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How to Leverage a Crisis

August 22, 2022 by angishields

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Stop Watching the News

August 22, 2022 by angishields

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Rome-Floyd Chamber Small Business Spotlight – Elizabeth Huff and John Dantimo with A Night To Remember, Catherine Lovvorn with Living Proof Recovery, and Johnathan Peabody with Coosa Financial Planning

August 19, 2022 by angishields

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Rome-Floyd Chamber Small Business Spotlight - Elizabeth Huff and John Dantimo with A Night To Remember, Catherine Lovvorn with Living Proof Recovery, and Johnathan Peabody with Coosa Financial Planning
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Tagged With: A Night To Remember, Broad Street, Catherine Lovvorn, Coosa Financial Planning, Elizabeth Huff, Hardy on Broad, Hardy Realty, Hardy Realty Studio, John Dantimo, Johnathan Peabody, Living Proof Recovery, Rome Floyd Chamber, Rome Floyd Chamber of Commerce, Rome Floyd County Business, Rome Floyd Small Business Spotlight, Rome News Tribune

BRX Pro Tip: Are You Hangry?

August 19, 2022 by angishields

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BRX Pro Tip: Are You Hangry?

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, from time to time, disagreements are going to happen in the workplace, even with clients and prospective clients. And one of the easy sort of self-checks on all this because it does have an impact, are you hangry?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:23] Yeah. There’s been some research and I think this is fascinating that a lot of disagreements occur because one of the two people arguing was hangry or thirsty. So imagine how this can play out in your business, but also imagine how it can play out in your real life outside of your business. Think about how angry you get when you are hungry or dehydrated, and being hangry is real and it can sabotage relationships if you aren’t aware of how it affects you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:53] So, next time you get fired up about something or you have to make a big decision, check to see if you haven’t eaten or drank anything in a while and make sure that you’re in the right frame of mind to have this conversation or disagreement or make this decision. Because it’s a fact that if you are hungry or thirsty, you may not be in the right headspace to make this kind of decision or to have this kind of conversation. So, it might be better to pause, eat something, drink something, and then make that decision or have that conversation.

2022 WBENC: Consultant Linda Denny

August 17, 2022 by angishields

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2022 WBENC: Consultant Linda Denny
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TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio’s Open for Business. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:17] Lee Kantor here, broadcasting live from WBENC’s National Conference 2022. It’s been 25 years for WBENC, and congratulations to them for that big achievement. Right now, we are proud to be having an interview with Linda Denny, past president of WBENC. Welcome, Linda.

Linda Denny: [00:00:37] Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:39] So, 25 years, it’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?

Linda Denny: [00:00:42] The WBENC founding story is very amazing.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] So, share with us.

Linda Denny: [00:00:47] It’s just amazing that this organization came into being, and actually has prospered and impacted women’s businesses as much as it has. It’s exciting to think about. The organization was in the works for many years. Originally, women business owners were being certified by the minority counsel. And so, there were quite a number of women in certain locations around the country that were certified through the minority councils.

Linda Denny: [00:01:21] But when the minority council had a new president come in, and she said, well, White women aren’t minorities, this is for minorities, this is not for White women. And so, she literally just made them leave, even though many of them were very active in their councils and all. So, they basically got kicked out. But it was a blessing. I have thanked her many times, because-

Lee Kantor: [00:01:51] There was unintended consequences, right?

Linda Denny: [00:01:52] An Unintended consequence, that’s right. And what happened is there were women, of course, that were kicked out, were very upset about that, but there was a group down in Dallas, Texas that were particularly upset about it. And so, since there was a core group of corporate members down in that area or corporations down in that area that supported that particular council, they asked, would you, in fact, help us start a women’s council?

Linda Denny: [00:02:23] There needs to be a women’s council doing certification and replacing what we’ve just lost. And so, they hemmed and hawed around about that for, well, maybe we can do that, I don’t know, for quite a few years, frankly. So, these ladies just finally got to the point where they’d had enough. And so, they started being very aggressive about it. They went to the newspapers, they were on television. They were saying, this is not right.

Linda Denny: [00:02:57] And after a while, I think, frankly, they just shamed them into coming together to do it. But from the corporate side, also, they needed a council, such as WBENC, because they were—many of them wanting to start using women’s enterprises in their supplier diversity programs. But in order to do that, they were having to send their own staff out to review these businesses and to be sure that this really was a woman-owned business, not a man-owned business with a woman’s name on it.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:33] Right.

Linda Denny: [00:03:34] Because WBENC is looking at the ownership operation and control of a company. The certification does. So, in fact, they needed this. And so, finally, 11 corporations came together and decided that, yes, we should do this. And so, long story there, too, but to make it brief, they, over time, came together. They all put in a few bucks, and said, okay, we can start this. Susan Berry, the first president of WBENC, was hired to write the business plan and to help launch the organization.

Linda Denny: [00:04:21] And she eventually then became the first president of the organization. And the organization started with a certification standard that was very similar to what the minority counsel uses, but they did that because that’s really how—there’s regulations in federal law about how you can classify a business as minority-owned, women-owned, whatever. And so, those standards had to be very similar anyway.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:51] Consistent.

Linda Denny: [00:04:52] Consistent, absolutely. And they’re still consistent throughout the entire certification arena, regardless of its veterans, or people with disabilities or whatever. All the organizations that certify do so based on the same standards. And so, because these several hundred women had gone through certification already, they grandmothered about 500 businesses.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:22] Kind of got a jumpstart.

Linda Denny: [00:05:23] Got a jumpstart, that’s right, into the organization. They went out to many of the women’s business development centers. And then, there were other organizations that had been working with minority councils or were supporting women’s businesses, and they became, eventually, the regional partners of WBENC, and WBENC is the national council that oversees the certification standards, et cetera, but it’s the local organization.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:56] Right, the 14 RPOs.

Linda Denny: [00:05:57] That’s right.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:58] What were they at the beginning?

Linda Denny: [00:05:59] The Greater Georgia Business Council is the certification body for WBENC or they actually do the physical process.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:08] Right. They’re the boots on the ground in there.

Linda Denny: [00:06:09] They’re the boots on the ground and it couldn’t happen without them, believe me.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:13] Right. Exactly. But was there always 14 or was that something that just kind of grew over time?

Linda Denny: [00:06:19] There’s always been about 14. At one time, there was 15. And during my tenure as president, we kind of rearranged some of the territories a little bit. One of the original councils had more states than they could really manage. Georgia, for example, was just one state. Well, that didn’t make a lot of sense, because they were adjoining some of the states that they really needed to process and that weren’t getting as much services maybe they should have.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:48] Right. You got to spread the love.

Linda Denny: [00:06:50] That’s right. So, in fact, the Georgia Women’s Business Council became the-

Lee Kantor: [00:06:55] The Greater Women’s.

Linda Denny: [00:06:56] … Greater Women’s Business Council, because-

Lee Kantor: [00:06:58] Yeah, they used the G.

Linda Denny: [00:06:59] That’s right. Branding, who wants to redo all those logos.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:03] We don’t want that.

Linda Denny: [00:07:03] So, anyway, that is how the Georgia Women’s Business Council, including both or all Georgia, North and South Carolina came into being. And it’s been a really good change for all of the councils and it functions much better with the arrangement that we have at this point in time.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:28] So, now, what is the kind of the state of women’s business in your mind? You’ve seen this evolve over the years, obviously, you’ve been doing this for a minute. How has women’s business changed or has it?

Linda Denny: [00:07:41] I think it has, and I think it’s changed because people are more aware of it. Certainly, there’s been women’s businesses since ancient times.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:50] Right, beginning of time.

Linda Denny: [00:07:51] The beginning of time. And women are very entrepreneurial, and they’re very creative, and they have a lot of focus and drive if they want to. Just ask any child or many children.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:06] But to have this community where it’s so collaborative and everybody is helping everybody kind of get to a new level if possible, are you finding that more and more women businesses are taking a leap to becoming certified, or is this something still, you’re fighting this fight of, hey, this is worth it to the certification, get certified? It’s great that you’re a woman-owned business, but this is important not only for yourself, but also for every—the greater good for the whole.

Linda Denny: [00:08:34] I think that story is being told, and we’re seeing a lot of growth. WBENC, again, started with 500 certified businesses.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:45] Sure. And where are we at now about?

Linda Denny: [00:08:46] And I heard Pam say yesterday that it’s almost 17,000 today.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:51] Wow.

Linda Denny: [00:08:51] And during my tenure as president, we went from a little under 5,000 to right at 10,000. And so, the momentum was really starting to grow. And in the last 11 years, then we’ve gone to nearly 17,000. But what’s exciting too is that we’ve seen certification work. Just yesterday, I had a conversation with a woman who was telling me about what an impact certification has had on her company. And I’ve seen businesses go from not even quite $1,000,000 in revenue to now $1,000,000,000 in revenue. And not every business has that capability.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:35] Or that dream.

Linda Denny: [00:09:35] Or that dream. That’s right. Not everybody wants a business of that size. But the people that do can do it. And certification has been a really important part of that, because it opens the doors to contracts. And you still have to go and win the business the old-fashioned way through service, and price, and all of the things that it takes to compete in a contract of opportunity, but in fact, women are blending those opportunities. And suppliers that are the corporate supply professionals have told me so often, we love women business owners, because we find so much better service, sometimes, so much better communication, et cetera. And so, that’s exciting.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:27] So, what does WBENC need more of? Do they need more of the business that’s already a million. that wants to be the billion or do they need more of the just getting started, and hope, dreams of being a million?

Linda Denny: [00:10:37] I think WBENC’s always going to have a variety of those businesses. We have certified businesses that were already well over $1,000,000,000 now. That’s a job, I got to have to tell you.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:50] Right. Well, it’s hard to even put them in the same category.

Linda Denny: [00:10:54] But then, the brand new businesses, sometimes, use this as one of their first marketing tools, which it certainly can be, depending on what the business is. Now, the local dress shop, that’s not going to work. But in fact, if you’re a business that will eventually have a B2B type of customer base, a business customer base, not consumer customer base so much, but it’s amazing what this can do, but you have to have the right expectations about that also. And that expectation, if you’re a brand new business, is that you have to take baby steps. And that means you’re not going to walk into some big corporation, and get a great, big contract. That’s not going to happen. Maybe you’re going to do business with other WBEs. Many of our our women’s business enterprises do business with each other.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:54] And that’s okay, though.

Linda Denny: [00:11:55] Oh, it’s wonderful. I mean, I always look for women business owner when I’m buying something. I love that women-owned logo, because it sure makes it a lot easier. But in fact, that may be the first step that a brand new business would take, is seeking to do business with other smaller businesses, not maybe the giant corporations.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:21] But that’s part of the-

Linda Denny: [00:12:22] But that’s the building process.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:23] Right. And this is something you learn when you immerse yourself in the community. It’s not like this lottery ticket that you join, and you’re like, where is my million-dollar contract? I’m here now. It’s not like that. You got to look at this as this is now part of my culture, and I am part of the community, and I got to kind of earn my way up the ladder. So, I’m going to start here, and I’m going to do the work, and I’m going to volunteer, I’m going to be a part of the group, so you can see I am a leader, I am a person that you can trust for this kind of work. And then, work your way up the ladder. And then, the opportunity is really, you can dream as big as you want to.

Linda Denny: [00:13:00] That’s exactly right. And that’s what’s so exciting about WBENC, is that as the leader of this organization or a leader in this organization throughout many years, really, almost from the very beginning, I could see those businesses come in, and I could see the growth and the excitement. And again, the businesses that were those million-dollar businesses today are those 800 million, $900 million, billion-dollar businesses. And you stand back and you think about the impact that those businesses have had on not just their employees, but their customers, their people that they work with. I mean, the-

Lee Kantor: [00:13:49] The ripples are real.

Linda Denny: [00:13:51] The ripples are real. There’s a little—I spent 23 years in the financial services industry and in a corporate career as part of that. And we used to tell insurance agents that a dollar spent in a community will multiply itself at least seven times. And so, you think about those billion-dollar businesses, just their payroll, the seven times that that dollar turns over in every community, those small businesses are where business growth comes from in this country, and that’s exciting to help that.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:33] Now, at this stage in your career, what is the most rewarding part of your journey? To see these people, like you said, starting out, where they were just a person with a dream, and now, they have this entity, and they’re impacting thousands and thousands of people. Do you have your own adventure or are you on your own—a new entrepreneurial journey?

Linda Denny: [00:14:51] I worked so hard for so many years for all of this. When I retired from WBENC, I did quite a lot of consulting with various kinds of companies and organizations.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:04] Large and small or?

Linda Denny: [00:15:07] Large and small. I helped what was, at that point in time, called the United States Business Leadership Network, which today is called Disability:IN. And they were wanting to start a certification program of their business owners that were disabled, and because they were not having any way of reaching into those corporate markets and the bigger markets that they wanted to be able to reach to.

Linda Denny: [00:15:37] So, I was hired as a consultant and worked very closely with the organization for several years. Establishing that, we established the service-disabled veterans part of that program also. And so, it was very exciting to work with them. And then, also, just structurally, how the organization was organized, and how their board was organized, and some of those kinds of things. I just did-

Lee Kantor: [00:16:06] So, the foundational structure of the organization.

Linda Denny: [00:16:08] The structure of the organization along with the certification program, and helped bring them some good people that I knew would do a great job in leading some of those sections of their adventure, too. And I also worked with the National Veteran—NVOBA, National Veteran-Owned Business Association. I always have to stop and think about how to say that.

Linda Denny: [00:16:33] And helped them start their certification programs and also helped that organization be launched as a nonprofit organization, because corporate members were really interested in making sure that an organization that they supported with their corporate dollars was one, and the certification organization, I should say, was one that had the standards that are pretty standard throughout the industry or the certification industry, if you want to call it that.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:07] It’s becoming an industry. Like now, there’s a lot of them out there doing this kind of work.

Linda Denny: [00:17:13] The certification community, let’s call it that.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:15] Alright.

Linda Denny: [00:17:17] Anyway, I’ve assisted them in launching both the organization and the certification program. Again, helped them find some great people. We thought about that one very differently. And so, that certification program is done in a little different manner than what some like WBENC is. It doesn’t have regional partners or that kind of thing.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:38] But the standards are similar, right?

Linda Denny: [00:17:40] The standards are the same.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:41] That’s the key, right? The consistency of the standards. So, how they kind of do what they do is less important than as long as at the end of the day, they’re getting the result that everybody desire.

