Episodios

  • The AI Approach to Multiply Your Sales: Part 1

    The AI Approach to Multiply Your Sales: Part 1
    Nov 11 2025
    Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will discuss the AI Approach to Multiply Your Sales. This is the first in a multiple part series, and we'll start off with targeting, communication, and reach. David: Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, David, it's great to be with you. I'm really excited about this series because I think a lot of people shy away from AI. Or they're getting into it and they're hearing a lot of the things that it can do, but they're not sure how to approach it or even if it's the right thing to do for their business. David: Yes. Agreed. The way this actually came about is that we've been talking for a while over the course of the past several weeks in particular about multiplying your sales. And some people really struggle with this concept. And I thought, well, what does AI have to say on the topic, and how does what AI says about it relate to what we do, and how we help our clients, and do these things line up? So I thought what I'd do is I'd take the answer to the question when we asked AI, "What are your best recommendations in terms of multiplying sales," to see what AI says and then compare that with what we're doing. And so the first three recommendations that it had were based on targeting, communication, and reach. Those are my words, not AI words in particular. But that's pretty much what it broke down to, so I figured that's what we'd start with. Jay: I love it. We're going to do a podcast on AI, and we've asked AI what it thinks first, and now we're going to psychoanalyze AI to see if it's in line. David: Well, to see how it lines up. Because one of the things that I found interesting was that when I asked it about multiplying sales, it was coming back with responses that talked about increasing sales. And so I asked it specifically to come up with recommendations based on multiplying sales. And at first it seemed resistant to that. So it talked about growing sales and multiplying sales. But this is where it landed. So I figured we'd start with this. Now, I had asked it to prioritize these things. I'm not quite sure if it did. But this is what it came back with. So the very first recommendation that it had in terms of multiplying sales. I'll tell you specifically what it said first and then we can discuss it. So the first thing that it recommended is it said: 1. Define Your Target Audience. Clearly identify your ideal customers and understand their needs, preferences, and pain points. So, that's how it started. What do you think of that take? Jay: It sounds very, very traditional, very typical, common knowledge. The first thing that I learned in a sales class years ago, identifying your target audience. But I feel like that's so basic, and when you talk about multiplying sales, I tend to think that's more about taking the existing clientele and getting them to spend more. That's what I think about. David: I tend to think that way as well, but I thought it's a pretty good jumping off point because whether your target audience means your existing clients and the new clients that you want to go after, I think it makes a whole lot of sense to lead with, determining who it is that you're going to be going after. I relate a lot of this to what we do in our Total Market Domination course. One of the very first things we do in our course is we have a three level system of targeting. So what AI is recommending here in sort of a general sense, in terms of defining your target market, is something that we really dive into pretty heavily with our clients. Because without that targeting up front, if you don't know exactly who it is that you're going after, who your ideal client is, the likelihood of bringing an ideal client through the door is Is generally slim to none. Jay: Yeah. And you know, we've talked a lot about this in the past that knowing who your target audience is,
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    14 m
  • Want to Multiply Money in Your Business?

    Want to Multiply Money in Your Business?
