Ever been ripped off by a prominent individual? - Update - It was Daimond John

[D.C Young]

Hire a white spokesperson.

When building your business means hiding that it's black-owned

When building your business means hiding that it's black-owned

wow, great post bruh!

That article was very refreshing to me! I alwalys thought I was the only one who felt this way!

It's very inspiring to see other Black entrepreneurs who feel the same way!


"Draughon is among entrepreneurs who feel compelled to conceal the fact that their businesses are black-owned for fear they will lose patronage — either to misperceptions that the products or services are only for blacks, or to racial biases on the part of potential users"


This is why I love the internet...my company is based online so nobody knows I own that shyt

@Hov Even Gary Vee talked about that shyt too 20:51

 

[FSP]

And I'm also confused why are you worrying about scaling and mass producing now if only a few people are reordering your shyt?

I wouldn't give him shyt for planning ahead...that's one strategy that's never a bad idea


Anyway OP, I know everyone likes to shyt on reddit but r/entrepreneur is one place you can actually get some solid advice, and from people way more successful than anyone on this forum, and for free.

 

[Tupac in a Business Suit]

nah, I'm worried that people wont buy it

and its not necesarily cause I'm black but its because I'm black combined with the nature of my product

if I was selling shoes, people wouldn't have a problem buying it

but I'm sellling a personal care/health/pharmaceutical product

and are people really going to feel comfortable buying something like that was made from the hands of some black dude

working a minimum wage job, out of his basement?

I dont fit the profile of somebody that would own a company like that

Props to you for seeking the advice from a seasoned business veteran. I am sorry to see that you felt scammed by the way in which Mr. John does business but it is part of the American way. Build your own brand and sell/license your celebrity to people willing to pay for it. Americans are obsessed with celebrities so it makes it extremely easy for these hustlers to take peoples hard earned dollars and sell them their dreams. Use it as a lesson to stop worshiping celebs and to understand that business is just that, never personal.

 

[D.C Young]

lol what's with all these excuses instead of admitting he got straight up conned? Does DJ have paid PR plants posting here?

yeah I dont understand why some people where automatically taking sides with him lol

some people actually started making unwarranted assumptions about the meeting we had

and they werent even there lol

it was just me who was there, daimond, his assistant, and the window (lol)

 

[CodeBlaMeVi]

Fabolous... I ordered a black and teal rich Yung polo in medium and they sent me some shyt I didn't want in XL.

 

[D.C Young]

This is your burning question that you've been trying to figure out but can't. Instead of going to the source (customers) for the answer, you seem to just be grasping at straws. "it must be my brand!" "it must be the box it shipped in". If people are just buying your product once and not reordering it, it may mean that it doesn't do what they hoped it would do or what you claimed it would do for them.

By what you wrote I can tell you have absolutely no idea what your customers are thinking after they've purchased your product. That type of information is invaluable because it lets you know what you're doing right and/or wrong. People not requesting a return doesn't tell you much. They could be trying your shyt one time and feel meh about it but not so bad enough to want to return it but also not to want to reorder it either.

example:
I needed to switch the body soap (typical white ppl shyt like zest) I was using because the shyt was drying out my skin. I went through 3 or 4 different black soap brands before I finally found one that I liked - dudu osun being my new soap. Until I settled on a soap brand, I always ordered 1 or 2 bars the first time around trying a new brand because I wasn't sure if I'd like it or if it would be as good as they claim. Now I order 12-packs of dudu osun and reorder on the regular without thinking twice once I run out. All them other brands I tried, I don't care how good the marketing was or how pretty the box was. They didn't do what I was hoping they would do.

