From $1 to $1 Billion: John Paul DeJoria on Building a Business That Gave Everything Back | Leadership | E25

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That's Global SKU. Hello, my name is Tim Story. Welcome to Miracle Mentality. Rooftops, drawing spaceships on the ground. It's for the dreamers, the doers, the believers in something greater. In each episode, I'll invite you to rise above the mundane, to push past the messy, and learn to live boldly in the miraculous. Every episode will have practical wisdom, spiritual insight, and my guests will explore what it takes to activate your miracle mindset. Remember to subscribe, follow, and like. Welcome to Miracle Mentality. It's a podcast. I want to, first of all, thank you for continuing to like, share, and telling friends. It must be working because we're continually at like number four in the category that I wanted to be number four at, or maybe even number one, and that's in education because I love to educate people. There's a lady by the name of Carol Dweck who teaches at Stanford University. She talks about the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. My guest today has a growth mindset, but probably beyond anybody that I've been around one-on-one. My guest today is John Paul DeGioia. He is not incredibly just successful, but he carries himself with humility, joy, and a heart for people. Many people know him as a co-founder of Paul Mitchell, co-founder of Patron, and so many things that he's done in the humanitarian space to help change the world. I know him as a person who is secretly always behind all of us. And so what a privilege it is to have you on the podcast, John Paul. Tim, it's my honor. There's no doubt one day you'll be number one in your category, sir. Thank you. You're welcome. So let's go right at this for a moment. The mother's role in a family is to guide their children and guard their children. That is correct. To guide and to guard. When I look at the influence that your mother had on your life, it's really interesting because knowing your story of your father leaving, now your mother is in the situation of raising you and I think maybe one other sibling, brother. Your brother. Tell me how in the early days she was able to guide you and guard you and make you feel protected. That is a beautiful question asked, especially at this time in life where a lot of families are splitting up. They're not as a whole anymore. Yeah. We had nothing. Our father was a deadbeat dad. He deserted us before I was two years old. He was gone. So we've never really had a father. And my mother had a couple of medical issues that she was attending to. So for a good portion of our lives, actually from five to 10 years old, almost, I was in foster care during the week, my brother and I, because my mom couldn't take care of us. But we would see her on the weekends, which was really great. So we had that love. But my mother was one of the most positive people in the world. No matter what little we had, we never realized it. In fact, the house we lived in was probably 14 feet square. Yeah. A great example of it is this. Once, oh, let's say every couple of months, we'd be home with mom on the weekend and she'd buy like maybe two ounces, a little piece of filet mignon, right? Cut it in a few pieces and say, boys, we're eating like the really wealthy people live. Now we didn't have a TV, so I didn't know how the wealthy people live, but this is filet mignon. And oh boy, that's really good, mom. Whatever wealthy is, this is wonderful. We didn't know. And I would say for philanthropy, because parents are so important. If growing up, even if you have nothing, you have very little. The attitude and the love is what molds you. Mom gave us nothing but love and attitude. Said, boys, you could do whatever you want to do if you really learn about it and do it. And at six years old, it kind of started my philanthropy. At six years old, my mom brought my brother and I to downtown L.A. It was a little different in those days. But this is the 1940s, early 50s. So we would go down there on the trolley car. And there would be like little trains going around in circles, beautiful window decorations, Saks Fifth Avenue, the May Company. All the big ones were down there. And we thought we're the luckiest kids in the world. We get to see all this stuff here, ride the little trains at Christmas. We're great. Mom gave my brother and I a dime and said, boys, with your little fingers, you each hold it. Go walk over to that man that rang in the bell with a red bucket and put it in. And we did. Wow. We went back and said, Mom, now remember, this is like 1950. Mom, that's a dime. That's two soda pops, three candy bars. Why do we give it to that guy ringing the bell? And she said, son, that's the Salvation Army. They have people they take care of that have no mommy, no daddy, no place to live, and no food to eat. She says, we don't have much, but we have a little bit. If everyone just did something little for somebody else that's big, boys, we can only afford the time this year. That's it. But we gave. Remember this, boys. There will always be somebody that needs it more than you do. Always be a giver. That's stuck with me my entire life. That is so good. One of the things I love about your story is that there's a book called A Nation of Victims on how not people just in America, but all over the world have seen themselves as victims. Correct. Somebody divorced me. My dad left. My mother left. So-and-so died of cancer. How were you able to stay out of that victim mentality and just decide, okay, my father left. Now let's do something about it. My mother never, ever mentioned the negativities. Never even put down my father. You know, he went astray. Those things just happen, you know, in life some, but we're going to be great. Never brought up anything negative whatsoever, even though I know she had good reason because she was to get child support and, you know, all kinds of things weren't happening. She always kept it positive and always said, boys, we could do this. One year, I was seven years old. And on a comic book, they trusted you in those days. You could fill it out and they will send you Christmas cards. Six of them, you go out and sell them to people and they'll inscribe their name and message on it. And then you collect half the money. It was a couple of dollars, right? Yeah. And then you turn it in and then they will fill it out with the person's name on it, send the cards back to you, you deliver them and you get the rest of the money, get to keep it. Yes. Well, I want to hit all the neighbors up, right? Yeah. You can do it. Go see them. Go see them. You can do it. In other words, I was a seven-year-old entrepreneur and made enough money. You know, maybe I made out of it $12. Maybe. Yes. I don't know if that was just so little. But it was enough to be able to buy my mother a Christmas present and my brother a Christmas present. John Paul, try to help describe the environment of the city you lived in. Sure. So you were in Los Angeles around Echo Park at that time? That is correct, Echo Park. Okay. So what was it like at that time? Because it wasn't the racism that we had, let's say, in the 50s or the 60s. What was it like? Let me spill over to where we grew up in Echo Park and where the foster home was in East LA, okay, the combination of the two. Both areas were happy areas, right? Where we were at in Echo Park off Scott Avenue there was an area that was mostly people coming from Europe, okay? There were Hispanic people there, of course, but a lot of more European, little European community. What was it like? We had a guy going down Fairbax Avenue ringing a bell, and he was the vegetable man. Another guy blowing a