Linda Denny: [00:17:53] Well, the standard has to be the same. It has to be the same across the board. And I’m very happy to say that NVOBA today and Disability:IN with their service-disabled veteran designations, they have agreed to just make that—to make reciprocity between the two. So, if you’re in the database for NVOBA and you’re a service-disabled veteran, then you can be in the database for Disability:IN.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:22] So, you don’t have to kind of create the wheel again.

Linda Denny: [00:18:23] So, you don’t have to go through it all again, because frankly, the certification process is a pretty arduous one.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:29] But it has to be. Like it can’t be something where just check-

Linda Denny: [00:18:31] That’s exactly-

Lee Kantor: [00:18:32] … four boxes and you’re done. It can’t be like that.

Linda Denny: [00:18:35] That’s exactly right.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:35] We want to keep those standards as high as you want to keep them.

Linda Denny: [00:18:38] Exactly right. We inspect what we expect, and that’s a key management tool I learned long ago.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:45] It seems to be bearing fruit. It seems to be working pretty well.

Linda Denny: [00:18:48] So, it’s been wonderful to see those organizations really grow and prosper, and the impact that they’re having also. And certification has been kind of one of the things that I’m very proud of in my career. When I first came to WBENC, one of the very first things that Susan Berry assigned me to do was to work with the Gay Lesbian Chamber of Commerce or National Gay Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, because they were wanting to set up their certification program. And it’s mature. It’s been going for many years now. They’ve got thousands of businesses certified. And so, it’s great to stand back and just look at all of that chaos that I helped cause.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:35] Well, if somebody wants to get ahold of you, are you available on LinkedIn? Are you still doing consulting?

Linda Denny: [00:19:40] I am still doing some consulting. I basically am retired and play in my garden, except when I break my arm, as I have now. But other than that, yes, I most definitely am on LinkedIn and I’m available to-

Lee Kantor: [00:19:56] Have conversation to help people.

Linda Denny: [00:19:57] Have a conversation. I love promoting women’s businesses, and veterans’ businesses, and businesses with persons with disabilities, and it’s just been such a rewarding thing for me throughout all these years.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:12] Well, congratulations on all the success and thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Linda Denny: [00:20:18] Oh, thank you so much. And it’s been a pleasure to be with you.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:21] Alright. This is Lee Kantor, broadcasting live from WBENC National Conference inside GWBC’s booth, booth 1812. We’ll be back in a few.

 


About WBENC

The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) is a leading non-profit organization dedicated to helping women-owned businesses thrive.WBENC-Logo

We believe diversity promotes innovation, opens doors, and creates partnerships that fuel the economy. That’s why we not only provide the most relied upon certification standard for women-owned businesses, but we also offer the tools to help them succeed.

About GWBC

The Greater Women’s Business Council (GWBC®) is at the forefront of redefining women business enterprises (WBEs). An increasing focus on supplier diversity means major corporations are viewing our WBEs as innovative, flexible and competitive solutions. The number of women-owned businesses is rising to reflect an increasingly diverse consumer base of women making a majority of buying decision for herself, her family and her business. GWBC-Logo

GWBC® has partnered with dozens of major companies who are committed to providing a sustainable foundation through our guiding principles to bring education, training and the standardization of national certification to women businesses in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

BRX Pro Tip: Do You Have Minimum Standards for Your Sales People?

August 17, 2022 by angishields

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BRX Pro Tip: Do You Have Minimum Standards for Your Sales People?

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, as leaders of businesses, I think it’s important that we check ourselves in on a lot of fronts. But one question that we ought to be asking ourselves and revisiting from time to time, do we have minimum standards for our salespeople?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:24] Yeah. When you’re making the transition from being the founder slash salesperson from an organization to actually hiring salespeople, it’s really important to have some sort of a minimum standard that that salesperson should be held to. And obviously, the standard should be different based on the kind of how long they’ve been with the organization. So you don’t want to hold the the brand new salesperson to the same standard as a seasoned veteran. That minimum standard of acceptable performance should be being adjusted as the salesperson kind of grows into their role.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:59] But it’s important to have some level that, you know, that, hey, this is working or this is not working. You have to have some minimum standard of acceptable performance so that the salesperson knows, “Hey, I’m not doing enough,” or “Hey, I’m killing it.” And you, as a leader, have to know that, hey, this salesperson is going to need some coaching, or they may not be a great fit if they’re not able to achieve some minimum level of performance.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:28] So, as a leader, you have to kind of determine what that minimum standard performance is and you must hold your salespeople accountable. Otherwise, it’s going to impede your growth. And you’re not really helping that salesperson grow or your organization grow.

Justin Deweese with Guardian Insurance Solutions

August 17, 2022 by angishields

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Cherokee Business Radio
Justin Deweese with Guardian Insurance Solutions
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Sponsored by Business RadioX ® Main Street Warriors

Guardian-Insurance-Solutions-header

Guardian Insurance Solutions is a full service insurance agency offering homeowners, auto, life and commercial insurance.

Justin-Deweese-headshotJustin Deweese came from a broken home, and it taught him some tough life lessons, but also how to love people.

His goal in life is to help each client one at a time and take care of their insurance needs.

Connect with Justin on Facebook.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:23] Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Cherokee Business Radio. Stone Payton here with you this morning. And today’s episode is brought to you in part by the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors program. For more information, go to Main Street Warriors dot org. This is going to be a fantastic episode, gang. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Guardian Insurance Solutions. Mr. Justin Deweese. Good morning, sir.

Justin Deweese: [00:00:53] Good morning. It’s good to be here.

Stone Payton: [00:00:54] Oh, it is a delight to finally have you in the studio. You and I have crossed paths. We’ve seen each other in several environments, maybe young professionals of Woodstock, but definitely Woodstock. Business Club.

Justin Deweese: [00:01:04] Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I’ve been at this thing for four months. I moved here a year ago to Cherokee County. Yeah, a man. Four months ago, I got out. Someone told me about Woodstock Business Club. I went there, learned about Canton Business Club. Ball ground. Business Club. Yeah, many different outlets. And so I love people. If you’ve ever done the risk profile I’m a high I 99 I so that’s an influencer you know, an extroverted type personality. So I just like getting out there and making a lot of friends.

Stone Payton: [00:01:32] Yeah. So. So you’re a staple in all these and all these places?

Justin Deweese: [00:01:37] Yeah. Yeah. And it’s not just about, like, going to like, hey, send me business. Send me business. That’s that’s not how you do it. Nobody likes that guy. You know, people do business with people that they like, they know and trust.

Stone Payton: [00:01:46] It’s just. Yeah, it’s.

Justin Deweese: [00:01:47] Funny. I’ll stand up in one of the groups one day and I stood up and I said, Hey, I thanked a couple of people for referrals. And I said, You know what’s crazy? Thanks for sending me referrals. I got so used to becoming friends with everybody. I was like, Oh yeah, we do business together. Yeah, it was crazy. A few realtors, they sent me referrals. I stood up, I was like, Thanks to Javon, thanks for Angela for sending me while I was standing up. It just hit me right then. I was like, Thanks for doing business with me. Like, I’m just used to being your friend and you’re sending me business. I was like, Oh yeah, this is called a business club. That’s why we’re here. So yeah, I kind of got out here four months ago and my goal was to meet Cherokee County in a few months. So I met a lot of people in Cherokee County, specifically in the business field over the last few months.

Stone Payton: [00:02:27] So what compelled the move? Man What brought you down here?

Justin Deweese: [00:02:29] My kiddos. My kiddos. Yeah, man. So my whole life, I served full time ministry. Like, somebody came into my life when I was 17, changed my life like they taught me. Like my dad was in jail. My mom was working all the time, and this guy came onto my high school campus and became a mentor to me, taught me how to make a budget, taught me how to date girls, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, I end up going to college, got some my master’s just because the influence of someone in my life and I was like, dude, you get paid to hang out with me. And he was like, Yeah, little did I know. He made like 30 grand a year and he raised off support from businesses and stuff. But I was like, I want to do that. So I went off and did that. Unfortunately, if you, you know, whatever we go through tough times in life and we get down, but you have to get back up. I went through a divorce four years ago, so after a whole career of ministry loving people pouring into people went through a divorce or to my life. Long story short, I started insurance and insurance. You make zero day one. You don’t make a lot of money. You sell one policy at a time and I do home and auto well who thought of realtors and loan officers and so financial planners.

Justin Deweese: [00:03:31] And so I may make 100 bucks I’m going to make $300 per client. So you need a lot of clients over a lot of years, you know, to kind of build that up. So it took me a few years to build that up. I built that up and finally moved here a year ago, hang out with my kids all the time. I got them all, sign up and acting and basketball, soccer and baseball. I was like, All right, you guys have not been doing sports for a few years. I need to get you involved in the community. I want to get in the community. So so I want to tell you something. Chattanooga, I love it. Esthetically look in Chattanooga, Tennessee. That’s where I came from. Beautiful people, beautiful place. But man coming to Cherokee County, you guys are blowing my mind. Like, for real. I love everybody. Like, at these business groups, I’m like, there’s another insurance agent. There’s another insurance agent. And I even looked at a mortgage loan officer one day and I said, Do I need to leave this meeting? I don’t want to like take business from that guy. And he goes, Listen, dude, there’s like seven or eight mortgage loan officers in here. You’re going to get business, don’t worry about it. And so, yeah, so four months ago, just got out in the community and haven’t looked back. It’s been.

Stone Payton: [00:04:31] Great. Don’t you just love the way that this business community and I do think it’s county wide the way they roll, man, because that is exactly how everyone is. There’s there’s plenty of business for everyone. There are so many folks from the same discipline who you will find collaborating. And I think it’s it’s that heart of service, right? They put the client first or even people who are not going to be their client, they still try to figure out how can we help this person? And I just love.

Justin Deweese: [00:05:03] That it’s insane and it’s contagious and it’s a culture because if you’re doing that with somebody and I see that and then I look at somebody else, they’re doing that with somebody and I see that. I start doing that and everyone just becomes like that. Even other insurance agents, when someone celebrates them, Hey, this guy sent me business. I’m like, Man, I wish I would be sending them business. I get pumped. Because they know somebody locally that they like, know and trust that’s sending them business. And I’m like, All right, man, I’m glad that guy is killing it. I don’t think I want his business. You root for everybody, even in your own profession. Yeah, it’s.

Stone Payton: [00:05:34] Shame. So why insurance, man? What? What drove you to that? To that arena?

Justin Deweese: [00:05:38] So this isn’t all right. So it’s not a sexy story from the beginning. So what happened is. Yeah, so ministry. It’s all about loving people. I mean, the most I ever made was about 50 something grand a year in ministry. You’re not in that for the money? Yeah. My wife at the time, she stayed at home, so, I mean, I had a decent car, decent house or whatever. I got in the business where I’m like, Man, there’s some ballers out here making some money. Just open my eyes, honestly. So I was in Chattanooga, I was playing tennis with my buddy Brian, and I was like, Dude, I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life. Like, I’m, you know, the church gave me a severance, which was cool, you know, because I needed to leave kind of church and focus on marriage. And it got divorced right around that time. When I got you guys, you got to do insurance. And I was like insurance, like, don’t I need suspenders, a pocket protector and glasses. Because when you think of insurance, you think of a lot of numbers and, you know, insurance adjuster claims and all that. So I don’t know anything about that. He goes, No, man, don’t worry about it. It’s all about knowing people. Yeah, you’re going to you need to know the product and what you’re selling, but it’s all about knowing people. And I didn’t realize that. But I guess I live that in ministry because I go on high school campuses outreach.

Justin Deweese: [00:06:39] So here’s a good quote for business and ministry. So to reach the kids, reach the youth that no one else wants to reach or no one else is reaching, you’ve got to go places no one else is going and do things no one else is doing. Same thing for business and business. How do you blow up your business? How do you do this, all this stuff? Well, you need to go places no one else is going and do things no one else is doing. So you can get creative, you can get strategic, you can have fun with it, that kind of stuff. So yeah, we’re playing tennis one day and he’s like, Go meet my guy. And I went and met his guy and I was like, Oh man, let’s do this thing. So he unwrapped me. He was very gracious. He gave me a couple mortgage loan officers are kind of like my best referral because those are the people that are either refinancing a house or if you’re buying a house. My goal is to talk with them and to say, like, if you’re refinancing, hey stone, you know, who’s your current insurance company? Get a quote from them. But man, if you don’t mind, I want my guy Justin to call you like you’ll love him. He’s a really good dude. They’re. He’s a broker. They’ve got 30 different companies. Eight or nine times out of ten, they’re going to get you.

Justin Deweese: [00:07:36] The best rate is inside sales girl. Her name is Jesse. So you actually have names. You’re not calling a one 800 number and it’s just easy. And they set that up in a group text or an email. I call them right away. We turn it around next day. So yeah, so it’s kind of, it’s kind of easy, but my job, I serve as director of business development, so my job is just to go bring on clients. So the client is the realtors, the loan officers, a financial planner. But what I love what you’re talking about before in the culture, because when I talk to clients or I may not even talk to all of them, a lot of clients will go through Jessie. So she’s like an extension of me. But what that allows me to do that saves me 35 to 45% of my week. So even from a business strategy, I have 35 to 45% of my week to go do something else. Yeah. What am I doing? I’m going back to the realtor, the loan officer, financial planner and say, how can I help you grow your business? So I’ve jumped on there, helped them out with Google reviews, help them out with their Facebook business. I love kind of networking, you know, marketing, and I’m kind of like a free business consultant for them. And so for me, I love that because I love like you’re a business radio show. Like I’m in I’m on cloud nine right.

Stone Payton: [00:08:46] Now because.

Justin Deweese: [00:08:48] I love I didn’t realize how much I love business because I don’t I don’t really think I thought if church is business, but I always study churches, man. I studied the best pastors, the best communicators across the country. Some were very bold and some are very sharp, some are very funny, some are very. They did a good job walking through through storytelling. And I studied all this because I want to be the best communicator right in the church world. And then I get into the business world and I’m like, Whoa, how do you run your business? What do you do? That’s cool. And I just my brain for the last four years has been just learning a lot. And then coming here to Cherokee County, man, it’s like the perfect fit, you know, you go through all those I honestly felt four years ago, like God dug a grave through me in it, and it was like, you’re done.

