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

[Amerikan Melanin]

@D.C Young

You looking for investors or what?

 

[D.C Young]

@D.C Young

You looking for investors or what?

hell yeah

I've been looking for years now.

 

[Scholar]

hell yeah

I've been looking for years now.

The coli about to bless you....maybe

 

[Nigerianwonder]

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

Just about every notable figure is accessible for the right amount of money. Even Warren Buffet auctions lunch meeting every year that go for millions of dollars. You can meet with Obama and Hillary if you make a big enough donation to the democratic party. That what makes the world move. For the right price anyone will entertain you. It's up to you to sell yourself and make them want to invest or work with you.

Now what you do with that time is up to you. OP didn't have a plan to utilize the time to get something tangible out of it. That's his fault not Damons. That's like getting a meeting with bill gates and asking him questions about using windows. lol. Wasted opportunity. He keeps talking about folks like Gary Vee as if Damon cant pick up the phone and call dude. The point of these type of meetings is to get access to networks you cant access. OP should have asked Damon who he knows that can help him or even mentor him to take his business to the next level. Or maybe even someone the OP could work, shadow, or volunteer for and learn more about the industry he is in. People who never answer your cold call but would answer Damons and give you a shot based on his recommendation. Thats the power of meeting people like that.

There was no scam here. Dude paid 2k for a 30 minute one on one with Damon and he actually got it. Folks in business practice 30 second elevator pitches and can accomplish more in that time frame than OP did in 30 minutes. Sometimes the hard reality is learning you are not ready to play with the big dogs yet. And based on his responses in here that is apparent.

 

[R.E.N. Spells Ren]

Just about every notable figure is accessible for the right amount of money. Even Warren Buffet auctions lunch meeting every year that go for millions of dollars. You can meet with Obama and Hillary if you make a big enough donation to the democratic party. That what makes the world move. For the right price anyone will entertain you. It's up to you to sell yourself and make them want to invest or work with you.

Now what you do with that time is up to you. OP didn't have a plan to utilize the time to get something tangible out of it. That's his fault not Damons. That's like getting a meeting with bill gates and asking him questions about using windows. lol. Wasted opportunity. He keeps talking about folks like Gary Vee as if Damon cant pick up the phone and call dude. The point of these type of meetings is to get access to networks you cant access. OP should have asked Damon who he knows that can help him or even mentor him to take his business to the next level. Or maybe even someone the OP could work, shadow, or volunteer for and learn more about the industry he is in. People who never answer your cold call but would answer Damons and give you a shot based on his recommendation. Thats the power of meeting people like that.

There was no scam here. Dude paid 2k for a 30 minute one on one with Damon and he actually got it. Folks in business practice 30 second elevator pitches and can accomplish more in that time frame than OP did in 30 minutes. Sometimes the hard reality is learning you are not ready to play with the big dogs yet. And based on his responses in here that is apparent.

Cuz that money they charge means something to them, so stop acting like that $2k don't mean anything to DJ. He wouldn't have set up the service otherwise.

 

[Kalik]

TO DAYMOND'S DEFENSE, I also wanted to add this.

Believe it or not, I actually believe there's a possibility that he was actually sincere with the advice he was giving me

Here's the thing.

There's a false perception out there that the reason why these Millionaire and Billionaire Entrepreneurs are in the position they in is because they are somehow smarter in business then everyone else.

That is not necessarily true. They where merely luckier then everybody else.

They benefited from certain circumstances in history, and they were at the right place at the right time, and they were just smart enough to capitalize on it.

For example, here's the way you got to look at things.

Mark Zuckerberg came up with the idea of facebook when he went to a particular prep school that had a student directory that was somewhat similar to what we know as Facebook today.

So what if Mark Zuckerberg never went to that particular school? Chances are, we would've never had a facebook.

Or even using Dayme as an example. All the forces in the universe also collided in his favor with Fubu.

He was lucky in the fact that he started his company in Queens at a time when Queens rappers where becoming very popular in hip hop.

He used to have Queens rappers wear his shirt.

He was a roadie for popular rappers and even had LL COOL J LIVING in his neighborhood! See how success is really circumstantial??

So he just walked up to LL and LL decided to give him an opportunity and the rest is history.

I believe there's a book called Outliers that speaks on this.

So allot of times when we watch interviews or seminars with successfull people, we look towards them to give us some magical beans, or some great advice that we can implement.

