John Paul DeJoria: The Business Mindset That Turns Setbacks Into Billion-Dollar Success | Entrepreneurship | Lost Files

21:11The way it works is this. For five days, you're in a training class to learn a word-for-word presentation. Then you go out in the field. It's all commission only. You don't get paid in mind unless you sell something. But they said something to me I never forgot. And they said this, some of you are not going to make it. In fact, they didn't tell us this, but I found out later. The average lifespan of an encyclopedia salesman on commission only, no leads. It wasn't Britannica or World Book. It was Collier's Encyclopedia Unheard of, right? Was three and a half days. Because once you get out there with your training and people are closing doors to your faces, I don't want this.

21:47I'm out of here. There's no money. But he told me something I believed. And it's good to pass on to all your entrepreneurs. I don't care what age they are. And it's this. Be prepared for rejection. The way they explained it was that you may call on 50 doors, and they're either politely saying no or maybe not so politely close to your face. You have to be just as enthusiastic on door number 51 as you were on the first 50. Well, I believe what they said. It wasn't door 51 for me. It was 100 and something, but I believed and I was just as enthusiastic and it worked. And then, oh, let's say maybe I have to do 10 presentations to make one sale.

22:25Maybe. Finally, as I learned more and more how to do it better and better, if I gave three presentations, I did at least one sale. And that's commission only. And that lasted about three and a half years. And it worked out well until I finally got burnt out on knocking on doors, even as a sales manager with them. You were still required to go out there and every week get at least one order. And I said, now I got to go into something else. So I went into a variety of things. But I learned so much. Overcoming rejection, believing your product is of high quality. Everybody needed it. And I would say to all entrepreneurs, I learned this when I started my first company, Paul Mitchell, is another big secret to really making it in life is not only be prepared for a lot of rejection in business or even in your personal life.

23:10because people are going to tell you things you don't want to hear. If you're prepared for it, it goes off one shoulder and into the air. Be prepared for it. You're going to get it anyways, right? The other part was make sure you'd never go into the selling business. Now, let me explain what I mean there, okay? Most people or companies create something in a presentation to sell to somebody else. Okay, there's a need in your marketplace. This is it. I don't. with Paul Mitchell and Patron especially, we went into the reorder business. Paul Mitchell had no money, no nothing, you know, just door to door and three products to start with.

23:47But they were so darn good that we knew if we put them in the hands of hairstylists, okay, they say, this is really good stuff. And then recommended to their customer to use in between visits to look the same. In other words, we were in the reorder business. Now, if you have a service that's not a physical product, you still want to go in the reorder business. Meaning this, what you're giving them is so good, not only will they want to use you again, but there's nothing to have. It's a one-time sale. They'll tell people about it. So, those are the two big things. Be ready for rejection and know it's coming.

24:20And when it comes, don't let it bug you. The second thing is, whatever your product or service is, is so good, people will reorder it. They want to reorder.

24:27Hala Taha:Yeah. I feel like that's such great advice because you don't want to be in the business of just having to spend endless amounts of money on marketing and branding and trying to like push out your products and services. You want it to be so good that people just order it on their own, spread it by word of mouth. We had to. We had no money to advertise for market or anything. And also we had to start a company with Paul Mitchell where the backer pulled out. Yep. And that was a big deal because we could do it for a half a million dollars. Today, they'd be two or three million in 1980 pulled out. So it was a matter of I left everything I I was doing everything I was doing and said, what the heck?

25:04Left everything behind, better car, the house, everything else. Went down the hill with a couple hundred bucks in my pocket and son of a gun, okay? The guy didn't come through. Another lesson for everyone to learn here. People are asking, especially the youth of America or even people that are older, can you do today what you did in 1980? You know, you started at difficult times. How in the world did you get an office? How did you get people to pay you immediately? How did you do all this stuff? That's almost impossible. Well, it's all in the book, step for step, how we got an office for$16 and how we got somebody that was used to paying in 45 days to pay us immediately how we did it.

25:45There's ways to do these things, but it's a process of learning along the way as you do these things. So there was nothing there. We had to create all this on our own. And it's interesting, when you've got to create something on your own, the entity in us, that God form that is in us, is very smart. Just leave yourself open to the universe. It's going to guide you. Prior to that, I was fired from three companies. Yeah. All in the beauty industry. One, because I complained all the time about them testing on animals. They were hair care products. You know, not skin. You never put a rabbit's eye until they die or inject it in them.

26:20But they wanted to look good to be the scientific approach. Well, they got tired of me and upper management complaining. They said, JP, we love you, but you got to go because you're now telling everybody the same thing. That's not how you run a major corporation. Whether we're right or wrong, you stick by it. I didn't want to stick by something that was wrong. And I had a good job. Went to work for another company, Syntex, just bought Firmadel. And they needed someone to train their people in sales and marketing, which is what I did. After one year, I wasn't one of them. In other words, you're not one of us, okay?

26:52You're not with us playing Canastas on the weekends. You're to love it in Griffith Park, right? And other things, too, that it's no need to mention right now. But they were really mean. It's one of those types. So they fired me. I said, great, no problem. Time to leave. Then I went to work for another company that was a little dinky company. And they needed me to almost run their company for them, which I did. I quadrupled or tripled their sales in one year. By the way, with Fermadel Centex, I increased their business by 50 % in one year. And then with the other company, I tripled their sales or doubled.

27:23No, actually, I tripled them. But they fired me after a year. Now, the way they fired me, this is interesting. But what came out of it is the more important part about leaving yourself open to the universe. Okay. They fired me because they said, JP, you made more money than the owner of the company. I said, what are you talking about? You know, this is in the mid-70s, right? Yeah. I said, I agreed to work for you for only$3 ,000 a month and 6 % of new sales. They said, that's what got you the new sales. You created so many new sales. You mean more than the owner of the company. I said, but your company is bigger now.

27:57It's worth more. And how about I get 10 % of your company? I'll buy it from you, but give me a couple years to pay for it, right? And maybe take a little less that you're paying me and put it towards that purchase. They said, absolutely not. We have a fellow name. I'll never forget this. David Chapman, that'll do it at one-third the price. I said, oh, well. So I went on. Long story short, I consulted a little bit after that. Then I started John Paul Mitchell Systems. It took us two years, as people said, when did you become successful? Yeah. It took us two years. And the reason we knew we were successful was because we could pay our bills on time.

28:32We didn't pay them off, but we paid them on time. But all of a sudden, around that time, something hit me just out of the blue. I said, oh, my God, there is a God. There is something real called fate. Had I not worked for all three companies, learned something different from all three in the professional beauty industry, I would have never been able to start Paul Mitchell. Whether it was with$700 or whether it was with$10 million, I wouldn't have had the knowledge. It's almost like I was doing a darn good job at each company, but it wasn't my destiny. It wasn't my purpose. I couldn't help enough people out.

29:07I couldn't make enough money to do some of the things I wanted to do to help the plant. I couldn't. So the universe said, okay, you're not doing it. We're going to do it for you. This is not right. But you got to learn. You got to learn. You got to learn. So when people are down and out, just remember that. Don't think about how bad things are because you can't change yesterday's newspaper. You can't. It's already happened. Leave it behind you. Leave it behind you and just go forward and leave yourself open to the universe. It works and it works really well.

29:35Hala Taha:Yeah. We're here to learn lessons. And some of the bad stuff are good lessons for us to learn to be better. Yeah, bam, I genuinely feel ahead of the curve with AI for the first time because last year I felt like I couldn't see the value from it. I would use AI and it would give me back dumb responses. And I was using ChatGPT like a search engine to draft an email here or there, but I wasn't using it effectively. So I went to MindStone's AI Breakthrough Weekend with my business partner, Kate. I learned so many foundational skills that I use every day at Yap Media. Everything that I touch now involves AI.

30:11Hala Taha:And Mindstone gave me the tools to actually make AI effective rather than just feeling like it was a bunch of hype. And in fact, I built an app in 15 minutes at this retreat. And when I came back, me and Kate were like, we've got to put our team through this training. And so Mindstone has this AI competency program. It's a four-week totally online training that's super affordable. And we put the entire team, 60 people through this program. The productivity and the efficiency increase at Yap Media has been absolutely incredible. They've got their own proprietary tool called Rebel. It connects our email, our Slack.

30:45Hala Taha:It attends all of our meetings and takes notes. And then it basically acts as like a second brain. You can use any tool that you want, Claude, ChatGPT, whatever. It's the actual foundational principles of how to use AI correctly. That's what it teaches you. And if you guys want to experience MindStone and take their four-week AI competency program, Yap listeners get 10 % off at experience.mindstone.com slash yap. That's experience.mindstone.com slash yap.

31:13Hala Taha:Yap fam, I am a perfectionist. I always want to make sure that I'm putting out the best offer possible to the world. So when I launched my LinkedIn masterclass and mastermind, I poured my heart and soul into the content and I knew that this was going to be transformative for all of my students. But I didn't know how to launch a website. I didn't know how to handle payments. I didn't know how to launch a payment plan, a subscription. I didn't know how to answer their questions in the middle of the night when they're trying to check out. But I left it all to Shopify. Shopify makes it so easy for us entrepreneurs to launch our e-commerce storefront.