Stone Payton: [00:09:31] Like.

Justin Deweese: [00:09:32] You know, as I walk through that, I understand that wasn’t God. That was a lot of me and my personal decisions that I made, you know. But I realized that he’s also grabbed the shovel and he was like, Hey, let me dig you out of this grave that you put yourself in and let me give you life. And I feel like I’ve been living life to the fullest and through business, man, like I always sort of be a pastor. People have different ideas of what it means to be a pastor. You know, some people have some weird beliefs, maybe rightfully so. Maybe they’re in some kind of weird church or whatever. You know, some of those things can get some church can get weird, but there’s a lot of flippin cool churches around Cherokee County that are actually about being in the schools and being in the community. And that’s part of what I want to do and I am doing right now. I’m setting up to take business, maybe church and go into the schools to reach people like me. Because if that guy did not go into my campus, I don’t know who I would be and don’t know what. That would be today. And so I think every kid in Cherokee County, one thing is called the birthday club. I want to it’s not going now. I want to get it started where every kid in an elementary school in Cherokee County gets a cupcake, a happy birthday pencil, like a little funny eraser.

Stone Payton: [00:10:35] Yeah.

Justin Deweese: [00:10:36] And a high five, you know, because they may not get that at home. They may come from abusive, emotionally, physically, you know, household. But what can we do to come alongside what the teachers are already doing to try to encourage those souls, lift those spirits, and maybe they can be on a business radio show one day versus just doing whatever, living a mundane life they can be put in a leadership position to make make a difference. I know. Went on a little rampage there from insurance to mission. But insurance is awesome. It’s smart, it’s strategic. You get residual income, you don’t make much up front, but you have to be in for a while. But the ultimate goal in my life is to help people get to the next level, whether that’s a business owner or whether that’s a kid in elementary school or middle school or high school.

Stone Payton: [00:11:20] No, this is exactly what we love to hear from our guest, because these are the kinds of things that we can apply in our own life and our own way to help us. Our vocation might be the means, it might be the toolset, but but many of us, a lot of us, I think, have a have a larger mission that we’re trying to to live into something you might appreciate and you may already be well aware of it. But there’s this outfit called Kid Biz Expo, and I, too, have a tremendous affinity for young people and in particular young people who have a little bit of an entrepreneurial spirit or that that may have already been tapped or could be tapped. You heard me mentioned Main Street wares at the top of the program. Yeah, well, because of the Main Street Warriors were able to provide some programing for nonprofits and veterans, but also Youth and Kid Biz Expo. They had their expo, their most recent one right here on the green here in Woodstock, right there behind Reformation. Another wonderful institution. Yeah, in my opinion. And we actually Sharon Klein, the lady who works with me, she interviewed a bunch of the kids. They were all running businesses. And I’ve said this before and I’ll share it with you, man. You talk about wisdom beyond their years because they had been exposed to the structure, the rigors of of setting up a business and getting clients and buying inventory and, and understanding the difference between, you know, what it costs them to get to get the goods and then their margin. It was fascinating. And I just I feel like when we can provide these kinds of opportunities and open their minds to this pursuit, I just I feel like you just never know what kind of impact you could have for for a long, long time beyond that.

Justin Deweese: [00:13:10] And I love how tightly connected this community is, because obviously you didn’t know this, but I think they had a speaker set up and the speaker had a cancel for whatever reason. So BJ McCranie is a realtor in town. He’s on the board of Kid Biz.

Stone Payton: [00:13:21] Oh, okay.

Justin Deweese: [00:13:22] Yeah. He called him and he goes, Hey, man, we had a speaker cancel. Do you want to go talk? So it’s funny you said that I’m going Sunday.

Stone Payton: [00:13:28] I think.

Justin Deweese: [00:13:29] 3:00. I think it’s on my calendar. I think it’s 3:00 to speak to them. And the title of the message is Know Your Audience. So I want to help the kids. All right. Here’s your business plan. How can you know your audience? And so something cool. My daughter, my oldest daughter, she’s 15. She hasn’t been a party kid biz. She’s going to go and she wants to it’ll be either be a veterinarian or like a dog trainer. She wants to do something with animals. And I shot her a message and I was like, Kylie, do you want to go? And I can use you as like an example. So it’s cool to put my own daughter up, but then also use her as kind of a sample size. Like who? Who should Kylie’s target audience be? So here’s an example like for for my business. So I go to all these clubs. A lot of people in business can spin their wills over and over and over, go into clubs being a professional, quote unquote, professional networker and not close any business. There are a lot of people in Chattanooga.

Justin Deweese: [00:14:20] They’re at all the things you would have thought. And they just did not close a lot of business. And you’re like, why not? Is it personality? What is it? It’s probably a bunch of things. But one thing that’s we were talking about this before we started getting on the air specific is terrific. The riches are in the niches, right? So who is your target audience? And so when I go to these clubs, I’ll do some meetings with people that are just very intriguing to me that may be outside of because I don’t want to be so tunnel vision. Yeah, but if I want to grow my business, I really need to focus on realtors, loan officers and financial planners. Here’s why. Financial planners look at your finances and they’re like, Hey, you’re your insurance looks high or your home’s worth 420,000. It’s only written your coverages for 310,000. If your house burns down, you’re not getting 400 and something thousand or rebuilding, you’re getting 300,000. You need it, right? You need to have your agent relook at that or call my buddy Justin, you know.

Stone Payton: [00:15:14] Talk to my.

Justin Deweese: [00:15:14] Guy. So if I’m very specific with my target audience, I’ll write commercial insurance. But I never stand up and say, hey, if you’re. Business owners to make some commercial business. I’ll do that. And we actually have I’m a broker, so I have a lot of companies. We’re actually very good at it, but I don’t promote that. I’ll write that and I’ll get you a very good well written policy at a good price that’ll beat most people. But the riches are in the niche is specific is terrific. So yeah at that a kid biz I want to talk about to everyone and have them write down can we get can we narrow your audience down? I know you want to reach everybody. You’re talking to me on the podcast today about if you start a podcast and you want to reach everybody there is.

Stone Payton: [00:15:52] Which is are so much more powerful. So much more powerful.

Justin Deweese: [00:15:55] What did you call that you called it? They’re trying to reach everybody. I forgot what you call them. There’s a bunch of experts popping up.

Stone Payton: [00:16:02] Is that the phrase? Well, I said overnight experts. Overnight experts. I was kind of dissing all these folks that are saying, yeah, we’re going to make you rich in podcasting. This can be a very lucrative pursuit, and it should be because we help people get large ROI. And there are a lot of overnight experts pop it up and just what they’re telling people is just flat out wrong. Yeah, they’re probably making a little money on selling the courses or the books, but.

Justin Deweese: [00:16:26] Say, I get that I don’t really want to go start my own podcast. I’d rather show up here and say, How can you help me? You know what I mean? Or go, I don’t want to go start my own video company. You know, I’d rather someone shoot a video and pay them money because if I spend my time doing all that, the riches are in the niches. What if I spent 2 hours writing three or four policies that pay me five, seven, 1000 to go pay for that video or to go pay? You know what I mean?

Stone Payton: [00:16:48] Absolutely. No. We try to stay in our lane and like I’ll team up with a with Ron Green or Jared and Tim. Yeah. You know, or Matt Thomas over there with a highlight reel. I’ll team up with somebody who’s also a best in class. Yeah, there’s plenty of money, but I want the client to get the best. And I’m probably a D-minus in video, but even if I was a B+, I don’t want to do B-plus work. I want to. I want to. And it sounds like your value system is wholly consistent with that idea as well. So let me ask you this. So my financial guy’s name is Max. If he reached out to me and Holly and he said, you know what, you need to talk to, my God, you’re just I’m going to set you up to give a Jessica.

Justin Deweese: [00:17:29] Jesse. Jesse, Vince.

Stone Payton: [00:17:31] I talked to Jesse to talk to Justin. So what happens from there? What? Walk us through that process.

Justin Deweese: [00:17:38] Are you talking about, like, connecting and kind of passing referrals to each other, what we’re talking about or.

Stone Payton: [00:17:42] Well, I’m actually talking about like like if he if Max said, okay, you need to call Justin, here’s his number, I’ll set you up. And then I reach out and I make the call then. Yeah. Walk me through what happens between me and you or me or.

Justin Deweese: [00:17:54] Yeah, yeah. If it’s me or if it’s Jesse. What we say is we say, hey, you know, if the client’s name is Jim, right? Hey, Jim, is this your first time buying a home or. No, I’ve bought three or four. Oh, cool. Yeah. What’s the address? We’ll look it up. Oh, that’s nice when you close. Sweet. Cool. Well, listen, here’s what we do. We’re a brokerage. That means you may have, like, a state farm, Allstate, USAA, they’ve got one company. You’ll get one quote where brokers who have a lot of different companies now, you don’t pay us, you pay the company and the company pays us. That’s how we get paid. So 80 to 90% at a time, we’re going to have a better rate. At the end of the day. That’s what people care about. I used to nerd out and go through the coverage because I thought everybody wanted to know what they were getting because it’s like if you get a really nice 100,000 Land Rover, there are so many gadgets. I think you actually have to go through a couple of our class to buy some of those or else you don’t know how to get it off the lot.

Justin Deweese: [00:18:44] Right. You know, you can just go crank it up like you do my truck out there. You know, you go like it’s got hydraulic systems and all that. Like I used to try to onboard with all this nerdy insurance stuff and people don’t care. Now some of your attorneys and your doctors and stuff, they care. Some of them don’t. Like I was in the middle of telling somebody about my little presentation. He’s like, Justin, listen, I trust you. Just just ride it. I want to move forward with you. And I was like, whoa. So it taught me. So what we do now, instead of, like, nerding out through a policy, we’ll say, Hey, we got you very good coverage at a very good rate. You know, let me know if you have any questions or if you’d like to move forward and we’ll let your loan officer know or we’ll let your financial planner know and we’ll get a date set this up on your closing date, on your home, or if it’s a financial planner, maybe at the end of your policy period this month, we’ll get you started and we’ll get you going.

Stone Payton: [00:19:32] I mean, going right back to that trust. Right. So I would trust you because I have gotten to know you a little bit. Now I’m getting to know you better. If it was Max that set me up with you, instant credibility. If it’s Darren Hunter, you know, and I’m working some sort of mortgage through him and he says, Well, yeah, talk to Justin, let’s get all these. You just you automatically have that trust and then you just build it from there. I think I already know the answer to this one. I’m going to ask it. Anyway, you spoke earlier in the conversation about having a mentor. Are you finding opportunities now to to mentor others? And what is that.

Justin Deweese: [00:20:06] Like, man? Like you got seven more hours on this show because I will go off. I’ve got to come back sometime. I’m going to invite myself back if you know about me back. But so yes. So it’s funny. So I’ve been I’ve been I’ve been here for a year. I switched companies four months ago. So when you switch insurance company, that’s not the smartest thing to do. But my back in systems, it just wasn’t working at the previous company and I’ve got to stand behind what I’m selling. And so I got on this company that’s all about home and auto and and I thought about getting out of insurance. I’m like, I’m not starting this again because you start all over. Yeah, yeah. And so you start from the bottom. But the way they were able, I’m able to scale it, you know, I’m able to do that. So now, even in four short months, I’ve come up with a system I kind of want to write like a little, like a little book or a training manual and kind of put on Amazon or whatever, like to show insurance agents how to kind of do what I’ve done. I’ve got a I’ve got another month or two to finish the model, but in doing that, I’m talking with three or four people right now that want to come and do insurance. And so now I’m able to serve as a I may move from business development director to more VP of sales and start bringing on people to go replicate what I’ve done and walk it through, you know, walk them through it, shoot me a text, give me a call.

Justin Deweese: [00:21:16] Let’s do a weekly meeting for 30 minutes or an hour because it’s so easy for me. But when you when you don’t do it or you don’t know, it’s like anything, you know, if if we went outside and I never drove a stick shift and you’re like, Hey, you wanna drive my car? And I’m like, Man, it’s a nice car. I don’t know how to drive the stick shift. You’d have to be patient and walk me through it and it take some time. If I just got out there and tried it by myself, I would jack up your clutch in your car. I may get in a wreck, you know. And so to be able to mentor people on the business side, but not even just in that I’ve been doing some health stuff lately, mentoring people with health kid biz. I’m getting ready to do that. Like, you know, I think I’ve got a serial entrepreneur type brain. I’m talking to a couple of companies right now I may invest into. I don’t want to own them. I don’t want to run them. But these guys are very good at their craft, but they’re not the best at marketing or sales. And I didn’t I didn’t major in marketing. I just major in being a high I it’s just how I was wired and I think a lot of my past and understanding people and doing ministry and working with people all the time, business just comes so natural for me and I’m like, God, wait, how could you just give me even to be on a podcast today and doing the kid biz? Like I’ve already been given opportunities for leadership to talk to multiple people.

Justin Deweese: [00:22:25] And I think I think when you when you get pretty good at something. The bigger your audience, the better. Because you don’t have to say it ten times. You can say it once where ten people can hear it or you can say it once. 100 people can hear it. You know, so through a podcast or through kind of kid biz, if there’s, I don’t know, five, ten, 15 kids there on Sunday, that’s awesome. So mentoring me, mentoring. I went through all these personality tests. Two of them kind of popped up and said, You’re a cheerleader. You’re like, Yeah, let’s go, let’s go. So I’m a motivator and encourager. And another one said, Coach, I love coaching. The last two years, my daughter played basketball. They went eight and zero and eight. No, they went 16 and no. And I don’t say that out of pride, maybe a little bit. Sorry, but I was very strategic. I took a very tall girl that was, you know, a little awkward that never shot a basketball in her life. And I put her under the goal every practice consistently. Hey, you know, the little, you know, little box behind the goal, the rim. I just said, hit that corner. She hit the corner and she was awful. But she got better and better. Better by the last game of the season, this girl that couldn’t even hit the rim, 27 points in fifth grade.

Stone Payton: [00:23:31] Nice.