But like 99% of the time, we can't, because its not necessarily implementable in our OWN lives, our own LIFE TRAJECTORY.

You cant put somebody else's number in your own equation.

So there's a good chance that the reason why he gave me generic advice is because THAT'S ALL HE COULD GIVE.

BUT ON THE FLIPSIDE, I do look at the meeting as a rip off because if you KNOW that you are going to be giving out generic advice, dont charge a struggling entrepreneur thousands of dollars for it.

Fubu didnt start that easy breh. Watch the doc on hiphop fashion....

Dude was burning his furniture for heat some nights.

 

[fukkyalifestyle]

this type of shyt happens all day in the music industry, except alot of the times they don't even get to meet the Daimond.

 

[D.C Young]

The point of these type of meetings is to get access to networks you cant access.

Legally speaking (I signed a contract with Game Changer), the point of the meeting was for him to give me unique strategies and techniques to grow my business.

"Basically, we want you to come into your Game Changer Meeting with realistic expectations. Your meeting with Mr. John should not be seen as an opportunity to pitch him an investment in your business. The point of this meeting is for Mr. John to help give you the strategies and techniques you need to progress your business or product. Since Mr. John is on the ABC business show Shark Tank, he is currently focusing on those investments from the current season"

So I came in the meeting with the MINDSET and the EXPECTATION that Daymond, most likely, wouldn't help me out beyond the parameters of the AGREEMENT.

I had only 30 mns so I didn't want to waste time by asking him for things that he most likely wouldn't help me with.

OP should have asked Damon who he knows that can help him or even mentor him to take his business to the next level

After the disrespect shown to me during the meeting, such as looking out the window while I'm talking, or sneak dissing me,

and just a overral vibe of him not wanting to be there,

I didn't feel and wanted to ask him a question like that.

There was no scam here. Dude paid 2k for a 30 minute one on one with Damon and he actually got it.

The scam is that that company actually ADVERTISES that they will provide UNIQUE knowledge.

And I didn't get anything unique, I only got generic advice

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



I do feel you though on the whole utilizing time with a prominent person thing

but I dont think that was applicable in my case since I was actually bound by a agreement

now even though I could've went outside that agreement with no repurcussions

I thought it was potentially time wasting...especially with someone like him

I mean, it didn't even looked like he cared about me

remember now, most communication is non verbal

 

[LinusCaldwell]

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 Afrikan dude

working a minimum wage job, out of his basement?

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

To be honest breh I don't think he was the right person to talk to given your product.

@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.

what do you do breh you informative I am trying to run a business for my podcast www.fteswl.com and marketing for me is king right now I need to get that

 

[cocoabutter27]

You lucked out on that price OP. I went to the Tony Robbins event in Dallas and he charges $1mill for an hour sit down and his waiting list is 2 years long.

 

[MewTwo]

I'd say you have more to learn than him. This whole "shark eat shark" business mindset is created and perpetuated to make money off people like you. But to each their own.

But I didn't lose $2,000

 

[Nigerianwonder]

Legally speaking (I signed a contract with Game Changer), the point of the meeting was for him to give me unique strategies and techniques to grow my business.

"Basically, we want you to come into your Game Changer Meeting with realistic expectations. Your meeting with Mr. John should not be seen as an opportunity to pitch him an investment in your business. The point of this meeting is for Mr. John to help give you the strategies and techniques you need to progress your business or product. Since Mr. John is on the ABC business show Shark Tank, he is currently focusing on those investments from the current season"

So I came in the meeting with the MINDSET and the EXPECTATION that Daymond, most likely, wouldn't help me out beyond the parameters of the AGREEMENT.

I had only 30 mns so I didn't want to waste time by asking him for things that he most likely wouldn't help me with.




After the disrespect shown to me during the meeting, such as looking out the window while I'm talking, or sneak dissing me,

and just a overral vibe of him not wanting to be there,

I didn't feel and wanted to ask him a question like that.




The scam is that that company actually ADVERTISES that they will provide UNIQUE knowledge.