31:46Hala Taha:They've got all these templates and AI tools. They make payment as easy as just one click. Shopify has been the best business partner for me over the past five years because they're so innovative. If they're always thinking of new features from how to make sure that your cart doesn't go abandoned to having things like chatbots and helping you implement chatbots on your store. So please stop reorganizing your business plan for the 17th time. Build a storefront. Put the offer out there. All you need is the idea and Shopify can handle the rest. If you're serious about hearing your first start your free trial at Shopify.com slash profiting today.

32:20Hala Taha:You heard that right. Start your free trial at Shopify.com slash profiting. That's shopify.com slash profiting.

32:29Hala Taha:Hey, young and profiter's. When I think back to the early days of Yap Media, I was way too scrappy. I'm talking about working out of coffee shops, bouncing between public Wi-Fi networks and hotspotting from my phone just to get through on a client call without the connection dropping. But looking back, it was actually adding a lot of unnecessary stress because you realize pretty quickly your business is only as strong as your connection. It's how you run meetings, serve clients, and keep everything moving. And that's exactly why I wish I had AT &T Business back then. They're built for small business owners who need their internet to work without second guessing it.

33:03Hala Taha:And once you've had that kind of reliability, you get real peace of mind. You can show up fully, close deals, serve your clients, and focus on growing your business without any of the stress. You need a provider that is as serious about your success as you are, like AT &T Business. Built to work. Get AT &T Business at business.att.com. That's business.att.com. It's so true. Hindsight is 20-20, right? A lot of times you get fired or something bad goes on and you think like, oh, woe is me. But in reality, the universe is actually just preparing you to do what you're really meant to do. That is correct.

33:39Hala Taha:And a lot of 20 and 30-year-olds especially, they feel like they need to do everything right now. They need to start companies in college. But in reality, you started at Paul Mitchell. How old were you? 36 years old or something like that. And it turned into a billion-dollar company. I believe it was 34. 34 years old, yeah. We're global. We're the largest privately-owned salon hair care company in the world. But we give a lot. But also, I might want to say, we may have the smallest turnover of any company in the beauty industry because we take care of our people and we love them. Yeah. Okay. There's so much that I want to unpack in your story.

34:10Hala Taha:So, first of all, you mentioned that you started Paul Mitchell Systems with$700. Correct. You had an investor who was going to invest like half a million dollars or something, and he pulled out. That's correct. But you decided to continue on anyway. Why did you believe in the idea so much? What gap did you see? Or why did you decide like, you know what, I'm just going to do this anyway, even though my investor pulled out? That's a very good question. By the way, no one ever asked me that particular question. That's a good one. Well, for me, it was very, very simple. I left everything behind. The work I was doing, the better car, took the older car.

34:43It was a cool car, but down the hill, right? And I just left everything with a few hundred bucks. And I just realized that I left everything because that's not my destiny. This must be my destiny. I knew our products were great because I had good friends of mine helped me formulate them properly. And I knew that if I could only talk to enough people, just put it in their hands. Just let me put this in your hands, okay? That the majority will reorder because it's that high of a quality product. And I firmly believed in it. So I went through all the difficulties and eating, sleeping, and paying bills late all the time, everything you could ever imagine, but we made it.

35:19And that was another reason for me coming out with the book, to show others how to do it. So people say today, JP, can you do it today like you did in 1980? Yeah. No, you could do it easier today. Why? In 1980, inflation was 12.5 % in the United States. Unemployment was 10.5%. If you could get a loan, which we never could, if you could, the lowest interest rate was 12%. And we waited in line to get gasoline. And we had the biggest competitors in the world going after. Today, life is different. One, you have computers. So you could communicate. You could write your own stationery, your own business cards, your own everything on your computer.

36:01We didn't have that in those days, okay? And that could be your business office. But another thing, too, that I'd love to share with your entire audience is, okay, you have a little business, you have a product going, but you don't have the money to market it, sell it, or you've got a bunch of, let's say you don't have a lot of money. You want to raise money, you have old clothes, an old bicycle, or you just have stuff you want to get rid of. How do you move stuff out? There's something you could go to. It costs you$15 a month. One five, that's all it costs you, right? And it's called Global SKU.

36:32You take your camera and you could take a picture of anything, something that's old and used, something new. I could take your purse. I could take anything, right? You take a picture of it. AI is involved in this, by the way, all right? And I invested in this company because it's so cool. Anyways, you take a picture. Instantly, I'm talking about like in a second, it shows you the picture you took, what it is, right? And it tells you what it sold for brand new, the last time it was sold, and how much it sold for used. and you push this other button, okay? And all of a sudden it gets you on something like eBay.

37:07So like a lot of our students, for example, okay, have old clothes, old things, they want to raise some money. Just go take pictures of the old clothes. Now, does this work? Recently, I wanted to see it work. Two guys went into a thrift store for$2, bought two t-shirts, right? And one said Illinois on it, the other had some kind of scribbling on it, whatever. They bought them, wasn't paid for them, but when they bought them, they took a picture knowing they're going to pay the two bucks for each one. Roy took a picture. When they left the store, one of them already sold for almost$100. The other one, oh, 20, 30 bucks, whatever.

37:38That something like this really works. It's a way for someone to have something. All of a sudden, you now have an audience and you're going to millions of people, millions. And then they send you the money right away. It's really trippy. That's amazing. It's called Global SKU. Yep, global SKU.com.

37:55Hala Taha:SKU.com, cool. And it's an app that you have that's 15 bucks a month. Now, if you've got a giant business, we have some people that have such huge businesses, they've got so much stuff to put in. It could cost you up to something like that, maybe$500 a month, maybe a giant thing. But, you know, if you have like 20, 25 things, whatever you want to sell,$15, that's it. I love that. No more money. I have so much things to get rid of. I definitely want to check it out. A lot of people try and throw them in the trash and get rid of them. Here you could recycle, reuse, and get money. If you had a wheel off a bicycle, it's amazing what people buy.

38:26All the stuff you want to get rid of, do it. Globalsku.com.

38:31Hala Taha:I love that. I know you don't want to give every in the book, but let's unpack some lessons for the entrepreneurs tuning in. Sure. You grew Paul Mitchell super popular, but you had no money. So how did you actually start to manufacture products and convince suppliers and manufacturers to actually support your business? Yeah, great crowd. Gladly shared that with you. We didn't know the money was not coming in. And so while I was putting the company together the couple months before, I would go to like Setco for my bottles and say, hey. And they knew me from the industry, right? So you have credibility.

39:02I made an eye in the industry, right? Nice, good guy. And I said, we're doing this here. And my first order will be for 100 ,000 bottles. I'll mix them up with three different products. It'll be that. And I like to have 30-day terms. Here's what we're doing. And I really made an impression by him. He goes, oh, we'd love to have your business. I said, great. Then I went to the Silk Screener, did exactly the same thing. You know, everybody down the line in the filler, the place that filled it all up. Well, when no money came in, what do you do? Now, that's one, if you leave yourself open to the universe, things come to you.

39:34So I said, that's not going to stop us, right? We're going to get this done because it was all set up. So I came up with the idea of let me call each one and say this. We are so excited. And I was excited, right? We're getting going, right? But I need a sample order. How about only 10 ,000 bottles? 3 ,000 shampoo one, 3 ,000 shampoo two, 3 ,000, I mean, 4 ,000 the conditioner. Oh, sure, JP. We're wondering why you don't want a smaller order to start with. You got the same terms. Immediately, same day, silk screener, okay? Hey, we only want 10. Can we do it? Oh, of course. God, of course we'll do a sample run for you.

40:09Still 30-day terms. Went to the filler. Oh, of course we'll do a sample run for you, right? It was, wow, great. But then our money disappeared. We went to the artwork where they did our black and white artwork of our Paul Mitchell product. It was going to be$1 ,000. And we told him the truth. We only have$700. Can we give you a few hundred more and pay you the rest? You know, is that okay? And he said, no. He says, I want all$700 because I'll probably never see the other few hundred dollars at all. That's it. We gave him all the money and we got the artwork. Now I'm out of money, right? So I went by my mom's house and I had lunch with my mom.

40:46She didn't know how bad things were. She didn't know I left everything behind. She had no idea. This all happened in like a day or two, right? Oh, man. It all happened like real fast. And I said, so I had lunch with her. And boy, I ate everything on that plate. Boy, son, you were hungry. Have some more. Anyways, I said, Mom, I want to borrow$300 from you if I can. And she said, well, son, you have a good job. You make good money. I said, Mom, I'm starting a new business. I'll pay you back in a month. Okay, here. She gave me$300, right? That had to last me a long time. And that's when I learned not only how to sleep in my car, because I did it once before when I was in my 20s with my son, but how to eat off$2.50 a day.