Justin Deweese: [00:23:32] She doesn’t play basketball anymore. She just lost her interest in that or whatever that was back in Chattanooga. But the point is, being a coach, being a mentor, you see things other people don’t see. Have you ever done Clifton Strength Finders? There’s one of the strengths is strategic and strategic is strategic is one of those. You either have it or you don’t. So I’ll sit in meetings and I’ll be thinking about stuff. I’m like, Why is anyone talking about this? It’s not a pride thing that I see, something everyone else doesn’t see, but sometimes it is something you see that no one else sees. Because you’ve done that and you’ve seen the failure or you see where people are going and you’re like, They’re not going to make it, but they’re so passionate about it. You have to watch them crash and burn because they’re not going to listen to you. I know a lot about that because one of my so I’ve got a phrase for you, hopefully some of your audience doesn’t get offended. But I used to ask someone asked me the question, what’s it like to be on the other side of me? And I think it’s wise for people to ask their wife, their brother, they’re close friends. Maybe you’re close five people. What’s it like to be on the other side of me? And they may say, Stone, you are or just and you’re kind of tense sometimes or you get angry or whatever it is. That way you can work on it. So ask somebody that said, What’s it like to be on the other side of me? And he said, Honestly. And I said, Well, you can give me a positive, negative, positive. It’s a nice little sandwich because I’m a people pleaser, you know, and I want people to like me.

Justin Deweese: [00:24:47] And so he gave me a some positive. But then the critique was this he goes, You’re an asshole. Ask, you’re an asshole. He goes, You ask all these questions, but you don’t listen to me. And I’m like, Whoa. He goes, I don’t really want to give you advice if you’re asking and you’re not doing anything about it. And I was like, Whoa. So over the last year, I’ve been like, before I ask anyone something, I’m like, Am I going to listen to them or do I just want them to affirm what I’m already going to do? And so, yeah, to be a mentor, to be a coach, all those kind of things. I love to help people, whether it’s a kid in elementary school, someone starting a business, someone on their health journey or obviously someone in the insurance field. I really feel like I can make people a lot of money, which is crazy because I came out of ministry where I made 50 something great, right? But I feel like I can train an onramp people to make a lot of money following a system. And it’s not a just under we system. It’s just like, no, here’s how you treat people. Here’s what you do. It’s all about numbers. If you go talk to 1000 people when you’re good, you’re going to close X percent. If you’re bad, you’re going to close a lower percent, you’re going to close a percent, do it, mess up, screw up and get better, and you’re going to close a higher percent and then the sales are just going to going to come. So yeah, I love mentoring, I love coaching, I love all that.

Stone Payton: [00:26:00] And what’s so fun about that? The idea of making money, the more money you make, my experience has been, the more people you can help. And then the more people you help, the more money you make. And then the more money you make, the more. And I mean, at some point, once it hits a certain point, you you couldn’t stop it. You couldn’t stop it if you wanted to, you.

Justin Deweese: [00:26:17] Know, you know, it’s insane. I don’t know what what this is going to look like, how it’s going to play out. But what I’m doing with insurance and some other things right now, one of my goals and again, dude making 50 grand a year like that’s not a lot for four kids and a wife at the time, but that’s the most I’ve ever made. I’m used to that, so I don’t. I like fun things. It’d be cool to drive a pretty sweet $100,000 car one day or whatever, but my goal is to give away half the money I bring in. Good for you, because I don’t need it. But you know what? There’s a lot of just some doozies sitting in elementary, middle and high.

Stone Payton: [00:26:46] School.

Justin Deweese: [00:26:47] And college. My two best friends went off to college. I was so depressed when I was in college because my friends left and I was an extrovert and I was like, What do I do? And I just felt stuck at home while they went off to college. And yeah, so many different people, even I’m 41, 40 year old man just sitting there that needs inspiration. It needs, you know what I mean? So how do we impact there’s so many great nonprofits in the community and it’s like one at a time. I can’t I’m not there yet, but I’m looking forward to getting to that point where I can give away half of the money. And I even thought about, man, if a few things line up and if I’m I prayed about this and I was talking to so I’m back dating again. I got a girlfriend for you. Her name’s.

Stone Payton: [00:27:27] Let’s give her a shout out.

Justin Deweese: [00:27:28] Yeah, her name is Jess. Jess girl. So anyway, I’ll talk with her about it. And I was like, Hey, I want to be praying because just I made up a number. I said, just said I made $1.2 million one year. That’s a lot of money. I said, would I give away 600 grand? And she said, Just in the fact that you’re even asking that. Question is showing that your heart is at least in the right place, because I don’t know if you would do it, but the fact that you’re asking that question made your heart is in the right place. So I want to get to give, to get, to give and make a big impact. And this community and across the nation and around the world, to be honest, like with Wells, you can give and I’ll talk with Eric Tilly and the business club and was talking about I forgot the name of the nonprofit but for like $0.08 a meal you can feed these kids and Africa and I’m like $0.08 a meal they eat all day. I think it’s either one meal or all day. And I’m like, I want a lot of $0.08 meals that I.

Stone Payton: [00:28:25] Can, you know.

Justin Deweese: [00:28:26] I don’t know what the math is, but man, if I get, you know, so you can’t give a ministry too much or they’ll mess it up. You got you got to kind of give in portion where they don’t get too prideful and over overthink it, you know? So I think just kind of divvying that out, that’s going to be fun. Like, what if I had to hire somebody full time just to learn how to give out money to different I mean, how cool is that? You know what I mean? But when you do that, you go reach the next stone, you go reach the next, you know, thankfully, my kids, even though I’m divorced, their mom does a pretty good job of kind of raising them and listening to them. I do the same thing. So my kids have a good even though it’s a broken home, it’s a healthy upbringing, but they may not all come from healthy upbringings. And so to go reach those kids and give them hope and mentor them is that’s what it’s all about.

Stone Payton: [00:29:10] So if it’s not too personal, tell us a little bit about your health journey. And I’m interested in the journey. Many of our listeners know I’ve been on a health journey as well over the last several months, and I’m interested in your perception of the impact it’s having on the other aspects of your life and your ability to to live into some of these things that you’re trying to accomplish.

Justin Deweese: [00:29:31] I appreciate you asking that. So it’s crazy. So I started something called Issa Phenix and what it is. So there’s a there’s a Harvard. The lead scientist is from Harvard. So it’s very reputable and it’s very backed. So the way they do it, they do it through. Instead of putting their products at Walmart or at GNC, they actually sell them through individuals because they want people to onramp you. And so I eat five times a day, your body, your metabolism. I just heard this recently. Your metabolism is like a campfire, so you need to constantly feed. It would if you feed it once at 8 a.m. and then once it 130, it kind of needs some more wood in between or it’s going to go out. It’s not going to get the best process. So if you’re feeding it, period, that’s good. But if you’re feeding it healthy stuff or scientifically based stuff. So they’ve done double blind studies through all their products where they had zero control and they published these in these high end journals. And they’ve gotten only if you’ve heard of the what’s it called? It’s called the Heart and Health Diet. They’ve beat that by like two times, which is like I guess America’s leading diet. They beat about twice. And so I’ve been taking this over the last couple of months. And so I have here’s an example of the day. I’ll have a shake. I had a shake this morning. I have a snack after we do this interview and then I have a lunch meeting today, I’ll go out to eat, then I’ll have a snack at 2 p.m. and then at 5 p.m. I’ll have a shake and I’m drinking a lot of water throughout the day. I take some vitamins, that’s it. That’s what my day looks like. And so some people are like, Man, it’s so expensive. I have to go to all these high end places and get all this organic food. So one shake is equivalent to five plates of organic food. Isn’t that insane?

Stone Payton: [00:31:15] Yeah.

Justin Deweese: [00:31:15] And someone kind of asked me a question. They were like, Well, you mean you’re not getting real food, you’re not eating physical food? And I’m like, I eat physical food. I just eat. I drink shakes, too. And my buddy Eric was telling me, he said, Think about broccoli. If you chew on a physical piece of broccoli, that’s good. You’re getting nutrition. You know the nutrition out of it. But what if you overcooked the broccoli and you kind of overcook all the healthy stuff that’s in broccoli and you eat it, it’s still going to taste the same. You got zero nutrition. So it’s not necessarily the broccoli, it’s what you’re getting out of the broccoli. And so when they scientifically do these shakes and even the snacks, they’ve got these protein bars, chocolate and lemon flipping, phenomenal. That’s another thing. A lot of times you think it tastes bad or you can’t, right? Like sometimes I forget to eat because I’m full and I’m like, Oh, shoot, I should have eaten an hour ago. And I go eat. And so you don’t have to starve yourself. You don’t have to overpay. You know, when I was in ministry and even doing business, I’m out a lot with people and so I don’t have time to think about. I’m kind of a perfectionist in whatever I do, so I don’t have time to be a scientist and know everything and go home and cook like I’m a dude that doesn’t like to cook. Some dudes like to cook. I don’t I’m not married right now, you know? So, like, I don’t have a wife at home that’s cooking.

Justin Deweese: [00:32:25] And so it’s just easy. It’s quick and easy. I drink a shake, I grab a snack, put in a little cooler in my butt, man. I’ve lost I lost £10 before I got on the diet and then I lost £11 since I’ve been on it. And my goal weight was 185 and now I stay between 179 and 182. So I’m actually below my goal weight. Yeah. So esthetically I look the way I want to look, but. It’s more about losing. It’s more about than just losing weight. Someone may need to lose £10. They got a little gut, £15. They want to get rid of that. You can do that in a month for real. But we also have a tight community. We stay together. We have like Facebook groups and stuff where someone may want to lose £100. A buddy of mine, he weighs 333 and he’s trying to lose £100. He just let himself go drink several beers every day. And he’s like, Dude, I needed some accountability. I was like, Let’s go, bro. I just talked to him last night. He’ll probably lose £100. He’s already lost 12 in his first week, and it’s that kind of thing. But it’s healthy, it’s safe, it’s all those things and you’re not breaking the bank. I used to spend about $900 a month on groceries. Now I spent about three or 400 on isometrics and a couple of hundred outside of osteogenesis.

Stone Payton: [00:33:31] Oh, wow.

Justin Deweese: [00:33:32] So it’s actually saving me money. So anyway, it’s, I don’t want to be salesy about it, but it’s a phenomenal product. And even just the way I feel, some people are like, Well, you lost the weight, are you getting off of it? And I’m like, No, because I’ll just gain it back, right? And it’s such an easy system and I feel good. It’s not just about how you look, but it’s about how you feel. Last thing. I’ve always heard this, but I’ve never really. I guess, knowing what that meant. But 80% of what you look like has to do with the kitchen. I heard a quote recently ABS are made in the kitchen, not in the gym. 20 if 20% of it is gym, think of all the cycling and treadmill ing and all the hard work and all the sweating and all that. But then you go eat a couple of meals over the next few days and you just kind of God crap it away or what. You know what I mean? But you can actually eat some good food. Like I can eat a burger and fries every now and then if I want to. You know, as long as you’re following it, about 80% of the time you’re going to just it’s going to fall off because think about when you’re on a treadmill and you’re burning up a shake, that thing’s gone like that versus burning a burger and all the carbs and all that stuff so you can still eat what you want every now and then, but 80% of the time, try to follow the program. Now that I’m undermined, sometimes I’ll go out and eat two meals a day versus two shakes. I’ll just do one shake and two meals because I’m under my goal weight. Then the next day I’ll probably do two shakes in one meal. I’ll try to stay on it. And so, yeah, that’s, that’s a little bit of my.

Stone Payton: [00:34:53] So have you found that you have more energy, more clarity? Have you found that it’s had a positive impact on your work and on your life mission?

Justin Deweese: [00:35:04] Absolutely. So I can’t explain. Here’s the best way I can explain it. So I didn’t I love playing basketball. I play 2 to 4 times a week. It’s just my thing. I go to the gym, I’ll work out a little bit. I’m not a gym rat, but I love basketball. So I’m five, 11, white and 41. The league ain’t calling me Stone. Stone, the league is not calling my number. But check this out. I’m out there, I’m playing ball like I’m 25 years old. Like I’m playing ball like I’m 25 years old. I did not play high school basketball. I tried out in eighth grade and I didn’t make the team and I just worked a lot there in high school. I never I never tried out, you know, I never played for high school basketball. Someone the other day goes, Where did you play college ball? And I was like, What? Like that was like the best compliment anybody could give me. Where did you play college ball? I’m assuming I played somewhere and I was like, I didn’t play college ball, but it’s literally the weight’s off. But think about it, man. When all the sugars and all the salts are detoxing out of your body, like in America, we just drive through, drive through, drive thru because we’re busy. Right. That’s why I like this diet, because it helps you out while you’re busy, but. It’s insane, man. Like that.

Justin Deweese: [00:36:11] I guess that’s the best analogy I can give you. Someone’s like, Would you play college ball? It’s like, I didn’t play college ball. So it the way I feel, I wake up in the morning, I got healthy habits, you know, atomic habit. You know, there’s, there’s been several books about habit coming out. You know, I woke up today, I’ve already gone three and a half miles before 8:00, you know, just because I feel good. And that’s that’s the thing. If you don’t feel good and you got salts and sugars when you’re down, your brain’s not there. So to wake up and say, oh, even to go walk a half a mile and I’m not a walker, I hate walking, but what I do is I put on earphones and I start talking. I called my mom today, called my girlfriend today while I went on the walk. And I do three and a half miles and I’m like, I just walk three and a half miles because what I really did was I talked on the phone and I listened to some inspirational music and some podcasts and stuff. So that’s another thing. I knocked out three things listen to music, talk to family and friends, and listen to some podcasts. I got educated, so it’s, it’s insane while working out, you know, like it’s kind of like that combo thing. So yeah, it absolutely affects everything else in my life.

Stone Payton: [00:37:15] So you mentioned Atomic Habits, big fan of that book and that whole idea. Speak to this whole idea of habits, goals, how you choose to approach that, if you would, I think our listeners would appreciate it, and I love asking people questions about these kinds of topics. By the way, guys, if you want to get a lot of free consulting, just get your own radio show. Also, if you like to read business books and interview a bunch of authors. So but I’d love to get your perspective on, on how you approach habits, goals, disciplines, that kind of stuff.