And I didn't get anything unique, I only got generic advice

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



I do feel you though on the whole utilizing time with a prominent person thing

but I dont think that was applicable in my case since I was actually bound by a agreement

now even though I could've went outside that agreement with no repurcussions

I thought it was potentially time wasting...especially with someone like him

I mean, it didn't even looked like he cared about me

remember now, most communication is non verbal

Those statements mean nothing legally. There is nothing that says you can't pitch to him or talk to him about whatever you wanted. It's setting realistic expectations. And there is absolutely nothing in there that says Damon cant help you in other ways outside of direct investment such as access to his network, mentorship or referrals etc.

And Damon gave you sound advice unique to your situation. Doesn't matter whether you like it or not cause its what you needed to hear. You call it generic and basic but as you admitted in this thread you haven't even done the generic and basics stuff yet such as getting feedback from current customers. So it sounds like he gave you good advice. Start at step 1 instead of worrying about step 10.

Let me put it to you this way. If you were to meet your fav producer at one of those conferences they advertise on the radio and you wanted to ask Pharrell some questions about the melody on your songs. You pay some money and he listens and says the shyt aint mixed right. Its not that he gave you bad advice. Its that you're not prepared and ready to engage someone like him. He cant even talk melody with you before you address the basics and establish yourself on professional level so you wasted his time and your money.

So you have to engage him. Not the other way around. And you're right He doesn't care about you. And you shouldn't care about him. All you should care about is what he can do for you. That what a business relationship is. You're there to be friends. Business isn't pretty especially when you own your own. There will come times where you have to make tough decisions. Could you fire someone you know has kids to feed or run that competitor out of business if you had to? If you cant handle that you will get eating alive and be out of business in a heartbeat cause someone will do it you first.

 

[D.C Young]

You lucked out on that price OP. I went to the Tony Robbins event in Dallas and he charges $1mill for an hour sit down and his waiting list is 2 years long.

goddamn, are you sure its a mil?

but Tony Robbins might be different though

dont he got credible people co-signing his shyt?

 

[cocoabutter27]

goddamn, are you sure its a mil?

but Tony Robbins might be different though

dont he got credible people co-signing his shyt?

It's a mil lol. Crazy right? Daymond was credible...until he wasn't. I wouldn't pay $2k for Tony Robbins...but that's just me.

 

[D.C Young]

Those statements mean nothing legally. There is nothing that says you can't pitch to him or talk to him about whatever you wanted. It's setting realistic expectations. And there is absolutely nothing in there that says Damon cant help you in other ways outside of direct investment such as access to his network, mentorship or referrals etc.

And Damon gave you sound advice unique to your situation. Doesn't matter whether you like it or not cause its what you needed to hear. You call it generic and basic but as you admitted in this thread you haven't even done the generic and basics stuff yet such as getting feedback from current customers. So it sounds like he gave you good advice. Start at step 1 instead of worrying about step 10.

Let me put it to you this way. If you were to meet your fav producer at one of those conferences they advertise on the radio and you wanted to ask Pharrell some questions about the melody on your songs. You pay some money and he listens and says the shyt aint mixed right. Its not that he gave you bad advice. Its that you're not prepared and ready to engage someone like him. He cant even talk melody with you before you address the basics and establish yourself on professional level so you wasted his time and your money.

So you have to engage him. Not the other way around. And you're right He doesn't care about you. And you shouldn't care about him. All you should care about is what he can do for you. That what a business relationship is. You're there to be friends. Business isn't pretty especially when you own your own. There will come times where you have to make tough decisions. Could you fire someone you know has kids to feed or run that competitor out of business if you had to? If you cant handle that you will get eating alive and be out of business in a heartbeat cause someone will do it you first.

yeah but that's neither here nor there

I mean, its common sense to get feedback from customers and all that shyt

now just because I actually havent APPLIED it yet, TILL THAT POINT

I mean, that's some personal shyt....maybe I was too lazy,

maybe I was focusing on other things etc....whatever

I mean, that's for me to deal with....

now just because I hadn't applied it yet till that point

I dont think it was fair for him to reduce me to a point where he felt like I was only

at the level where I was only worthy of basic advice

(assuming that your synyopsis of my meeting with him is accurate)

I think anybody that spends $2,000 deserves a little more then basic advice

even if you feel like the person who you are giving advice to is only worthy of that level of advice*

and that's another thing, who are you (not you personally) to decide

whether someone is only worthy of certain advice after only a 30 minute meeting?



*and I think any entrepreneur that actually took an idea and built it into a product

and then a company that sold thousands of units should automatically be disqualified from being judged in that manner