    Nov 4 2025
    If you want to multiply money in your business, it means you have to figure out the very specific steps that you need to take in order to make that happen. David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will discuss the topic, Can You Multiply Money? Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey David, of course you can. I have a tree in my backyard. Money grows on it and I just have to water it every year. What else do I need? David: Nice. No, that's great. You got a money tree. You're in great shape. When I think about the abilty to multiply money, I know that in the early stages of some of my businesses, and in the early stages of trying to figure out how to make them work, I was able to multiply money. But I was multiplying it by fractions, you know. So... If you multiply money by 0. 5, you now have half the money you started out with. So I think we're all able to multiply money. But, ideally, we want to multiply by whole numbers. Jay: Yeah, I agree, but we also subtract money. I'm not sure what the terminology is. Bbut a lot of times in an attempt to multiply money, if you're not careful, you're actually losing money. David: Yeah. And you will have to invest. You'll have to make investments up front. I think a lot of times people go into business, particularly small business owners, will go in with the idea of, "well, I'll just bootstrap it." And it's certainly what I've done, I did that a number of times and when it works, it's fantastic. And when it doesn't, it's disastrous. So as long as you recognize that going in, it's all okay. But having that focus, what will it take to get this going? How much will it cost? How long will I have to work for nothing, if I bootstrap entirely? A lot of those questions come into play. Jay: Yeah, otherwise it's kind of gambling. You know, starting a business is kind of a form of gambling, but the better the idea is, the more help you have along the way, the more financially stable you can be in the process, the more you increase the odds that your gamble will pay off. David: Yeah, and it really is a gamble in the truest sense of the word. Because you don't know if it's going to work. It might work and it might not. You may have a really good feel for it. You may have done it before and say, okay, I feel really good about this. I think this is really going to work, but it's still a bet. You're still guessing and betting that it's going to work based on what you know. You think you can multiply money, but you can't be sure until you try. I've never really been a gambler in terms of casinos and things like that, but I guess people who do that well and know how to do it, they can go into a situation and say, "okay, I have a pretty good feel for the fact that I'm going to make back a multiple of what I lay down on the table. And sometimes they're right and sometimes they're wrong. And it's exactly the same in business. Jay: Yeah, absolutely. Only in business, you may put a lot of things on the line, your family's future. You may quit your job. You really put yourself out there in many ways. I found success in making sure my family is supported with a day job and then I pursued other things on the side. Meanwhile, I had other family members who have said, "no, I'm going all in" and they put everything at risk. And that didn't turn out so well, but you know, it depends on the individual and the idea, I think. David: Yeah, absolutely. And I know in the early stages I tried doing sort of a sideline thing for a while and I could never personally make that work. Jay: Yeah, yeah. David: Because it was hard for me when somebody else was paying me money to do a job, I didn't feel like I could walk away to do my thing, so I was torn in that way. When I was working on my side project, I felt like I should either be working on the work that was paying me or when I was at real work,
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    16 m
  • How to Create Explosive Growth in Your Business, Part 2

    How to Create Explosive Growth in Your Business, Part 2
    Oct 28 2025
    I got a lot of great feedback from last week's episode on how to create explosive growth in your business. So today I'd like to expand on that topic a bit and start laying out the steps to make it happen. If you're serious about creating explosive growth in your business, let's start by discussing where that sort of growth begins. It's not in your marketing, not yet. It's not in your sales scripts. That comes later. And it's definitely not in whatever new shiny object comes flying across your screen as you scroll on social media. Instead, it starts between your ears. Here's what I mean. If you look at the most successful printers and promotional product distributors, and really the leaders in almost any industry, a big difference in what sets them apart from their competitors isn't luck. It's their mindset, the way they think about their business, their clients, their messaging, and their results before they do anything to reach out to them. And while you probably already know that's important, you also need to understand why having the right mindset doesn't just make you feel better about your business. It's not really about your feelings, it's about your vision. Having the right mindset allows you to see better. It allows you to notice the people, the