Justin Deweese: [00:37:48] Yeah, let me speak. I know some bits and pieces off the top of my mind have atomic habits, but where I really know is the power of habit. That’s the one I really I read them twice. So you need to reward yourself with something. So to start a habit, you’ve got to do it X amount of times before the habit kicks in. I don’t know that stat it’s in the book, but you got to do it X amount of times, but you need to reward yourself with something. So the book starts off one of the earlier chapters about a lady that was way overweight, went through a divorce, just wasn’t happy in life. And she started. She smoked all the time, so she started going on walks and she would give something to herself as a treat. So just say you had like a small little Diet Coke or you know what I mean? A piece of gum. Every time after you go in your walk, chew that piece of gum because you’re rewarding your brain and you’re your training and retraining and, um, training your brainwaves to start to think I like this. And so when you wake up the next day, it’s like when you go in somewhere, the book talks about Febreeze and the way they sold it, and they try they spent all millions of dollars trying to sell Febreeze, and they just they couldn’t do it. And finally they got to, you know, they like Febreeze. It takes the stink out, you know, all that. And it didn’t work. And finally, they did all this psychological study and it had this lady making her bed.

Justin Deweese: [00:38:59] And after she was done, she sprayed it and it was like Febreeze, just that extra mile or something like that. I don’t remember that I’m doing a bad job quoting it, but they studied it in the habit of just that little spray, that smell. Everything’s fresh. So why do I want Febreeze? Because it’s that final touch, you know what I mean? So after the run or after the walk or after whatever you do, I’m going to chew that piece of gum. I want to drink that Diet Coke or whatever. And so your brain associates waking up in the morning instead of Do I want to run? And especially if you get a nutrition plan with it, you think I want that piece of gum and you may not even think about the gum. You just think running or walking. I don’t even run. I just walk in my neighborhood and. I may not even think about that piece of gum, but I think of something delightful because I think I feel good. I think I’m efficient because I’m strategic, because I’m getting these calls done and I’m listening to podcasts and music. I know it’s healthy for my life, but then it’s like, I get that piece of gum at the end. So yeah, creating a habit becomes in turns into a lifestyle, and once that becomes a lifestyle, that becomes who you are. So I’ve always here’s the thing. I’ve always worked out. I’ve always been active, I always played basketball, but no one’s ever looked at me and said, Hey, where’d you play college ball?

Stone Payton: [00:40:14] You know what I mean?

Justin Deweese: [00:40:15] So there’s something about how you feel when you get to that point. And sometimes that point is like way distant in the future. That’s what I love. I posted on Facebook the other day. I was like, Hey, I’m looking to take on ten people that want to help on their physical, nutritional journeys. And I’m not charging you because, like, I’m not I don’t have a certification in physical fitness. You know, I’ve always but I’m an accountability partner. That’s all they are. Like, if you and I hit the gym for the next three months and we did certain amount of things, we’re going to look different in the next three months. If we add a nutrition to that, because that’s 80%, we’re really going to look different, you know, and that’s all people need. It’s an accountability partner to say, hey, insurance sells as I bring people on and they’re going to go sell. I don’t have a magical formula. I’ve got some cool systems and processes that I think will help them make a lot of money, but it’s weekly. How did you do this? Did you do this? I know the right questions to ask. And so, yeah. So when you’re starting those habits and you have a community around you, your life will change, man.

Justin Deweese: [00:41:07] And it’s I’ve noticed. So I’ve been blessed. I meet on Monday mornings at 7 a.m.. We meet early, but with eight or nine other guys spiritually, physically, physically slash nutrition, mentally, psychologically, financially, they’re all ballers, right? It’s not all millionaires, right? But they’re all and all those areas of their life, they’re thinking strategically. They’ve got a purpose. They have a vision in those areas. You know how you’re not saying you are like the most common five people you hang out with? Those are my eight or nine guys every Monday morning because I need now I put the group together, but I’m not the quote unquote leader of the group. Maybe in some ways I am, but I I’m asking them to lead. I’m asking them to lead different sessions because I want to learn from them. Yeah, I want to pour out what I’m learning, but I want to learn from them. And so a good leader of a group like that speaks 20% of the time. And the rest of the time you let it popcorn around because people need to think, they need to feel, they need to express. And so have you ever heard of like, this may sound weird.

Justin Deweese: [00:42:10] Have you heard of sound frequencies like you can type in seven, seven, seven sound frequency hertz. I just learned about this yesterday, but it puts on a certain type. I don’t know the science or the art behind the music, but if you put that on in the mornings and put on some headphones, it’s just this. It’s a very strategic, specific type of sounds, sound waves that retrain your brain. And so my girlfriend does this, my mentor Eric Tilley does this. They put it on and they start to journal. Those sound waves. There’s also affirmations you can do. You can look them up on YouTube, but it’s kind of like saying, I will be this, not I’m going to try to be this, but it’s like I am this. And some of that was weird for me, to be honest at the beginning, but then I want to listen to it. Some of it is still weird, but as I listen to, I’m like, I like her, obviously. I like my buddy Eric. They’re doing this and they’re killers at what they do, right? I’m going to try to do this. And so that’s even a habit for me trying to do those things kind of daily.

Stone Payton: [00:43:08] Well, and I think that’s an important insight. And it took me way too long to figure this out. And it sounds so simple and maybe it is, and I’m just a slow learner, but if you if you’re in search of the habits that are going to produce the results that you want to produce, get out there and find people who are already accomplishing that, which you wish to accomplish, and look for their habits, their disciplines, and emulate some of those you don’t have to emulate 12 at a time, right?

Justin Deweese: [00:43:37] Yeah. Surround yourself with those people. I didn’t even mention this man. So like I’m doing the I said Gen-X thing and I’m feeling good. And the first month I did it, $200 showed up on my account and I was like, Eric, where’s this coming from? I know you said I may make some money. Like instead of selling it to Walmart or GNC, they sell it through people so people can onramp them well. Those people get reimbursed for that. They get kind of paid for that. I’m like the next month I had $400. I’m like, Dude, I’m not selling your product. I’m just taking this and I’m excited about it. And a few people on Facebook, I posted it before and after picture, right on Facebook and you could tell a significant difference. And people were like, What are you doing? And they signed up as $400. And I was like, Bro. So I signed up my girlfriend, another guy, and I’m not out there recruiting, but also I do want people to feel healthy. Yeah, but I put a little effort into it in one day I made $690. My goal isn’t to necessarily make money for that. It was the health part, but the financial part is following. So you’re going to notice a combo effect when you’re doing all these mental things, spiritual things, psychological things, the financial things. It’s all in one. So who you hang out with is very important. If you’ve got some bro’s or some girls you’ve been hanging out with for years and they’re cool, look at their lives. Are they successful in those areas spiritually, financially, mentally, psychologically? Have they gone through counseling? Man, I’ve been through I’ve been through two divorces. That’s not a sexy thing to say on a podcast like.

Justin Deweese: [00:44:59] Right? That could be embarrassing. But you know what? I own it. It’s my story and I’ve learned from that and I’ve healed from that. And it’s not just one party. It takes two to tango. You know it. I used to put so much like, who am I like, why do two women not want to be married to me? Like, Man, if I live in that, I’m living as Vic the victim instead of like getting my head up and saying, you know, I’m not going to live as a victim, I’m going to get through this. So I did a year of counseling. My counselor said, Hey, man, you don’t need a date. He goes, Don’t be too lonely. Hang out with some boys. Hang out with some of your friends. Yeah. Don’t be too lonely or you’re going to do something stupid, but don’t be too busy because you need to sit in this. I was like, Whoa. So I took some time off from dating for a while. So the fact that I’m with Jess and everything’s going great, like, I didn’t look from her. I found her in church. Like, it’s crazy. I tell you that story another day, but anyway, it’s cool. But all those things go together when you’re with those people that are killers and think about that. That’s every area of life. I want to do some kind of something one day about the art of a 360 degree man or 360 degree person or complete person. Some kind of that idea. Because if you’re if we’re made up spiritually, mentally, psychologically, financially, all these things, it’s like, who’s the best of those? Like you said, like you even use other people for other video production.

Stone Payton: [00:46:17] Oh, absolutely, yeah.

Justin Deweese: [00:46:18] Did you want it to be the best? But it’s like when you say a 360 degree man or woman, I need to be around them. What are they doing? What are their habits? What are their lifestyle choices? And why don’t just do it because they’re doing it. Maybe you just do it because they do it first. Eric Tilley So Eric Tilley, if you’re listening, this dude’s 50 years old and ripped. He’s the most ripped dude I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m sure some of it’s genetic, some of it’s icy eugenics, some of it should. He’s not a gym rat either. He goes the gym three times a week for an hour. That’s it.

Stone Payton: [00:46:49] Wow.

Justin Deweese: [00:46:49] But it’s he’s because 80% of it is what you put in your body. But all I knew at the beginning, I didn’t know the science behind I didn’t know any of that. I was just like, dude, what do I need to do to look like you when I’m 50? He was like, Come on. And I signed up, lost, you know? And I already looked decent. You know, if I flexed just right and looked in the mirror, I could see about a one and a half, maybe a two pack.

Stone Payton: [00:47:10] You.

Justin Deweese: [00:47:10] Know. But then I lost £11. My skin started to get tighter. I started to feel a certain way. So this is weird. I don’t mean this in, like, a bragging way. I mean it because it freaked me out. So I was at the gym just like doing some curls and you know how your veins kind of pop. I always thought that was cool. Like in the gym, their veins are popping out or whatever. But like, I looked in the mirror and I was like, Holy crap. And it was me. It was like my my veins and my arms aren’t huge, but I always thought it was cool. Like, when you see the veins kind of pop out, right?

Stone Payton: [00:47:35] Right.

Justin Deweese: [00:47:36] But it’s like, I don’t feel like I’m trying for that because I’m not. I’m just, like, following a diet, and I’m. Working out a little bit. And anyway, so long story short to say that like I just saw him and I was like, what I need to do to look like you. And I started that and now, you know, a few months in.

Stone Payton: [00:47:51] So I got to believe some of our listeners could tap in to this interview and some of them may hear today live, some of them may hear six months from now and at least momentarily be inspired. Yeah. And I can also envision at least this can happen to me, feel like overwhelmed with all the information and the insight. So before we wrap, I’d love to if we can, let’s leave them with just like one or two little action steps, just a little, you know, a couple of pro tips we call them sometimes just something to get them going in the right direction. If if you were to pick one or two things to just start doing today. Yeah. On this on this journey.

Justin Deweese: [00:48:29] Let’s do light, medium and deep because you’re going to have people that are going to overwhelm people. I need a little bit more inspiration. People are like, What do I do now? I want to jump all in. You know, sometimes I watch out for that to a light tip. I’d say, wake up, drink a full glass of water and just go on and walk. Even if it’s raining outside, just go on a 30 minute walk, get your shoes wet, be consistent at it. Do that for 30 days and see what happens. Right. Kind of an intermediate step. If they wanted to meet with me or me and you together, we could all meet, grab some lunch or whatever. Just for inspiration. I’d love to hear their story. I can tell a little bit more about my story if they wanted to try some Isaac Genesis or maybe they’re looking for a job and they were like, Whether it’s insurance or I want to do insurance, like I’ve got to know a lot of people in the county. I can introduce them to somebody else or then three if they just want to make a complete all in and let me do this. Let me jump on this. Like, yeah, like we can, we can go on that journey as well. So again, I feel like I’m just a cheerleader and a coach for wherever people are and whatever they want to do. I just want to jump alongside them and say, hey, let me let me help you out and let’s let’s go.

Stone Payton: [00:49:31] Fantastic. All right. So if someone would like to have a conversation with you or someone on your team, whether it be about insurance for themselves or maybe they are one of these other trusted advisors there in the mortgage business or in the financial services arena. Let’s leave them with some coordinates. What’s the best way for them to reach out? Whatever you think is appropriate, whether it’s a website, LinkedIn, email, phone, whatever works for you. But I want them to be able to connect with you, man.

Justin Deweese: [00:49:55] Yeah, yeah. So I appreciate that. So if it’s on the insurance side, whether you want to quote or whether you want to get in a career or whether maybe you’re a loan officer and you’re looking or a realtor and you’re looking for an insurance guy. So if you can send it a quote at Guardian Insurance Solutions dot com, that’s my email I’ve got I don’t know 3007 friends on Facebook you can just add me on Facebook. Look up Justin DUIs. Justin Dawe See if you’re friends with Stone who are friends on there, so you’ll know that that’s me. There’s a few. Justin DUIs, there’s not a lot, but that’s me. I think I’ve got like a coat jacket on and it’s like a professional headshot that’s on their insurance guy.

Stone Payton: [00:50:35] Justin Yeah.

Justin Deweese: [00:50:36] Yeah. Insurance. I do have a page called Justin Lewis insurance agent too. You can go follow that if you just want to do that as well.

Stone Payton: [00:50:41] Yeah, well, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show. We got to do this again. One thing that might be fun is to have you come in with one of your mentors or maybe someone like you mixing from that group or a delighted client. You know, we’d love to hear their story, but also maybe talk about how you collaborate together in terms of trying to serve clients or so don’t be a stranger, man, because there’s obviously plenty.

Justin Deweese: [00:51:06] More to talk about, bro. I didn’t know what to expect. We talked, we didn’t really talk about it. We booked it. And then I asked you like for 2 minutes what we’re doing today and you’re like, Dude, talk about whatever you want to do. I’m like, Seriously? So now I appreciate you just being chill. I appreciate you doing this show and this is fun. I definitely want to come back.

Stone Payton: [00:51:20] We will make that happen, man. We appreciate you and we want you to keep up the good work.

Justin Deweese: [00:51:26] I appreciate it.

Stone Payton: [00:51:26] All right. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Justin DeWees with Guardian Insurance Solutions and everyone at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you next time on Cherokee Business Radio.

 

Tagged With: Guardian Insurance Solutions

David Samaha and Brendon Canale with Diesel David

August 16, 2022 by angishields

Fearless-Formula-Feature
Cherokee Business Radio
David Samaha and Brendon Canale with Diesel David
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From the back seat of a 1990 Toyota Corolla, into a box truck and then a 9,000sq ft building purchase, Diesel David Inc. company values to be sustainable and scalable, the focus must be on the team. When the people in the company are healthy and able to experience the win in their own goals and ambitions, fixing trucks and serving customers is the easy part.

David-Samaha-Diesel-DavidDavid Samaha is an ASE Certified Technician. In 2014, he started Diesel David, which eliminates the frustrations of working with a repair shop. His services are 100% mobile.

David’s customers love him because he saves them time, money, and heartache. No more waiting rooms, no more sheisty mechanics, and the best part is you get to drive your car or truck with confidence!

Brendon-Canale-Diesel-DavidA small drop can result in a ripple that grows into a tsunami. For Brendon Canale that was a toy truck as a young child and a bmx bike. These two seemingly small things gave him the fundamentals that would ultimately shape his life.