horn in his trunk, and he was the fish man. Another guy that came by every week, and I believe it was 25 cents, the ice man. We had ice boxes, not refrigerators. We get this big block of ice. My mom would give them a quarter, and that lasted all week long in our ice box before refrigerators. And the community, everyone got along. Everybody liked everybody, and it was all mixed. And in East L.A., where I went to grammar school from age five to nine years old, it was amazing. On Wapash Avenue, within two blocks of my grammar school that I went to there, right, was a Baptist church. There was another one down the way there that was the Methodist. This was all within three blocks. There was a Jewish synagogue and a Buddhist temple. Everyone got along. In fact, when I went to grammar school, how things changed. When I went to grammar school, we got to have every Jewish holiday and every regular holiday because a lot of the kids were from the Jewish faith, right? And there was enough of them where they wanted to celebrate it. So at Christmas time, they would teach us a Hanukkah song, like Hanukkah, Hanukkah, like the menorah, right? So we grew up kind of interracially, you know, black kids, brown kids, purple kids, everything was there. Everyone got along. We didn't know any different. But then again in 1950, hardly anyone even had a TV set to even know. It was just a real nice community. Over time, it changes. What changes? I think it's the close family values. No matter what we had and what we didn't have, my mother's positive attitude kept us going in school, kept us wanting to learn more and saying, you're going to make it, boy, it's going to be okay, and did not bring up the negative and was there watching us. I can tell you one story about that I won't forget. My brother was probably 15 at the time, ready to drive, but not quite. Some friends came on by to pick him up, some buddies, right, that were already 16. My mother went to the car with my brother, embarrassed my brother, and said, boys, I wanted to meet you. I'm the mom. How are you doing, right? And talked to each one to see if there was anything weird going on there. She cared enough to be involved in what we were doing. And we just knew it was motherly love. Now, my brother was embarrassed. She said, okay, she kissed him goodbye. Mom, Oh, she's crazy. She's crazy. You're a kid, right? You know, you're in your teens. But she had that kind of attitude. And I think if more parents realize you have more to do with your kids than you even realize. So good. One to eight years old are the formative years. You know, whatever they could believe. I could remember this one church we went to in Sunday school. They were talking about other religions. They were saying, well, the Buddhists, for example, worship idols, right? Well, that's what I thought my whole life. I didn't know until I was in my 20s that, no, they don't worship idols. You know, they worship the God from within, the God all around us. Yes. But we grew up in an environment that had everything. My friends that were Jewish would take me to the Jewish synagogue, right? As a kid, put the little yarmulkes on there, you know? And so we learned a lot of other things. I never went into the Buddhist temple because I didn't have any friends that were Buddhist. You're so good at remembering names. In other interviews that I've watched you do, but also watching you when we do the galas and all the things that we do with Paul Mitchell. You're great with remembering names. I'm going to tell you a story, then I want you to think of a story. So when I was seven years of age, there was a kid named David Gonzalez. I was seven. He was 12. Kid was an amazing baseball player. He saw me throwing the ball in the yard with my brother. He pulled up on his bicycle. He says, what's your name? I said, Timmy Story. He goes, Timmy, are your parents here? I said, yes. So he went, knocked on my parents' door and said, your son, I've been watching him. He can really throw the baseball. I'm really good in sports. Can I mentor him? This guy, David Gonzalez, mentored me for like five years. So from seven to 12, he mentored me. So I became like this little phenom. Think of somebody in your neighborhood that maybe mentored you a little bit in life or success. That was maybe the same age, a little older than you, that was not your mother. Oh, boy. A lot of friends? I have a lot of friends, but they can match anywhere near that. I can't think of anyone. Yeah, but I want to know what was that thing that made you say, I want to work for the Los Angeles Examiner. Right. What was the kind of thing that sparked you? Great question, okay? Yeah. When I grew up, it's unlike today, okay? When I grew up, we were hoping as little kids somebody would hire us, whether it was a dollar to cut their lawn or something, and a friend up the street, Michael Vucic, and his brother, John Vucic. Okay. They went up the street from us. the morning paper on us with the la examiner right you got up early in the morning yes big morning paper at the time and said they're gonna hire somebody else maybe even two here you guys interested right that was it and then we immediately said are you kidding we have a job a real job yeah we made about 30 a month my brother and i approximately we give it all to our mom to live a better life yes we could have paint to paint our bedrooms with you know and we get more than two shirts and more than one and that kind of job at that time were you actually uh riding your bike and throwing it from house to house. Deliver it to the door. People need to realize it's not that easy. Did you do it from a bicycle? Bicycle. Oh, yeah. We were kids. I was 11 years old at that time. You have to navigate it. Remember all that? With the heavy bicycle with the big bags on it full of newspaper, Sunday paper, I could barely lift the bike up. I could barely lift the sucker up, you know? Okay, what was the drive at that point? Was it that you wanted a little money in your pocket? Or what was the drive to be working with that newspaper? I can remember the exact incident. I got a job. Yay, mom, I can help out. It wasn't about the money. The money came with it, but I got a job. It was a big deal in my day to have a job. We were kids. Oh, he's got a job. No one ever asked about how much money you're making, what are you going to do with it? We had a job that was the number one thing. We can make some money to give to mom. It wasn't how much am I going to make, what am I going to do? So we would get up every morning, about five in the morning, pedal for about a mile into Glendale, fold all of our papers, put them on our bags. down into our area, deliver the papers. And it was usually time then to get ready to go to school. Or on Sunday, which is a big one, we get up at five in the morning, fold these giant Sunday papers, somehow put them on our bicycles The guys had to help me hold mine up so I could start pedaling I could never put it down So a lot of them didn get delivered on the door It got delivered on the walkway or something They were just too heavy Tell me about the early drive and energy Because I think many times people are great at starting something. But they're not so good at finishing. Whether it be a diet or a business. That's right. So when you're doing the papers, there's going to be rainy days, cold days, off days. Maybe you were tired that day. what was that factor that caused you to just keep doing things at a high standard? Because what I see is a thread from your beginning of your life to where you are right now, as you continue to unfold of high standard, there's a high standard thread. I want to find out where that's coming from. Today, I could put it into one sentence before. I didn't know