approaches and the opportunities that you might otherwise overlook. It allows you to recognize the profitable activities and patterns that other people don't see. As a result, you stop looking at the typical average approaches that create average, mediocre results for everyone else, so you can trigger the explosive growth you're looking for. This means thinking like a market dominator, not just like a participant. You already know that every business has a ceiling, but you might not know that most of these ceilings are self-imposed. They come from the beliefs and the actions of the participants. I hear from business owners all the time who swear they want to grow, but then the very next thing they tell me is the reason they believe they can't do it. "I want to grow, but I don't have enough time." "I really need your help, but I can't afford it right now." "I'm serious about growing, but the people in my market are cheapskates." The problem with that thinking is that you're making excuses instead of making plans. Explosive growth requires you to blow through that ceiling by asking better questions. Like: "What if I do have the time, but up until now, I just haven't been using it the right way?" "What if I stop wasting financial resources on things that don't move the needle and start investing in the things that do?" "What if I adjust my approach to ignore the cheap skates and start targeting clients with money?" These are some of the simple mindset shifts that allow you to see how explosive growth is even possible. Of course, mindset alone won't do it, but it does allow you to unlock the rest of the process of market domination. One of the biggest differences between struggling business owners, average performers and those who dominate their markets is how they evaluate their resources. Struggling owners think in terms of shortages: "I don't have enough..." "I don't have enough time, leads, ideas, help, resources..." But top performers who create explosive growth in their businesses, focus instead on leveraging everything they have. "How can I generate exceptional results from the time, leads, ideas, help, and whatever other resources I have?" It's a simple shift that provides alternatives instead of focusing on excuses for why I can't get the things I want. Everything we do with our Total Market Domination clients is built on leveraging their time and resources, so they can accomplish more in less time and multiply their results instead of settling for less. So as others complain about not having enough clients, you'll be confidently attracting more of the ideal clients they can't get,
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    7 m
  • How to Create Explosive Growth in Your Business

    How to Create Explosive Growth in Your Business
    Oct 21 2025
    Want to create explosive growth in your business? If so, consider this: Why is it that some businesses take off like a rocket while others can languish for months or years without getting the traction they need to grow? Why do some businesses plateau at a certain level and struggle to break through, while others are able to grow consistently? In my experience, it boils down to three things we'll discuss in this episode. Recently, I was reminded of a story about how Chinese bamboo trees grow very slowly underground, for years, completely unseen. The people who plant these trees water and fertilize the soil every day, even though there are no signs of life. Sounds tedious, right? Watering the same patch of dirt for years? I mean, that HAS to feel pretty unfulfilling at times. But the amazing part of the story is that roughly five years after planting -- when the bamboo finally breaks the surface of the ground -- it can grow up to 90 feet tall in just five weeks. That's an example of how to create explosive growth! And while a typical bystander might see that and think, "wow, that grew really fast!" The people who actually do the work -- those who plant, water, fertilize and cultivate these plants -- know EXACTLY what it took to trigger that growth. I love this analogy because it tracks so closely to the work I've done with promotional product businesses over the past 20+ years. Some of the people I work with might start out feeling a bit like the bamboo gardener -- tending, nurturing, and cultivating a business that seems like it might never break through the soil. In fact, some are stuck for more years than it takes for a bamboo tree to crack through the dirt and see the light of day. But the good news is that promo businesses AREN'T bamboo trees. They're not subject to the same restrictive laws of nature. Instead, there are very specific steps we can take to prep the environment and TRIGGER explosive growth much faster. In fact, when I work with clients, we operate in two primary modes: First is Stealth Mode This is where we lay the groundwork that no one else sees. It's what's happening beneath the surface. In bamboo terms, it would be the equivalent of supercharging the seeds, soil, water, and fertilizer to create a better, stronger, faster-growing plant that is heartier and more resilient than the other plants. Second is Intimidation Mode I know that sounds obnoxious. But the simple fact is that when you initiate explosive growth in a business, people notice. Their prospects are excited to see something new and different. Their