Bmx bikes taught Brendon to love adrenalin and turn wrenches. The toy truck began an obsession with vehicles that has only grown stronger throughout the years. When the opportunity to come on board with Diesel David presented itself, Brendon took the job.

Brendon started off as the shop handy man, then he took charge of projects and took care of what needed to be done.. That pattern of taking the initiative set him up perfectly to take over service writing, and eventually shop management.

Brendon didn’t realize this was what he would be doing, but if he hadn’t taken that initial opportunity, he wouldn’t be where he is at today.

Follow Diesel David on Facebook.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:09] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Sharon Cline: [00:00:25] Welcome to Fearless Formula on Cherokee Radio X, where we talk about the ups and downs in the business world and offer words of wisdom for business success. I’m your host, Sharon Cline. And today I have two people in the studio that I’m very excited to introduce you to. One is this is his. He started his business in a Toyota Corolla, which I love. It’s such a great story and now has a box truck and a 9000 square foot building. And he’s built his company on a value that is it is sustainable, it is scalable, and the focus is on the team. I would really love to welcome David Samaha and his general manager, Brendon Canale, and this is from Diesel. Dave Inc. Welcome.

David Samaha: [00:01:06] Good afternoon.

Sharon Cline: [00:01:07] I like the colorful bio. I just thought it was amazing that that’s like you start you can picture a little like Corolla, you know, and you’re just trying to figure out how to do your business in a small car. And the next thing you know, you’ve got this huge, huge company.

David Samaha: [00:01:20] What was more interesting for me was writing the bio in the intake form for the radio show. It’s like I had to do this in third person. This is weird. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:01:30] So you’re well now. You can do it in first person. So let’s talk a little bit about sort of how you got started. I mean, I know I talk about the car, but what was how is what’s the beginnings of of diesel?

David Samaha: [00:01:42] Dave Inc The beginnings go back to a go cart. So I was 13 years old and I had been cutting grass for probably about like a summer. And so growing up we were in this neighborhood called Parkway Commons in Kennesaw, and it was a really, really great neighborhood to grow up in in suburban Atlanta. And there were these specifically to go carts that the older kids had in the neighborhood for at least ten years before. I mean, I was probably three years old, and these go carts were just going around the neighborhood and they’re like these old 1970s vintage tube frame sheet metal for go carts. And they just kind of bounced around between different kids in the neighborhood. You know, they’d grow up, get, you know, 14, 15 and 16 years old, get a car and go cart would just be sitting and they would pass it down to someone. So at one point, my best friend, he lived right next door to me, had gotten a hold of this go cart with it, everything running and going great and it just stopped running, kind of was just kaput.

David Samaha: [00:02:43] And I saw it down, like in a storage shed. And I kept asking him. It’s like he wanted to sell it and he really did it. And I was like, You’re not doing anything with it. Like, just like, why are you not willing to sell it? He’s like, okay. So I took 50 bucks of my hard earned money from cutting grass, and I got it. And then I started to just, like, take it apart. And my dad was pretty supportive in that he’s always been like a handyman, but by no means is he like. An automotive mechanic or like he was just figuring it out with me. So he’s like, Oh, we need to get the engine manual. And I’m like, No, we just need to take it apart. And he’s like, Well, we need to do this. And I’m like, No, no, we need to see why this is. So he kind of like mentored me through the process, and I think that’s when I realized that I had somewhat of a mechanical aptitude.

Sharon Cline: [00:03:27] It’s funny because everyone thinks of the Internet now like I YouTube everything on how to fix anything. But you didn’t do that then?

David Samaha: [00:03:33] No, no. We went to we went to the library and we got an old school. Oh, Briggs in Stratton, five horsepower engines. And then we went and talked with this man by the name of Harold Huffman, and he owned a lawnmower shop, like right on Canton Road, actually, the same road that our shop is on now. Wow. And this was yeah, 17, 17 years ago. And I went over there and I asked a bunch of questions and he gave me some of his tools to take home, to take the engine apart. And then I came back with more questions, and then he gave me more answers. And it kind of was like this back and forth where he was really like my first mechanical mentor. Like, so I would start going there, like after school and just like. Oh, man. Like pushing lawnmowers around was really the biggest thing, like pressure washing lawnmowers and cleaning things off. And then like after like three months of doing that after school, my parents would drop me off there because I wasn’t driving. And, you know, everyone would like, hey, like, you need to use this to clean this off or you need to, hey, you can take this apart. And like, this problem on this lawnmower is actually caused because water is in it because they keep it outside and they don’t cover it up. So I learned a lot of really cool little like nifty things that, you know, you’re just a sponge at that age. You just soak it up.

Sharon Cline: [00:04:45] So you’ve been wanting to do this or have been interested in it since you were 13?

David Samaha: [00:04:48] Yeah, it was just like curated, right, kind of life. It’s one of those things where life just directs you. And I think if you’re so. I was just, like, letting myself be directed. I wasn’t, like, fixated on being some great mechanic or entrepreneur. Like, I was more focused on. Like cutting grass. Like I’d built this little wooden two by four. Like I took my skateboard apart and I like bolted my like the trucks and wheels on my skateboard up to this. Like, what? An apparatus. And I made a trailer for my go kart so I could put my lawnmower on it. And then I made, like, a side carrier so I could, like, carry my weed whacker. And I didn’t have to, like, have it, like, across my body while I’m driving the go kart and. So I was like, I still drove my go kart even when I was like 15. Like, I’d sometimes, like, I had a little truck that I bought for my brother in law. Like I would drive it to jobs in the neighborhood before I really had my license. But I would still like even at 15 years old and I was tall, I was like six foot by the time I was 15. So totally way too big for this part.

Sharon Cline: [00:05:48] But so fun. Yeah. But then fast forward to when you actually have this business. How did it. Well, you had the origins of it from when you were a teenager. But what were the next steps that created your business?

David Samaha: [00:06:00] Just same. Same thing. But. Different. So larger. Right. So it’s just like the common theme is, is how when you’re open and receptive and you’re just living within your talents and like what you’re good at, like opportunity continues to present itself. So from like the go kart I was doing lawns and I’ve met some like lifelong customers and mentors and I was at school one day and high school sophomore and a recruiter came from Universal Technical Institute. That’s when I really started connecting the dots on like doing automotive and like again, just living in your talents. Like I was installing stereo systems and radios and subwoofers for like juniors and seniors at that point. But like, I just didn’t view it as automotive repair.

Sharon Cline: [00:06:45] Or sustainable business, right?

David Samaha: [00:06:47] Yeah. No, it’s just like doing it because it was fun and it was felt like playing. And so then I like get this in my head that I want to be a mechanic. So I go home and tell my dad and he’s like, Turns off car cowherd was like, Let me tell you about like, you need to be an engineer. It’s kind of like what he was saying and he like drew graphs of like income, potential of engineers and, you know, income potential of mechanics and whatever, slightly outdated numbers and ideology. But anyways, he showed me and then afterwards he’s like, well, if you’re going to do it, you can go to this private school that’s 75,000. You can pay for it yourself. Or what I’ve done with your three older sisters is I’ve offered that if they go to if they qualify for Hope scholarship and the additional tuition expenses and books like I will help pay for, but I’m not willing to do that if you’re not utilizing the resources that are already available to you. And I was like, Okay, well where do I do that? He’s like, Well, there’s a school like two miles away, like it was North Metro Technical College, and I ended up doing a dual enrollment program with them. And it was really cool to just like you’re treated like an adult, you know? So at that point I’m a junior, I’m going to take college classes and, you know, just like little steps, right? So you’re learning these things. And then I graduated high school a semester early, so that winter quarter I started at North Metro Tech and my teacher there, a man by the name of John Hill, taught me like just a lot, like he and I really connected.

David Samaha: [00:08:16] And I think I reminded him a lot of himself when he was younger and he asked me to come work for him at an automotive repair shop. So I’m going to start speeding up the story now. So I went to go work for John for about four and a half years and he ended up firing me. And the termination was really he had called himself in a pickle that I think a lot of business owners do, which is they care more about the people than they do about the success of the business. And he had employed his nephew for quite a long time. And and I think, you know, no one gets it right the first time. And it was kind of in a spot where he either had to fire me or he had to fire his nephew. And he couldn’t fire his nephew because there was he was just over leveraged. His nephew knew how to do everything. And, you know, if John had, you know, it could have worked out a bunch of different ways and still been successful. But the way that it did work out was where he terminated me. He’s like, You need to go get a job in a corporate world like a dealership and see what it’s like. Was I had a bunch of ideas that he didn’t want to do. He’s very resistant towards. And I think if he saw that, you know, if I saw the other side that like his background was from a dealership, was from this like conglomerate, and those same principles are not as effective in a small business. So I went and I got a part time job at Firestone, and it was at Firestone that I really the money started making sense.

Sharon Cline: [00:09:39] Interesting.

David Samaha: [00:09:40] And there’s this gal by the name of Cindy. She’s a phenomenal service advisor. Women tend to make exceptional, exceptional service advisors and like that front facing customer dealing because your customers don’t expect you to be knowledgeable on the automotive technical side, yet they feel cared for. And if you have a woman that’s able to take like a concern and a complaint and like a goal and distill that down into a technical, like readable form for the technicians, and then take what the technicians say and then put it back and understand like layman’s terms, it’s extremely, extremely effective. So Cindy sold like $5,400 worth of work on a 2004 Toyota Corolla. And this was a Toyota Camry and this was in 2000, 13 or 14. So it’s like the car is only worth five grand. And and I was only working part time. So she was like, Hey, I’m only going to give this repair order to you if you tell me that you can get it done before you leave today because you’re off for like the next three days. And this lady is not going to be without her car for like five days. Four days. So it’s like, yeah, sure. You know, I think I can handle it. And I jumped on it like 8 a.m. and I had it done by lunch. Wow.

Sharon Cline: [00:10:51] How did you feel? Were you super proud of yourself?

David Samaha: [00:10:53] Oh, super proud of myself. And then it like started setting in. I’m like, holy smokes. This was. Almost 50 $500 and I got it done in like 4 hours.

Sharon Cline: [00:11:03] Then you could imagine sort of yourself having your own system where you are taking that 50 $400 or whatever it is to yours for yourself.

David Samaha: [00:11:11] Yeah. Yeah. And at the time, like, I just had two small goals, right? So like after I, after I lost my job, I was like, okay, I was making about 700 bucks a week. And this is after doing it like hardcore for four years, I can 700 bucks a week. So I was like, okay, so if I do like two and a half jobs a week, I can essentially make the same. Gross And then I can work at Firestone, start gaining some experience and knowledge there. And the education will make up for any type of discrepancies in that like total profit, right? So that was when I was like, Oh.

David Samaha: [00:11:43] Business, I.

David Samaha: [00:11:44] Need to do this full time. Shortly after that, I was driving home, there was this f 350 that was like blocking three lanes on bills, Ferry Road. I don’t know how he managed to do that. So I like but then the cars are going around them. So you couldn’t like he was he was stuck because everyone was stuck. But then they were going around him so he couldn’t back up. So I blocked the lane that people are using to go around them to create a pathway so he could back his truck up and proceeded to go like interview this 55 year old man and like, hey, man, like, what are you doing? He’s like, I’m broken down. I was like, Oh, okay. Like, well, that’s why I’m here. Like, let’s get you pushed out of the road. And he’s like, he’s like, Yeah, I know what the part is. Since I’m like, Oh, you’re this kind of person, like. You know what the part is that you put it off and you’re like causing all kinds of destruction out here on Bills Ferry Road with like traffic powder. And so we push it out, like push it out of the way. And I give him a ride home and he lived like half a mile from where he broke down. And he’s like, drilling me with questions is like, Oh, so like, what do you do? And I’m like, Oh, like, I work at Firestone, I fix cars on the side. It’s like, Oh, so you’re a business owner? And I was like, What kind of business do you have hitting on my business card? And it was like one of those nametags that says like, Hi, my name is.

Sharon Cline: [00:12:52] Like a business card. You put your name David on there.

David Samaha: [00:12:55] So it was just like it was just like, like I fix cars. I think that’s what I was like. I fix cars and like had my phone number.

Sharon Cline: [00:13:02] It was really cute. He remembers. I bet he remembers getting that business card. It’s kind of memorable.

David Samaha: [00:13:06] So hit him a business card. He’s like, So are you an LLC or a corporation? And I’m like, What’s the difference? Like, well, LLC has been around since 1996 and corporations have been around since 1776, and there’s only one that you want to be. And I was like, Okay, that’s interesting. It’s like, How do I do it? It’s like, well, first tell me how you how you learn so much about diesels. And until this question was asked to me, I didn’t feel like I knew anything about diesels. It was just nuts and bolts. So again, that common theme is like, it was just fun. I just did it because I enjoyed it and I was playing my own game and completely oblivious towards anything else going out in the world or potential or like I just wasn’t concerned with distractions and I told him I was like, it’s just nuts and bolts. He’s like, But yeah, like, how did you go to school for it? I was like, Oh, I went to Chattahoochee Tech, but it was actually there that I’m like, So I’m connecting these dots as he’s asking me this question. But it was actually there that I met this guy and I worked at a shop for four and a half years and like we just worked on a lot of diesels there. And he’s like, Oh, well, it’s hard to find a good diesel mechanic. He’s like. He’s like, Tell you what, he’s like, you come over later and help me put this fuel pump on and we’ll talk about it. So he ended up doing like he has a background as a business law attorney. So he did my whole business corporation and my articles of organization and all the filings and everything with the state. And then I just kept his diesel truck running.

Sharon Cline: [00:14:26] And how did you come up with diesel? I mean, it’s an obvious.

David Samaha: [00:14:28] That was his. Right. So he came off diesel. He’s like he’s like your diesel, David. And I was like, oh, like, what about this guy? That’s like Diesel Dave. He’s like, That’s a different name. He’s like, Your Diesel, David. So he got the domain, we got the dot com and got the phone number and. Then we also got Diesel David’s, which is funny because we did that seven years ago and like now I’m like been jamming with my new buddy Jared. We’re actually like best friends now. He’s an Internet marketer and. Gosh, Internet marketers. So we’re like going over different like sales copies. And the thing that always has a higher conversion rate is just like the bland, simple. Like advertising, like graphics, like it’s never anything, like, flashy or, you know.