why. Okay. But I put into one sentence right now. I was doing it at a young age without even realizing it. But now I know how to fill in. My one statement is this, in life, pay attention to the vital few, ignore the trivia many. Now, how did that work for me? I had no trivia. We didn't have a TV set. We were just a normal family, okay? And there was no garbage to pull along with me. So I had to clear mine. So the vital few was, hey, I'm going to school. I have a job. I see my friends. That was it. No internet, no phone taking over as my robot. That was it. It was the environment we were brought up in. We didn't have all this stuff. In fact, if you were to eliminate telephones and social media right now, I think you'd see kids communicating with one another, living half their life outside, not inside. It was the environment that we were around that caused that. Today, I could tell everybody, guys, pay attention to the vital few, ignore the trivia many. And I did something recently on what is your purpose in life, okay? What steals from your purpose in life. And that is that stupid telephone. Okay. It's handy. In some ways, it's the greatest thing to have, but you got to learn to shut it off a couple hours out of the day. I've been at places where at the dinner table, kids are texting one another guys, excuse me, give me your phones. In other words, you got it, but they get addicted. Now they're really smart on the internet because sometimes when you go on and you have a lot of apps and I don't go on the internet, I don't have any apps other than my WhatsApp. That's it. Right. Yeah. But right below whatever you're looking for is something else on the same subject. And they do it so well, they know how to interest you. They put something there so you want to read it. Pretty soon, you're looking at one thing and 10 minutes later, an hour later, you're in that same file, but all the other stuff that they sent you along with it because whatever control that AI had, here's the other things he'd be interested in. So now people go into this, they go into that, and their whole life is around what's going on right now. I got to have the latest news. And sometimes they check every 10 minutes on their phone to see anything new on social media. Yes. Got to put that down a couple of hours during the day, not just at night. I love what you're saying, because out of our schools, I have spoken at 39 of the schools that we currently have. And I wonder what the number is that we have right now. Is it over 100? Oh, yeah, over 100. Okay. So I've done 39, but some of them I've done twice. So I've been to a lot. So many times I'll say to the young people, what do you want to do when you get out of school? and so many of them will raise their hands and say, I want to be a celebrity. And then I have some fun with it and I'll say, okay, how is that a profession? Well, I want to go to Hollywood or I want to go to Nashville or I'm going to go to Austin and work on celebrities and then I want to be a celebrity. I think, and I think you would agree, a lot of that's coming out of that culture that you're talking about of having that phone in their hand and being caught up in that celebrity culture. That's correct. Okay. Let's go back to earlier days, you 18, 19, 20. Some things in life we decide, some things we discover. The decision is like getting a menu at a restaurant, and now you're making a choice or a selection. Do you think that some of your best early moves were that kind of decision, or was it some kind of discovery that you just kind of found yourself? I think discoveries happen along the way. You've got to be open to the universe. It'll just bring you the discoveries out of your time. But a lot of that, I think that what was going on were things that were just the thing to do at the time. Just the thing to do at the time. It was a new world. And things that just happened. The one example I think you might be talking about, it was in the film that I made Good Fortune. Yes, which I love. I just started Paul Mitchell. We were two years old. And for the first time, we were able to pay our bills on time. That was a big deal. We could pay them on time. Not pay them off, but pay them on time. We had $2,000 left over each. And for whatever reason, maybe this goes all the way back to my mom, where somebody needs it more than you do. I went to an El Torito restaurant there in Marina del Rey, and I ordered for the first time in my life off the left side of the menu. Here's what you get. Okay, $3.95, what do you get, right? But I think the most expensive thing on the menu is probably carne de asada for $9.95. I went with a friend of mine and said, okay, we're going to have a margarita. It wasn't Patron. We're going to have a margarita and order whatever you want, right? in front of me was a table with about a dozen children, all from inner city. And I'm from the inner city, so I know what looks like a hole in the shoe, one shirt, a little ragged on the back, right? And it was multi, multi. It was like black kids, brown kids, purple kids, I mean, Asian kids, it was whole. And there was a Hispanic mother at one end and a black mother at the other end, right? So anyways, I'm watching them and she's doing this. I can see her, right? She's going down, you know, how much is it? And what do you get for it, right? Oh, yeah. I don't know why. You're talking about discovery, right? Tim, I don't know why. That's why I say, and I'll repeat it a lot. Leave yourself open to the universe. Just leave you open. I just got up and followed the waiter, no pre-thought, into the kitchen. I said, that table in front of me, I'd already counted in my head multiples. What's the worst damage they could do? I came up with 200 some odd dollars of all kids went for it, right? Yes. I said, I want you to give those children anything they want, okay? A little extra if they want it, it's okay. and put it on my bill and I'll give you a 15% tip. Now, in those days, we gave 5%. Oh, yeah, that's true. So it's true. I thought it was the biggest deal. I said, but, and I don't know why, Tim. I said, but don't tell them who it came from. Just don't do that, right? He goes, okay. Went back, of course, I sat down first, came five minutes later and told the lady. She goes, what? And he just told her, whatever you want, just order. Someone's picking up the bill and the tip. You just walk away when you're done. She goes, is this real? Yeah. So she gets up. she stands up right i'm behind her here she stands up and she starts to make campy this guy and just looks slowly around and that's a pretty big restaurant in maria del rey oh yeah and then with her back to me she couldn't figure out who was looking that way she just said in a loud angelic voice whoever you are the restaurant stopped god bless you you have no idea what you're doing for me and the children god bless you has she said that that's happening right now goosebumps ran through my body. Oh, it ran through my body. And I don't even know why I did that. I just sat there and kept my mouth shut. But for the next couple of days, I was high as a kite. And then we realized in life, when you do something for somebody else and ask nothing in return, no money, no thank you, no faith, just nothing. You just know you did it. It's that God within you. We all have a God within us. I love this. It's the greatest high you'll ever have. Now I'm a child of the 60s. There was no weed we smoked in the 60s that got you that clear and that high as doing something for somebody else without asking anything in return. Wonderful. Okay, so think about this for a second, this side of you that's on the discovery. You continue to be open to new doors, new ideas, new situations. When you were little, did you ever