WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.259 What would you say is the why of what you do? 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:06.940 And what were some of the stories that pertain 00:00:06.940 --> 00:00:09.640 to your why? I'd love to hear those. The why. 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:13.580 The why is change. It has changed quite a bit 00:00:13.580 --> 00:00:16.320 over the years. When it started, it used to be 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:19.460 money, money, money, make a living. Now it's 00:00:19.460 --> 00:00:23.399 helping others. And I don't know if I mentioned 00:00:23.399 --> 00:00:26.160 this last time, but there's a really good book 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:29.710 out there by Bob Berg. And I can't remember the 00:00:29.710 --> 00:00:32.170 name of it, but I know it's it's oh, the go giver. 00:00:32.250 --> 00:00:35.310 That's what it is. And it's all about giving. 00:00:35.530 --> 00:00:39.130 And every great person I've had the opportunity 00:00:39.130 --> 00:00:43.390 to speak to, they've all said, if you give other 00:00:43.390 --> 00:00:45.810 people enough things that they want, you will 00:00:45.810 --> 00:00:49.189 get everything that you want in life. So that's 00:00:49.189 --> 00:00:52.829 kind of the the why right now. And it does come 00:00:52.829 --> 00:00:55.649 to fruition. Yeah. Thank you for saying that. 00:00:55.750 --> 00:01:01.619 So. Talk to me about some stories that have maybe 00:01:01.619 --> 00:01:04.879 solidified your why or added to your why or changed 00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:07.040 your why. Because you mentioned it has changed 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:11.340 and transformed over the years. And I also have 00:01:11.340 --> 00:01:15.359 been in those shoes where early in the stages, 00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:19.719 you're like, I want to just provide and the money 00:01:19.719 --> 00:01:21.620 affects and I want to have investments and all 00:01:21.620 --> 00:01:24.200 those things going on. And as you learn, as you 00:01:24.200 --> 00:01:30.680 grow. You see your inability as a leader to grow. 00:01:30.819 --> 00:01:33.180 And you said, oh, maybe money is not the main 00:01:33.180 --> 00:01:34.920 thing. Maybe the focus should be something else 00:01:34.920 --> 00:01:39.900 and money will follow. Yeah. Well, when I started 00:01:39.900 --> 00:01:44.299 in this business, I was in my early 20s. And 00:01:44.299 --> 00:01:48.700 I basically just got with two people that were 00:01:48.700 --> 00:01:51.939 creating brochures back in the day. Brochures 00:01:51.939 --> 00:01:55.209 on photography. And over a period of 10 years, 00:01:55.269 --> 00:01:57.810 I built it up to a really substantial business. 00:01:58.129 --> 00:02:02.989 And then I was doing dumb things. I was just 00:02:02.989 --> 00:02:06.109 doing partying too much. We were going out all 00:02:06.109 --> 00:02:10.909 the time, buying new whatever. And God, higher 00:02:10.909 --> 00:02:13.449 power, whatever you'd like to call it, gives 00:02:13.449 --> 00:02:16.909 you nudges. And it started with very simple nudges. 00:02:17.270 --> 00:02:20.930 And then it became a shove. And when it became 00:02:20.930 --> 00:02:24.449 a shove, I went bankrupt. and everything crashed 00:02:24.449 --> 00:02:28.069 and burned everybody took all my business and 00:02:28.069 --> 00:02:30.370 um i was sitting there scratching my head trying 00:02:30.370 --> 00:02:34.370 to figure out what to do um and then you know 00:02:34.370 --> 00:02:36.430 i tried working for other people for a couple 00:02:36.430 --> 00:02:39.590 of years no go you know it was like two bosses 00:02:39.590 --> 00:02:43.490 coming into a it wasn't working so i realized 00:02:43.490 --> 00:02:46.469 i i needed to get back into my own business and 00:02:46.469 --> 00:02:52.520 do the same thing again from scratch and um It 00:02:52.520 --> 00:02:56.219 was a hard lesson. It stung, but I grew the right 00:02:56.219 --> 00:03:01.620 way after that. And that's what made a big difference 00:03:01.620 --> 00:03:06.199 in my life. And a lot of things in between there, 00:03:06.340 --> 00:03:09.780 you know, substance abuse, alcohol, you know, 00:03:09.780 --> 00:03:12.960 all took the toll, you know, over time. But then 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:16.659 until you really clean up and look back and go, 00:03:16.740 --> 00:03:20.379 wow, all right, this is my life. The people that 00:03:20.379 --> 00:03:23.520 love me are still with me. you know now what 00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:28.280 so uh and things got much brighter very quickly 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:35.219 thank you for sharing that um i bet during those 00:03:35.219 --> 00:03:40.039 times um and you also mentioned that you did 00:03:40.039 --> 00:03:42.659 the things the right way this time after going 00:03:42.659 --> 00:03:44.479 bankrupt and learning the lesson so what were 00:03:44.479 --> 00:03:46.039 some of the lessons that you learned and what 00:03:46.039 --> 00:03:50.879 held you back and i bet that's um i think would 00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:54.939 have taken you less time now uh to do what you 00:03:54.939 --> 00:03:57.939 did earlier um because you didn't make the mistakes 00:03:57.939 --> 00:04:01.680 you did last time at least some of them yeah 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:04.900 um one of the main ones if i were to go back 00:04:04.900 --> 00:04:08.379 and talk to my 20 year old self is when you get 00:04:08.379 --> 00:04:13.159 your money don't spend it right away squirrel 00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:18.199 away uh enough for anything so you can have anything 00:04:18.199 --> 00:04:20.319 nothing whatever happens you've got it covered 00:04:21.220 --> 00:04:24.100 And, um, that's one thing I know. I remember 00:04:24.100 --> 00:04:27.139 vividly, I had two partners and, you know, we 00:04:27.139 --> 00:04:29.019 took out a loan for a hundred thousand bucks 00:04:29.019 --> 00:04:33.319 back in the nineties and we all bought $5 ,000 00:04:33.319 --> 00:04:40.420 desks. Really dumbest thing I could ever do. 00:04:40.500 --> 00:04:42.560 I still have the desk. It's up in my garage, 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:46.379 beautiful desk, but it's sitting in the garage 00:04:46.379 --> 00:04:50.350 as a doorstop. And you know what? I never paid 00:04:50.350 --> 00:04:52.730 it off. I just never paid it off. And it was 00:04:52.730 --> 00:04:55.670 like one of those things you go, wow. So those 00:04:55.670 --> 00:04:57.050 kind of things, I think I could have done the 00:04:57.050 --> 00:05:00.430 same thing on a card table. As a matter of fact, 00:05:00.490 --> 00:05:02.810 I started with a phone, a desk, basically a card 00:05:02.810 --> 00:05:04.730 table and a desk and built the business up to 00:05:04.730 --> 00:05:06.970 a million dollars a year within a few years. 00:05:07.350 --> 00:05:10.370 But by the time I got there, I was like, okay, 00:05:10.430 --> 00:05:12.170 now I'm buying everything. I need to reward myself. 00:05:12.949 --> 00:05:14.850 So that's probably one of the biggest ones. You 00:05:14.850 --> 00:05:19.279 have to have enough capital. available to grow 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:22.920 and scale. When you start making the money before 00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:25.740 you make it, you just bust your butt and you 00:05:25.740 --> 00:05:28.120 just do it and you don't look back and you need 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:32.699 to do that all along, but save it, save it. And 00:05:32.699 --> 00:05:35.199 you still have fun, but you don't have to spend 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:38.660 a fortune to have fun doing things. That's probably 00:05:38.660 --> 00:05:42.300 the biggest one, you know? And then another one 00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:45.500 I think is treat everybody with respect, no matter 00:05:45.500 --> 00:05:48.769 what. Because you never know what bridge you're 00:05:48.769 --> 00:05:53.730 going to burn down the road. And I've usually 00:05:53.730 --> 00:05:57.050 been pretty good about that. But vendors, I've 00:05:57.050 --> 00:06:01.730 had a tendency to treat vendors poorly. And you 00:06:01.730 --> 00:06:04.610 still have to have respect no matter what you 00:06:04.610 --> 00:06:09.009 do when you deal with people. And my wife freaks 00:06:09.009 --> 00:06:10.829 out sometimes the way I've talked to vendors. 