clients are excited to be associated with a winner, OUR clients are excited to have their businesses attracting the right people and growing the way they want... And their competitors? Well, they just get intimidated. It's not the intention. But it's often a side effect. So each month, we offer a small group of promotional product distributors the opportunity to work with us to plant the seeds. Our goal is to help you quickly: Lay the groundwork Plant the seeds and Trigger explosive growth And we do this using our proprietary, proven framework. It is NOT cheap, but it is EXTREMELY effective. So what does creating explosive growth actually look like in a promotional products business? Well, let's start with what it doesn't look like… It doesn't look like 10 to 20% annual growth. I mean, think about it. If you start at $50,000 in sales your first year and settle for 10% annual growth, it would take you more than 32 years to hit $1,000,000 in sales. Even at 20% growth, it would take more than 17 years. So if you're serious about growth -- particularly in the early stages -- 10% to 20% annual growth is not going to do it for you. Ask yourself this. Are your current year-over-year numbers getting you to where you want to be? And if so, are they getting you there fast enough? Usually,
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    9 m
  • Turn Focus into Profit by Growing Sales

    Turn Focus into Profit by Growing Sales
    Oct 14 2025
    To turn focus into profit, consider this. Your focus determines the level of profit that you generate. Because the people you meet, the conversations you have, all of that flows from your focus. So when you focus on those activities, the likelihood of increasing your profit increases dramatically. David: Hi and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss How to Turn Focus into Profit. Welcome back, Kevin. Kevin: It's great to be here. Thanks for having me, David. Focus. Focus is something we could all use a little bit more of probably in our day-to-day lives, but is that a rare skill in business today? In the people that you work with? David: That's a great question. I think for some people it is problematic. I think that's the nicest way to say it. If you lack that focus, then it's going to be a lot more difficult to accomplish the things that you want. So if it is something that you're already good at, then the question becomes, how do I best harness that? Can I turn focus into profit? And if it's not something you're good at, then the question becomes, how can I get at least good enough at it that I can function at the level at which I need to function? Kevin: I feel like my focus has changed over the years, and part of it is definitely technology. Because I've got a phone sitting next to me that might beep. Might be personal, might be business, could be anything. I could be working on a project and a client on Slack gets in touch with me. Then I get an email. And then there's just so many channels of communication. I mean, do you find that technology has made it more difficult in some ways for people to focus, and to turn focus into profit? As opposed to maybe 10, 20 years ago? David: Yeah, and I mean, particularly when you look at things like social media, because social media is designed to disrupt your focus. Kevin: Right. David: Everything that comes in, whether it's an email or a post on social media, it's all designed to get your attention. So that's why, particularly in the past 10 to 20 years, focus is so much more of an issue for people. Because as you said, there are lots of different things to focus on. The algorithms are specifically programmed to make you focus on their priorities rather than your own. That makes it challenging to turn focus into profit. So if you're aware of that and if you recognize that you have to determine what your focus needs to be in order to accomplish your results, then it becomes more likely that you'll take the necessary actions to do that. Kevin: Yeah, that's a really good point. I mean, we've all been in situations where you go on social media for a business purpose and all of a sudden you're watching videos of some knuckleheads playing slip and slide softball, which are kickball, which I've gotten watching, are those silly videos. You're just like, before you know it, you're like, oh my God, it's been a half an hour. I just came on here to check out a client's page real quick. David: Yeah. And again, they designed the system to do that. They built it in. That's not a mistake. That is the purpose of the design. So when we recognize that only we can determine whether or not we will remain focused, then we take the responsibility on ourselves. We recognize Okay, it 's designed to do that. So if I recognize that and if I leave that open, and if I have notifications turned on to an app that is specifically designed to derail me from my focus, then yeah. I'm sort of getting what I'm putting out. Kevin: You're in trouble. You're in trouble. David: Yeah. Kevin: Yeah. so the topic today is about how to turn focus into profit. How does a lack of focus directly translate into lost revenue? David: Well, if you're looking at what your highest value activities are and then you focus on those, you're going to be a lot more likely to accomplish what you're looking to accomplish than if you allo...
