What would you say is the why of what you do?
And what were some of the stories that pertain
to your why? I'd love to hear those. The why.
The why is change. It has changed quite a bit
over the years. When it started, it used to be
money, money, money, make a living. Now it's
helping others. And I don't know if I mentioned
this last time, but there's a really good book
out there by Bob Berg. And I can't remember the
name of it, but I know it's it's oh, the go giver.
That's what it is. And it's all about giving.
And every great person I've had the opportunity
to speak to, they've all said, if you give other
people enough things that they want, you will
get everything that you want in life. So that's
kind of the the why right now. And it does come
to fruition. Yeah. Thank you for saying that.
So. Talk to me about some stories that have maybe
solidified your why or added to your why or changed
your why. Because you mentioned it has changed
and transformed over the years. And I also have
been in those shoes where early in the stages,
you're like, I want to just provide and the money
affects and I want to have investments and all
those things going on. And as you learn, as you
grow. You see your inability as a leader to grow.
And you said, oh, maybe money is not the main
thing. Maybe the focus should be something else
and money will follow. Yeah. Well, when I started
in this business, I was in my early 20s. And
I basically just got with two people that were
creating brochures back in the day. Brochures
on photography. And over a period of 10 years,
I built it up to a really substantial business.
And then I was doing dumb things. I was just
doing partying too much. We were going out all
the time, buying new whatever. And God, higher
power, whatever you'd like to call it, gives
you nudges. And it started with very simple nudges.
And then it became a shove. And when it became
a shove, I went bankrupt. and everything crashed
and burned everybody took all my business and
um i was sitting there scratching my head trying
to figure out what to do um and then you know
i tried working for other people for a couple
of years no go you know it was like two bosses
coming into a it wasn't working so i realized
i i needed to get back into my own business and
do the same thing again from scratch and um It
was a hard lesson. It stung, but I grew the right
way after that. And that's what made a big difference
in my life. And a lot of things in between there,
you know, substance abuse, alcohol, you know,
all took the toll, you know, over time. But then
until you really clean up and look back and go,
wow, all right, this is my life. The people that
love me are still with me. you know now what
so uh and things got much brighter very quickly
thank you for sharing that um i bet during those
times um and you also mentioned that you did
the things the right way this time after going
bankrupt and learning the lesson so what were
some of the lessons that you learned and what
held you back and i bet that's um i think would
have taken you less time now uh to do what you
did earlier um because you didn't make the mistakes
you did last time at least some of them yeah
um one of the main ones if i were to go back
and talk to my 20 year old self is when you get
your money don't spend it right away squirrel
away uh enough for anything so you can have anything
nothing whatever happens you've got it covered
And, um, that's one thing I know. I remember
vividly, I had two partners and, you know, we
took out a loan for a hundred thousand bucks
back in the nineties and we all bought $5 ,000
desks. Really dumbest thing I could ever do.
I still have the desk. It's up in my garage,
beautiful desk, but it's sitting in the garage
as a doorstop. And you know what? I never paid
it off. I just never paid it off. And it was
like one of those things you go, wow. So those
kind of things, I think I could have done the
same thing on a card table. As a matter of fact,
I started with a phone, a desk, basically a card
table and a desk and built the business up to
a million dollars a year within a few years.
But by the time I got there, I was like, okay,
now I'm buying everything. I need to reward myself.
So that's probably one of the biggest ones. You
have to have enough capital. available to grow
and scale. When you start making the money before
you make it, you just bust your butt and you
just do it and you don't look back and you need
to do that all along, but save it, save it. And
you still have fun, but you don't have to spend
a fortune to have fun doing things. That's probably
the biggest one, you know? And then another one
I think is treat everybody with respect, no matter
what. Because you never know what bridge you're
going to burn down the road. And I've usually
been pretty good about that. But vendors, I've
had a tendency to treat vendors poorly. And you
still have to have respect no matter what you
do when you deal with people. And my wife freaks
out sometimes the way I've talked to vendors.
And you don't need to do that. Two big ones.
So tell me more about that one where you got
people with respect. Well, yeah. And, you know,
I like we were talking last time, you know, I
did write a book on negotiating and you still
can treat people with respect while you're negotiating.