00:06:10.930 --> 00:06:17.009 And you don't need to do that. Two big ones. 00:06:17.290 --> 00:06:20.050 So tell me more about that one where you got 00:06:20.050 --> 00:06:23.769 people with respect. Well, yeah. And, you know, 00:06:23.769 --> 00:06:25.870 I like we were talking last time, you know, I 00:06:25.870 --> 00:06:28.990 did write a book on negotiating and you still 00:06:28.990 --> 00:06:32.269 can treat people with respect while you're negotiating. 00:06:32.430 --> 00:06:34.709 You're all working for the same goal. That person 00:06:34.709 --> 00:06:36.430 wants to make a sale. You want to get the best 00:06:36.430 --> 00:06:38.410 price possible. You're basically keeping people 00:06:38.410 --> 00:06:42.689 in check. But, you know, you never know who knows 00:06:42.689 --> 00:06:47.819 who. You know, I've had crazy. times where i've 00:06:47.819 --> 00:06:50.279 treated somebody very nicely and next thing you 00:06:50.279 --> 00:06:53.920 know oh my cousin needs a this over here something 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:56.120 if you do something over here something over 00:06:56.120 --> 00:06:58.620 here always happens if you're doing the right 00:06:58.620 --> 00:07:02.560 thing yeah you know so that that's the way i 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:06.439 i try to look at it now yeah we um our company 00:07:06.439 --> 00:07:10.560 has uh five core values patience persistence 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:13.800 consistency and reliability and all based on 00:07:13.800 --> 00:07:19.279 the foundation of love I think that's something 00:07:19.279 --> 00:07:22.519 most businesses don't think about or most people 00:07:22.519 --> 00:07:26.360 don't think about. I think having some kind of 00:07:26.360 --> 00:07:30.360 core values in your business sets a standard 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:35.800 where people need to be looking towards and building 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:39.480 towards and working towards. And when they fall 00:07:39.480 --> 00:07:42.740 short, the other core values come and support 00:07:42.740 --> 00:07:47.480 those shortcomings. And the pretenders eventually 00:07:47.480 --> 00:07:51.139 go away and the contenders stay with you and 00:07:51.139 --> 00:07:54.019 help you build your vision. So I appreciate you 00:07:54.019 --> 00:07:58.800 sharing that with us today. My pleasure. What 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:02.620 would you say is your goal for being on the show 00:08:02.620 --> 00:08:09.560 today, Dan? If I can supply somebody with some 00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:11.579 insight and knowledge that will help them get 00:08:11.579 --> 00:08:14.980 further in life, that would be great. You know, 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:19.779 and and to leave it out there like that with, 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:22.240 you know, and everything I do is I'm trying to 00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:25.920 help my. Customers, vendors, whatever it takes 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:31.319 to get to a mutual place of success. And that's 00:08:31.319 --> 00:08:34.940 important in any working relationship. Yeah. 00:08:35.220 --> 00:08:38.159 Anything. Yeah. For audience. Dan actually has 00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:42.860 a book called The Secret Online Door. I haven't 00:08:42.860 --> 00:08:46.600 read it yet, but. Dan, speak highly of the book. 