as men if you don't respect and value that. That's a whole other story. In partnership, yes. But we are at a different time and age right now where the data shows that 50 % of kids today graduating will retire with a job title that doesn't exist today. right so that means that 20 years ago if i said you were going to be a podcast social media expert ai uh whatever drone operator you're like what the hell is that so now all of a sudden no financial intelligence you get to 17 18 years old you acquire 700 000 worth of debt for a career you don't even know you want that is what's killing us and as you just said and i think in the opening, you said it creates other bigger issues.

14:25You know what it creates? Well, domestic violence, lack of money is the number one reason for it, right? Divorce, gang violence and things of that nature because they have no hopes. You know, when everything happened in these streets, it wasn't people were burning businesses instead of building business because they had no hope, no dream, right? The lack of poor nutrition because the cheapest things to sell in this country are sugar, salt, and butter. It's expensive to eat properly. And all of these come from money. So whether you are an entrepreneur like us, whether you are working at a company or whether you're home, the one thing we all have in common is we have to operate and work off of this system of credit, interest, money, good debt, bad debt, and they don't know what it is.

15:17Yeah. Yeah. No, it's so big. And I love that you mentioned Minka and Destiny and Yasmin and like, you know, now this incredible tool. So has Minka read the book? And is she? Well, Minka doesn't like to read the book because she's shy because Little Damon learns to earn. Little Damon wants to go get his poster of his famous pop star, Minka Jay. Yes. And so every time I read that, she hides underneath the cover and goes, Danny, that's not me. And I got to kiss her after that. But she does love it. But, you know, we'll get into it. I want to give people some – we always have to be of value and of service.

15:52And whether it's in this book or something else, I want to give parents easy takeaways to do today. Yes. Today. Are you loving this conversation as much as I am? Amazing. Let's take a quick break with a word from our sponsor.

16:13Hey, it's me. Because guess what? I'm sponsoring my own damn show because I am a business owner and I sell things. So let me share a not-so-secret secret with you. I would not be here today if years ago I hadn't taught myself one of the most important skills of my life, writing. Yes, I said writing. Whether it's writing my scripts for MarieTV or the speech I gave on Oprah's stage or hell, even this ad, strong writing is essential to being successful in just about everything. Look, I bet you're a little bit like me. I bet you've got ideas to share with the world too. Maybe it's your own book or a business or some kind of product or service.

16:54Whatever it is, I promise you, writing in a clear, compelling way will make it 100 times more likely not only you're going to reach your goals, but that you'll actually make a positive difference. And the best part, you can write in a way that is completely true to your voice and persuasive without being pushy. And I've got a free seven-day copywriting class that'll help you do just that. Get it now at thecopycure.com. That is thecopycure.com. Getting this book, first of all, it's an amazing book. It's so beautifully illustrated and it's fun to read. But let's just jump here and then I want to go back to your money story too because, again, I think that for our audience, we have so many parents in our audience.

17:37And I believe one of those reasons that most parents are uncomfortable talking to their kids about money is because they're uncomfortable about money themselves. They are. And they could see someone like you, who's a shark, who's so incredibly successful. And I want to talk about this. Like, I've made money mistakes in my life, I'm sure, right? And the more we can just have these conversations, then all of a sudden the parents feel kind of like, oh, I'm not stupid for not knowing. We just never got education on this. And then you feel more comfortable with your kids. So let's go to the takeaway so we get that in.

18:08One of the things I love about this book is it outlines very clearly the five core steps of entrepreneurship. So you want to go through them together. Yeah. So step one. You read them off to me and I'll elaborate on them because if I can keep speaking, then all of a sudden it's a Damon Ange. It's a Damon Ange, which we love. And we love watching you on Shark Tank. We love any time we get to see Damon. But step one, think about what you like and what you're good at. This is your special skill. It is. It's your special power. So Siskel and Ebert, if you're old enough like us. Yeah. They never directed a movie.

18:37Oh. But don't you have a movie that comes out without them being critics? Right. So it's your special skill. You know, there's a lot of amazing players, you know, Michael Jordan or athletes, Muhammad Ali. If you ever look at their coaches, their coaches generally weren't the most successful people in that sport themselves. But they analyzed it to such a point where they can break it down. You know, so I want kids to know that for every Michael Jordan, there's 15 other professions around it and you get to do what you love. The only reason that FUBU really worked is that I couldn't rap sing and I definitely couldn't dance like Marie.

19:18Well, yeah, all right. So what did I do? I want to get on the rap sets. Well, the rap video sets. Well, they were kicking everybody off. Well, I just had that dirty ass shirt like this. I'm here to dress the artist. And I got to sit on the video sets and watch the most amazing music artists of my time. Run the MC, LL, Cool J, Salt and Pepper perform. And I would have paid to be there. By the way, I was eating all the free foods at the craft table and I was talking to all the video girls. So, you know, I wanted to be there. So it was something I loved. Right. And anything somebody loves, like being a blogger, you may not have ever traveled.

19:54But if you can analyze and break it down why that's part of your dream, guess what? Ninety nine percent of the world probably haven't been to that place either. And that's their dream, too. Right. And you're connecting with people. So it's about that's your superpower, what you love. Step number two, look for a problem that needs to be solved. And now it's time to take action. There's always a problem that needs to be solved. Every single entrepreneur that I have met that has been successful has said, there's a problem out there in the world. And I thought somebody was going to solve it. Nobody's going to solve it.