You're all working for the same goal. That person
wants to make a sale. You want to get the best
price possible. You're basically keeping people
in check. But, you know, you never know who knows
who. You know, I've had crazy. times where i've
treated somebody very nicely and next thing you
know oh my cousin needs a this over here something
if you do something over here something over
here always happens if you're doing the right
thing yeah you know so that that's the way i
i try to look at it now yeah we um our company
has uh five core values patience persistence
consistency and reliability and all based on
the foundation of love I think that's something
most businesses don't think about or most people
don't think about. I think having some kind of
core values in your business sets a standard
where people need to be looking towards and building
towards and working towards. And when they fall
short, the other core values come and support
those shortcomings. And the pretenders eventually
go away and the contenders stay with you and
help you build your vision. So I appreciate you
sharing that with us today. My pleasure. What
would you say is your goal for being on the show
today, Dan? If I can supply somebody with some
insight and knowledge that will help them get
further in life, that would be great. You know,
and and to leave it out there like that with,
you know, and everything I do is I'm trying to
help my. Customers, vendors, whatever it takes
to get to a mutual place of success. And that's
important in any working relationship. Yeah.
Anything. Yeah. For audience. Dan actually has
a book called The Secret Online Door. I haven't
read it yet, but. Dan, speak highly of the book.
I'm excited for all of you to see and look through
that. Dan, yeah, there it is. Dan, what would
you say if someone comes to you and asks for
help? What would be your expertise? I think the
best way to call myself and our company, we're
facilitators. We are facilitators of people's
vision, their visions through video, through
any type of marketing, whatever it might be.
Being in this business so long, if I can't do
it in a house here, I probably know somebody
that can, or I'll go find somebody. that can
do it. We're pretty good at that. And it's, it's,
it's served us well. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you
for sharing that with us today, Dan. I have one
more question for you before we end today's segment.
How did you get started in, in the video business?
And, and the authorship also, like, well, those
are two unique businesses. I mean, I think you
started a while ago. Well, it probably wasn't
as popular where it is now. But now everyone
wants to be an influencer. Almost everyone wants
to have a video channel going on and videos.
Everyone thinks they can be Mr. Beast. Yeah.
And so how did you get started in that path and
why? Yeah. Well, when I got out of the full service.
advertising world, which is what I did, you know,
for 20 years prior to this, um, you know, I saw
that there was video was just popping up. It
was just coming out and people were just, you
know, there were still these big shoulder cameras,
you know, with the tape and, you know, uh, and
I'm thinking I'm watching other people do this.
I'm like, you know what? I can do this. I had
no, I did them in my agency. I directed them,
but I never really. pushed it too hard. And I
realized, you know, in the agency, I was competing
constantly with other agencies that could say
they could do everything. But when I got into
the video world, there weren't a lot of people
doing video at the time. So I was able to go
in, in between the advertising agency and talk
to these gigantic companies and say, look, we
specialize in video production. We can create
whatever you need. And if you need advertising,
we can do that, too. But our main focus is video
production and social media. And everybody's
like, what's social media? You know, they didn't
you know, they hardly knew it back then. So that's
where I think the advantage came into play. And
so I saw an opportunity and we took it from there.
And then we also now our next one is AI. So we're.
We're integrating AI into almost everything.
And you see all these crazy videos online with
the AI generated. Well, we're trying to get it
so it makes sense for people now. So you can
make these little five second segments that are
like, hmm, that's interesting. I didn't know
we could do that. But being able to utilize that
for business, that's a real goal for us right
now. So we're doing all the research and that's
like the next level as well as podcasting. Author,
moving on to that. That was with my my first
book was with Tom Hopkins. He's a sales legend,
you know, sold millions and millions of books.
But I reached out online to him on LinkedIn and
I said, you know what? I've been using your closing
techniques for forever. And then all of a sudden
I'm starting to use them online and they're working
exactly like they were in, you know, when we
were doing in person. And lo and behold, he reached
back to me and says, you know what? I'm going
to put my vice president on this, you know, to
have him have her. get back to you and you guys
talk. So I reached out to her. She got back to
me and she said, we like the concept. You're
utilizing our services in this new medium of
advertising. I mean, online services. So she
says, let's see what we can do. So month went
by, didn't think anything of it. I thought that
was nothing. And she says, I got to tell you,
we ran this by one of our publishers and they're
ready to go. We're going to publish it. We're
going to take care of everything. Boom. I'm an
author. I didn't, I never wrote anything. I probably
got D's in English. I was terrible in English,
but that wasn't important because they had a
whole crew of people that helped write the whole
thing. It was just having the, the, the wherewithal
and overcoming the fear of reaching out to that
person is what put me in a whole different trajectory.
So I, Did a brain dump. I sent everything to
them. They helped me write the whole thing. Nine
months later, it's a bestseller. So I became
a bestselling author within nine months. Co -author,
I guess, with Tom. And then I wrote five. Since
then, I've written five books and they're all
in business and marketing. things of this nature.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy
that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking
forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes
continue to move forward. This is going to get
more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement
as well. We'll invite people to participate in
the show and thank you for giving us your time
and attention. Have an excellent time building
out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.