have an inkling that you would have such big impact? So, okay. Tell me why. No, when I graduated from high school, I went right to the Navy, but my thinking was, cause I had to build my own car in auto shop, right? So I'd rather send the cars. I thought if only, now this is 1962, January, we graduated twice here at my high school. So I thought, God, if I could get in the Navy, I'll see a little bit of the world, hopefully. and then when I get out, if I could just get a job driving a car or a truck and make $150 a week, I'd be the happiest guy in the world, right? And that was my mentality at the time. Well, when I got out and went to the Navy and got out of the United States Navy, I was looking for an ideal job. Well, I did a lot of different things that didn't last long, but then I sold encyclopedias door-to-door for colliers. And boy, that's where I had a heck of experience. Then I realized If you really put your own effort forth and you overcome rejections, you overcome rejection, okay, you could really succeed. The average lifespan of an encyclopedia salesman selling door-to-door on commission only and no leads, right, is three days. Three days. You're four days in training on what to say after that, but it's all commission, no money. Well, three days, all they lasted. I lasted three and a half years, but I believe something they told me. In fact, it was Bill Johnson and BJ Wright that both come at the same time. They said, all you guys in the class, or maybe four in the class, all you guys in the class know this, okay? Some of you aren't going to make it, but those that will make it are this. You've got to remember this. You're going to get a lot of rejection. You're knocking on doors, cold calling. They don't know who you are. But you've got to be as enthusiastic on door number 51 as you were on door 50 or door number one. You've got to keep the enthusiasm up. So good. Those will make it. Otherwise, you're not going to make it. So good. For me, it was door 100 and something, right? But it worked. And I kept that in my mind. You've got to be just as enthusiastic. In other words, be prepared for rejection. When people say, JP, give me a couple of laws to make it in. The first thing I say is in your personal life or your business life, be prepared for a lot of rejection. You're going to get it. And if you're prepared for it and go, oh, that was some of the rejection I was going to get. No problem. I'm going to move on to something else. And that happened to my life a lot of times, beknownst to me and unbeknownst to me. I'm believing that you're enjoying this podcast, The Miracle Mentality. And so the best way to help other people is to share it with a friend, a family member, or even a colleague. We work hard on getting the right types of guests that will make your life go from the mundane, the messy, the madness, into the miracle mentality. Don't forget, your mindset is yours to set. So make sure and share this with someone else. And then tag me at Tim Story Official. That's Tim Story Official. Thank you for making this one of the most listened to and watched podcasts out there in the world. And guess what? Get ready for miracles to come your way. So I was there at the premiere of the movie slash documentary on your life, which was so, so good. And one of the things that we saw from that project that people can still watch is the fact that you became very patient. So you had this relationship with Paul Mitchell for, I think, eight, nine years before you guys go into business. That's correct. So he's your friend. And so I love how you did that because I think you cultivated the friendship before you just jumped into business. Oh, nine years. Tell me why that can be important to get to know somebody. Certainly. Because you talked about how he was great with hair. You were great with business. So you didn't bump into each other. Exactly. Good question to ask. It's during those times I met Paul as a buddy. We were just pals. So I knew him inside and out. Okay. And he knew me inside out as much as you can as pals. Really good pals. So we're about nine years in. I'd already, you know, finished with Redken, Firmidol, Institute of Trichology. And I was a consultant for a short time. And Paul had this little product line he wanted to come out with called PM, tried it. And unfortunately, he overpaid for it. And it wasn't as good as our products ended up being, right? So Paul on stage would sell it. And afterwards, he would never get a reorder. He was a little older than me, put his money into it. And then he went nowhere. He was closing the company. I said, Paul, I know a little bit about this business here. Let's do this, Paul, okay? Let me show you how to make the product better through friends of mine that are formulators. and maybe you'll get some reorders. But then again, who runs a business? He goes, nobody. I said, okay, so we decide over a period of time. Paul, you're a great hairdresser. I know business. Let's together own 30% of the business, that's 60, and find money. I need at least half a million bucks. Let's get an investor in for 500,000. Yeah. Great, let's go. You know, we're all excited. And we had an investor. And the day it was ready to go, ready to go. I had left the situation I was in because it wasn't working out, went down the hill in the used car opposed to the newer car, left all the money at the house, everything to last them because I had half a million bucks coming down. By the way, today, that was 1980s. They'd be like three, four million dollars, maybe more. Anyways, it didn't come in. It did not come in. Okay. So here's Paul out of money. Here's me out of money. I have a few hundred bucks. That's it. You know, borrowed some of them from my mom, not telling her how bad things were, right to start a new company and we just knew we got my dear friends to do the formulation we knew we had something good there nobody would touch us we had no office no infrastructure it was just a guy living in his car and i had to live in my car because i had no place to live okay didn't realize but we knew what we had was really really good and that all we had to do was tell enough people about it so there were it was hand to mouth for the first year and a half i mean really you want to sell some oh truly my god but well in my book that's coming out we'll talk about that later is exactly how we got an office 16 for the office that was for the year how we did everything with almost no well actually little to no money and how you could start something today which we'll talk about a little bit later with little money in words we did it step for step how to do it so when people say to you well jp but you can't never do something like that today that was 1980 January, but how the hell did you even make it with no money? And can you do it today? I said, well, let me tell you in 1980, inflation, 12.5% in the United States, unemployment, 10.5%. We waited in line for gasoline. If, big if, you could even get a loan, the lowest interest rate was 17%. Believe it or not, the lowest interest rate you could ever get. Incredible. I mean, But we didn't look at it that way. We did not look at everything that's around us. We looked at it we have a hell of a good product some good competitors but if we talk to enough people and put them in the hands of hairdressers hairdressers know a darn good product in its end result that they help us sell it And that what happened We will talk about the book in just a moment but when you look at even Patron when you talk about how the price of Patron was much higher than the other ones in the category. Almost tenfold. Yeah, and the bottling was different. Everything was different. And no one wanted to touch it. No one wanted to touch it. Just the price. Yes. But again, you saw past the dilemma. You saw past the problem. Very similar to a imagination person like a Walt Disney who decided to build Disneyland, but he had to look at all the orange trees and somehow figure out how he's going to doggone build Disneyland. Okay. So, so you, you get Patron in your hand. Is there a moment that you think, I think I may have magic in bottle here. You did feel that? Yeah. When I first bottled it and I first tasted it, it was like, oh my God, this is going to set the world up. There's nothing like it. And I would let other people taste it and say, oh my God, this is incredible. But when we came out with it, with the first ultra premium tequila in the United States of America, everybody loved it. We could not get a distributor to carry it. They said, this is great, but it's too expensive. You know, $5 a bottle was the average price of tequila when we started the company. 