41:24It was like the Freeway Cafe had a 99-cent special between 9 and 11 when nobody came there. One egg, one piece of toast, and one either piece of bacon or one piece of sausage, and your choice of either orange juice or coffee. Well, of course, I took the orange juice, the sausage. It was bigger. I just took whatever I could. And then I discovered this company, a restaurant chain, and it was called El Torito, that started something called Happy Hour. Nobody came in, let's say, between 4 and 6 o 'clock. Happy Hour, 99 cents. Whoa, great. But not only did you get a margarita, and it wasn't Patron, okay, but it's just a real inexpensive margarita, but still a margarita.

42:04But they gave you little chicken wings, salsa, and all that. So after you're about 10 or 15 chicken wings, you're full. The salsa is your vegetable, and I had a margarita. And at a quarter, I could leave her as a tip. Well, after about four or five days, people kind of caught on a little bit. You know, what's going on with these guys? And I told them exactly. They were so kind. Occasionally, they'd bring me an enchilada or they'd bring me a car. It was just unbelievably such beautiful people. When I made money, I went back and I found them. And they were still there. And I gave them the biggest tips they've ever had in their life, just as kind of a thank you.

42:39We learn and manage things. It was like, I'll share this one with you, okay? because it's also in the book. How do you get money right away when you have no money? Because I had the product to deliver. Well, first of all, how do you even get business going? I went knocking door to door, just like I would do selling encyclopedias, got 12 different salons to buy anywhere from$25 to$130 approximately in product. And they would give me a check and it took me over a week to do this. And I'm a pretty good salesman, but unknown product, unknown name, why should we get this? Anyways. Anyways, so I got them.

43:14And then I went to a distributor, but they did not fill out the top who it was made out to. And I delivered on the spot. Went to a distributor. I'll just give you one part of it. Yeah. And I made my presentation. He was a nice man. He said, great presentation, but we're Paris A Speedy Supply, the biggest distributors in Southern California. Number one, we have all the big brands. You have no money, no advertising, no promotion, no people, just you and your hairdressing friend, Paul Mitchell. That's it. I can't invest in building your brand. I just can't do that. He says, unless you give me another reason, I want to wish you well and hope you get some money.

43:49I said, I have another reason. He goes, what is it? So out of my pocket, I pulled out 12 checks. I put them all in front of him. I said, that's why. That's your first 12 customers. I've already sold it. You're paid for it. I've already made your first delivery. If you'll only order$2 ,000 worth of Paul Mitchell, we were really hard up, right? You can have all of LA and Orange County. That's like Southern California, right? And he laughed his head off and said, okay, but you better be here and help my people sell it, okay? And under those circumstances, I'll do it. I said, okay. I said, but one more thing I'd ask you.

44:20I said, we're kind of new, and can you give me a check when this delivered? He laughed his head off, came to our 25th anniversary, by the way. We've been in business 45 years, and told it to all my distributors. He says, and then JP leaves my office, and I finally agree. He said, okay, I'll do it, but you better be here, okay, tomorrow morning. He says, in five minutes or less, my warehouse was calling me and saying, there's some guy here unloading these boxes on our warehouse entrance here wanting a check for$2 ,000. He laughed his head off, went back, gave me the check and said, I'll see you in the morning.

44:54So he gave us a break. And from there, then I decided, well, if that's the case and I want to go forward, I need that extra money. So I built into the pricing. I raised all the wholesale prices by 5 % and told everybody, if you pay your bill within 10 days, it's a 5 % discount. Well, everybody wanted that. That's one of the things we did and a couple other things to get our money right away.

45:17Hala Taha:Yeah, that's really great. So you did that so you could get more cash flow and get more cash on hand. We had no money. Yeah. And our bills were due from the time we had product to the time Setco, the bottlers' first bills were due, was 15 days. We had 15 days and then everyone else was due right the same week. We had that time to have to raise that money. So it was very, very difficult doing it. And we had to have money right away or we're out of business our first day because we had no money. Yeah. There's a couple of things that I want to talk through here. One of the things that you keep saying is that you've got to be open to what the universe is going to provide for you.

45:53Hala Taha:You've got to be open. So how do you suggest that people stay open? Like, what is the type of mindset you need to have? Or what do you do to be more lucky, so to speak? Well, and luck comes along with a combination of things. One, the biggest thing is your thought pattern. Our thoughts are so powerful. I could give you an example of that, and you can see how it changes for other people. A good friend of mine and one of my business associates for several years just kept on saying, I have the worst luck. I have this new promotional thing going on. It's just not working, this new product. I have the worst luck.

46:26I have the worst luck. I have the worst luck. So I called them here just at the end of last year and said, I found out why you have all the worst luck. And who's responsible? He goes, well, JP, who, who? I said, you. Because whatever you say or think and you put out to the universe, the universe wants to help you. If you're saying, I have the worst luck, well, it'll help you. It's black and white. It doesn't know reason it's black and white. Well, then you'll continue to have bad luck. How about people, their New Year's resolution, next year, I'm going to try and lose 10 pounds or 20 pounds. Universe says, great, we'll let you keep on trying to lose that.

47:02The power of thought and the power of the words you speak are so powerful. If they're positive and they're going in a good direction, the universe is going to give you that. Open up to it and don't have all the baggage of, oh my God, I wish I would have done that differently. It would have never happened like this. That person was mean to me. You got to get all that garbage off your shoulders. You have to, or you're not going to go forward. So when times are really bad, realize this, and it's what keeps you going. That was one of the many lessons the universe gave me to learn. I am here to learn lessons on this planet, in this body.

47:38It's one of the many lessons that'll learn to something that's even better and better and better in the future. Leave yourself open, leave everything in the past and open eyes. It's amazing what comes to you. I didn't plan on calling everybody up and say, hey, could I have a sample of only 10 ,000 bottles at all? But it just came to me. I said, whatever's going to happen is going to happen. And all of a sudden, these ideas, these thoughts just started coming in my mind. But I always thought positive. I would say 99 % of the time I was a positive thinker. There was a time maybe during my, shall we call it, biker years, my early 20s, that maybe I wasn't the best human being on the planet, okay?

48:16And there's a lot of things I did that I would regret. But it was a lesson learned to never do that again or treat people a bit differently than you did then. Leave yourself to the universe and openly and not the negative thoughts before you go to bed. If you have all these thoughts, I can't pay my bills. She left me. He left me. No matter what it is. And you can't sleep. It goes through your head over and over again. Get a piece of paper. Write it down. Put that pen and pad either by your bed or by your sink in the bathroom. When you go to the bathroom in the morning, you can read it. Then if it goes in your head, hey, I don't have to have it in my head anymore.

48:49It's already written down. These are little things that help out. So no matter what the problem is, it's behind you. You cannot change yesterday's newspaper. Leave yourself open to new thinking and new thoughts.

49:02Hala Taha:The other thing I hear from you is that you asked for help. You asked for things that were really uncommon, and you got lucky because you were able to actually ask for those things. And you didn't just ask and not give any effort. For example, you got 12 customers before you went to your first distributor and showed them proof. Like, here, I've got your first customers for you. So talk to us about the importance of asking for help and not being shy to ask for help. Oh, you bet you. A lot of people are shy to ask for help. One time someone had said, hey, is it good to have consultants when you started a business?

49:34I said, I never had one. I don't think so. Just do it yourself. Well, that was wrong. Because when you ask people that have done it before, they could give you some great advice because they've already been through the mistakes and overcame in most situations your challenge. Very, very important, okay? Or if people call me occasionally, I don't have, I can't answer them all and say, well, JP, here's my challenge. It's not a problem. I call it a challenge, right? What can I do to overcome it? Or just go to someone, go to a mentor, go to the local boys or girls club and the Rotary Society, all the Lions Club, all these great groups, many for women and ask, what do you think?

50:11I need a little bit of advice. people love to help other people out.

50:14Hala Taha:Yeah. So let's talk about how you built trust with the salon owners. You were able to give money back guarantees, which I thought were really interesting. And then you also did things to connect with them on a community level to make them feel more connected to your brand. Can you tell us about those things? A couple of things we did. One, let me tell people one of my closes on one of my sales presentations is this. I would say, if you would be in a position, okay, and agree to let me come in here, hold a little class for your stylist when they're off, after work or before work, and display my products at eye level because they look really good at eye level, like a tuxedo on it, right?

50:52Makes everything around look good. Let me hold a little class and let me show your staff how to use a product, which I could do in five minutes. I'll make this agreement with you that in 30 days, if it's not the best product you've ever used and you really want to keep it, I will come back and take every bottle. I would pick up the bottles I presented. I would take every bottle that I have sold that you haven't used or sold already and give you your money back. Now, that's fair enough, isn't it? I would lick them in the eye and nod their head. Now, that's fair enough, isn't it? If they would say no, which quite a few of them would, you know, why?

51:24All these other products are an unknown. I'd say, you know, I agree. Instead of taking a dozen each, how about only six each? And I will give you the same agreement that if in 30 days, it's not the best thing you've ever used, as long as you let me come in and hold a class, help you display it, right? I'll take everything back. And it's so little by six of each. We only have three products. Is that fair enough? And if they said no again, and they would give me a reason why. Too many, overloaded, don't have time. I say, I could appreciate that if I was in your shoes, I think the same way. But I'm so convinced you're going to love it if you'd only take three of each, okay?

