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What you’ll hear in this episode:

• Self-made billionaire and philanthropist John Paul DeJoria’s perspective on persistence and creating the most “re-orderable” product possible
• His path to entrepreneurship and how he turned challenges into success when starting Paul Mitchell and Patron Spirits
• The importance of giving back and having a generous, philanthropic mindset

As a man whose reputation as a self-made billionaire, business genius, and generous philanthropist precedes him, John Paul DeJoria needs no introduction.

DeJoria has embodied the entrepreneurial mindset, spirit, and skills since the young age of 7, when he and his brother began building and selling wooden flower beds to earn spending money. Growing up in a poor family, DeJoria was always looking for ways to help support his mother, so he began working a morning paper route. Although technically employed by the newspaper company, paperboys received a $1 commission for every new client they were able to secure, so DeJoria built his own thriving route fueled by that incentive.  

These entrepreneurial endeavors throughout his childhood culminated into what DeJoria calls “the greatest experience in the world” – selling encyclopedias door-to-door in his 20s. It was commission-only and there were no leads, so it was up to each salesman to go door-to-door and convince whoever answered their knocks to purchase an encyclopedia set. DeJoria describes knocking on 100 doors, maintaining the same enthusiasm for the product at door 99 as he had on door 1. The average encyclopedia salesman lasted 3 days – DeJoria lasted 3 years. 

He explains that this experience was so invaluable because it taught him two important lessons: first, to make sure that you believe in your product or service, and that it’s high quality. “You do not want to be in the selling business, you want to be in the re-order business,” he explains, so make sure that your product is so good that people will have to re-order it. Secondly, he learned that entrepreneurs must “be prepared for a lot of rejection.” In addition to keeping up the energy for each sales pitch, you also have to keep your spirit, vision, and belief in your product alive, no matter how many doors close in your face. 

DeJoria went on to work for other companies, but was fired for various reasons (at Redken, he was fired for speaking out against their poor treatment of the animals they tested their products on). In addition to business acumen, these experiences left three impressions on DeJoria: first, that “you gotta treat people really, really right,” secondly, that “you should never test on animals,” and finally that “you should keep products in salons forever.” Even though he was living in his car at the time, only had $700, and was in the midst of a terrible economy, DeJoria and his partner started Paul Mitchell in 1980. 

DeJoria didn’t do hair and his partner didn’t do business, but their forces combined were powerful. They believed in their product and were resilient to rejection. It took two years for Paul Mitchell to pay their bills on time, and DeJoria explains that they “should have been bankrupt” during that period. But, he applied the skills he had learned in his previous jobs and knocked on salon doors until people agreed to try their product, and when they finally stocked it, DeJoria knew his product was so good it would have to be re-ordered. Paul Mitchell has earned over $1billion in revenue and has been in business for over 40 years. 

Knocking on doors until someone buys is a theme in DeJoria’s success. DeJoria is the founder of Patron Spirits, which started the premium tequila market in America and is widely regarded as the smoothest tequila available. But, DeJoria faced a lot of rejection when he was first trying to get Patron off the ground. 

At $37 / bottle, distributors and liquor stores were wary to stock Patron, even though everyone was unequivocally impressed by the smooth taste. DeJoria went back to his roots and started knocking on liquor store and bar doors, as well as calling his high-profile friends and restaurant owners. He finally found a few establishments that agreed to carry the product, but he only sold a couple thousand cases that first year. He struggled to find a distributor who believed in Patron’s potential, and ultimately distributed the spirits himself. Because he believed in his product, a “little brand that was never supposed to do more 20,000 cases a year” has regularly sold over 3 million cases annually in recent years. 

DeJoria has other established ventures and new products and is always looking ahead at new companies on the horizon. He advises entrepreneurs to understand that there is a point in a company’s story where you want to “bring people into your company who are better at running [it] than you are,” and not be afraid to relinquish some control for the good of the business. He also explains that, “Successful people do all the things that unsuccessful people don’t want to do,” emphasizing the importance of working hard and with humility.