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:50.779 I'm excited for all of you to see and look through 00:08:50.779 --> 00:08:59.179 that. Dan, yeah, there it is. Dan, what would 00:08:59.179 --> 00:09:06.080 you say if someone comes to you and asks for 00:09:06.080 --> 00:09:13.220 help? What would be your expertise? I think the 00:09:13.220 --> 00:09:16.539 best way to call myself and our company, we're 00:09:16.539 --> 00:09:21.419 facilitators. We are facilitators of people's 00:09:21.419 --> 00:09:25.240 vision, their visions through video, through 00:09:25.240 --> 00:09:28.840 any type of marketing, whatever it might be. 00:09:29.659 --> 00:09:34.399 Being in this business so long, if I can't do 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:37.759 it in a house here, I probably know somebody 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:40.299 that can, or I'll go find somebody. that can 00:09:40.299 --> 00:09:43.940 do it. We're pretty good at that. And it's, it's, 00:09:43.940 --> 00:09:47.360 it's served us well. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:51.320 for sharing that with us today, Dan. I have one 00:09:51.320 --> 00:09:53.519 more question for you before we end today's segment. 00:09:54.620 --> 00:10:00.159 How did you get started in, in the video business? 00:10:00.940 --> 00:10:03.879 And, and the authorship also, like, well, those 00:10:03.879 --> 00:10:06.620 are two unique businesses. I mean, I think you 00:10:06.620 --> 00:10:09.429 started a while ago. Well, it probably wasn't 00:10:09.429 --> 00:10:12.169 as popular where it is now. But now everyone 00:10:12.169 --> 00:10:15.610 wants to be an influencer. Almost everyone wants 00:10:15.610 --> 00:10:17.929 to have a video channel going on and videos. 00:10:18.309 --> 00:10:21.789 Everyone thinks they can be Mr. Beast. Yeah. 00:10:22.789 --> 00:10:26.190 And so how did you get started in that path and 00:10:26.190 --> 00:10:31.549 why? Yeah. Well, when I got out of the full service. 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:34.860 advertising world, which is what I did, you know, 00:10:34.860 --> 00:10:38.899 for 20 years prior to this, um, you know, I saw 00:10:38.899 --> 00:10:41.799 that there was video was just popping up. It 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:43.679 was just coming out and people were just, you 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:45.480 know, there were still these big shoulder cameras, 00:10:45.559 --> 00:10:48.299 you know, with the tape and, you know, uh, and 00:10:48.299 --> 00:10:49.980 I'm thinking I'm watching other people do this. 00:10:50.019 --> 00:10:52.039 I'm like, you know what? I can do this. I had 00:10:52.039 --> 00:10:55.980 no, I did them in my agency. I directed them, 00:10:56.080 --> 00:10:58.480 but I never really. pushed it too hard. And I 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:01.220 realized, you know, in the agency, I was competing 00:11:01.220 --> 00:11:04.379 constantly with other agencies that could say 00:11:04.379 --> 00:11:06.860 they could do everything. But when I got into 00:11:06.860 --> 00:11:08.899 the video world, there weren't a lot of people 00:11:08.899 --> 00:11:12.220 doing video at the time. So I was able to go 00:11:12.220 --> 00:11:14.659 in, in between the advertising agency and talk 00:11:14.659 --> 00:11:17.340 to these gigantic companies and say, look, we 00:11:17.340 --> 00:11:20.039 specialize in video production. We can create 00:11:20.039 --> 00:11:22.110 whatever you need. And if you need advertising, 00:11:22.370 --> 00:11:24.250 we can do that, too. But our main focus is video 00:11:24.250 --> 00:11:26.529 production and social media. And everybody's 00:11:26.529 --> 00:11:28.950 like, what's social media? You know, they didn't 00:11:28.950 --> 00:11:31.470 you know, they hardly knew it back then. So that's 00:11:31.470 --> 00:11:33.669 where I think the advantage came into play. And 00:11:33.669 --> 00:11:35.850 so I saw an opportunity and we took it from there. 00:11:36.950 --> 00:11:40.330 And then we also now our next one is AI. So we're. 00:11:40.620 --> 00:11:42.799 We're integrating AI into almost everything. 