Long story short, you really need to collect feedback and understand your customers better instead of just throwing shyt up on a wall and hoping it sticks. Who are they? What are their pains and fears? What are their hopes and dreams? When you understand this better, you can make a better product that appeals to them and reorders will go up.

yeah that's a good post

and there's a reason why I havent done a survey or something asking why they havent reordered

and thats because out of fear and self denial

my fear was me asking why people didn't reorder my product and them basically telling me that it sucked lol

I didn't want to hear that because I put so much blood sweat and tears in this company

so I just decided not to find out all together

but I'm over that fear though partly because Im pretty sure I know why people didn't reorder

and it wasn't because of the effectiveness or lack thereoff of the product

but off the user experience, from the critical reviews on my amazon page

and people who have tried it out in real life, many people feel that the product is too annoying and uncomfortable too use

but that is something that can be changed

and ofcourse I need to do a all out survey to verify

 

[R.E.N. Spells Ren]

lol what's with all these excuses instead of admitting he got straight up conned? Does DJ have paid PR plants posting here?

Dudes talking about "DJ is worth millions of dollars, $2k ain't shyt to him"...if that's the case, why does he even offer this service? Has a whole company set up to provide this service

 

[L&HH]

@D.C Young if your business is online, what current advertising.marketing platforms do you use to get it out there? Facebook ads? Adwords? YouTube influencer reviews (contacting beauty/style/etc vloggers and sending them your product for a review: typically want to find people with 10,000-50,000 subscribers, anymore than that and they'll probably want to paid which you can def go that route as well). Instagram shoutouts? display Ads? Affiliate marketing?

Also if you're online retargetting is pretty much a must. You ever wonder why you go on some ecommerce site and then every ad on every other site (facebook, thecoli, etc) you go on has ads for that product? this is why: www.adroll.com
You should be doing things like A/B split testing your landing page: Optimizely: Optimizely: Let’s optimize digital experiences for your customers.

If you're in the health/pharma niche, you're going to have your work cut out for you. There's alot of competition there. That means bids for your clicks on ads from facebook and google will be much higher. I wish you would have came here before you spent that $2000 on DJ. Quite frankly that would have been waste regardless of who it was and what advice was given to you. That money should have been spent on testing. Testing landing pages, testing ad copies, etc. $500 on fb ads, $500 on adwords to start and then scale from there. Maybe pay some vloggers/bloggers to do a review (tomoson.com).

I recommend you check out /r/entrepreneur daily, as well as other Internet marketing forums and blogs: blackhatworld, I'm not much a fan of warriorforum but there might be information on there.

 

[TheNig]

Daymond Jones the FUBU bruh?

Always seemed like a janky ass African to me.

 

[the bossman]

yeah that's a good post

and there's a reason why I havent done a survey or something asking why they havent reordered

and thats because out of fear and self denial

my fear was me asking why people didn't reorder my product and them basically telling me that it sucked lol

I didn't want to hear that because I put so much blood sweat and tears in this company

so I just decided not to find out all together

but I'm over that fear though partly because Im pretty sure I know why people didn't reorder

and it wasn't because of the effectiveness or lack thereoff of the product

but off the user experience, from the critical reviews on my amazon page

and people who have tried it out in real life, many people feel that the product is too annoying and uncomfortable too use

but that is something that can be changed

and ofcourse I need to do a all out survey to verify

this is a powerful post bruh. a lot of fears that you are facing which will ultimately lead to the growth that you want.

with that information you will be able to create a better product/service/experience whatever. if you've already had over 1000 orders then you have a very solid foundation. there's clearly something many people are looking for that they think you might be able to provide. you just need to do some tweaking to execute better. it's not like you starting from scratch

And at this point, all those tools (facebook ads, adwords, landing page A/B, blah blah blah) are really not that important at this stage if people are not reordering your product on a consistent basis. none of that shyt matters unless the product backs it up. You can give serena williams the oldest/shyttiest racket in the world and she'd still beat you. Focus on the delivering the best product and not worrying about all the special tools.

 

[AlainLocke]

I wont go in depth OP cause I am at work. But if your business is online, go to copyblogger.com

They teach you everything you need to know about sales and advertising on the internet. It's free for the most part. They have courses too.