DeJoria’s central business values are to offer the greatest quality product, at a realistic price, and deliver the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Generosity is built into DeJoria’s life – he is a magnanimous philanthropist through his Peace Love and Happiness Foundation, and also incorporates giving back into his businesses. He explains that giving without any expectation is the greatest gift you will ever receive – that it makes you more loving towards your family, more loving in the universe, and improves your entire mentality and perspective on life. 

“There’s a whole Universe that is trying to help you,” DeJoria says, smiling, “And if you let the Universe flow, it’s amazing what it will do.” With his charisma, kindness, and wisdom, John Paul DeJoria’s story is an inspiration for people in all walks of life, and especially entrepreneurs. This episode is one you don’t want to miss! If you enjoyed the podcast, be sure to share it with a friend! 

Masters and Founders is a founding_media podcast created in collaboration with foundingAustin.

Host: Dan Dillard

Guest: John Paul DeJoria

Transcript:

this is a family media podcast welcome to another cell masters and founders we have a very special guest here today Austin Texas and it’s a household name that sure do you either use the product get ready to go out or while you’re out is another product of yours hopefully everyone uses the products hopefully so John Paul DeJoria here and thank you for being on our show and thank you for being alone is your home such a beautiful home wonderful day in Austin Texas I agree all of us so I want to start looking at of the different things that you’ve done all received on so many things also where we start but I want to start with the section so going back to your original thought process actually building the business would that look like or how the feelings for you well building the business goes way back in my life to doing it out of necessity when I was seven years old I was we we did have any money our family so we were in east LA at the variety boys club and for twenty five cents we could have credit for wood we made these flower box about this big this tall flat on the bottom kind of round it with an opening on top of what they sell they give us would we would go ahead and mail little thing and make it nice for the hawks on it and my brother and I went out and sold it for fifty cents took his two days to sell it we finally sold it and then paid our debt for the quarter the other quarter we bought more would one out in fifty cents with ours on the next sale well back in the early fifties that was a lot of money fifty cents for two young kids my brother was nine I was seven I mean that in those days and give an example candy candy bars three for ten cents a big coca Cola this was great it was okay as giant to us five since so does a lot of may for little kids

we thought it was great so that’s kind of how we started and then at eleven years old we want to help mom out we finally were able to my mom was able to put a little teeny down payment on a little house and my brother and I will be home with her all the time we want to contribute so we got morning paper routes we need about thirty to thirty three dollars a month delivering the LA morning examiner we gave all the money in my mother now every time you went out and you got a new customer you got an extra dollar plus another thing was fifty cents off your paper out so we made extra money that was extra money we would use for example horseback riding was a dollar and a quarter to ride a horse for the month or something for one hour and so we had to build our business ourselves if we wanted more money so the more enthusiastic we were at the more we went out there and did it I always work always has some kind of a job but the real learning experience was selling encyclopedias in my early twenties that was the greatest experience in the world it was with collier’s encyclopedia no salary commission only no leads only knocking on doors cold doors you were in training for four days no money had to make a sale because commission only and that was tough but I believe what they said the average encyclopedia salesman lasted three days I lasted three and a half years but I believe what they said they said that you’re knocking on doors and the real successful ones are the ones will knock on fifty doors they’re close to your face door number fifty one will talk to you but you must be just as enthusiastic under fifty one

if you were on the first few doors you knocked on well I don’t think it was door fifty for really was door a hundred and something for me but I believe the mileage just as of those he has to go one of the places great set of books with them I thought everybody needed it was a great product in my mind and I believed it well it took me over a week before I made my first sale and a lot of doors and then another week labor for me another one but I believe and I stuck by it so I sit entrepreneurs today from that experience the two greatest things you could learn in do number one make sure your product or your service is the best there is you do not want to be in the selling business you want to be in the re order business so if your product is services that good people want to re order read more tell somebody else about it was a one time purchase well that’s a real success because now you know you going for longevity where most people make the mistake what I have to do just to sell to somebody what do you have to do to make it so good they’re gonna want to re order it the second thing is be prepared for a lot of rejection if you are it’s not going to hurt you like I believe what they said to me when I was twenty years old knocking on doors and it worked lot of people they believe that they were discouraged in the left what they were doing to the great successes and of course in life successful people do all the things unsuccessful people don’t want to do when I started Paul Mitchell back in nineteen eighty I knew because I’ve been in the industry before working for some major companies that you had to have at least a half a million dollars to start it and I got a backer for Paul Mitchell the backer pulled out the day we want to start the company I quit everything I did and I went down there to get the money there was no money I found out later on that the backer pulled out

