S2E370 From Broke to Billions: The Mindset Behind Building Iconic Brands with John Paul Dejoria
The Brian Buffini Show
Brian Buffini
4.8 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2026
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“Success unshared is failure.” That’s the guiding mantra John Paul DeJoria lives with conviction throughout every part of his life. It’s also the title of his soon to-be-released new book.
In this episode of It’s a Good Life, host Brian Buffini asks DeJoria to share details from his life which started out as a child selling Christmas cards, trying different jobs as a young adult (some more successful than others) and then partnering with the hairstylist Paul Mitchell to create the iconic billion-dollar global brand, John Paul Mitchell Systems.
DeJoria also shares the mindset practices that helped him stay steady through rejection, why positivity is a discipline, and the “reorder business” principle every entrepreneur needs to understand if they want sustainable success.
YOU WILL LEARN:
- Why the phrase “success unshared is failure” continues to propel every part of DeJoria’s life.
- The practical, as well as creative, tactics that DeJoria used to co-found and build and accelerate John Paul Mitchell Systems to its status as an iconic global brand.
- How to develop rejection-proof resilience, stay positive under pressure, and the importance of building a business that earns repeat customers.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Success Unshared is Failure by John Paul DeJoria
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:
“When you like what you do, who you do it with and who you do it for, you’re not working anymore.” — John Paul DeJoria
“Forgive yourself first for anything you did that you regret. You cannot change yesterday's newspapers.” — John Paul DeJoria
“When you start making money, do not change your lifestyle for one year.” — John Paul DeJoria
“Entrepreneurs need to make sure their service or physical product is in the reorder business.” — John Paul DeJoria
“The best advice I ever been given was from my mother — just be kind to one another.” — John Paul DeJoria
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to It's a Good Life, the podcast for entrepreneurs, where it's all about growing yourself and your business. |
| 0:09.6 | Here's your host, founder of America's largest business coaching company, Brian Bafini. |
| 0:17.2 | Well, top of the morning to you and welcome to It's a Good Life. I'm Brian Bafini and I am fired up for all of you today. |
| 0:24.1 | You're going to get exposed to a really brilliant individual who's not only been there and done that and achieved great heights, but has great compassion and empathy. |
| 0:34.0 | His name is John Paul DeGioria. If you've heard of Paul Mitchell hair products, |
| 0:38.9 | that's the man. If you've ever enjoyed Patron Tequila, that's the man and a whole bunch of other |
| 0:44.0 | things. You know, I have, at this stage of the game, I've met an awful lot of billionaires, |
| 0:48.7 | but I've rarely met a billionaire that at one stage was living in his car. He has the ultimate |
| 0:54.0 | rags to riches |
| 0:54.8 | story. Fenomenal experience, but he's got a great perspective. His brand new book that's just |
| 1:01.3 | coming out is called Success Unshared is Failure. And we're going to cover the mindset and motivation |
| 1:08.8 | and methodologies that have helped John Paul |
| 1:11.3 | achieve such great success and what message he has for all of us today. John Paul, welcome to the show. It's an honor to have you. Thank you, Brian. My pleasure to be here. Well, I've been hearing about you. Obviously, I've used your products for a long time. I use them this morning, so you know. Good luck at war. |
| 1:25.6 | We have a mutual friend I mentioned, Jim DeBerry, and Jim has been telling me about you for a long, long time. |
| 1:31.1 | And one of the... use them this morning so you know good luck at more we have a mutual friend i mentioned jim de berry and |
| 1:27.8 | jim has been telling me about you for a long long time and one of those dynamics that jim said is |
| 1:33.2 | i did business with john paul 30 years ago and all we ever had was a handshake that's right and that's all |
| 1:39.2 | we needed to have and he said he believed in me he gave me me a chance, and I've watched it. |
| 1:44.2 | You changed his life and his business. |
| 1:46.4 | It's a great honor to have you on here today. |
| 1:48.6 | And I'm very, very appreciative of Mr. DeBerry and Mark Victor Hansen's referral to you. |
| 1:54.0 | So let's dive in actually right off the bat here. |
... |
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