51:59And a lot of it was no, no, no, no, no. But then And little by little, I learned how to give a better presentation. But that's how I got my first 12 orders. But I knew in advance that I had to have something because the distributor is not going to want to talk to me. And I'd have to really try and sell them to take something that is unadvertised, unknown, everything else. So I thought, and no one's going to buy my product. So I'd have to go knocking door to door like I did when I sold books. Good experience, right? And keep on going. And it took me, again, over a week, maybe a week and a half, which today would probably take me a day, right?

52:32to get them. And then my mind was, leave it open, leave it open. You might need that for someone else. And then I went straight to the biggest distributor, not a little distributor, but the biggest one with everything I could put in a presentation. And after he said no, I gave him the extra reason to do it.

52:46Hala Taha:Yeah, that's incredible. And so didn't you do like charity work or things with the salon owners and hairstylists to make them feel more connected with the brand? Oh, after we got going. Oh, definitely. Yeah. So later on. Oh, yeah. Once we got going, we're able to do that and get involved in sports marketing, local philanthropic events, which we still do, by the way, at Paul Mitchell. And it's just my whole life every coming. I'm involved, and I make sure that we're doing that. All of a sudden, they feel like they're part of it. An example is I was on the West Coast once in the office, and the office was almost totally empty.

53:19And this was on a Friday. I said, oh, I came in late in the day. Where did everybody go? Oh, they said, JP. We came the other half of the day off because they're down at Santa Monica Beach picking up trash. They want to add to the beach and the environment. So, you know, we kind of embedded in ourselves that we want to help out. It makes us feel really, really good.

53:38Hala Taha:And you had multiple opportunities to take Paul Mitchell to retail. But you always refused to do that. Why was that so important for you? And what were you actually protecting with that decision? Actually, it was one of the best things we ever did. And the way we did it, we say this, because I worked for other companies in the beauty industry, and we would see, for example, companies like, oh, my God, Maudeen, Jeremac, okay? Just, I mean, so many, I go on and on, all of a sudden saying, we're in the beauty industry just for you. And the next thing you know, it's on drugstore shelves everywhere, and they're selling it just openly, okay?

54:14So my promise was this. We're going to be the first to support salons all the way. And if distribution changes, you're still going to be involved, period, okay? You will. Because trust us, we'll be the first not to let you down. Well, in 2004, a young lady, a student, raised her hand and said, in an audience that we were talking to, and said, JP, every company has sold in this industry, And we understand that Reckon sold, they all sold, okay? We understand, JP, that you have, not only have you never sold to anybody, because you don't want anyone, if you were to sell, to all of a sudden take in retail.

54:50First thing they'll do is go full-blown retail, right? And already there's black market stuff going in and people selling Paul Mitchell out the back door. But what if you die? Then what happens? I said, whoa, never thought of that one. One found a 360-year trust in the United States. I own more than 51 % of the company. I put it in there. So for 360 years, starting 2004, nobody could take the company and sell it to anybody or take it to the major market. They couldn't do it. But then some challenges came up. COVID. Oh, my God. Here's COVID, right? Salons were closed for months at a time in many states.

55:26They were going out of business. Our customers wanted a product. So we made a deal with Amazon that, number one, they had about 2 ,000 places on there that were selling either counterfeit or black market Paul Mitchell. So the deal was this, take them all off, take Paul Mitchell on. But what we need to do is this, is when we make the sales, we need to know everything you're doing, the money that we're getting. And we're going to give the salons that carry Paul Mitchell, we'll divide it among them, right? We're going to give them a big percentage of all the money we make off Amazon. So the customer still is the customer.

55:58And then when we went back to where they were starting to open up, they were broke. They were out of business for months at a time. So we took our customers that took Paul Mitchell, put another$4 million into it, and gave them all free product. Gave them product for the back bar hair color, shampoos, conditioners, to get them back in business again, asking nothing in return, because that's what they deserved. So we feel that, you know, giving back all along the way is definitely the way to do it. And more recently, one of the big chains that was black marketing Paul Mitchell from all over the United States.

56:31Salon would buy it, and a lot of them did this and sell it out the back door to make a quick 20 % as much as they could possibly order, right? Or they would be going out there and people would have old licenses, but walk into a distributor and they could buy it off the shelf, right? Tons of it legally and then sell it to these big chains, right? One chain came to us and said, how can we change this to benefit saloons? We're going to get it one way or another. So we made a deal with them. If they'll put up a sign in their big stores, right, that says, here's a few products for take-home use in between visits.

57:04See your professional beauty salon for professional products and do it right. If you will do that, then all of a sudden what you're getting through the black market, you won't get anymore, right? We'll get it to you. And we did get it to them. All of a sudden we realized what salons were getting any product anymore and even a couple distributors whose sales went straight down. They may have been black marketing it. We don't know. But it's things like this where you kept the promise. So for as long as John Paul Mitchell Systems is in business, which is another 350-some-odd years, or almost, as long as it's in business, whenever the distribution change or anything, salons must be involved, either for a kickback on the money or something.

57:42We will always support them. When we had nothing, they believed us and supported us. So even when all of them are dead, I owe it to the industry.

57:50Hala Taha:I love that. integrity and loyalty is so important to you, from you leaving a really cushy job because you didn't believe in animal testing to then not going into retail, even though you probably would have made money faster had you gone that route. Oh, a bunch. Why is integrity so important to you? And how do you think about integrity as a leader? Well, for one, when you are true to yourself. You are easily, shall we say, have the truth for everyone else. Being true to yourself is when no one has something and you're telling them something, then I'm going to stay by you and you have nothing and they help build you up.

58:26If that really builds a major company worldwide, you owe them. And the other companies, it's like you're cheating the people that you promised. You're cheating them. You're not including them in what you're doing now. You say, well, thank you for doing this. Now we're going to move on. And I know a lot of the big retail companies do that still. They'll sell something to salons, and then they'll change it a little bit and sell it to the retail industry to say, well, we're also in the beauty industry. And this is not right. Because when eventually you told them that you're going to give them all the support, and all of a sudden you give it to somebody else, it's just not right.

58:56And it's going to be some baggage you're going to carry on your shoulder. And you're being nose inside that you screwed up. You know, you screwed somebody over.

59:04Hala Taha:And that's not being open to the universe, right? No, it's not. And the universe says, okay, you want to do that? You continue to do that. And people continue to screw you over. You want to make promise you won't keep? Hey, no problem. That's what you want in the universe? That's what you're going to get back. And that's how it happens. My goodness, it's just, whoa, not so good. So I know one of your core principles as an entrepreneur is to have like really quality product. That's correct. So talk to us about how you knew that Paul Mitchell was like incredible product and the things that you did to ensure that you had the highest quality product possible.

59:35Certainly. Working for three other companies in the professional beauty industry, I knew quite well what was in those products. And one of the top formulators, Dr. Ron DeSalvo, was a dear friend of mine. And as a favor, I said, Ron, we need a couple of these things newer. And Paul Mitchell, my partner, tried to come out with a product line, but it never did too well because it wasn't that quality. And Paul didn't have a marketing or any business sense. So we took some products, and my friend pitched in and helped us make it the best formula ever, no matter what it costs. It's just got to be the best product, right?

1:00:05Where if a hairdresser used it, and that's why with hairdressers, they would know the difference. And so that's how we got our quality in there. That was a quality. Patron was a little different story with quality, which we'll get to when you get to Patron. But that was all about it, how we can make it that good. And then we would continuously, if we made something new, make it the best. But here's something to learn about making something of high quality, okay? We started with actually three products, and we invented sculpting lotion for the wet look or dye look. and freeze and shine hairspray in the 80s for the big hair, but it didn't build up on you.

1:00:38Those five products, 45 years later, are still top sellers for us. Top sellers for us still today because of the quality.

1:00:48Hala Taha:That's amazing. And so you were talking about how reordering is so important. How do you know if a product is reorder worthy? Well, if you know if it's being reordered, it's because you're getting an order for it. You're getting an order for it. If you're not getting your order for it, it's like, oh my gosh. There was a time, oh, maybe 15 years ago where Mr. Jacob Ellis and I sat down. He was my CEO at the time. And we were looking at some of our products. There were five products. We're a very big company. Five products that collectively, they did less than$2 million. So we thought, well, maybe we should make room for some that make several million per product, whatever.

1:01:23But then we realized, well, wait a minute. If we started the company and we made almost$2 million in annual sales off five products, we'd have been the happiest guys in the world. Well, our first big year was$450 ,000. Second big year was$1 ,000 ,000. I mean, God, we would have just been in heaven at the time. So we really had to think that one out.

1:01:42Hala Taha:Yeah, like which ones do you discontinue? Which ones don't? Exactly, right. So you actually had black and white bottles. Yeah. And probably at the time you were thinking like, that's not great. Everybody else has colored bottles. But it turned out to be an advantage. Yeah, well, also a necessity. Black and white, you bought the white bottle. and for two cents, you got a silk screen. If you had color on it, it was six cents or seven cents. We couldn't afford it. Little did we know that that black and white would all of a sudden make us unisex. Now to today, many of our products have color on it, some color on it, but we still have the basic black and white there other than maybe an ambulance with a color.