one of the better pull out good example of today and nineteen eighty in nineteen eighty we started the company was seven hundred dollars I live in the back of my car can you still do today and have a billion dollar company yes you can nineteen eighty inflation in the United States was twelve and a half percent to nineteen eighty and nineteen eighty one unemployment was about ten and a half percent interest rates if you could get a loan prime rate was seventeen percent I’m real and we had no money there was still internet you want some printed up you want to avoid a printer to types that your card for you yeah we were able to start in the fed of people want to see the whole story how to start a business with no money go to is see this on iTunes it’s on Amazon several others is called good fortune the movie get good fortune the movie it’s a whole history of how you started this with little to no money a good example it is my story I love that so looks sounds like you had a hunch brewers when you’re in your belly out of necessity from says correct and then at some point you went and started working for another company so how would that look like and how did you jump back into the school I work for other companies including actually the LA examiner even though we Roger for nearer she getting new customers I always refer somebody else but when I worked for I different experiences

For example in the beauty industry and why start mon I work for redken one time those wondered Daschle managers of two divisions of the company and one by this room one day where the word that all these little marmoset monkeys and I wanted taken for a walk there like a twelve by twelve room a door with a little window they can’t even see outside this it would be taken for a walk away to walk about side with you they said we don’t as you leave those little cages they go yes once you take a more subtle than we can we can leave men here why are we experiment the in the first place we make it your prize for humans not animals because it makes us look good we’re the scientific approach I said that is wrong wanted complained upper management well that’s a go over go with banners that was fired two weeks later hello in their work for another company for Mattel and the people I work with were real jerks the press of the company and they fired me after one year because he said it was of their type of person even though while I was there their sales increased by fifty percent well after I left they went down hill there will fire a year later the other company that hired me the answer to try college you try I think with divers little cubby blue I believe we double or triple their cells that first year I was fired because they made more money than the owner of the company or the owners of the company I said but you only pay me three thousand dollars a month and a percentage of all new sales I created with you is that was the problem you made more money of new sales of the president’s somewhere to get a guy to do your job at twelve thousand dollars a year and much less of a percentage of the company they fired me food they were missing the forest for the trees exactly and of course the company went downhill after that so I learned a little bit there that you got a tree people really really right it should never test on animals

so I thought you know what a star mocha we had a great partner Paul Mitchell was a buddy of mine he did he was a lousy businessman and I was a lousy hairdresser I didn’t do air he didn’t do business the perfect combination he was there to research because I came from the business from not their dressing world but in the hairdressing world was started together that was our motivation tree people properly and be sure products only stayed in salons for ever because people always promised they would do that and never did so did you find that during the time you’re working for others you already have this idea of sort of business or just something that shaped up over over time idea of starting my own business till after I was fired from record for middle distance right college you somewhere after over the sides trouble Bisbee consulted for a while if I could and then good Strobel business trying to raise the money to do it because I don’t have any money and then from Paul Mitchell success seven hundred dollars which you started with in two years down the road started actually making money is that what it was about two years before we can actually pay our bills on time to make a little bit of money by all businesses standards we should’ve gone bankrupt every day for two years both units flowing you says no way we does not record of actually when you know advertising no nothing that the money so we knew that eventually we put the product that was good enough that people want to re ordered it enough handsome hairdressers they’re the ones to know what a good product is and they could recommend to their customer how to keep their style in between this is with our products but we knew they were so good the pre order we said tell one of them about it so they could use that Intel some of their customer and that was you knocking on doors again be knocking on doors just like it in with books yeah my partner Paul Mitchell pitched into we do a little beauty show you are not commanders afterwards