89. That was it, right? Yeah. Too expensive. We couldn't get a distributor. We had to talk a wine vendor into carrying our product. If I could get them Spago's restaurant as an account and Martin, my partner at the time, get a Baja Cantina, right? We already had them, but they didn't know. They said, yes. However, after one year, we had to drop them because they only sold a thousand cases. That was nothing, right? And my feeling was that I ordered 12,000 bottles or 1,000 cases, right? And if everything went wrong, it's so good. Eventually, people are going to want to treat themselves. We're going to stick it out. We went to the second distributor. Good lesson for everybody to learn, okay? A big company. Yes. I'll tell you, Jim Beam. Nice people, big. So we put one more layer in, Jim Beam, and then to a distributor, and then to everybody else, right? One more layer, had to give them some money. After just a short period of time, a year and a half, we went to Jim Beam and said, guys, you're all over the United States and the world. You're really big, but you're only doing about 12,000 cases a year. We think we could do better than that. The main guy sat down with us, nice man, by the way, never forget. He said, guys, you're wonderful people and you have the best to heal in the world. But guys, it's just too expensive. You will never do more than 20,000 cases a year. I'm just telling you like it is. Okay. You'll get up to 20, but that's about it. We dropped them. We said, no, it's too good. We're going to turn the world on. We went with Seagram's. They got it up to 70,000 a year, right? Yes. Then they were changing things, like more of a people, representative people, not just advertised, right? Let's get into the... Anyways, we went to court, bought them out of their agreement, and we took over ourselves. Here's the thing to learn. What the experts in the industry told us would never happen. What the experts in the industry said, it's too expensive, and that's not why? When I sold Patron back in 2018, we were doing, just in our tequila loan, 3,500,000 cases approximately a year. incredible and still growing. Okay. I mean, it's the biggest, the biggest thing ever that happened. So the lesson to be learned here is if you truly believe you've got the higher quality and eventually people are going to want to treat themselves, you will succeed. And it goes to this. My second law, one was overcome rejection. You're going to get it. Don't let it get you down. Number two is don't ever go into the selling business, but let me explain what I mean by that. Okay. what everyone's got to sell something go into the reorder business it means just this your product or your service tim is so damn good like your podcast for people that are turning around their lives my god you can't get any better than your podcast in other words always have something that is so good that they'll want to repeat order it again or if it's a one-time service they'll want to tell others about it and that's what you focus on it's like the river yes the river if there's a big rock, the river goes around it, right? Keep your mind on the goal. Obstacles, they'll always be there, are things we see when we take our mind off the goal. Well, I'm now looking at, oh my God, I can't eat here, okay? I got to sell something. Some money's got to come in, right? I can't do that anyways. But the goal was, we're going to get here. We're going to get here. We'll make it along the way. I kept my eye on the goal. Yeah, there were problems you have to overcome, but I took my mind off of the goal. So powerful. I put my mind on what was happening along the way. Yeah. So, so powerful. I mean, that is the one thing before somebody wrote a book about that just years ago, you were already doing the one thing. Yep. Focus on the goal. I love the story you tell about your friend, Clint Eastwood. Clint calls you up and tells you about a premiere of his movie you go there and clint is not even there you watch the movie and he's drinking patrone in the movie that's a beautiful story oh look i'll tell you very quickly clint's a friend of mine right yes he calls me up one day this is a oh my god 91 and he said jp are you still going out with a girl eloise i said yes i said madly in love i'll probably marry her he said i'm gonna help impress her i have a new movie called in the line of fire i'm a secret service agent And JP, I want you to be at my premiere. It was in Westwood, one of the big man theaters. Oh, yeah. The premiere is my guest. Oh, you'll impress her. So I get Eloise. We get all fixed up. We go down there and we're met by the producer. Clint is another one, I think, in New York or something. We're met by the producer. He sits us down next to him. Free popcorn. I'm not going to forget it. Free Pepsi. Usually they have Coca-Cola, right? Free Pepsi, free popcorn. We're next to the producer. So I'm sitting next to my wife, right? Wife to be, that is. Oh, yeah. Anyways, and that was 34 years ago, 35 years ago. Anyway, so, hey, we're next to the producer. Hey, is this cool? Hey, you know, yeah, just tap on the back. That wasn't the surprise. We were watching the movie. The only thing he drank in the movie was Patron tequila. Just amazing. And the number one high point of the movie, he's sitting there, this is another scene, right, with the terrorists on the telephone trying to talk him out of killing the president, right? Yeah. Bottle of Patron in front of him, sipping the Patron while he's talking. And then, oh, my God, I think it was about four or five months later, Playboy was a different type of magazine, a little more sophisticated. Anyways, he was one of the people being interviewed. And they asked him, what do you drink, Clint Eastwood? He says, good red wines and Patron tequila. Incredible. And so Cher, when she did Bless several years later, they wanted her to have an alcohol in there, even though she wasn't drinking. She said, well, how about my buddy JP? Why don't you just put Patron in there? So a lot of people did a lot of really nice things for me. And that was great. That's one example of a wonderful man. I think those are those kind of magical moments that come. But also, I think we have to pay attention to when the magical moments come, that people can get so locked into work and worry that they don't realize that some type of divine door opened up for them. You mentioned a word. I'd love to give you a different definition of it. Maybe your own definition, knowing you, Tim. Yes. Because you're a very positive guy. And that's worry. People worry. Something goes wrong, your business failed, whatever. Just something's wrong in your personal life. You worry, right? If you think about it, worry is praying that something bad's going to happen. Now, to all your listening audience that are on that spiritual