Asking Billionaires How They Got Rich! (Houston)

who am I here with today Damon John Kendra Scott are you a business owner I am I'm one of only 20 female Founders in the United States that have founded a billion dollar brand so you founded a billion dollar company a billion dollar company with a B yes yeah what was the most amount of money that you've ever made in a single year in 2019 I sold uh 76 companies for 1.27 billion the most amount of money the company ever made was 980 million in profit in profit yeah that's incredible it is pretty good how

can somebody become a multi-millionaire in 24 like [Music] yourself Hard Knock family I'm out in Houston Texas right now at the Aspire tour which is one of the largest business conferences in the entire world we're VIP today so we're going to be interviewing eight nine and even billion dollar entrepreneurs to figure out how they created their wealth and their best advice to any entrepreneurs trying to build multi-million dollar businesses in today's world so with that being said let's go interview these Moguls and let's go see what they have to say [Music] who am I here

with today Kendra Scott what industry did you decide to pursue a career in so jewelry and accessories yeah retail wholesale I'm Omni Channel baby Ecom all of it are you a business owner I am I'm one of only 20 female Founders in the United States that have founded a billion doll brand you a billion dollar company a billion dollar company with a B yeah secret to building a billion dollar brand so my first collection I did with $500 and then I was able to write some orders I had a decent amount of margin I was

able to reinvest in the business nobody would invest in me for 10 years I went to multiple investors nobody would give me a dime even though I was selling to big department stores and other people no one believed in retail so I had to do it on a line of credit credit card debt I put everything I owned up for collateral I bootstrapped this baby all the way but as we started to get success and one of my mentors said if you build it they will come boy was he right when I started having lines

around the block and people coming in they were like all these PE firms and Venture Capital firms were ringing my phone and they're like how do we get engaged and involved in this business keep your head down build a profitable business not just a business that looks good Topline you got to have ebaada baby you got to be making money and that is what everybody's looking for today 10 years in we were able to bring investors and here we are continuing to grow so what was the best advice that you ever got from a mentor

look like we always talk about you and people feeling like you got to fake it till you make it whatever it is I told disagree with that but you can't be intimidated success is a mindset my father always said honey don't be intimidated by the men in suits I've walked into so many rooms and nobody in that room looked like me and I had to have that confidence Within Myself to know I know what I'm talking about I know that I can do this and I'm not going to let anybody scare me today have that

confidence have that ability cuz there's always going to be somebody that'll want to intimidate you you got to walk in there and be like watch out here I come so as a billion dooll business owner you've been at the table with some Heavy Hitters and you've had to negotiate and close some massive deals I'm sure what is your best negoti advice of people that are in those rooms with those kind of people that may struggle with closing deals in today's world you know look I always say I'm a sponge I want to hear what these

folks have to say and I try to really understand their perspective but at the same time I'm going to come back with that and I've already done my research I've done my homework and I came in prepared don't go to any negotiation or any contract negotiation without doing your homework know exactly who is going to be sitting in that room know their backgrounds know other deals that they've done talk to other people that have done deals with them and you're going to bring out things out of your hat and they're going to go woa how

does she know that how did she hear about that I always am surprising them and that is the art of nego negotiating is you've got to be able to surprise your opponent with a little bit of a punch right when they least suspect it we got amazing advice thank you so much for your time I really appreciate that thank you so much hard KNX family we just interviewed business Legend Kendra Scott who's one of only 20 female entrepreneurs who built a billion dollar company from scratch like she said dude she started this company with only

$500 and turn it into a multi multi-billion Dollar Empire that was an insane interview you guys what did she say you have to walk into any room any sales meeting any negotiation with the confidence it doesn't matter who's on the other side of there that you prepare to win and that you can make incredible things happen great interview with Kendra Scott you guys let's go see who else we can find man come on excuse me sir excuse me sir question for you have you ever been broke before um I've been broke never before yeah what

do you do for living out here in Houston Texas um I'm in private Equity you're in private Equity now I go all over the country just asking successful people how they made it for the younger generation could I get just one minute of your time real quick uh sure what was the most amount of money that you ever made in a single year in 2019 I sold uh 76 companies for 1.27 billion 1.27 billion dollar and do you come from a lot of money no no what was the number one book that changed your life