I love the story of you talking about where you would wind got a check you wouldn’t get the water from an individual and then went and delivered right around the corner I got to check with on the spot yes would you share that with the audience how how that happened well you will have any money so I without knocking door to door and product that I made in the back of the card and they would order deliver the product right during a check from them and then it took me a couple of weeks in order to get twelve orders and twelve checks I think is twenty seven dollars to maybe the biggest was a hundred thirty dollars something like that and they left the top late but I got him that I would to a distributor told why shop our new we had three products why they should have our new products when there was so great and the big distributor was in Los Angeles said why do I need you I have a lien Curtis I have all these other big lines you know I’ve every big line what do I need to do what I want to spend my time promoting lie no one’s ever heard of and you have no advertising budget known because I mean money and I said I have a good reason for it I pulled out twelve checks and put a bright from the bill already filled out I see those your first twelve customers here’s our orders in their names your your checks I just soldier first twelve for you he was blown away and said if I will get in order for me to see you got or at least two thousand dollars we were really hard two thousand dollars ship all of LA in Orange County exclusively

isn’t that’s not a lot is that I know we need a variety of okay then I said but you’ve gotta pay can you please pay as with the order rice eagles repairs a speedy supply we pay our bills in forty five days I said we really need the money he was okay I’ll give you a break right anyways we invite him toward forty fifth anniversary dinner this is thirty eight years now twenty fifth anniversary came and he said and JP left my office I thought god this guy’s really ambitious I’ve never see an offer like this I got twelve accounts I noise and come back to work with myself with they’re all sold so anyways he says and then I got a call two minutes later for my warehouse man he said there’s some guy backer loading products that are on our dog he was a two thousand dollar check uses us he was losing while busy lab is at all gave the two thousand dollars in back on this start that’s awesome I love the story and if you haven’t had a chance to do the gold Google and you too the others on the YouTube shows yeah let’s go on their good fortune the movie good fortune movie inside iTunes it’s on Amazon good fortune the movie let’s jump now into your next company patrol how to how did you have that idea from her products to good question

it’s nineteen eighty nine there was a gentleman that went bankrupt in the hospitality business they gave a break too I I supported the financial needs to start a company unique in the architectural business he will go to Mexico by papers and furniture and selling top architects for the model homes or restaurants Mexican restaurants and sort the furniture’s at a very low price and one time Martin was going down there we renal came but nothing major barely breaking even lesson bart when you go down there let’s see what the local people trade their restaurant grassy there’s a tequila we could drink we don’t hold your breath yes okay so keep up with these two thin bottles and it was the smoothest I’ve ever had not quite as with this patrol but almost uses JP about this fellow ex Francisco Alvarez down there shovel the keyless he said he can make it smoother ice will that be great I secure we put a recycle bottles so mort went down and he found this bottle leases I know we can make it out of recycled glass I said great looks great why not so I was a bank enough money to make one thousand cases that was twelve thousand bottles when he came back nobody wanted to buy it every liquor distribuidor Dunn said yeah it is the best Akela ever we are selling for thirty seven dollars a bottle retail I so we have to because it costs so much to make it they said the average tequilas for five dollars to better once or maybe fourteen for most expensive those goodbye no thank you if you have the big advertising budget so we found the one place that only sold one and talk to me into carrying our product and they did a lousy job so what did I do I would not keen door to door calmly friend will skate park with Spago’s resting his JP this is great tequila I’ll take and give my celebrity friends

mark went to bog cantina marina del Rey and they said yeah sure we’ll take it it was door to door we will go under by a bartender that we didn’t know maybe a shot of tequila for four Bucks we paid the four dollars she took a shot of tequila you can do that in California that’s restarted it and then we said bring up another little glass they would and we pull out of our briefcases Petrone wow that’s really smooth the kid that’s patrolled the warehouse to one place has that would you like to order anyways it is a really bad job being the only sold a couple thousand cases our first year so we went to the big Jim beam Jim beam big distributor Jim beam alcohol that their own distribution their own distributors nestled in product and or a little after a year and a half maybe with Jim beam decanters said guys this is great and maybe we’ll do twenty thousand cases we saw no no no you’re doing I think about ten thousand cases and they should be doing fifty thousand case year these guys will never do more than twenty thousand cases it’s the best there is but it’s too expensive and you can’t make it any cheaper so guys that’s the most river gonna do we drop Jim beam and took another big distributor living liquor company sequence of the time they took about forty thousand seventy thousand cases a year at that time we wanted it back with a we do a better job see we went to court and we end up paying a lot of money to get another distribution agreement and we did we took over cells this little brand that was never supposed to do more than twenty thousand cases a year