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    11 m
  • The What, Why, When & How of Your Business

    The What, Why, When & How of Your Business
    Oct 7 2025
    The success of your business is always determined by the what, why, when & how. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? When are you doing it? And How? If you don't have the desire to help your clients, if it's all about you making money, or if it's all about you accomplishing a personal result for yourself, and you don't have enough care or consideration for the person you're selling to, I think it's going to be hard to be successful long term. David: Hi, and welcome back. In today’s episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss the what, why, when, and how of your business. Welcome back, Kevin. Kevin: Good to see you, David. How you doing? David: Doing great, and you? Kevin: Good. Good. All right — so, what, why, when, how. Let’s start with the first one. Why is it critical to define your what before anything else in business? David: Well, the way I look at it is, if you don’t know what you’re doing, then why you’re doing it, when you’re doing it, and how you’re doing it are kind of irrelevant. Kevin: Doesn’t really matter. David: Right. You sort of— Kevin: Yup. David: Yeah, you kind of have to know what it is that you’re setting out to do. Whether you’re operating solo or with a team of people, identifying what you want to accomplish — in your business or in any specific area of your business — is always the first step. So, if the what is “getting clients,” then the question becomes: What is my procedure? What is my process going to be for getting clients? That’s the what. You identify that first. Once you’ve even thought about what you want to accomplish — or what you think you might want to accomplish, if you’re still in the ideation stage — the what is important. But the reason I go to the why next is because if you don’t have a strong why, you might not be committed enough to what has to be done. Over the years, I’ve noticed that people who have ideas but don’t have a really strong, compelling reason for doing them tend to struggle to get those things done. Kevin: So it can become a motivation issue to some degree? David: It certainly can, because if you’ve got strong reasons for wanting to do something — whether it’s to support your family, to create a growing enterprise, or to eventually sell the business and make a profit — that strong why will definitely impact your motivation. So I think that’s a big component. Without it, why does anyone really do anything? Kevin: I suppose you could technically start with the why, right? Because if you have a reason for doing something, you can then build the what around it. Or is that a bad way to go in your mind? David: Well, if you’re thinking in terms of starting a business, that would actually be the what. But I guess it’s possible to start with the why. For example, if my why is “I want to support my family and I’m not happy with what I’m doing now,” then I might arrive at a what like, “I want to start my own business,” or “I want to do A, B, or C to make that happen.” That hasn’t worked that way for me personally — but it could for someone else. If you’ve got a strong enough why, you can then start thinking about what needs to happen in order to achieve the things you have in mind. Kevin: When it comes to the when, why is it so important to define a timeline? David: Wow. Anyone who’s in sales probably has some strong thoughts about when. If you’ve ever spoken to a prospect who seems really excited and seems like a perfect fit for what you offer — and then they just keep dodging you or stop taking your calls — that’s a perfect example of someone who doesn’t have their when dialed in. In any conversation — with prospects, clients, or coworkers — we need to identify the when so everyone’s on the same page about the importance of the action and the likelihood of it happening. Because without a when, things just don’t happen. A lot of our work is with people in the promotional products and print industries. In those cases,
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    12 m
  • Choose Your Business Partners & Colleagues Wisely

    Choose Your Business Partners & Colleagues Wisely
    Sep 30 2025
    It's important, no matter who you're partnering with, from a business standpoint, from an employee standpoint, from a VA standpoint. Whoever you choose as your business partners and colleagues have to have the skills that you lack, if you want to be able to accomplish the things that you need to get done. David: Hi. Welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss the topic of choosing business partners wisely. Welcome back, Kevin. Kevin: It's good to be here. David. I'm excited to talk about this because this is always an interesting topic. David: Yeah. When we think of business partners, we tend to think of people that we're actually going into business with. But there's really sort of a wider group of people that could potentially fit the bill here. So I think it's important to cover that as well. Kevin: The first one you spoke of, the actual business partner, business partner. I mean that can test a friendship. It can test a relationship, it tests all kinds of stuff. So in your experience, just from that side of things. What are the biggest mistakes that business people, entrepreneurs make when choosing a business partner? David: Well, I've made them over the years. My very first business partner was a guy that I worked with in another business. We decided we were going to start our own things. And so we just started out renting the same office space and splitting the rent on that sort of thing. Then we got involved in projects that required both of us working together. It didn't work out well. I started from the standpoint of we got along well, we interacted well. But neither of us took the time to consider our strengths and what each of us would bring to the table. A lot of times when people start working with friends or family, they think, "well, I know this person really well. I trust them." That's a good start. But unless you have similar visions for what the business is going to be, how you're going to get there, and who's going to do what, you can really end up with a lot of problems if that part of it doesn't work out. Kevin: Yeah. it can go downhill fast. It can definitely go downhill fast. So, in any business partnership, you know, you talked about the fact that there's varying types of them. What qualities do you feel matter most in a potential partner and which maybe are overrated? David: Well, I would say, starting out, you need to look at: Are our core values basically aligned? Do we sort of view the world in a similar way? Are we viewing business in a similar way? Do we view the relationship with our potential customers and clients in a similar way? Because if there's a disconnect there, then you're going to have problems starting with the very first decision. So I think that compatibility is very important. Making sure that everybody wants to go in the same direction, right? If you're in a rowboat, you want to make sure everybody's pulling in the same direction. That's extremely important. If you have complementary goals, essentially that's going to be a very important aspect of it. I think also, what is the expertise? What are you good at? What are they good at? If it's exactly the same things, you need to make sure it covers everything that has to be covered in a business. So, if I'm really good at generating ideas and you're really good at implementing those ideas, then that's going to work out well. If we're both great at generating ideas, but neither of us are great at implementation, we're going to struggle with that. And so you want to look at complementary skills. I think that is probably one of the most important aspects of it. You've got the same vision, but you have complementary skills. So that one or more of you are not doing things they hate, right? If you have to engage in a skill that you don't like, or if your business partner does, then it's not a good recipe. But if one of you is really good at idea generati...