yeah my number one book is ego's the Enemy by Ryan holiday so good number one takea away from that book that everything that you want is on the other side of your ego you got to get your ego out of the way use people to get to where you need to go do you think everybody's built for entrepreneur ship no absolutely not why not because there's a hustle and a grind that's absolutely necessary that most people are not willing to put the effort into at what point is an entrepreneur is it time to diversify when

you have a system in process that's replicatable if you focus on the actual system then it doesn't matter what you do I run 86 companies at the same time right so everybody that tells you to focus on one thing they just don't know how to have a processing system to do multiple you could run 10 businesses yourself if you wanted to so you're running 86 companies how is that possible it's possible because I have a system in process that gives me all data I'm data analyst at the top I have people that I Empower and

then they run the same system across every single company no matter what it is so it's all about kind of people and systems it seems like all about people and systems you're in private Equity you're in the money business what's the best industry people should be looking to get into in 2024 right now ai and Tech I mean Ai and Tech's everything why is that because it has the greatest opportunity for scale everyone knows they need it they don't quite have it yet and it's going to all it's going to take over so much of

our computational processing in our businesses so we're on a way to go get our next interview right now but I want to take a moment to talk to you guys about some of the greatest advice I've ever received while running this channel one of the best decisions you you will ever make with your money is learning how to make that money work for you but I'll go a step further just as it's important to invest back into yourself and your business you need to invest in your family's future and that's why I want to take

a moment to talk about the sponsor of today's video fabric by Gerber Life fabric was made for parents to make it easy to plan for and manage your family's Financial path with the kids investment account from fabric you can start investing in your child's future starting today while your kids can't invest when their minors you can set up an investment account through Fabric and invest on their behalf so you can start making that money work for them even when they're young and by the time they're older and ready to make financial decisions for themselves they'll

have a nice Nest they're ready to go the funds and fabric can be used for nearly anything to benefit your child from paying for college tuition going to summer camp even starting a side hustle and by the time they become adults they can use that money to buy a first-time home a car or even stting that next business and one more thing guys one of the greatest lessons I've learned being in business over the last few years is you have to be very careful with the people that you trust from Brands to people to employees

to Partnerships to absolutely everything and fabric has partnered up with Gerber Life who's been trusted by millions of families just like yours for over 50 years so join the thousands of parents who trust fabric to help protect their families and start investing in your child today at meetfabric docomo that's meat fabric.com hardnox how you doing sir how are you what is your name James D who am I here with today uh me who am I I'm Marcus lonis uh you may know me from the profit what industry did you decide to pursue a career in

you know I wanted to go in an industry that had a lot of white space where there was not a lot of competitors like I got into the RV business which was shocking to my family cuz they were like you're not an rver but I got into it because I knew that the consolidation opportunity was really clear and the ability to get into places that were unregulated made it really easy so 20 years ago it was zero and today it's a $7 billion business what was the most amount of money that you ever made in

a single year the most amount of money the company ever made was 980 million 900 million profit in profit yeah that's incredible it is pretty good but that doesn't always happen and I think the key to that is understanding that you're going to have good times and bad times you got to find the middle and be comfortable with it Town Point wasn't for you to master delegation a lot of entrepreneurs they want to be that solopreneur where all the hats themselves how important was it for you building teams and bringing the right people in delegation's

important but what was more important to me was surrounding myself with people that were smarter than me and that had the willingness to say no to me and had the willingness to tell me when I was wrong and challenge me and I think as people build teams I often time see a lot of business owners that want to build you know hire people that are maybe not as smart as them instead hire people that are wicked smart that make you look stupid because you're going to end up being the smartest person in the room for

hiring them one in four millionaires are living paycheck to paycheck from your perspective what keeps people broke in today's world wanting to be flashier than they should thinking that perception of what they look like is more important than who they are and I think often times what kind of car I drive and the house that I live in what's Warren Buffett Drive do you know not a super car a Honda or he drives an old beater he lives in the same house you want to know why cuz he he realizes that's not where the substance