level, okay, our thought pattern, our mind is so strong that for a lot of us, our, shall we say, bubble of influence and energy goes way out here. It's not just within. We expand it out, okay? What you think goes to the universe. So if you're thinking like, oh, my God, this is going to happen. you're putting attention on it's going to happen. So worrying is like praying, you know, saying, oh my God, look what's going to happen. Praying on this may happen. So when that happens next time in your life, think about that. I'm now praying that something bad might happen, okay? That's very powerful. So remember, I say, that's not me. That's me yesterday. The end result is, and the one statement I always like to give is this. I got it from my buddy, Jonathan Hendricks, who I think got it from one of the Beatles. I don't know. But it was this. In the end, everything will be okay. And if it's not okay, it's not the end. Yeah. Think about that. So many things we're worried about in our life. And six months later, a year later, we just say, hell, why did I worry about that? My life is better because that happened. Yes. You don't know. One of the things that happened to me in my late 20s, I started getting around people like Charlton Heston, Elliot Gould, just a lot of the older people from the movie industry. And around that time, I met Lee Iacocca. And Lee Iacocca and I became really, really good friends. We would just talk about life. I'd go up to his house and we would just chat. And I said to him one time, I said, Lee, what does it feel like to now be the guy that we're looking to for answers? He goes, Tim, that's such a good question. He goes, because most days I just see myself as Lee. He goes, you know, I've worked hard. I've done pretty well. but most days I see myself as Lee. So when I see you walk into a room, people gravitate towards you. What is it like being John Paul DeJora at this stage of your life? Not age, because you're a stage. What is that like? Because we're looking to you for answers. I wake up every morning happy. I go to bed every night happy. I thank the creator of souls for all the nice things that have gone my way. I take a look at a couple of things I'm grateful for every single day and just send it out to the universe, my grace, and thank the creator of souls. It is a wonderful life. In fact, it's interesting. These questions I'm zooming back. I won't mention the person's name, but another guy that became a billionaire a couple of years ago that I knew called me one day at home and said, JP, I'm a billionaire now. I'm worth a billion dollars, right? I'm paying for a billion bucks. How do I act now as a billionaire? And I laughed and I said, you don't act different. If you act different, you're going to ruin your life. Just be you. Be the guy that I knew, you know, when our kids were in grammar school together. Just don't change. If you change, then you're going to be an ass. You'll be a total ass if you change. Okay. Don't change. So what does a billionaire do? If you're a good one, you thank the goodness of the planet, of God, of everybody, where you're at, everyone that helps you thank them. And then you realize this, that success unshared is failure. Now that you're a billionaire, what can you do to help others, influence others, or help others who are less fortunate, got to eat or something? That's what you do as a good billionaire. If you want to know how to act, take a nice piece of what you have and help others out and just be a happy guy. Don't ever get into a power trip or one of these things, well, I'm better than thou, or brag about what you have. Just be you. That's all you got to do. Because I've been around so many guys that are different when they make a lot of money. That is so, so, so good. They should be that way. Okay, so I'm holding in my hands a book, Success Unshared is Failure, okay? And so this is going to be a best-selling book. This book is essential reading to all of us. I think that it is a book that's been needed because I think you are phenomenal at onboarding entrepreneurs of what it takes to get in there. Exactly. How to educate yourself. Stay there. The power of patience. Tell me some of your thoughts on why you wrote this book. Got it. I was thinking of writing a book five, six years ago, kind of started. But then along the way, people kept on saying, JP, the way you started Paul Mitchell, everyone's got to know. The way you started Patron Tequila with knowing nothing about the interests, people have to know. And JP, people have to know some of the other things you've done to change the world because you were a nice guy. Okay. And it kept on in my mind. I thought, and then I talked with Mark Victor Hansen, famous author. Yes. For the soul. Of course. I'll help you in every way I can, but you got to write these stories. You have to write the stories and include a lot of stuff in there. Include why you are the one that went to Libya to convince Gaddafi to release the two suspected terrorists of Pan Am Flight 103. And you were successful. How you're one of the guys that went into North Korea to help Kim Jong Il decide to go into four-way talks and other stuff. Oh, my goodness. No, it's all in the book. I'm going to tell you, I know a lot about you. I don't know those two stories. You don't know about those things, okay? But a lot of it in the book is my attitude for what I'm doing and why I was able to pull things off. But I think the biggest thing that people will get out of success and share this failure, how today, today in America or anywhere in the world, you could have nothing like I did, living in your car, nothing. How to start a business with almost nothing, how to be successful and even go into a business. and I was flat broke living in my car. How's everything gone by that time, right? It was how to do it, but along the way, how to do it through kindness, how to take somebody to reprimand them with kindness so they love you after you reprimanded them. I mean, but more important, how to start a business, how to change your attitude in life so you're happy. It's all about happy. I think that my purpose in life right now keeps changing every now and then. But I think for the last, oh, maybe decade, my purpose in life has been to be, not only grateful what I do, but show others how to do it. Share with others. We got a lot of people in our country and the world. Tell them how to do it themselves. If you're down and out, read the darn book, okay? Here's how to get back on. Here's where to eat. Here's how we eat for 99 cents. Here's how you eat for $2.50 for your dinner. I mean, all the different things, you know, and what I went through that you could still do today. But very important, especially those that had a business and didn't work out so well, they're thinking of maybe doing something else, right? How the heck you get into something like Patron that I knew nothing about tequila, zero, other than you got to hold your breath and take salt in the lime with it, right? But how you have to learn about the vocabulary, what you've got to do to learn a business that costs you nothing to do, and then how to run it. And then just like Paul Mitchell or my own life, as you grew, you don't look at where you're at right now and how to stay there. Bad, bad, bad, because it's like a peach growing on a tree. It'll grow. The minute it stops growing, it starts rotting, goes away, right? So in life, even whatever you have, you can't be complacent because then you're going to get bored and after a little while, just taper off. You've got to look at, okay, now that I have this, it's wonderful. How do I make it better? So good. My new project, how do I make it better? How do I make these people like me, okay? When for some