20:24I'm going to solve it. And by the way, these problems don't have to be another valve in a heart. Right. Right. The largest companies in the world, one makes a sugary brown drink with bubbles. Coke. Right. You know, what are the top products in Shark Tank history? Number one, my company. So just so you know, when all those other underachievers come on here, you just make sure they know. It's socks. It's called Bombas Socks, right? There's nothing new about it. They make a great sock, but you know what they realize? They sell direct to the consumer, and every time they sell a pair of socks, they give away a pair to the homeless community, and they realize that America and the country has voted that, you know what?

21:06We can buy from anyone But we want to buy from you Because every time We do something We do something for somebody else So now I'm They're sending You know I'm buying something And buying 10 for you Because I want you to know That you gave the 10 other people It sucks What's the second best product On Shark Tank History Which I lost out on Which one? Damn Scrub Daddy Oh Scub Daddy Laurie Scrub Daddy And every time I walk Into the grocery store Scrub Daddy You know what I'm going to make them do A little Scrub Daddy A little Damon in. Yay! You know what I mean? So again, you don't have to create anything new, right?

21:42There's nothing new in this world. The voice is just American Idol. They just turn the chairs. American Idol is really Showtime at Apollo. Showtime at Apollo is just a gong show. Facebook's a nasty chain letter. There's nothing new. It's a new form of delivery and a new customer. You may make it lighter, faster, stronger, but it's nothing new and you can solve that problem yourself. That's right. Right. That's right. So step number three is what can you do to solve the problem? This is your business. So really taking that idea of looking for the problem, identifying it, and then making it your business.

22:16That's right. And then step number four, ask your friends for help. Working together is always better. I thought this was so sweet. But by the way, you know, you know this better than I do. Being an entrepreneur, you need to be vulnerable. Yeah. Right? Everybody thinks you've got to be this tough person. No, you should be very confident about what you deliver. But if you're in a room you need to say hey i know this but i don't know this do you know that because if you do well i can help you with yours you can help you with mine and be vulnerable and people love to hear vulnerability if you walk into a room listen when i when i first made some money i got invited into i think it was like a nebraska or colorado i went out there i had my 300 000 crusted fubu chain with the cheapest diamonds you'll ever see damn i had my big old beefy bodyguard looking all ugly in the corner.

23:03I was in this room and I saw it was, I think, some guy named Buffett, some guy named Gates, all these people roaming around. None of them had on any Louis Vuitton belts and they didn't have any Alize at the bar. This place was obviously trash. And I was in there with my big beefy bodyguard and none of those people talked to me. I have no idea why they didn't talk to me, but I was in there because I used to go to hip hop clubs when I needed that. That was probably, you know how much knowledge I missed because I was unapproachable because I thought I was cool? Being around Buffett and Gates and some of the people who have changed this planet.

23:40So again, being an entrepreneur is about being vulnerable. Yeah, being humble. And people love to fight for you. And it's probably like the thing that I say the most to my team. And I just said it today. We're setting up like this new space. I'm like, guys, I have no idea how to do X, Y, or Z. A, I know it's figureoutable, but B, I need your help. You guys have eyes and ears and skills and strengths and talents that I don't. So step number five, I love this, make sales and decide what to do with the money you make. That's right. So once you make sales, you have to decide what to do. So here is a takeaway that everybody can get to understand.

24:11I'll give you two or three, right? This is the way that money works. And this is very, very simple. And I had to learn this probably 30 years into my career. Whenever money comes in, there is, what can you do with$3,$30,$3 million? The first dollar goes to what you have to pay for, to live, whatever it is, medicine, mortgage, whatever the case is. The second dollar goes to an investment. Now, an investment can be a new business. It can be Amazon. It can be real estate. It can be your education. But this second one eventually flows into the other two. And then the third dollar goes for what you would like to have but do not have to have.

24:51And if you don't spend all that, you go back to number two, right? But it's human nature. If you're looking at money when it comes in, as we've been adults, we weren't teachers as kids, you go to number three first because you work so hard. You want to treat yourself, right? Or you want to treat your family. And then what happens? Well, you never get to number two. And then number one, you spend so much on number three. Well, then number one, the only way to pay that is loans, 18 % credit cards. and barriers. So this corrodes everything else. But if you start to understand as a child, wait a minute, mommy and daddy told me that, oh, three, it has to come in this way.

25:27You start to understand that at five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, it just becomes your way of life. Yeah. Right? And that's what you have to do with money. I remember when my stepson was nine years old and he had just come into my life and I was trying to think about how to talk with him about money because it was such a huge pain point in my life. And I wanted to see if I could do better. And I remember, so Zane's an actor. He's 29 now, so he's an adult. And it was like his first gig. And he had got this indie movie and he was playing opposite of Nicole Kidman. He's 29? He's 29 now. I mean, you never age.

26:04From your lips to God's ears. So anywho, I remember when Zaney came home and I had asked his dad, you know, Josh, my partner, I was like, hey, you know, Zaney's got money now. He's like 12. And I remember pulling out a book actually from a, I think he's a mutual friend of ours, David Bach. And it was a whole financial table about the power of compound interest and showing, and I remember showing him like, hey, if you put this money into that number two zone, right, where it has the potential to grow, I was like, Zany, by the time you're 30, which I know sounds like eons and lifetimes away, but it was such a great conversation just to back up that notion of like deciding what to do with your money when you get it.