is that doesn't mean that you can't have nice things but there's a balance between being substantive and flashy and I think too often people are too willing to do this but I will tell you that every single person is one decision away from losing it all but if you don't go up here and you stay here if you lose it it's not a big deal you're like oh I don't care I'll just live in a studio apartment again sometimes people put material things around them because they think it makes them look better or stronger more

powerful I don't believe it and your last message to the younger generation have the confidence that you are just as smart as everybody else and don't let age be a barrier to you getting a seat at the table too often times big Executives think that if you're young you don't know what you're doing you don't have enough experience prove to them by having the right information doing the right research outw working them every single day and never be entitled to anything tell people that you're willing to work for it and if other people in the

room are not willing to work you push them aside and you show up first and you leave last you got amazing advice sir thank you brother guys $980 million in profit we just interviewed Marcus lonis who's the founder of a company that did over a billion dollar in Revenue in a single year crazy intervie out here what did he say was the secret that going to a billion dollar company wasn't just delegating but finding people that were smarter than him to make the right decisions that ultimately led to him being able to scale that company

out to what it turned into great interview out here in Houston man come on let's go get this next one this video has been insane you guys let's go who am I here with today Damon John and what industry did you decide to pursue a career in fashion fashion how long have you been a business owner for 40 years what was the best financial advice that you ever received throughout your career money's a great slave but a horrible Master you had a quote Pioneers get slaughtered and Settler's Prosper you say it again I've got that

one Pioneers get slaughtered and settlers Prosper that's exactly what happens you say that and break said Pioneers get slaughtered and settlers Prosper that's break that down for people that may not understand well P well a lot of pioneers if you could be too early on something right um and uh nobody gets it and you keep talking oh I want to do what I want to do but nobody gets it move on but the ones who are like I want to do it let me take my time let me settle let me figure it out how

can somebody become a multi-millionaire in 2024 like yourself well what is a multimillionaire somebody that creates Financial Freedom somebody's aspiring to kind of achieve that success whether they're sick as and it doesn't matter then it's then it's not a multimillionaire hard Kno family this video has been insane so far but I want you to comment down below who's been your favorite interview so far and why I love connecting with you guys and I want to know what you guys think about this video with that being said let's go get this next interview who am I

here with today I'm Billy Ray Taylor uh CEO of linked XL and author of the book The Winning link how old are you now I'm 57 and if you were to go back in time and have a conversation with your 20-year-old self when you were starting from zero what's the best advice you would give to your younger self if a bird lands on the branch does the bird trust a branch or does it trust its wings and the clue I've seen many birds land on branches but what I've never seen is a branch break and

a bird fall and die trust your wings wow how long have you been a business owner for 5 years I branched off and started my own company called linked XL what was the most amount of money that you've ever made in a single year well over seven figures seven figures you give me a range between one and three and3 million that's me personally what's the greatest lesson that you've learned about entrepreneurship that you'd pass on to someone about to start their first business in 2024 deliberate Clarity you can't manage a secret who was the most

important person that you met throughout your career my mom my mom was she a business owner or I well of a house but she taught me the most valuable lesson and she said start with a standard what you accept you can't change so if you don't set the standard the best coaches the best leaders right think of home plate in baseball it's 17 in if you play Little League Baseball High School baseball it's a standard coaching don't widen the plate you got to play to the standard and then what you accept you can't change what

you accept in other words you got to know your worth you got to know it know your value you can't give freebies when I tried to give people my my Consulting age when I gave them my software no one took me up on it when I said well you're losing how much 10 million it's going to cost you this and they said that's a lot of money I said no that's an investment my value is if you pay me this 5,000 I'll make you 5 million now it's a deal my value is a deal now

so you got to help people understand your value proposition this video was amazing you guys but I want you to like And subscribe for amazing content we've got coming very very soon and as I mentioned earlier our official entrepreneur Community the school of mentors hit over 1,000 members so if you want to be a part of an entrepreneur Community where you can connect directly with like-minded entrepreneurs your age older younger to bounce ideas off of and grow and scale your business the link is down in the description of this video you do not want to

miss out on this app all because the multi-millionaires and the billionaires that I interview every single week I'm hosting live calls with them on this channel so to join once again the Link's down in the description I can't wait to see you guys inside of our community these School of mentors but with that being said we'll see you in the next video