1:02:19We're lucky on that one.

1:02:20Hala Taha:Yeah, it's great because it's like everybody knows what it looks like because it stands out so much because all the other bottles are all different colors. So do you think with all social media and hype cycles and influencers, that if somebody had what is$700 back then is$3 ,000 now, that somebody could start Paul Mitchell today. Oh, easy. Easier than we did it. If you did the same thing we did, but you had$3 ,000, I mean, because today you have social media, you got advertising, and you have computers, you could type up your own stationery, your own bills. There's so many things you could do today with technology we couldn't do in those days.

1:02:57We could not do it. You know, we could not follow through unless we went there personally or called them on a phone. How's it going? You know, and that's what we do a lot. We follow through with people. And we have seminars every year where 3 ,000 hairdressers come, you know, and we teach them new techniques, new ideas, how to improve their business. We continuously do something to upgrade our industry continuously. But I do say to people, when you see Paul Mitchell, get it from a hairdressing salon because not only do you know for sure it's a real Paul Mitchell and not counterfeit or anything else, but they'll show you how to use it with your type of hair at no cost.

1:03:32Hala Taha:Last question on Paul Mitchell is about your employees. So you've been in situations over the years where you could have laid off your employees because it was maybe the right thing to do for the business, but you decided not to. What was your reasoning behind that? And how did you come up with other creative solutions to not have to let people go? I don't know how you found out about all these things, but our employees, you're 100 % correct. during COVID, people were laying off left and right or asking for subsidies from the government. We said, we did so well and we were so happy and we're making such good money.

1:04:03We didn't lay off one person. We kept them on full pay. And those that could go into the office would go in, which was kind of rare. If you stayed home all this time, you got your full pay because we love you and you're not gonna suffer just because of this stupid stuff that's going on with the COVID and the shots that, you know, well, anyways, that's the whole stuff. We don't even get to that stuff. That was wrong. The administration screwed up big time on that one, just hurt people bad. But anyways, but we have a new administration, so things change all the time. But we took care of them. And then right afterwards, when salons came back, we gave them free product.

1:04:38So we take care of our people. Now, during that time, it cost us so much money. Because remember, sales were down now. Salons are closed, right? And you were giving back to the salons too. So for a couple of years, My partner of the time and I, okay, my minority partner and myself, did not take any dividends out of the company. We couldn't because we did it to help our own staff out. It helped Salon South. So it was a couple of years we didn't take any dividends out of the company. We just left it in just to try and make up for, you know, what we lost during that time.

1:05:07Hala Taha:You're such a good man, such a good boss. But I'm happy. We have the smallest turnover of maybe any industry. I don't know, but in the professional beauty industry, we have the fewest turnover. In fact, I would say we're in about 128 countries. And I think with Paul Mitchell's staff alone, God, in the last 46 years, let us just say our turnover is much less. But let's say it's less than 500 people. Unheard of for a corporation this big that's banded out. Yeah, that's crazy. But people stay. In fact, one of our oldest employees, Bill Peplopepe, worked with us until he was 86 years old. Wow. And he was just a great guy.

1:05:41But he couldn't get around. but he could answer the phone and we made a little job for him so he could make some money plus the social security. We would call up our accounts. How's it going? This is peppy. Is everything going okay? That's so cute. We love to take care of people.

1:05:55Hala Taha:So let's move on to Patron. So you started Patron in your forties. What translated from shampoo to tequila? It was just a freak thing that the universe just let it happen. I was building a major house and And I was living at that time in California. I've only been in Texas 26 years now. But in California, I was living there. And I was building a big house in Malibu because I was making pretty good money. And my builder came to me and said, this friend of mine, Martin Crowley, he's a great designer. He was in the hospitality business, just went bankrupt. JP, would you go into business with him, kind of be the bank and, you know, in architectural business?

1:06:33I said, sure, why not? Wasn't that much. So he would go to Mexico buy furniture and pavers for model homes or for restaurants, furniture, things like that, very inexpensively for architectural model homes. I was building that house there. He was going down on a delivery. We were drinking regular tequila of the day, right? Salt, shoot it, lime, okay? And you get a little burn there. Anyways, there you mix the margarita, don't get that. And I said, Martin, when you go down to Mexico to buy some pavers, when you come back, bring us a couple bottles of what the aristocrats drink down there. It's got to be something smoother than we're drinking, right?

1:07:10And then the average bottle of tequila was about, I think,$5. The best one ever made was$14. Okay, this is 1989, right? Anyway, so he comes back, and he brings these two long bottles, and it was smoother than anything we had, much smoother than anything we had. He said, but JP, I met this guy, Francisco Alcares. He can make it smoother. I said, really? Go back down. So Martin went back down again, and he brought back it, And he found these bottles down there with Elon who helped him start the company, right? These beautiful bottles of blown glass. Same bottle we use today at Patron. Yeah. He said, JP, we could put in this bottle.

1:07:45It was the smoothest we ever had. And even smoother, I said, oh, my God, Martin, let's do this. I'll order 1 ,000 cases of 12. That's 12 ,000 bottles. We'll bring it back. Now, it was expensive to make. I said, I know it's expensive to make, but let's say nobody bought it. For the next 10 years, every birthday, anyone had a wedding. They got a bottle of great tequila, Christmas, whatever you celebrate here. You know, you got this, right? Period. That was the worst of what happened. Because we had to sell it for$37.95, nobody wanted to take us on. Oh, my God. Other than my buddy, Wolfgang Puckett Spagos wanted to buy it.

1:08:21He was a friend. He said, this is smooth. My clientele needs this. And Baja Cantina, who Martin, you know, Marina Del Rey, said, this is really good stuff. We finally found a wine dealer that only distributed wine and nothing else. And we talked him into doing it if we could give him Spagos and Bacantina, which we already landed anyway. He goes, yeah, are you kidding? So we did. And we tried to teach him how to sell it. Didn't work too good. After a year, they sold only about 1 ,000 cases. So we dropped them. Went with a big, major distributor, a big brand like Jim Beam, right? Well, now we had to put another level.

1:08:57So now they got a piece of it, the distributor got a piece of it, the wholesaler got a piece of it, and then the public bought it. So our margins went down. After about a year and a half, maybe two years, we went to Jim Beam and said, guys, you're only doing about 12 ,000 cases a year. We think we could do one day 50 ,000 cases. They were so sweet. They said, guys, you're really nice people, but we're going to tell you the truth. You have the best tequila in the world, but it's too expensive. of. You're selling for$37.95. Others are selling those for$5,$6. Because we brought ultra premium tequila.

1:09:31We're the ones that have had ultra premium tequila and marketed it. So we said, well, thank you very much. We really appreciate it, but we're going to change distributors. We were nice to one another. Then we took on Seagram's, even a bigger distributor, right? Yay, let's go together, right? So we still had the other layer in there. But after a couple of years, they got it up to between 60 and 70 ,000 cases. And we thought that was good, but we knew we could do better than that. We really did. So we went to court and bought them out of their agreement. We bought them out of it. We paid the money for it, and we took over distribution.

1:10:04Now, here's the lesson to learn. When you go to big companies that tell you you're not going to do so well, it's got to be cheaper in price, anything other than let's really give it a good shot, get behind it, right? Anything other than that, don't agree with them. We went with the biggest people. They only got it so high. When I sold Patron almost eight years ago, we were doing 3 ,500 ,000 cases just in our tequila. It was the biggest sale ever in the professional alcohol business. No one ever sold a company for that much money. And it was the biggest success in the world. And we were around the world in 135 countries.

1:10:43So you got to believe in yourself and what you have is really, really good. And how do you do it when you have no money in alcohol? You It's in the book, too.

1:10:51Hala Taha:How the hell do we do it? How do we get the darn thing out there, you know, and get it distributed? Patron became part of the culture. Like, Patron was mentioned in so many different movies. Oh, yes. And it became very, like, luxurious, and everybody wanted Patron in the club if you were wealthy. Was that by design? I'm going to tell you about two of them, okay? Two of those are just like, wow, that was so cool. It was like a little, shall we say, just a universal force coming and giving his helping hand. Clint Eastwood was a friend of mine. We started in 1989. 1999, come 1991, or it was either 90, it was 91, I believe, Clint came out with a movie called In the Line of Fire.

1:11:26He was a secret service agent, all that. He calls me one day and says, JP, I have this premiere of a new movie, and you're dating this girl, Eloise. You could really impress her. Come to the premiere of my new movie. You know, we were living in Southern California at the time, and it was at the theater in Westwood there. So I said, oh, cool. So I come on down with Eloise, who, by the way, is my wife. You know, we married, so maybe it worked. I don't know. But we went there and son of a gun, Clint wasn't there. He was at some other opening somewhere else. But his producer met us, gave us a seat right next to the producers and free popcorn and free Pepsi.