Salute to all yall helping OP out instead of roasting him for getting conned.

Shame on some of you nikkas.

 

[Donald Trumps Twitter]

man I'm kind of naive when it comes to the good nature of people

allot of times we project our own character traits on other people

and because I'm such a honorable dude with integrity,

I often make the mistake of assuming that with other people

the reason why many of you guys knew something like this was going to be a rip off

is because if you were in his position, you would've done the same thing...

they say real recognize real, well fake also recognize fake

If I was a black man worth hundreds of millions and I saw a struggling young black entrepreneur infront of me

I wouldn't let that dude out of my sight, I would immediately starting helping dude out

not only because its the right thing to do, but also because its group economics

but anyways, it was a good learning experience

You gotta be careful man, this world is full of snakes. Nobody will treat you the same way you treat others (at least from my experience). Especially not if you're doing something good for someone. Most people these days are selfish and greedy, and only look out for one person, themselves.


And over my lifetime I realized there are two types of people in this world: you have the wolf, and you have the lamb.


The wolf is the successful business man, and the sheep is the consumer.



Are you a wolf or a sheep fam?

 

[D.C Young]

"Daymond created his marketing consulting company Shark Branding to reveal the secrets that made FUBU a $5 billion global brand and reinvigorated the once defunct Coogi brand into the biggest fashion line in its space. Consulting for some of the top Fortune 500 companies in the world, Daymond and Shark Branding share advice and experience on branding, licensing, product placement, marketing strategy, and overall business consultation.

As a consultant, Daymond will examine the needs of the corporation, dissect the problems, and create manageable solutions for brand growth. He will also help improve your business’ profitability by enhancing the marketing structure and strategy."

"We connect you directly with leaders in various industries to give you unique knowledge and education that only a true Game Changer could provide"


Frequently Asked Questions | Game Changer Meetings


smdh

 

[D.C Young]

And I'm also confused why are you worrying about scaling and mass producing now if only a few people are reordering your shyt?

making this product with my hands is a hassle and it is time consuming

I also have a full time job

I remember a few years ago I had like 400 orders in only a week and it took me almost two months to make them and ship them all out

I also believe that that was one of the reasons why many people didn't re-order because I had allot of angry customers

mass producing is essential to me...I can't grow my company if I can't meet demand right?

I'm actually limiting myself right now, I'm actually AFRAID to put out advertisements

cause I dont want to wake up one morning with like 5,000 orders

and not being able to meet that demand, and then have 5,000 angry people

you can drown in success if you're not careful

 

[LinusCaldwell]

I lost my last $2,000 recently and it hurts still lol

I own a startup that sold allot of units, but I have issues gaining traction.

I recently came across some info that a famous entrepreneur (I dont want to mention his name)

who we all know, offers consulting for a few thousand dollars.

This individual is definitely a legitimate businessman. He's known by millions of people, worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

I was real excited to be able to meet this person to have a face to face meeting and was looking forward to the advice he would give me to grow this company.

However, the meeting did not go as I expected lol smh

All he did was give out common sense, generic advice such as :

"you should try crowdfunding"

"you should re-engage your customers that havent re-ordered your product"

"you should try facebook advertising"

And with these examples that I posted up, he didn't even offer me any unique strategies of going about it

Like with the crowdfunding for example, he just suggested that I go pick up a book on crowdfunding lol

Or with re-engaging my previous customers, he told me that I should send out a email to them offering them a discount coupon.

wow I never thought of that before


Man, after the meeting, I was in shock for a minute, like I can't believe that I spend my last $2,000 on this shyt.

I'm a dude that lives paycheck to paycheck smh

Anyways, you live and you learn

Have you tried the SBDC? Small business development center? I am using this to start a business around my podcast and it's free. They give you a business advisor and you can meet one on one with counselors.

I'm a huge DJ fan and I really like shark tank but that story was