Intro: [00:15:15] Like, hello, my name is, is.

David Samaha: [00:15:17] Yeah, no, it’s like. Yeah, no, but like the conversion. Yeah, the effective conversion rate. Like, what do people want to know? Like what problem do you solve for them? And like how do they, how do they get you to solve that problem?

Sharon Cline: [00:15:27] I love that, too, because you talked about that in your bio. You were talking about how one of the goals that you have is understanding the customer’s needs and desires. That is, it is a greater importance to you than the expected service. Talk to me a little bit about that, because I love the notion of looking at a person and not seeing dollar signs, but more seeing a problem that they have that, you know, you can tell them, I’m going to solve this for you or I’ll do the best I can.

David Samaha: [00:15:50] Yeah. So. Most like people come to the automotive shop to get their car fixed and most automotive shops fix cars. But what fails to happen is you have a lot of cars that don’t need to be fixed either. It’s not important. It’s not urgent. Combination of both of those and. The car might not be worth fixing or like if the customer is fixing the car, but then they plan on. There’s so many different scenarios. They plan on leaving the country. They don’t need to fix the car. It’s like, dude, you could actually Uber for the next two months and you might spend on what you told. Just told me your commute was like your normal routine. You might spend $400.

Sharon Cline: [00:16:35] You tell this to the customer. Do you ever tell you tell them, listen, it’s just not worth fixing right now. You might as well just hang out. Yeah. I mean, that must make you different. That must make you different from a lot of other.

Speaker3: [00:16:45] You have to understand what the customers goals are. Like, hey, like. Because you can tell them all the stuff that’s wrong with their car. Like, any mechanic can do that. But if you don’t know, like, what do you use a truck for? Because like a lot of people have have diesel trucks and they don’t need them. So it sounds like we’re talking ourselves out of business, but there’s so there’s so many diesel trucks on the road that it’s not like the people that don’t need them can can get rid of it.

Sharon Cline: [00:17:08] Why do you think people have diesel trucks that that don’t need them?

David Samaha: [00:17:12] It’s the it’s the dream. Like diesels go forever and they last a long time.

Intro: [00:17:16] I was going to ask you that question, actually, Brandon, because there is a difference between obviously what’s the difference between a diesel and non diesel engine like that was one of the things in your bio. It’s a good question. It’s a good question because I don’t know. I’m just the average Jane who does not know much about cars, who would come in and be like, I don’t know, it’s making this noise. Can you fix it? So yeah, can you tell me what the difference is between.

David Samaha: [00:17:38] Yeah. So diesels will last a long time. The main benefit of a diesel is the torque. So use it for towing, use it as a work truck. You got to really put it to work to get your value out of a diesel truck where if you’re just driving it to the grocery store, you’re just driving it to run errands. You’re not using the truck for its purpose. And it’s shorter trips that kill these trucks. So customer tells me, you know, I just throw lumber in the back of it and I go to the job site. It probably need to be in a tundra, not in a diesel truck. Diesel does have a lot of maintenance that come along with them. They’re great at towing. You’re not using it for the purpose of a diesel truck. You’re costing yourself a lot of money and maintenance.

Intro: [00:18:19] So you recommend for someone who’s just going up to publics and back, you know, in their diesel truck, maybe you could use use your money more effectively in a different kind of vehicle.

David Samaha: [00:18:29] Exactly. People want, you know, modern era hassle free experience. So if you want hassle free and you’re not putting the truck to work, you’re not making money with it, buy something that suits your needs.

Intro: [00:18:39] I mean, do you find that people respond to you in a way where they’re just sort of like quiet for a second when you tell them, here’s what we’re going to do for you, where they don’t even understand that what you’re actually trying to do is save them some money and potentially not even be used by you all. I mean, it’s such a different model, business model, and it’s refreshing and it gives me a feeling of trust.

David Samaha: [00:18:58] So something that David spoke with me about is I’m a service advisor, not a service writer. And so I’m going to advise you on what to do with your vehicle instead of just selling you a bunch of work because your truck needs it. There’s trucks that are heartbreakers, beautiful trucks, tons of power. It’s going to break. Is it going to break today? Is it going to break in two years? I don’t know. It’s going to break and it’s going to cost you a lot of money. So a get a truck that’s going to be reliable and we have a whole list of trucks we recommend, like I’ll send it to you. We do a pre-purchase inspections, all of that. What I don’t like to see is somebody put a large sum of money into a truck that’s going to break in two years. That’s not value. And ultimately, you’re going to respect me if I tell you what my honest opinion is.

Intro: [00:19:45] That’s true. I love the notion of respecting someone’s opinion where you’re not wondering what you were trying to get out of me. You know where I’m not thinking, well, of course he wants me to get all this service. Even this belt looks like it might need to be replaced because it has a small crack maybe, which I can’t even verify because I can’t see it. So, you know, there’s like, especially being a woman, I’ve had that happen to me and it did not happen to the man that I was with, you know? And I really resented it made me mad. So I appreciate that you’re kind of giving people a sense of safety.

David Samaha: [00:20:13] Exactly.

Intro: [00:20:15] Are you having any trouble at all hiring people who work on on diesel engines? I don’t know how common this is.

Speaker3: [00:20:22] So a lot of people can. Let’s back up. So everyone talks about labor shortage right now or like a lack of quality help and. If that’s what you’re seeking and that’s what you believe, then that’s all that’s going to exist. And that’s there’s nothing more to the answer for that. So all these people talking about. The struggles they have with labor. It has more to do with them than it does with other people. Because what I can tell you this is any company that has a great culture does not have a labor shortage. So if you’re talking about other people for so you can’t control that. So you’re just inducing stress and agony. It’s like a choice, like you’re choosing to be miserable. And I wake up and I’m like, I don’t want to be miserable today, so what can I change about myself or my business or our company culture that is going to attract top talent? And then from there. It’s. It’s easy. Like, I shouldn’t say easy. It’s simple. Right. So the work is hard, but the answer it’s way more simple to choose to adjust yourself and your business and know that. All right, if I create a culture around. The people, the team that the the workers are not going to be my problem. And then also, if you have a good team, then the customers are going to be less of your problem. So it’s kind of. So kind of it is a no brainer, but everyone makes it really complicated.

Intro: [00:21:47] Did you come up with this this culture philosophy in the very beginning of your business?

Speaker3: [00:21:52] No, before it was the customers. But then, you know, like energy is probably our most precious resource. So my own personal energy was being capped by how many customers. So then I had to expand. So then I hired one person and then hired another person. And then it was kind of like figuring out, okay, how do I take care of these people? So that way we can, like be our best at how we’re taking care of our customers. Because if it was like that very early realization, like, okay, the people aren’t taking care of like the team is not taking care of the customers. So just as a whole, like if people aren’t taking care of them, more people aren’t being taken care of. But if people are being taken care of, then more people are being taken care of.

Intro: [00:22:32] Right. It’s the notion of like last week I had someone on that talked about a rising tide. No. This all ships. God, take it. I can’t remember. But it’s like when everyone else is benefiting. When you’re benefiting, you benefit other people and other people benefit and everyone wins. That’s the notion of it. Rising tide sinks. No ships. All right, I’m gonna have to look it up. Sorry. I don’t have the right philosophy in my head right now, but I did want to talk to you a little bit about what you think your biggest mistake might have been along the road. Like if someone is considering doing something similar, starting their own business, what are some things that we could tell them or you could tell them that could be of benefit?

Speaker3: [00:23:12] Mm hmm. Brendan.

David Samaha: [00:23:16] All right, so you can probably.

Speaker3: [00:23:18] Tell me my mistakes better than I can tell me my mistakes. I’ll have to open up my Twitter.

Intro: [00:23:22] Friends for.

David Samaha: [00:23:24] Be calculated, not reactionary. So if you have you know, you have your heart rate. You know, you’re aware of yourself. Everybody has anxiety. We’re all humans. So something hits you and your heart rate rises. Your thoughts are running a million miles a minute and you say something that is not effective. It’s, first of all, probably not what you meant. Second of all, it doesn’t accomplish your goal. All it does is just kind of light the fire. I’m burning a bridge, so if you feel yourself in that state, take a step back, take a deep breath. Go find calm, come back, collect your thoughts, say what you need to say and be direct about it. You know, like, you know, Hey, man, you left a bunch of coolant on the floor. Everybody walked in it, tracked it throughout the whole shop. Now the whole shop is covered in coolant. You know, I took a second. Calm down, like we just need this cleaned up. And in the future, let’s as soon as there’s a spill, let’s put some oil dry on it and soak it up.

Intro: [00:24:24] Do you do you find that things that you’re experiencing at work and using those philosophies also bleed over into your personal lives, too? I would have to imagine it’s almost like training yourself reprograming yourself not just in business, but in the rest of your life.

David Samaha: [00:24:39] For me personally, I don’t have this like dominant persona about myself. I’m very direct and that catches a lot of people off guard. I have no problem saying what I mean, and it’s not an aggressive way. I’m just telling you how I see it and what it is. And here’s the next step. And you’d be surprised that first of all, the level of respect you gain, but the reactions and the surprise you get, especially for somebody that looks like me.

Intro: [00:25:07] What do you mean, looks like you? Nobody can see you.

David Samaha: [00:25:10] Understand? I’m just.

Speaker3: [00:25:11] I’m just. Let’s unpack that.

Intro: [00:25:13] Yeah.

David Samaha: [00:25:14] I’m just. I’m just a goofy 25 year old guy that, you know, people don’t expect it to come out of my mouth whenever I’m like, Oh, hey, man, that kind of looks like it needs a little more work put into that. Like, you know.

Intro: [00:25:26] What do you think are some of the biggest misconceptions of your industry are.

David Samaha: [00:25:31] That we’re that were con artist that’s the biggest one people have this this notion about mechanic shops which I get it you know whenever your car breaks it’s high stress and you know, they’ve been burned. Like I’ve had so many customers that say like this shop said my truck was fixed, I paid them $10,000. And the problem is still there. I mean, we don’t do that if we don’t fix your problem. There is no we don’t fix your problem. We fix.

Speaker3: [00:25:57] It. Yeah. There has to be an exchange of value. If we can’t provide value, then why are you providing money? Because all money is is just a measurement of exchange value.

Intro: [00:26:08] Ooh, hang on. For business people, I need to unpack that one. I love that because really I have some I have thought this and somebody mentioned to me recently that maybe this isn’t the case. But I do believe deep down that you either honor people or you honor money like there’s a real fight there between what’s most important to you, because you can you can really value money enough that you’ll take advantage of people or you can value people enough that you would never do that. And the money that comes is as genuinely meant to be yours, if that makes sense.

Speaker3: [00:26:42] I think. I don’t know. You can lead on this one, Brendan.

David Samaha: [00:26:45] All right. So I’ll simplify it down. You have a you have those electrical bucket trucks that they use. They pull up to the power lines. They have the bucket that goes up and that guy, you know, fixes whatever’s going on up there or runs line. Those trucks can make 2000 to $5000 a day. And so if it’s broken down, they’re losing money every single day. If we’re able to, you know, get the problem and figure out the solution, act quickly, get that truck back on the road. We provided an immense amount of value. We’ve solved the problem and to them, it’s worth paying the price to get it done.

Speaker3: [00:27:20] So I really do like money, but what I like more than money is what it signifies. Right? So when you talk about providing value and like money is just a measurement of exchange value. What Brendan was saying there is that if you can solve a problem. That is a costly problem. It’s worth what? It’s worth money. It’s worth a lot of money if you can solve. A lot of really costly problems. It’s worth a lot, a lot of money. So inversely, if you can if you can solve a problem that’s not worth much money, then unless you just do it for a bunch of bunch of bunch of people, you’re like, it’s not going to be successful. So I think earlier we talked about like advice for like people getting into business or you want to circle back to that because I think it fits into this conversation perfectly.

Intro: [00:28:18] I love that.

Speaker3: [00:28:20] What was the question?

Intro: [00:28:22] What were you talking about? Like, how.

Speaker3: [00:28:24] So? Just like choosing. Like. So if someone was like, all right, how do I play my own game? Like, how do I be me and do something that is, like, beneficial? It’s okay. Find out what, like, what problems exist that you can solve being you. And then after you get, like, a list amount. Just start with ten. And then out of those ten, be like, okay. Which these are the most costly problems. And then give that to like give that to your friends. To not friends that are similar to you. Like friends that are different, like give it to one of your parents. Gave it to like five different people. Be like, hey, would you rate these on a scale? Would you number them 1 to 10 on like what would be the biggest headache and the most costly? You can frame it different ways. So like frustration, that’s usually equates to money. Speed usually equates to money or just like actual direct costs. Like if. Let’s say your talent is. Narrating and you’re the problem exists is that people are afraid of it or you have a bunch of different problems around public speaking. So what I would go directly to is like who are the most successful peoples that have issues, public speaking? And I would put my thumb right on the tech sector. You have all these people that are extremely successful. They make loads and loads of money and they are scared, like spotless. So then I would transition from being a narrator to being a public relations agent, and I would market myself as an agency to as a public relations agent to the tech sector.

Speaker3: [00:29:53] And I would perform on stage. I would answer. It’s like I would get like hyperfocus on like understanding, like who they are and what they do and what they provide. And then I would do all of their interviews for them or alongside of them, and you can let them know that like, hey, we also have a coaching program, so there’s just a bunch of ancillaries you can go with. Like we also have a coaching program to get you to do what I’m doing, but I want you to know I don’t expect you to do that in the beginning. Like, that’s why I’m here. That’s why you’re hiring me. But we’re going to get you up to speed to where you can, like if you want to be on stage in front of ten people or 10,000, it won’t make a difference to you. Just like when you first learned code, whether it was one line of code or whether that code is 100 lines. It’s like, you know, when it does what it does, it doesn’t matter if you’re asleep. It doesn’t matter like that code is leveraged, it’s going to run and it’s going to multiply and it’s going to do more than what 10,000 people could do. And you’re capable of the same.

Intro: [00:30:44] If you’re just joining us, I’m speaking with David Samaha and Brendan Canal from Diesel, David Inc. And I loved that because it it’s very creative. My brain doesn’t work that way. So I always am fascinated by people who can think beyond well, most people can think beyond what my brain does. But I’m just saying that was cool because I never considered being a voiceover artist and audiobook narrator going to approach anyone who struggles with that. I’m always just kind of doing my own thing and praying someone hires me, which is not a very successful business model. Just to let you know, in case you’re wondering out there.