1:11:59I'll never forget that because most leaders have Coca-Cola. So I said, next to the producer, the best seats in the house, free popcorn, free Pepsi. I was really impressed. I think, no, pretty cool, huh? That wasn't the surprise. And he didn't even tell me. The only thing he drank in the movie was Patron Tequila. And the most intense movement, he's there on the telephone with the terrorist killing the president, trying to talk him out of it, sipping Patron with a bottle of Patron in front of him. And then that same year when Playboy interviewed him, that's when Playboy was a really great one to get on for an interview.

1:12:31They asked him, what do you drink? He said, only good red wine and Patron Tequila. So that was kind of nice. So people along the way, all of a sudden, years go by, right? As the years are going by, people are saying, wow, that 50 cents is really cool with your Patron. I said, who's 50 cents? He said, JP's one of the new rap singers that's out here. And he talks about Patron, sings about Patron, even has a bottle of Patron with diamonds on it. And then all of a sudden, the country in Western field, they made a song, which was a big hit. I think it was Tequila Makes My Girl's Pants Fall Down or something like that, right?

1:13:06All about Patron. And we spent a dime. They just did it because they loved it. We had rap singers left and right drinking Patron singing about it, the country and Western industry, and it just took off like a cult. But during that time, I was working on what's the next generation of tequila. We created the generation of ultra premium tequila, especially in the United States. We created all that, right? What's the next generation? I had not sold Patron yet. So what do they want? They want something that has no additives, smoother than even anything you could ever imagine. and they would like this, this, and this.

1:13:40So I started working on a formula to do it, but hadn't bottled it yet or sold it yet. I just had worked on the formula and the idea of this thing. And we will call it Bandero. And they said, JP, they were really kind to me when they bought the company. You haven't bottled it. You haven't sold it yet. We're going to let you keep it. But you'll have a five-year non-compete for anything in the alcohol business. It's a deal. Because even if you asked me to and not in writing, because he gave me so much money, I would have done it anyway. You gave me a lot of money, okay? I would have done it anyways.

1:14:12So that's what happened. So I had it. I sat on it. And then when the non-compete was up a couple years ago, I gave it to my daughters, who just kind of sat on it, didn't do very much. And my partner at the time, but couldn't do very much. Anyways, the non-compete's up, went right back at it again a year and a half ago. And now we're in seven states in the United States. And we won a little over a year ago the gold medal in the Latin American Awards. That means everything's south of the border. has the best tequila. We won the gold medal for that. That's incredible. So you can imagine. So whenever we do taste tests with people, they go, wow, that's great.

1:14:44But sometimes people say, JP, what's better, Patron or your Bandero tequila, special Bandero coffee? What's better? My answer is very easy. Even though I've already been paid by Patron, I don't have to owe them anything like this. In my own heart, I know this and I tell them, they're both two of the greatest tequilas you'll ever have. Why don't you yourself taste them both out and see which one you would like. You're talking about two great ones, just a little bit different each. The new Bandero is not part of Patron. It's a whole different thing, right? And Patron is its own different thing. Taste them both, see what you like the most.

1:15:17And we're doing extremely well. It's a tough market now because the market is down for every alcohol, right? But we're making inroads. And I think 70 % of all people, maybe 80 % that taste it, will get it again. We'll be in the reorder business. We made it so that it'll approach those kind of people.

1:15:35Hala Taha:And this is just like kind of rounding out everything that we were just talking about in terms of, you know, you didn't spend a lot of marketing dollars on Patron. It just got spread by word of mouth because it was such a premier product. It was a category of one and it was super well made that people just liked it. Now, it was$37, which was really high priced. In those days, it was$37.95, call it$40 a bottle, very high price. But do you think that actually helped it become like a luxurious alcohol brand? Maybe, possibly. We never looked at it. We looked at the quality of the product, no matter what it costs.

1:16:08For example, Bandero. Bandero is wow. Okay, it's like a wow. It should be about$125 a bottle. But nope, I introduced a suggested retail price of$49.95 as a suggested price. In fact, one of the big groups now in Southern California is promoting the heck out of it for quite a bit less. They just want to get it out there for us. We thought, well, that's nice. Very, very good. with a big sign saying, it's$49.95, but here, here's our price just to get it out right. And they're doing pretty good with that.

1:16:38Hala Taha:So you've made billions of dollars at this point. I think you sold Patron for$5.1 billion. That was a valuation. I sold the company. Oh, that was a valuation. Okay. And I own 70 % of the company. That's amazing. It's common knowledge. I wouldn't be talking about it. Yeah. Why bother starting another business? I'm a serial entrepreneur. For me to sit back and do nothing but spend money makes no sense. But for me to be back in business and now have more money, I think we're into about 167, I think, of these charities that we're into. I mean, I could change people's lives. Here in Austin, Texas, one of my big charities is Mobile Loaves and Fishes.

1:17:13We have now, we're working on our second 500 people to have homes of their own. And I built entrepreneur centers to learn trades. And we have 2 ,000 altogether we're committed to. The other 1 ,000 will be built. And I'd say within two years, all 2 ,000 are occupied by homeless people. Our centers for skill centers, we did another one with TOOF, the other one's foundation that are mentally challenged, let's say. They have mental challenges, okay? So we built them homes also and a skill center to learn how to be a plumber, electrician, an auto mechanic. And quite a few of them are working now where you would think they would never have a job.

1:17:50Sociologists that are there, employment people, food to eat, gardens I built for them so they could have their own food and eat fresh vegetables. It changes people's lives. At Mobile Loaves and Fishes, they said, JP has spent way over a million dollars at an entrepreneur center for Mobile Loaves and Fishes. All homeless people, they don't want to work. I said, no, you give them a chance. So there they could go and learn pottery, jewelry, art, just so many aquacolor, so many different things. In the first 18 months, those so-called homeless people don't want to work sold almost$200 ,000 worth of product.

1:18:25They got to keep all the money themselves. But even at Mobile Loaves and Fishes, is we have auto shop, auto mechanics. We have metal shop. We have wood shop. We have all these things they can learn there, plus our Entrepreneur Center on top of it. It's helping people help one another. Why do I give? I give because I've been so fortunate with such an abundance that I can help so many people out. It's kind of like if you could take care of you and your grandkids and grandkids' grandkids and you have all that money, why not share some and bring some other people along the way? And that's how we live our life.

1:18:56Hala Taha:Yeah, and that goes back to your new book. which is incredible. And I think one of the big lessons in the book is you explaining why it's important for entrepreneurs to actually embed generosity within their business. So what's your advice in terms of like entrepreneurs out there that are listening in that have small businesses? Why is it so important to actually align to a charity and what's the right way to go about it? If you align with a charity and you don't have the extra money to give, which is so often the fact it was with me for quite a while there, is align with the charity, one that you like, one that touches your heart, that makes you feel good, not someone else feel good, okay?

1:19:34Get aligned with them because if you're in volunteering, you're gonna meet people that you'll run across in your life that may end up be your customers or those that give you advice on something because they've been extremely successful. Most charities have a few people like that somehow attached to them. And when you're working there at the charity, like some of the Mobile Oats and Fishes people have come to me. I've even gone out to hold little seminars for groups on how to start businesses with little to no money. That's why you got involved. And you feel good. That's another thing. If you don't mind me just saying this, why do we do these things?

1:20:05What is it all about, okay? When you do something for somebody else and ask absolutely nothing in return, you get the greatest high you'll ever get in your life. And I'm a child that went through the 60s. There's nothing we smoked in the 60s that'll get you that high. The fact you did something for somebody else and asked nothing in return, it's the greatest high you'll ever get. And it's a natural high and that exceeds other highs.

1:20:30Hala Taha:I know one of the things that you recommend is that we actually formalize our relationship with charities or like have it be more formal or structured. Why is that? Well, it's because a lot of people that have charities don't know what they're doing or how to put it together and how to have a system that's out there like, okay, here's where we have money coming in. Here's how it's best spent. Here's how we help other people help themselves. And that's what we do with most all of our charities. They're all geared towards, we'll put the money in, we'll train you for this, but now from this point, can you please help yourself or jump into charity and help us in that way?

1:21:03Hala Taha:Something that's unique to you is that you often, like, roll up your sleeves. Like, you've been in some, like, really crazy situations where you've inserted yourself into political situations. Talk to us about some of the war stories that you have rolling up your sleeves and getting involved in philanthropy. Well, the worst stories? War stories. A war story. It's like these are war stories. No, no, no, not war stories. No, not war stories. They're all good. No, they're all good stories. Okay, well, I would say, you know, some of them that are just like unusual, but the end result was really good, okay?

1:21:35Really good. Well, let me start with a real biggie that's in the book. I call it giving back for the planet, all right? It's in the book. They allowed me to put it in the book yet. I've already cleared it through the CIA, FBI. Everybody said, JP, it happened, you know, more than 20 years ago. It's okay to put it in the book. But I'm the guy that went in to Libya to convince Gaddafi to release the two suspected terrorists to pan in Flight 103. Wow. I'm the guy that went in in the mid-90s into North Korea. Kim Jong-il, his dad had just died. He took over to help convince them to get into the four-way talks instead of the three-way talks.