00:11:42.940 --> 00:11:45.899 And you see all these crazy videos online with 00:11:45.899 --> 00:11:48.340 the AI generated. Well, we're trying to get it 00:11:48.340 --> 00:11:51.600 so it makes sense for people now. So you can 00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:53.799 make these little five second segments that are 00:11:53.799 --> 00:11:55.279 like, hmm, that's interesting. I didn't know 00:11:55.279 --> 00:11:57.379 we could do that. But being able to utilize that 00:11:57.379 --> 00:11:59.460 for business, that's a real goal for us right 00:11:59.460 --> 00:12:02.539 now. So we're doing all the research and that's 00:12:02.539 --> 00:12:07.179 like the next level as well as podcasting. Author, 00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:12.509 moving on to that. That was with my my first 00:12:12.509 --> 00:12:15.210 book was with Tom Hopkins. He's a sales legend, 00:12:15.350 --> 00:12:18.269 you know, sold millions and millions of books. 00:12:18.389 --> 00:12:20.769 But I reached out online to him on LinkedIn and 00:12:20.769 --> 00:12:23.110 I said, you know what? I've been using your closing 00:12:23.110 --> 00:12:25.990 techniques for forever. And then all of a sudden 00:12:25.990 --> 00:12:28.649 I'm starting to use them online and they're working 00:12:28.649 --> 00:12:32.169 exactly like they were in, you know, when we 00:12:32.169 --> 00:12:35.509 were doing in person. And lo and behold, he reached 00:12:35.509 --> 00:12:36.789 back to me and says, you know what? I'm going 00:12:36.789 --> 00:12:38.570 to put my vice president on this, you know, to 00:12:38.570 --> 00:12:41.190 have him have her. get back to you and you guys 00:12:41.190 --> 00:12:44.629 talk. So I reached out to her. She got back to 00:12:44.629 --> 00:12:48.809 me and she said, we like the concept. You're 00:12:48.809 --> 00:12:51.889 utilizing our services in this new medium of 00:12:51.889 --> 00:12:56.389 advertising. I mean, online services. So she 00:12:56.389 --> 00:12:58.950 says, let's see what we can do. So month went 00:12:58.950 --> 00:13:00.850 by, didn't think anything of it. I thought that 00:13:00.850 --> 00:13:02.950 was nothing. And she says, I got to tell you, 00:13:02.970 --> 00:13:07.090 we ran this by one of our publishers and they're 00:13:07.090 --> 00:13:09.220 ready to go. We're going to publish it. We're 00:13:09.220 --> 00:13:11.500 going to take care of everything. Boom. I'm an 00:13:11.500 --> 00:13:15.379 author. I didn't, I never wrote anything. I probably 00:13:15.379 --> 00:13:19.639 got D's in English. I was terrible in English, 00:13:19.740 --> 00:13:22.399 but that wasn't important because they had a 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:25.460 whole crew of people that helped write the whole 00:13:25.460 --> 00:13:29.059 thing. It was just having the, the, the wherewithal 00:13:29.059 --> 00:13:32.779 and overcoming the fear of reaching out to that 00:13:32.779 --> 00:13:35.899 person is what put me in a whole different trajectory. 00:13:37.379 --> 00:13:40.470 So I, Did a brain dump. I sent everything to 00:13:40.470 --> 00:13:42.490 them. They helped me write the whole thing. Nine 00:13:42.490 --> 00:13:45.330 months later, it's a bestseller. So I became 00:13:45.330 --> 00:13:48.889 a bestselling author within nine months. Co -author, 00:13:48.970 --> 00:13:52.370 I guess, with Tom. And then I wrote five. Since 00:13:52.370 --> 00:13:53.929 then, I've written five books and they're all 00:13:53.929 --> 00:13:56.460 in business and marketing. things of this nature. 00:13:56.539 --> 00:13:58.559 Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy 00:13:58.559 --> 00:14:00.779 that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking 00:14:00.779 --> 00:14:04.019 forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes 00:14:04.019 --> 00:14:05.820 continue to move forward. This is going to get 00:14:05.820 --> 00:14:08.440 more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement 00:14:08.440 --> 00:14:10.539 as well. We'll invite people to participate in 00:14:10.539 --> 00:14:12.720 the show and thank you for giving us your time 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:15.019 and attention. Have an excellent time building 00:14:15.019 --> 00:14:17.360 out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.