reason we didn get along before just by being mean not being an ass or being somebody I not I love what you say here in chapter 17 passion projects This I know about you from talking to people that work with you and talking to you and then studying on you. You love changing people's lives, but not just people. You're about environment, whales, humanity. when you talk about passion projects, why is that so meaningful to you? Because if I were to invest in something or spend a lot of time in something that wasn't something good for the greatest number, okay, I wouldn't want to be in it because that's just for money. And there's so many people that just want money, money, money and lose their life and their life experiences. I want to have something I like so I could be there, say, hello, how's it going? I think this is going to be good for the future. I think it's going to be wonderful for the future. And here's why I invest. So my investment now strategy for the last couple of years has been different than what it was before. It's, is this the greatest good for the greatest number? Because of this, will people live healthier? Will they live longer? So good. Will regenerative farming, more people catch on to it. What I got to do to do that? I have 17 children right now in Africa, all orphans. Most of their parents died of AIDS. And with the Paul Mitchell schools, which are incredible. You want a job to go into today? There's thousands of jobs needed by hairdressers. Go to a Paul Mitchell school. Paul Mitchell does school. And we show you how to be successful in the hairdressing industry. There's so much out there. But it's a matter of, you know, liking what you're doing, who you're doing it with, who you're doing it for. But most important, will it do something good for others than you and other than your pocketbook? Is it something that's good long term? And that's kind of been my purpose now for the last couple of years on many things I've invested in or been passionate about it and wanted to actually get involved in it. You know, like what do we do for a substitute to this? That's good. How do we live longer? How does somebody that have no money get into gardening? And now, you know what we're doing in Africa? And the schools that are helping me are Paul Mitchell schools. They're taught philanthropy. We're going from 17,000 children. The World Food Organization saw what we've done was good, and they won it. They're helping us build a facility that feed 7 million children a day, building it up to 20 million children a day. And it only costs us $0.08 a meal. And they're spending now like $0.084 a meal, whatever. so they could feed 10 times as many people with a more nutritious meal every single day. That's passion. It is. I see all these people know. My students in our schools help raise money for them. Will they ever meet them? A couple go over, meet them, and volunteer. They want to hang out there, but they don't know them. But those little kids know that somebody from the United States of America and a bunch of kids in a hairdressing school sent money over and passion are visiting us occasionally because they want our lives to be better. Now, that's passion. That's what you feel. And the end result was all of a sudden we got the world involved. Now we'll go from 20 million, million meals a day. Well, if you multiply that times 365, whoa, whoa. And that is exactly what African and the African food organization thinks it's going to take to take care of all the needy, 20 million a day. And so the little thing we got involved in, we built it from maybe 10 families up to 17 that we support children. All of a sudden it became something huge. So you talk about rewards and passion. Wow. It leads me up to this question is when you talk about leaving a legacy and your legacy, again, I see the thread coming from your youth all the way to where you are at this stage of your life. And that is you want to do things at a high standard and you did. Right. You outworked other people. Right. You were persistent. You walked in love. You're inclusive. I love the fact that you're so inclusive. I'm that way too, even in regards to religion, to people and thoughts. And I love that. So this idea of leaving a legacy, when you think about leaving a legacy, what does that mean to you? To me, it means this. A legacy is we come here totally naked with nothing, right? It depends on whatever parent we ended up with, right? Maybe we chose it. Maybe we don't know. Yeah. Okay. But this, while we're on this planet Earth, having even one or two great things happening in your life, let alone thousands of them, okay, it's paying a little bit of rent. So if anything goes on my tombstone, which I told them, you know, I just want to be cremated, but if they're going to do a tombstone, we should be John Paul DeGioia, okay? While he was on this planet, he made the environment and people better. Incredible. That's it. That's all I want, okay? And that is why, for example, we say, what leads to what? I have an AI company, Van Diddett, okay? Yes. Heavy duty into AI. They wanted to come up with something. I thought, oh my God, you talk about something that I'm passionate about. And it's the same question people ask today. JP, how can we do? We have no money. Our business failed or we want to start a money. We have Christmas coming up. I have no money. How do we make money if we have no money? How do you start if you have none? Okay. We created something that just hit the air right now. It hit it last week. It's called Global, G-O-B-A-L-S-K-U. Global S-K-U.com. S like in Sam, K like in Kentucky, and you like in university, right? Globalsku.com. What it is is this, mind-boggling. It's today's AI how it helps you, right? You have no money. You have nothing. You got old clothes in the closet. Your garage is full of old stuff. You could take your telephone on this, right? Right now, it's $7 to join. That's it, okay? A month, right? You take your telephone, go in your closet, and take a picture of your old clothes or junk used stuff you have. Take a picture, right? Okay, once you take the picture, this is AI, instantly, it tells you on your phone what it originally sold for, last time it was sold, used or new, what someone paid for it, and what you should get for it right now, what you think. You can push one button and it can be auctioned off immediately. And if you say, well, I'd like to be on, or I'm already on, let's say, eBay, right, but I'd like to be on these others, it shows you how to get on the others also. That's it. One can go around their closet, take all these clothes, in their garage, all the junk. There are people that are starting businesses, going to use clothing stores and use stuff, buying it for two or three bucks, putting it on the internet and making a fortune to go into business with $7. That's it. It's all instantaneously on your camera. You push a button. It does it for you. It sells it for you. Globalsku.com. That's it. So, Globalsku.com. That's it. And this is a future. Yeah. And it's now. It's right now. You can get on your internet right now. Just punch that in. $7 investment. And if you don't have the $7, I'll give you the $7 to give them. Okay. I want to show the cover of the book again. So it's success unshared is failure. Correct. John Paul DeJore. And here's the book. And so what we're going to do as thought leaders, there's so many of us, I'm really going to rally my friends and we'll work with your PR team because on the day it comes out, we just want to blast it everywhere. Because once in a while, there's a book that comes out. Yep. like atomic habits sold so many books because it just met some need that people need to get habits right but what you are bringing us believe in