last year a just to last year’s figures the company did over three million cases while wow over three million well it had a value on the put on the company of five billion one hundred million dollars well congratulations on the second is the resources so once again you get the best product that people want to re order control was so good and you get a big hang over less you drink way too much was like a normal tequila and we started in the American the world ultra premium tequilas and I think to this fall be two hundred of them out there right now each one trying to be the next patrol to the best of my knowledge I think the closest competitor close to half a million a year that’s the closest competitor the company also right well that compare to over three million cases big difference big difference I’m curious when you want to bring this recent back to in house what was your plan the plan was to bring it in the house that we personally went to the larger distributors and several into a middle man because of we do it ourselves will get more credibility and will be on the streets more than expecting the big guys to do it for us with and that’s the thing about entrepreneurs and is is you always gonna be thinking and back to what you were saying earlier is there’s been one reject you say no se no se now or the we do do things a certain way an entrepreneur is all about thinking outside the box and yeah doing and be open to change I know my my partner Martin Crawley would have originally starred the company started with Martin and Martin I let run excels to ball with Paul Mitchell and he always had playboy models has control with a plot bottle patrol these playboy models in there well he passed away in two thousand and three and my vice president marketing really a guy at brown took over his presidential bid president and then we made the decision which was the best movie can make

we’re not selling girls and the way they look we’re selling tequila Petrone became the entire ad and why it was good the company went light that now obviously under the management of it brown and we brought in some of the greatest people something also an entrepreneur should realize or certain points we want to bring in people run your company Sir better than you could ever be a running the company was I still the chairman of the board and the figure and doing all the P. R. of course I was but the daily operations and broke into it far better than I can ever do it he ran a did a damn good job and that’s also super good advice and I think to me Oscars try to do it all and keep the control and you you to the point where they’re not growing because there’s stuff in there well it wasn’t with Paul Mitchell I turned it over all got more than a decade ago every function the company the major functions to other stop breaks they did better than I could present the president it better than I could sales marketing people in better than I was a doing it I still remained as chairman obviously in the face of the company P. are put in my two cents river I could even help with some ideas things like that but the real super people ran with the shot and that’s the way to do it really nice and you will come with mother parcel yeah in spirits I can’t compete for four and a half four years with the kilo but other things I can’t plant is going already was full guard Jim it’s the finest gin in the world and we brought it out we need to do a double guard family he’s the picture of the name the signature and everything up for Bogart you’ll have free book drink Jim and vodka famous court following we came out with this little to no advertising

and it just took off in the wind right now I think it’s about four thousand pubs in England and now coming into the United States with knows when the best young she could ever drink and then and that’s going really good with our Bogart spirits nothing I’m doing here is going to be revolutionary is rock mobile are okay as we we spell rock you go online see rock okay mobile his mobile phone this is an example is this is one of our telephones it’s a smart phone is made by the same caliber of people that make your high in phones your biggest best ones in the world it’s a smart phone right there’s only a couple things for about this particular one we’re making unique flip phones sold for also making very smart phones wiser is a little bit different number one it’ll be a cold Iraq are okay NASA in a S. A. phone rockness awful were finishing that right now were the casing on it what is sin will do less damage to your body than a manageable cancer does search your brain okay unbelievable and something else to which I’ll show you here as you can see is three D. yeah are you don’t have glasses all the notes wonderful is that amazing it’s amazing three days without a losses on I also read where you had a different distribution model on this holy differ distribution Marty talk about that you betcha it’s two fold one of our distribution models on this particular phone is too if that we’re doing it right now with the country of India were Y. falling twenty five of the largest cities in India why fine right well now you have a phone in India for just a few dollars you can not only wifi service which means that you’re calling where you want we just started right now twenty five of the largest cities in India India is the second largest populated country anyways so you got you know from wifi you got a vocal she won but also you have a bundle we have the worldwide patent on bundling of cellular phones you have telemedicine seven days a week twenty four hours a day there’s a doctor on the phone with you well that’s no extra charge you get a couple thousand dollars worth of actual life insurance five hundred dollars worth of just have just died

