John Paul DeJoria: Business Lessons That Turned a $700 Startup Into Billion-Dollar Brands | Entrepreneurship | E407

**Hala Taha** (0:00)
Today's episode is sponsored in part by Shopify, Indeed, AT&T Business, Northwest Registered Agent, Mindstone, and Quince. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you grow your business. Start your $1 per month trial at shopify.com/profiting. Indeed helps you attract, interview, and hire all in one place. Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at indeed.com/podcast.
AT&T Business delivers reliable business-grade connectivity that gives your team a competitive edge. Switch to AT&T Business at business.att.com. Northwest Registered Agent gives you the tools and guidance you need to build a complete business identity. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com/yapfree, and start using free resources to build something amazing. Mindstone helps ambitious professionals master practical AI skills without the complexity. Get 10 percent off their four-week AI competency program at experience.mindstone.com/yap.
Quince makes your summer wardrobe feel easier with elevated essentials at radically low prices. Go to quince.com/profiting for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. As always, you can find all of our incredible deals in the show notes or at youngandprofiting.com/deals.
Fuel to start whatever's next.

**John Paul DeJoria** (1:42)
Quaker, official sponsor of FIFA World Cup 26
Don't go into the selling business, go into the reorder business. When people put a product together, many times they'll do it to sell. Do it so it's so darn good or your service is so darn good, that they'll tell other people about it.

**Hala Taha** (2:05)
I'm sitting down in person with billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist, John Paul DeJoria. You might know him as co-founder of Paul Mitchell Haircare Products and Patrón Tequila. But what you may not know is that JP was homeless and living out of his car before building not one but two billion dollar brands.

**John Paul DeJoria** (2:22)
When I started Paul Mitchell, we started with $700.
How do you start a company like that with no money and get money? I'll gladly share that with you.

**Hala Taha** (2:31)
Number one is, you had lots of sales jobs before you actually started your own company. Talk to us about what you learned with door-to-door sales.

**John Paul DeJoria** (2:40)
You're going to get rejections in life. As long as you know you can get rejections, don't let it affect you. If the first 50 doors were closed on you, whether it's politely or not so politely, you got to be just enthusiastic. The big difference is successful people do all the things unsuccessful people don't want to do.

**Hala Taha** (2:58)
Influencer marketing is so popular now. What is the danger behind a product where you've got to put so much marketing dollars behind it in order to get sales?

**John Paul DeJoria** (3:07)
Well, there is danger because.

**Hala Taha** (3:10)
JP, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast.

**John Paul DeJoria** (3:13)
Well, Hala, thank you. It's a pleasure being with you. I've heard a lot about you and how you help people out in such a great way and disseminate just great positive words and make the planet a better place to live. Good for you. I'm happy to be here with you.

**Hala Taha** (3:24)
You're so sweet. You're known to be such a kind, generous man.
But something that people may not know is that you actually grew up very poor. You've got this incredible rags to riches story. Now you're a billionaire. You've sold two billion dollar companies. But you actually grew up really poor in Echo Park. And your mother taught you a lot about money and what it really means to be wealthy.

**John Paul DeJoria** (3:49)
And I wouldn't say we grew up poor because we had so many riches from my mother. We didn't know we didn't have. I would say we grew up without any money.
In a very poor part of town there. But no, you are right. My mother was wonderful.
We had a deadbeat dad. So at two years old, he kind of left the family, you know, and no money, no nothing. And my mom had it really, really difficult. In fact, even for about four years, when she had some medical problems, my brother and I were in foster care. But we were the lucky kids because every weekend or every other weekend, we'd be able to come home with mom. And a lot of the kids we were with, no one ever visited them, you know, other than maybe a Christmas time. So we grew up with riches. So my mom was really a kind person. We never, she never told us that, you know, we were doing without and we didn't have a TV.
So we didn't know. Remember, this is the 40s, early 50s.

**Hala Taha** (4:37)
So you didn't know what you were missing.