Speaker3: [00:31:16] I know Church is an extremely successful business model, so maybe there’s something in prayer.

Intro: [00:31:20] Oh, maybe so. I mean, it’s really, really marry it all together. Pray, hope that I get business.

Speaker3: [00:31:27] Take a bunch of action and strategy.

Intro: [00:31:31] Sorry. Do you find that that’s actually the most rewarding thing, is being able to take a problem that someone brings to you and kind of think beyond a general way of fixing something? I mean, I love that you think deeply about it and not not just here’s here’s the knocking sound that I have. But you’re actually wondering what they’re even using the truck for. I mean, is that what you find the most rewarding?

Speaker3: [00:31:55] Um. So that’s what makes it sustainable. Right. So when you think about like if you’re actually able to, that’s what provides value. So sustainability is directly proportional to value provided and so so is money. So if you can provide more value, then you’re going to be more sustainable and you’re going to make more money, simply put. So if we’re able to actually analyze. Because like, people are just focused on what they do, right? They’re not thinking about their car like they probably haven’t a lot of these cars they bought eight years ago. Right. So Brendon talks about people having diesel trucks that don’t need to have them. They had a purpose at one point. They made a good decision. Right. But that good decision might have been to go on a camping trip with their family or, you know, a three month thing. And they did that. But then they still had their diesel truck seven years later. Is this just because it doesn’t make sense to get something for three months and then get rid of it?

David Samaha: [00:32:51] One of my favorite questions to ask is How long are you planning on having this truck? Bingo. Some people ten, 20 years. I want this truck to last, like be a lifetime truck. Other people, it’s just got to get me through the year. Those are two conversations of, hey, here’s what you need to do to make sure that you’re not putting an engine in this thing in five years. And here’s what’s going to get you by. And here are some little extra maintenance items you’re going to want to do just to make it so you don’t have any catastrophic failures. Understanding the goal and educating the customer to most important things. Yeah, hands down.

Intro: [00:33:26] That’s so interesting. I love to the notion of asking someone because because I just went through a car issue with my Prius, which is a total opposite of a diesel. By the way.

Speaker3: [00:33:36] We work on Priuses, two in 100. We build the batteries in them.

Intro: [00:33:38] Actually, that’s. Do you really? Yeah. I’m so glad I met you. So let’s talk a little bit about this. This is my favorite vehicle. We have a relationship, but I wanted to ask you, actually, it’s a good it’s a good time to bring up what exactly what exactly do you provide for customers? Like if they’re listening right now and they have a car issue or if they don’t, just tell me what you do.

David Samaha: [00:34:00] All right. So customer calls, I answer the phone. Hey, how’s it going?

Intro: [00:34:05] We’re talking deep, literal. Let’s go a little.

Speaker3: [00:34:09] Down.

Intro: [00:34:09] Here. What are the services you provide?

David Samaha: [00:34:11] How’s it going? What can I do for you? It’s Brendan. And they’re like, you know, hey, you know, it’s this. This is wrong in my car. I’m like, okay, great. What’s your car doing? You know, you know, it doesn’t turn on it. It, you know, it drives and it shuts off. You know, I need to understand what’s going on. And then within that question is the circumstance. You know, I’m going 55 miles an hour. I floor it because I want to pass somebody and it shuts off every time. And I’m like, okay, so it happens at 55. Technician needs to know that they got to go on the highway like all that next step is educating. So, hey, based off what you’re telling me, I think it could be X-Y-Z. Obviously, a technician needs to look at it. And, you know, once we get an idea and a game plan, we’ll let you know if it’s a multistep process or if it’s, you know, this takes care of your problem. And, you know, the biggest thing is, you know, people get frustrated when people get frustrated due to lack of knowledge. Lack of knowledge leads to frustration every single time. So if you’re being ethical and, you know, educate, educate, educate, I can’t emphasize it enough. I’ve had customers that have had horrible, horrible experiences. They come to our shop and they keep coming back. They keep coming back because they understand what the next step looks like.

Intro: [00:35:25] Knowledge is power, in my opinion. So when I understand, I almost have empathy for what it is that you’re going through and you have it for me, you know, it’s like opens up some kind of it’s not such a mystery. And I just, I don’t know, I like being able to go and explain to my friend. Oh, yeah, he told me, it’s this, this, this. And I actually understand what I’m saying exactly.

David Samaha: [00:35:45] Because example was like oil leaks, you know, whenever you have a leak, your system is not making full pressure. We’re going to do this first round of repair. We’re going to repair the most obvious and the highest up because oil drains down. It covers other things up. So once we get that sealed up, we’ll clean it off, drive it. If another oil leak appears, the engine’s making more pressure inside of it now so it could be leaking from somewhere that previously wasn’t. We’ll keep working through it and, you know, let them know like we try to get them all at the first time. But it could be a two or three time comeback and we’ll keep working through it.

Intro: [00:36:16] What do you think? You know, the show’s fearless formula. And so one of the goals of this show is for other people who are listening to kind of understand maybe some of the techniques that you all have used to get through some setbacks or some surprises you weren’t expecting. What’s something that you’ve kind of had to figure out as a as a surprise in your business? We’re so quiet. Oh, my God.

David Samaha: [00:36:40] All right. So this is a hard one to say as a business, but sometimes you have to fire customers. And David can chime in on another setback that if he wants to. But there’s some customers that, you know, you you can’t fulfill their needs, you know, whether it be, you know, their expectation is too high for what their truck is capable of doing, for the amount of money they want to put into it. I don’t know a simpler way of saying it.

Intro: [00:37:09] What would you say? How is the response with customers when you do that? Is it terrible? Is it as dramatic as I’m thinking it is in my mind?

Speaker3: [00:37:15] Oh, normally there is relieved as you are because like what’s happening is like both parties are choosing to continue to entangle and both parties want want a solution. They want out and. Sorry. Let me clarify that. Both parties want a solution and they also want out. Just most people think that the solution is the only way out. And sometimes you just have to pick one. And that is like so that would be terminating the relationship. And whether that involves a refund or doesn’t involve a refund or. You know, for me, the number one thing is like reputation management because like, hey, just because we have a disagreement doesn’t mean that you’re wrong. It doesn’t mean that I’m wrong. It just is. So if that can be the outcome of like, hey, not everything always works out, then they’re less likely to share their opinion as a fact. Right? So like, and that’s all a review is, is just essentially a. A fact of reality. Right. But it’s treated as a fact of the business. And I think that’s where it’s so key to. When you’re. Firing a customer. You have to be empathetic towards what they’ve experienced because they don’t care about what you did or they don’t care about what was.

Speaker3: [00:38:41] What was given or, you know, all the extra stuff that you did above and beyond to try and make things go smoothly until they know that you care. So if you can meet them with that and then normally, you know, they’re going to want some type of financial compensation and which again, is understandable, right? If there was value provided, then you charge for it. If there’s no value provided that you don’t charge for it. The gray area with at least in most industries, is where there’s a disconnect in the understanding of what value is provided. So it’d be like vehicle comes in with five issues. We take care of four of them. Like you could go to any other shop, get a second point. Yes. These are not problems anymore. But that fifth one, it in the customer’s eyes negates the other four. So that would be an example where, you know, and a lot of times it’s a pattern. It’s not just one time you have the experience of the customer and something. Okay? The second time like now we’ve noticed it happens the third time. Then you have to like you have to terminate that relationship because it’s going to cost so much in energy again, which is the most precious resource that we have.

Speaker3: [00:39:53] Even more than. I mean, it’s kind of related to health, but it’s the energy is even more than health, right? So. Like if you’re costing your team energy and if you’re costing yourself energy, then how you’re showing up for your team, how your team is able to show up for customers, how your team is able to just, you know, you feel it. It’s a whole vibe inside the entire business. So. It’s not your it’s not enjoyable, but it’s necessary. Like if you can zoom out, you can see like how this relationship, the, the toxicity of it is actually damaging the growth of the company because it’s affecting the individuals inside of it. Then at that point the money doesn’t matter as much like the money, it’s always going to matter. And yes, but then one customer now it doesn’t matter. I mean, at least for automotive, like I can’t speak for like houses or you know, it’s like we’re higher ticket items, right? But like in the sense, yeah, if you’re just going to continue to be a headache for that customer, they’re going to be a headache for you. The relationship doesn’t need to continue.

Intro: [00:40:52] What was it like during the pandemic when also the cars were the value of cars was so inflated or high? I don’t know if it’s inflated, but high. I know that I was looking at potentially a new vehicle when my car was giving me trouble and I was like, heck no, I can’t afford it used vehicle right now. So what was that like for your business?

David Samaha: [00:41:11] Yeah. So new trucks, you know, you can easily pay $100,000 for a new pickup truck. 100,000. You could buy a crappy house or a brand new truck like okay. Or you could buy a used truck but 20 into it and or your current truck but you know a chunk of money into it and you have a truck that I got away. People like to say, Oh, it’ll be like new. No, it’s still a 20 year old truck. But the weak the weak points have been taken care of. You may have some failures here and there. Work through it. It’s better than forking out 100 grand. Yeah, and.

Speaker3: [00:41:47] No, it’s not going to be like new. And it’s actually better that it’s not going to be like new because you go out and you buy a brand new vehicle and it’s in for warranty work within the first month or two. So you don’t want that.

David Samaha: [00:41:57] Oh, exactly. And so, you know, working with customers, setting expectation accordingly is super important. You know, the, you know, talking about, you know, firing customers. On the flip side of that, you know, your biggest challenge is handling a customer who’s super frustrated. And it’s that that first time you have that situation, how you handle it sets the relationship for the course of the future. And, you know, you know, you you have customers where the timeline doesn’t work out or part doesn’t arrive. Like there’s other logistical steps to fixing your truck other than putting the part on. And, you know, we do our best to meet everybody’s goal. Things happen, you know, we’re human. So how you handle, how you communicate, you know, moving forward, they may be frustrated, but they’re going to come back because they respect it. You didn’t treat them poorly. You understood where they’re at. You explain the scenario of what happened and you know, you let them know what the goal is and how you’re going to accomplish it. They educate.

Intro: [00:43:05] Okay, well, if anyone out there was listening and wanted to get in touch with you, what’s the best way for them to find you besides just Google Diesel? David Not Dave Diesel.

Speaker3: [00:43:13] David Google is pretty easy.

Intro: [00:43:17] You’re everywhere, though. You’re on all the social media. Do you do tik tok things? Do you do any of those things for your business?

David Samaha: [00:43:23] Not yet.

Speaker3: [00:43:24] We’ll do them.

Intro: [00:43:24] Yeah, I know. I’m not embracing it either.

Speaker3: [00:43:26] I’m going to get moved in first and then we’ll make silly videos.

Intro: [00:43:31] Listen, it’s a thing.

Speaker3: [00:43:32] We’ll get paid with our likes or something like that. Whatever the influencers do nowadays.

Intro: [00:43:36] All right. Best way to get in touch with you is. Is through Google Diesel, David.

Speaker3: [00:43:40] Through Google. Diesel. David or Diesel. David’s or mechanic house cars.com or car convenience dot com or mobile auto mechanic dot com. There’s a bunch of them that all I think.

Intro: [00:43:49] So there are a bunch of them.

David Samaha: [00:43:50] Or a diesel mechanic near.

Speaker3: [00:43:51] Me. The diesel mechanic near me. If you’re in Georgia or Washington State or wherever. Like so for for a while we’re getting like three calls a week out of Washington State because some business decided to create their Google listing on mobile auto mechanic dot com and that’s our website it goes like if you search mobile auto mechanic dot com it goes to diesel datacom.

Intro: [00:44:15] But somebody put that out there.

Speaker3: [00:44:16] And so that was like, yeah. So when you search like diesel mechanic near me and Seattle, Washington, that’ll pull up this place in Kent, Washington, and then you click on the website and it goes to us. If you click on the phone number, it goes to them, but they don’t ever pick up the phone. I don’t know how they have a four star rating because they don’t ever answer like I’ve called them. Like I’m like tried to like sell our domain to them because they’re getting traffic. Yeah. Like, you know, just give me 15 grand and I’ll release the domain to you or something. I don’t know. But no, I haven’t been able to reach them, but their customers are reaching us.

Intro: [00:44:49] The Wonders of the Internet.

David Samaha: [00:44:50] My favorite search parameter that we have is about every two months I get a call from Great Britain. Oh.

Speaker3: [00:44:57] We’ll get yeah, we’ll get some inquiries. Like we’re going to have people like you need to step up your SEO game. It’s like we already have like it used to be worse. Oh, we used to get business from all over the United States and Great Britain and Canada and now it’s just like weird stuff like that Kent Washington thing because someone messed up.

Intro: [00:45:13] But so. So they would. Do they not know they’re dialing a United States number? I’m just.

Speaker3: [00:45:18] Curious. Yeah, I know. So I don’t know what’s going on there other than if they’re using a VPN and they have it set to Atlanta, Georgia. I think that would be.

Intro: [00:45:25] What goes on there. Are they always like, hey, where are you guys or No, you have to say it with a British accent. Hey, why are you guys.

Speaker3: [00:45:33] Hopped up on it and you take a look?

Intro: [00:45:36] Did you call it off on it? That’s what they call it, right? Yeah.

Speaker3: [00:45:38] Right. And then the boot. Yeah.

Intro: [00:45:40] Oh, my goodness. Sorry, I’m chuckling. Okay, well, this has been fascinating. I’ve really enjoyed chatting with you all because there’s a lot about this industry, I don’t know, but it makes me feel like there are people out there that are looking out for the customer, not just for the dollars. And I really do appreciate that notion.

Speaker3: [00:45:56] Yeah, thanks.

Intro: [00:45:57] You’re welcome. And everyone out there, thank you for listening to Fear this formula. And this is Sharon Klein reminding you that with wisdom and understanding, we can all have our own fearless formula. Have a great day. I love that you said that it was still recording.

 

Tagged With: Diesel David

BRX Pro Tip: Don’t be Afraid to be Vulnerable

August 16, 2022 by angishields

Access to this series is restricted to Business RadioX® Studio Partners.

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Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Detroit Business Radio

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Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of St. Louis Business Radio

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Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Columbus Business Radio

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Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Coach the Coach

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Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Bay Area Business Radio

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Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Chicago Business Radio

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