yourself and you will succeed life's misfortunes can teach you a lot exactly so many takeaways that can change people's lives in this book and so thank you for taking the time to write this book in the midst of everything it's my pleasure to let you know that, okay? I never changed. And one of the reasons I was successful in North Korea, and I was successful in Libya, and maybe another place or two, okay? Let's just say, okay, maybe I'll come up, was because I never asked for something. I never boasted about it. Didn't tell anybody about it until right now. It's in that book. And it helped a lot of people out. And I didn't change. When I talked to them, I talked to them. I talked to you right now. I didn't change and became a diplomat. It was just me. They would say something, and I'd laugh my head off. They get pissed off. And then I tell them why I'm laughing. They laugh with me. I just didn't change. I was just me. And you just stay you. Don't be somebody you're not. And I've never been to college, but I train at colleges. I teach them things, right? Just be yourself. I have two more questions for you. How cool did you feel when you did the Louis Vuitton ads, when I would look through the different magazines and see you? Well, what it was, was there were actually ads that I was doing. And I think the first one to do one with me that put it in there was, God, it wasn't Forbes. It was one of their magazines, though. And it felt really good. But then when my wife, Eloise, who was our top model, obviously, for 20 years, right? When she got involved, then we went through the ceiling, okay? And it was before I had married her, right? Yes. Everyone wanted to look like Eloise. They would bring a picture of the Benisla. I mean, it's so beautiful. Yeah, it'd say, maybe it looked like this. They'd go, well, okay, we'll try to make your hair. but for your face, your hair should be a little different. You talk about it almost. But anytime someone acknowledges you, it gives me great joy. Just great joy. It's just such an interesting thing because of the fact that you're so focused on all that you do and then to do something like that. And then we would see you then on Shark Tank. And the interesting thing is I know that was not the main things that you were doing. You were doing so many other things. But I think that's part of you enjoying life. That's correct, sir. You truly enjoy what you're doing. That's what we're here. God wants you to be happy. He doesn't want you to worry, but he wants you to learn. Yes. Or she, whatever God is, whatever the creator of the soul is, whatever you want to call God, okay? If you are an atheist, the force, whatever you want to call it, okay? Yes. He wants you to be happy, but wants you to learn. Why are we here? Why are we on this planet? We are on this planet to learn. And I won't go into space things with your afterlife experiences. I won't do any of that with you right now. It's too long. But I will tell you right now, one of the reasons we are here is to learn. Why is the being in these bodies to learn? Negative, positive, how to overcome it, what to experience so you could teach others. Yes. Maybe even someplace else. Final question. What does it mean for you to lead with love, to lead with love? You know, when I see you do the peace sign, what does it mean to lead with love? Because you're a man of compassion. What does it mean to lead with love? Love is the most powerful thing you could ever have. Okay. And it's in the book a little bit about how to reprimand somebody with love. So when you reprimand somebody, they usually walk away. Oh my God, he doesn't think I'm great, whatever. Right. But how to do it in such a way where when you're done reprimanding him, they thank you. And they feel like they're the most wonderful person in the world. In other words, it's if you move with love, you transfer with love, you create with love. Okay. You reprimand with love. The end result is, and it's the golden book that we've heard about, the golden rule of all of our lives. Do it to others as you'd have others doing to you. It's love. Love me when you do this. Love me when you say no. Love me when I'm in the street corner, you know, and I want a sandwich or something, you know. Yes. Do it all with love. Love is very powerful. There's no way if I wasn't me and felt good about something and they could feel it out of my aura coming out, I would have done some of the things I did. But when you're a love person where you love people, you realize it. Not that I do the wrong thing sometimes, and I do. Sometimes I'll screw up. We all do. I'm still human. Of course. But anyways, when you do with love, it's just so powerful. It makes you feel good. It makes them feel good. And it puts love out to the universe. I love this. I want to thank you for being my friend. I mean that. For giving me, I think it's been about 16 years now that I've been around the Paul Mitchell family. At least. And to be able to speak at so many of the meetings, so many of the leadership, work with the teams, work with the amazing Mara, who we both think is... She's incredible. Incredible. And she's such a doggone good speaker, too, with those long arms. Yep, exactly. And when Clayball, all the things you guys are doing with the schools, and the whole Paul Mitchell world and family, to see your children involved, et cetera. But it's a privilege to be your friend, and I look forward to helping the world together as we continue to go down the road. May I throw in one quickie here, too? Of course. And I really appreciate what it does hit the market. Okay. You can pre-order today on Amazon. They're going to deliver the first week in April. They'll be delivering all the books, but pre-order right now. Okay. You should get one. A lot of people want to know. I don't want to forget, you know, success insured is failure. You can pre-order on Amazon. So we can pre-order right now. Right now on Amazon. On Amazon. That's correct. Okay. And I want this to be a book that you guys do me a big favor and get this and get one for you and then one for someone else. We have 2.9 million just on Instagram alone. Do something. Let's change the world and make this world a better place. Success and share is failure. Share with people. That's why I'm here with you too, Tim, because I love your podcast, especially your turnaround part where people have just had miserable luck, failure, whatever it was, because you could help turn them around and get a more positive thinking. So that's beautiful. That's why I'm here, by the way. You're one of us trying to change the world in a good way, Sam. Thank you. Thank you. My pleasure. What an interview. And I think this is one of those talks that you're going to want to hear again and again. Make sure and tell people about it. Like, subscribe. And really think about the takeaways that John Paul talked about today. The connection to his mother, I think, was so, so powerful. the connection to his friends. You notice how he keeps knowing these people by names and the relationships that he's had over the years that he stays consistent with his relationships. But how about this? Waking up with wonderment every day. That's possible. To wake up with wonderment every day. So let's get this book together. Success Unshared is Failure by John Paul DeJoura. Life is good. We'll see you next time. Thank you, Tim. Thank you for sharing space with me on this episode of Miracle Mentality with Tim Story. If today sparked your courage or helped you understand why you're created for success, I invite you to carry that miracle mentality forward. Visit me at timstory.com. That story with an EY on the end. Until next time, walk by faith, embrace possibility, and create your own comeback story.