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    15 m
  • How to Get from Ideas to Actions and Systems

    How to Get from Ideas to Actions and Systems
    Sep 23 2025
    We'll basically help you to look at where you are now and where you're looking to be in terms of getting something from ideas to actions and systems. Because without those three levels and without prioritizing it correctly, you can spend a lot of time, invest a lot of effort, and not get to the results you're looking for. David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss the topic of ideas, actions, and systems. Welcome back, Kevin. Kevin: Good to see you, David. Let's dig right in. Why do so many businesses get stuck at the idea stage and fail to even move into action? David: It's a great question. I think ideas in a lot of ways are kind of the easy part. We have a brainstorm, we're like, this is brilliant, let's do this. And then we have another one has this, brilliant, let's do this. And here's another one. This is brilliant. Let's do this. And then the question becomes, okay, what are we actually going to do? I know this has happened to me over the years in my own business. It's happened with a number of people that I've worked with over the years. You have a lot of ideas. And then the question becomes, what are we going to take action on? And then, which of the things that we take action on, will we systemize? Get into place so that we can take those actions consistently? So that's really the purpose of our discussion today. Kevin: Yeah. how do you personally decide, which ideas are worth pursuing and which to ignore? Because I can find myself to be an idea guy a lot of times too. I'm like this, I got this, I got this. But sometimes it's hard to prioritize what is actually a good plan. Then put it into action versus maybe we just skip that one. David: Yeah, it's helpful if we start out with essentially a data dump of all the different things that we're considering. Just write them all down. Then have internal conversations initially about which ones of these are going to be our priorities. What are we definitely going to lock in? Which ones will we save until later? And which ones are just kind of out there? We don't really have to look at those at the moment. Kevin: It seemed like a good idea last night... David: I find that by, Kevin: before I was falling asleep. Not so good the next day. Yeah, . David: That happens a lot, doesn't it? Kevin: Yep, it sure does. David: I have a digital recorder. I take it with me wherever I go and keep it next to the bed. When I get one of those brilliant ideas at night, I record it on there. Then you listen to it the next day and you're like, that was horrible, what was I thinking? Kevin: What a terrible idea. I can't even understand what I was saying. David: Yeah, exactly. But, I think it starts with that. It's about gathering all those ideas, because some of them are going to be great. Some of 'em are going to be brilliant, some of 'em are gonna be terrible, but we don't know it. Now, a lot of times, it's a good idea to sort of evaluate them yourselves before you start sharing them with everyone else, so that you're only talking to your people about the things that you've already kind of thought through and believe are the best ways to go, and ideally to prioritize those. And then do another round with your people and go through it and ask for their opinion on which things should be prioritized and which things should be deprioritized as it were, so that you can sort of work your way through and have everybody be on the same page as far as what we should be working on sooner rather than later. Kevin: I feel like a lot of times ideas can get just stuck in sort of a neutral. Do you have to put a sense of urgency into turning ideas into action? David: Well, I think you definitely have to prioritize it. So to say that, we give it a sense of urgency, I would say yes for the things that are most important. But again, there's this discernment process that needs to happen on the ideas t...
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    14 m