1:22:07And a few other things like that, which are an extension of the things I was already doing with people. Rolling up your sleeves. when I started to grow Appalachia, all the people there that were unemployed from the coal mines and everything else that I had started there, I went out there to teach them and I just paid the money. I worked with Brea College. I'll buy the seeds, I'll buy the fertilizer, I'll buy the equipment. I'm gonna pay for people to teach you how to do your own farming so at least you could have your own food. I would go out there and I'd buy a tractor for them, for example, a good use tractor.

1:22:40If there's 50 of you in one garden, 50 families, right? I would jump in I would drive the tractor. I would help dig stuff. I'd do all that stuff. I'd get out there and help them out at Mobile Loaves and Fishes. I'd go out there and visit them. I'd buy stuff from them. I'd give little classes and I'd help people out, like, you know, how to start business with no money. And I was getting involved. There were a couple of Christmases and Thanksgivings where my family, my wife, my son, and I, we went out there and helped serve the food. There was one year, and this is really getting it done. They were supposed to have turkeys donated.

1:23:10They did it, and I found out about it. What are you going to serve them? They said, Frito pie. You can't serve Frito pie.

1:23:16Hala Taha:You can serve Frito Thanksgiving turkey. So we bought them all the turkeys, and we went out there and helped serve them all and carve them all. So we get into the trenches. We want to be part of it. In Africa, for example, we have a program going called Keep Africa Fed. In fact, the thing is actually food for the number four, Africa, where we feed right now in our schools. All of our Paul Mitchell schools, over 100 of them, right, have a give-back program, too. We take care of about 17 ,000 orphans every day. Most of their parents have died of AIDS. Of birth to, let's say, their early teens, we give them a place to live, good food to eat, nutritious, everything to give them a chance in life.

1:23:57We go over there and work with them. In fact, I took my wife and son over once for a photo shoot. It's in the book where you have all these kids there, these little kids in Africa. We did a photo shoot, but we brought them into it. In that photo shoot, there's one kid in my wife's left hand. And the picture is there of all those little kids with us. He's not smiling. And we asked, well, why is he so unhappy? They said, we just took him out of a trash can on our way here. We went through a city on the way here to drive the kids here. And they said, oh, wait, you're Food for Africa here. And you take care of these orphans.

1:24:29This kid just came out of a trash can. He was crying. And we brought him out. There's nobody around. They took him with him. Well, after a couple of Coca-Colas at a candy bar, that kid was the happiest kid in the world, which we brought for the little kids out there, you know. But it makes you feel good. Things I did with Nelson Mandela. He was a good friend of mine. He was able to help change the world down there. Prostitution. Human trafficking in Thailand. My head of, actually my executive director of the Peace, Love, and Happiness Foundation, her first job was to go over there to Thailand, live over there for a while, which she wanted to do, and get those girls, save them, get new passports for them, and get them back home.

1:25:05again. So we get in the trenches. We feel that you could give by volunteering. And if you give money, and that's good too. But to be able to give money and do what they're doing or helping out makes you feel twice as good. So we get the bigger high and we get the better satisfaction.

1:25:20Hala Taha:Okay. So another question that I have for you as I've been talking to you, getting to know you better, is like, why aren't you getting involved in politics? Like as a younger person, we're in like a bad situation with our leaders. And like, it feels like our leaders don't care about us, don't care about people. There's so much bad stuff going on that like everyone's starting to find out about. And you are somebody who has a lot of money, a lot of power. Like you could run for president, you know? So why not take that angle? That's another very, very good question. So I could answer that politically, okay?

1:25:53I am an independent. I'm not a Democrat. I'm not a Republican. And I noticed so often, Promises are kept that are never delivered. So how could I best work? I was offered, and I don't want to go into detail, but I was offered a vice presidency a short time ago of the United States of America, and I turned it down because I knew I could not do what I wanted to do, what I'd want to do, because you've got constraints. The people that donate the money, a great example is, we saw, no disrespect, okay, but a horrible last four years where people came across, I mean, I don't want to put anybody down.

1:26:28It was really, really bad. Well, how in the world can we humans help out with that, okay? I mean, and I could help out more by not being on one side or the other. And today, it got so polarized. And some of our media has a lot to do with this, okay? Where they're kind of pitting these guys against these guys. And the best example I could give you is this. I was asked to go on one of the major television shows, which I did, by the way, okay? And they said, JP, you're representing the higher 1%. And this was in the last administration, okay? but a major TV show. And they said, JP, because they thought I would be representing, you know, the one percenters.

1:27:05They said, JP, you're going to represent the one percenters, right? They got me on. They said, well, JP, what's it like being a one percenter, right? You know, in these troubled times that we have now with everyone coming across the border, inflation, everything's just going crazy here. And I said, you got it wrong. I'm not part of the one percenters. I'm part of the hundred percenters. It's just that I made a little more money than somebody else because I got lucky. It's we the people of the United States of America. Not go to the left, go to the right, have all this happen. It's we the people.

1:27:35What's better for we the people? And with all due respect, no, it's not you're pitching people one against the other. That's not it. It's we the people. Well, they did not ask me any questions. That interview went very, very short, and they got me off there as quick as I can. But it was live. They couldn't stop that part there. But that's what it is. It's we the people. So I try and help out as best we can. There were times where administrations, a couple of administrations ago, called me and said, well, JP, you got this Grow Appalachia where we're helping people. We like it. We're trying to do that ourselves.

1:28:07We want to, and this was right before the reelection, okay? We want to join you now in doing this. We thought, great. They said, yeah, we're going to set you up. And the president of that day, okay, we'll come over and work with you and everything else on this because he's in helping everybody else. I said, great. They dropped the ball totally. It was only so that on TV, I wouldn't say it again, that, you know, they're not doing anything for really we the people. Just one of those things. But people have to realize it's we the people. Stop not liking somebody because they believe differently. I have friends of mine that because I'm in the middle of the way and not the other way and not, I'll give you one, so far to the left, you got to be to the left.

1:28:47They won't even talk to me anymore because I say, I will hear out everything you have, but let me tell you what the other guys are doing and vice versa, right? I mean, America has got so polarized. It's like, what is the matter with you people? Don't listen to your party when they say, hate the other guy. Don't listen when they say, go out there and march and you have to have violence. It's okay. Don't listen to that. It's wrong. It's we the people. We're brothers and sisters. If your brother did something wrong, would you talk to him? If your sister did not agree with you, would you at least hear her out?

1:29:17Of course you would. They're polarizing us. We shouldn't be polarized. We should be we, the people of the United States of America. We are the greatest nation the world has ever known, and we don't deserve to be in a situation like that. And as things are being exposed more and more, I think it's a good thing. When you get the Epstein list, look what they did. Bad, bad, bad. Don't do it. Look at what these people lied about, even during election. Well, this guy, for example, was involved with the Russians. And you find out later it was a lie, or this person did this, or that person did that, okay?

1:29:48is crazy or this person is too far to the left. Yeah, but they did do some good things. It's we the people. We the people of the United States of America. And if everybody thought that way, we wouldn't have this fighting, this terrorizing, and this, well, we got to be with this group, we got to be with that group. No, it's we the people of the United States of America. Let's do something to keep our country.

1:30:09Hala Taha:Yeah. And during the Olympics, look at the team that just won. Our girls won the gold medal in playing hockey. The guys won the gold medal, right? And all of a sudden, some people with one part of their political thinking didn't think it was a good deal, didn't want to praise the United States because of it. And they came back and said, no, we're Americans. We represented American, came back. And, you know, anyways, it's just, it's we the people of the United States of America. It's we the people. Let's be one family and not let anybody split us apart like they've been doing. Yeah, I love that message.

1:30:40Hala Taha:And I feel like it really relates to your new book. Yeah. Talk to us about why you wrote this book in the first place. Oh, you betcha. The reason I wrote it was people asked me for years, JP, you've got to share your information, how you did all these things, how you did things politically without a party behind you to solve international problems. Like, you know, could I offer you what I do with them and other things too that maybe the book will talk about a little bit, okay? So they said it so much that I tried to write a book and I was a failure at it, okay? I've never written a book before.

1:31:13So about two and a half years ago, I said, I'm going to do it. And I got a hold of a wonderful gentleman, Mark Victor Hansen. And he wrote Chicken Soup for the Soul, a really good man with a big heart. I asked him if he would help me with my book. And he knows me from Horatio Alger Award, where I'm a Horatio Alger awardee in Washington, D.C. Only, only award ever given in the Supreme Court of the United States for people that really showed the American way and made it the American way. He was one of us, right? He says, J.P., I'm going to help you. I'll get you two of my best writers. It's your autobiography, but we'll help you write it.

1:31:46Took two and a half years to finally get it. You know, it's like, I think about 280 pages. And I thought, you know what? This will answer not only how one can start in America with nothing and maybe no dad, like a lot of kids have today, no dad. But how you could make it and how as a mom and a family, you could influence your kids when they're young to come out good, even though you have little to nothing and not blame it on society. You know, how you can do this and how to overcome all these problems of being fired from jobs and no place to live. I mean, just all these problems you ran across, right?