mmhm you know this is included in part of the bundling that we have plus other things for five dollars less a month well in a country like that poor people are paying fifteen to twenty dollars a month just for telephone calls and texting all the sun it’s five dollars a month for someone that has no money is a world changer and more of a service and they can get and right now the United States with two of your biggest groups there now but out there wanting exclusives on this and they want the billing service for the United States we could do more we do roadside assistance we could do legal service we can do a so many extra things and a hundred thousand dollars worth of actual life insurance twenty thousand dollars for the burial insurance tell so many other things so we’ll go worldwide with this sounds like the theme and hello everything people exactly is helping people in every one of the companies so I personally personal highest quality but also no experimenting on animals result no animal testing right Paul Mitchell every bottle not test on animals to so you ins so there’s there’s these values from way back then is a claims that you said I’m going to do as in every single company that you actually work with looks like that’s one of the central themes that you start out with which is isn’t the greatest quality that you have will people benefit by it is a realistically priced this is some this the greatest good for the greatest number

and it is what one thing that I wanted to touch on his you mentioned of starting your day and how you have a every the how you have a that you do every morning so when you talk on how you look at first and I get up in the morning and do it most people off the bathroom right get out then I I usually go back to bed for a little bit and what I will do all see ninety five percent of the time casually or forget is I just wake up and when I get back but I just kind of be there like just be in the room try not to think of anything if I get distracted for a couple of minutes I look at the wall and look at the door to be present in the room and most of time we’ll just say you know creator of souls thank you for the not only the great life you’ve given me but you know let me continue to help the planet because you gave me this great life and show me the truth and things so sounds like you’re really in touch with the universe and knowing that the universe is going to have surgery trying to reach is always going to be there for you right there your idea present time with no interference I think one of the things that I’ve seen in with this with any aspen ridge is they’re so busy trying to do one thing that they forget that there’s a whole universe that’s actually helping you yeah to get there open yourself a let the universe because you let the universe flow it’s amazing what we’ll do

I could have never started Paul Mitchell without my experience of record for made all these should be tried college she because each company to learn something different I would never be able to start a list that happened was I was fired and so the universe kind of showed me the way that which is open to during rough times right lived in my car I knew that what I had with Paul Mitchell is such a good day now in our Paul Mitchell schools we have about a hundred twenty of them in the United States and a couple of overseas Paul Mitchell schools part of our curriculum side to give back all the students page and we had to write the whole thing so none of the money goes to doing it right every time they raise helps our local community our nation the world out there learn how to get back in the love of giving would you give to somebody else without asking anything in return it’s a great site labor give so we say that success insurers failure and you learn or school now what happens to the student they come out more loving with their families were living with the universe and more of a giving mentality in the mentality of heart with the communicate with people because they’ve experienced that that’s amazing such great leadership and that’s what I love about talking to masters and founders of that it’s actually more about is more than just money it’s it is it is the purpose of life is creation and also taking care of the earth you have for peas that you go by of positivity planet and profit

I would love that to just of the worst that that’s that’s just a mantra that you cancel the property shirt you know right now we’re so I think we have over a hundred sixty different things we’ve given to it’s way too much so I get letters every single week my systems get him all the time and is usually we write back and tell we’re over in the data right now we can’t do everything right once we do I think we do pretty good question sure you it shows love everything that you’re doing thank you so much for being here very well this is this is this is been wonderful and and for everybody on the audiences we can go back to the work world where is the movie in working they look for the movie is good fortune and you can find it now on iTunes you’ll find on Amazon many other places thank you so much for everyone thank you for sure