1:32:21But still came out okay. How did you do it? And you can only do that in a book, JP, unless someone's going to interview you for several days and you're there talking for several days. So that's what we did. That's how we did it. Now, this book right now is quite a book, okay, I must say. It's only about$20 in hard copy, right? Like Amazon likes it so much that we're on Amazon right now for pre-orders. The actual delivery, I had 150 made right away. So this is what I'm going to give to you, obviously. Thank you. But the first edition is only 10 ,000 copies. And that'll go straight to probably Amazon.

1:32:55So I say to people, pre-order now. Success unshared is failure. Because if you pre-order right now, when the book comes out, then you'll get one of the first printed copies. There's only 10 ,000 of them being on the first printing. The rest will be maybe 100 ,000 or who knows what at a time. So it's like kind of a collector's item and for sure you've got it. And I guarantee you, when someone reads it, you'll want to read it to all of your children. Let all of your friends read it. It shows not only does America work from no political view, just a straight-out view on how to be better in life. And all the steps we went through and all the problems that we went through, how we overcame them and put it behind us to have success, but also how to change the world.

1:33:38is in there, how we're changing the world for thousands and now millions of people because of our philosophy and what we do. So, you know, take the time, go out there, pre-order it on Amazon, pre-order, Success Unshared is Failure. You'll never regret it. When the first copies come in, you'll be in the first printing that comes in. You will get it. When you read it, you'll know what I mean. Not only will you want to read it, and you may want to read it a second time, but you'll want to give it to everybody you know, especially your children, to say, this is real and just be kind to one another.

1:34:07The big secret is being kind.

1:34:09Hala Taha:Yeah. I feel like this is such a great book, especially for young entrepreneurs, business owners who are trying to make it. It gives like a different lens of how you can go about business. Usually it's like just so tactical, but this is more about like business with a heart. That's correct. And so it's just a really different perspective that I enjoyed reading. Oh, yeah. And I've started, by the way, another couple of big companies going on right now, one in AI and one in other. I have some big things going on right now, too. And the reason why is because I'm so excited about doing things right and doing it with kindness and helping others along the way.

1:34:43I'll never retire. This is my lifestyle. It's not work. I stopped working when I started living in my cars and started Paul Mitchell. I stopped working. I was just fun. That's what I love to do. And I hire thousands of people. And an example is like when I grew up Appalachia, God, I don't know how many thousands of families we have now growing their own gardens and how many tons of food that is produced by some of these people. In other words, I see the world around me, and my purpose is to make life better because I'm here. And I do it. The reward that I want is I just feel great. But along the way, all these wonderful things happen for me, like the Paul Mitchell experience, the Patron experience, Bandero now, all the rocket companies that I'm involved with and other medical breakthroughs right now that I got pieces of their company and doctors I'm working with right now that are changing medicine as we know it today and coming up with cures where things that you only get little things to keep you going, but never to cure it.

1:35:42It's amazing what's going out there right now and just wonderful with good people that don't rip people off.

1:35:48Hala Taha:What's your advice to the young people out there who are struggling to get jobs and worried about AI and not able to really get experience the way that you got experience working door to door and before you actually started Paul Mitchell. Exactly. What's your advice to those people? To them is don't give up and leave everything that is a no behind you. Okay? You'll see that in the book. Leave it all behind you, the no's behind you. And I'm here right now. Here's what I have. Here's what I think I want to have. Now, a lot of people don't know what they want to do in life. Okay? But they know what they don't want to do.

1:36:22Don't do anything for money you don't want to do unless it's very short-term potential. Have your goals set up there no matter what it is. You could do it easier today than before, like with this global SKU. You could actually go into business and have your distribution from sitting at home with your idea, your things, things in your closet you're taking pictures of, your new invention, your new handkerchief, your new tire. You could do things like that right now. Easier. There's tools out there for you that we've never had before. Now, AI is another thing. When we talk about AI, because I have an AI company, when we talk about AI, I give everyone the same message.

1:37:00Today, today, there are tens of thousands of jobs out there no one can fill. Hairdressers, for example, we need 10 ,000 more right now. 10 ,000 more would have a job instantly if they actually were hairdressers or barbers, okay? They'd have it right away. Auto mechanics, thousands that don't qualify. One of the things we teach people at TOOF, the other people's foundation that have challenges mentally, is how to be an auto mechanic. You could do that, no problem. So many jobs. And I ask everybody in every audience I talk to, raise your hand. Who out there knows a plumber or an electrician or a wood carving man to handle wood things in your house that will charge less than$150 an hour?

1:37:43Raise your hand. Nobody has ever raised their hand in every conference I've ever given or talked to. Because these are jobs that are out there that still need people with electric backgrounds. Backgrounds in, you know, whether it's in the sciences and something needed or those. How about tow trucks? Who's going to drive the tow truck? Do you know how much money those guys make? A lot. And they just love driving. So you find something you like to do, and then you could also make money to survive on. But don't get a job just because you're going to make more money. Get the job because you like it.

1:38:14Then you're not working. you have a beautiful career where you are happy in life. Very important. Don't all of a sudden become 65, 70 years old and say, boy, I wish I would have changed that years ago. Or be in a relationship. That sucks. And you've done everything to improve it. It just doesn't go anywhere. Leave. You don't want to be 60, 70 years old and say, God, I wish I would have changed when I was 20, 30, 40, even 50 or 60 years old. My life's been miserable. Do it now. There's a lot out there for you. There's a whole world of love in such a big way. Go out there and see it from a positive point of view.

1:38:49Don't bring along with you negativity. Don't bring gossip along. Bring just good energy because it's going to show. And people that are aware of seeing things will start to see and say, well, wait a minute. There seems to be around you some kind of a glow. What is that? Well, it's kind of your aura also, but it's also your frequency as a human on this planet in a human body.

1:39:10Hala Taha:I'm going to close out the show with three questions that I ask all of my guests. The first one is, what is one truth about entrepreneurship that you feel like you learned too late? Well, I learned it pretty young, but not knowing I was an entrepreneur, okay? Okay. But things that I learned later on that were very, very important that I wish I learned even younger, okay? And the thing is this, be prepared for a lot of rejection you're going to get, And when it comes, just let it go the other way. That was a big one. You know, and that happened learning Sacklopedia sales. That was a big one. I wish if I learned that younger, it would have been even better.

1:39:45And a lot of times teachers will tell me, no, you're not good enough for that, so don't do it. You should be doing something else, right? That I would know that. No, that's rejection, but I'm going to overcome it. I'm going to just do it, prove myself, not necessarily a teacher.

1:39:57Hala Taha:If you could give one actionable thing our young and profiters can do today to become more profitable tomorrow, what would it be? Oh, immediately go on that global SKU because you can start selling things right away. And know that there's hope for you out there. Believe in what you want to do. And once again, you're going to get a rejection. I keep repeating this. It's the biggest thing that stops people. You're going to get it. Know it's going to happen. Let it go the other way and learn a lesson from it and move on in life. And the next thing is, whatever you're working in entrepreneur, whatever idea, whatever it might be, make sure you go into the reorder business with it.

1:40:32Those are the two biggest things I can do. And don't give up. You have a whole life ahead of you. If you're older in life, you're 50s, 60s. You still have a life ahead of you. My God, you can start a business. You can do so many wonderful things. Needing money? Try that global SKU and you'll get it.

1:40:48Hala Taha:Okay, and last question for you. What is your secret to profiting in life? Kindness. One word, kindness. Be kind. Be kind. There was a time in my life in my early 20s where I wasn't the kindest person. I didn't even know I was doing wrong, but I did them wrong. I wasn't kind. Be kind. The world works for you much better. I love that. And where can everybody learn more about you and everything you do and grab your new book? You got it. Success and shared is failure. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Great job. My pleasure. Peace, love, and happiness. Well, guys, I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did.

1:41:22Hala Taha:What an extraordinary conversation with John Paul. From being homeless and living out of his car to building Paul Mitchell and Patron. His story is proof that resilience, integrity, and generosity are not soft values. They are competitive advantages. JP made one thing clear. Rejection is not a stop sign. It's training. He got turned down over and over again. And instead of shrinking, he sharpened his pitch and kept on knocking. He didn't obsess over closing one big deal. He focused on building a product so good that customers reordered. That's the shift. Stop chasing one-time wins. build something people come back for.

1:41:59Hala Taha:Second, he bootstrapped with creativity, not capital. When suppliers said the minimum order was too high, he negotiated smaller runs with the same terms. He offered incentives for early payment to manage cash flow. He proved demand before scaling. That's scrappy entrepreneurship. Shrink the risk, secure the terms, deliver excellence, then expand. And finally, his philosophy says it all. Success and shared is failure. He stood by his partners. He guaranteed quality. He built community around his brands. For JP, wealth without contribution is empty. Real success multiplies when it improves other people's lives.

1:42:36Hala Taha:So take this with you, Yap fam. Outlast rejection, engineer reorders, negotiate boldly. Protect your reputation like it's your greatest asset. And when you win, share it. Thanks for listening to this episode of Young and Profiting Podcast. If you listened, learned, and profited from this conversation with the incredible John Paul DeGioria. Share this episode with a friend or a fellow entrepreneur. This is your host, Hala Taha, aka the Podcast Princess, signing off.