Insight with Chris Van Vliet - How to Create REAL Residual Income With David Carlin

Episode Date: February 18, 2022

David Carlin (@meethecarlins) is an entrepreneur, investor, and thought leader who have dominated the payment processing industry for two decades. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his business Residual Payments, how he cultivated his passion for business, the best advice he's ever received, how you can jumpstart your own business, the power of relationships, tips on working with a partner or significant other and more. Find out more about Patricia and David Carlin: https://residualpayments.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are good. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris. Good to see you, my friend. Welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Thank you so much for being with us on this one. And I'm just so fascinated with how David Carlin's mind works. And I love being able to dive deep into all this today.

David and his wife, Patricia, have taken something that literally every person does, which is make payments, like pay for things. and they found a way to create a business around it. And it's just so inspiring seeing what they've built and seeing how you can apply this to your life and your business, whether you have one or you've been thinking about starting a business. You can check them out on Instagram.

They're at Meet the Carlins. And you can check me out. You can follow me if you aren't already. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. Big shout out to our fan of the week, Mikey CTE, who says, great podcast. I know you do more than wrestling interviews, but I like to think of you as the Ariel Hawani of great interviews.

Wow, what a reference. Keep up the great work, Chris. Well, thank you, Mike. I appreciate that. And look, massive fan of Ariel Hawanis. So thank you for the comparison there. I don't know if that's quite fair, but I appreciate it and I will take it. Want a shout out?

Just leave a review on Apple Podcast. We read one on every single episode. And if you have Spotify, Spotify now has ratings. It takes probably two seconds. That might be generous. It might take a second and a half. Just go in there. Click the five stars.

Bada Bing. Bada boom. That's it. All right. Let's get into this. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome. David Carlin. David, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me. I think the best part about someone who is successful in business is they do it from a place of necessity. And like, that's exactly what you've done. You found a need and you have filled it with what you guys do. Yeah. I mean, you know, and some things you're going to do, you're not going to like, right? Sometimes it's not about sometimes the things you like to do aren't going to make you most amount of money. And sometimes the things that you do like to do, you know, aren't going to get the results that you're after. But, you know, for us, that's why we built residual payments because we saw a need in people, you know, everyone goes to just college or to high school or online to learn about

entrepreneurship. And the one thing no one talks about is a credit card processing piece of every business, the bloodline in the business. So that's where we started residual payments to try to teach, you know, aspiring entrepreneurs or current business owners about their credit card processing. Yeah, and this is a part of every business that I just think kind of goes ignored. It's just kind of a part of a business that people just expect that it'll take care of itself. You found a way to like really make this work for you. Yeah. You know, my wife and I, we've been very fortunate. Even before I came along, I was on the other side of the fence. I had owned a bike company online and offline. And about 10 years ago, when I had my bike company,

someone came to my door and set up my credit card processing. I was like, yeah, sure, I don't care about the credit card processing piece. I only cared about running my company. And then after me, my wife, who's been in this business for 23 years, and now we're 30 years combined in this industry, it was so eye-opening about, you know, we're always worried about get my marketing spend down, get me more customers, get me lower rates X, Y, and Z. There's a lot of money you can shave off in terms of your credit card processing that no one ever wants to talk about. And for a lot of these people as well, outside of saving money, for a lot of these people who have online products or offers or services, you know, sometimes a lot of people get their

accounts shutdowns are at the wrong places. So it's the one thing that, you know, if anything goes awry with that, nothing else matters. So if we take this way back, David, like, Where did your journey into becoming an entrepreneur begin? I mean, I'm a different mindset. You know, when I was a kid, you know, getting involved in just anything. Like I never really worked for anybody. Anything from, you know, it was that old magazine where you went around from door to door and there was all the products inside of it.

Do you remember what that? Oh, like, yeah, you were selling from the catalog. Yeah. From the catalog. Yeah. Because you wanted to get like the new roller blades or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

You know, I was very fortunate to have a very loving family and a family that was like, you know, whatever you want to do, you can be the best at it, right? So I never like aspired to work for anybody. I never thought like it was. It was never about like the money. It was more about the thrill of the chase, right? The thrill of like how crazy is it to have an idea in your head and then actually put that idea to work and then actually see it actually work.

And that's what like entrepreneurship's all about is even when the idea comes out of your head, you put it to paper, you start the company. That's just that's not even the battle, right? Then it's the battle of growing it and scaling it. So for me, it's really the thrill of like the competition. And when I was always a kid, you know, as a kid, I would always look at pictures in a bigger way where if I saw 20 people working against me, I'd be like, okay, instead of me trying to be better than those 20 people, how could I create something that could.

make those 20 people want to come and work underneath me. So when you were growing up, were you, like, mowing lawns and shoveling people's driveway, like stuff like that? I was, what could I say? I was dabbling at all of it stuff. I guess it could say it. So a little bit of marijuana for a little bit.

When I was talking like stuff like that, but doing, you know, whatever, it's legal now, so it doesn't matter. But, you know, just anything, really, just slinging and hustling on anything I get my hands on. And always thinking bigger picture. And even when I was a kid, you know, hasn't happened yet. But even to this day, I'm like, you know, I'm going to ring that NASDAQ bell.

You know, I'm going to be a billionaire, except X, Y, and Z. And that's my dreams, right? So my saying other people have to have those dreams. But the only thing I will say is, unfortunately, with social media nowadays, you know, because we train so many different people, it makes everyone like never feeling like they're good enough, right? And when people come to us that we're training, I'm like, let's get rid of a cell phone bill. you know, let's get rid of a car bill. Let's make this company profitable in six months.

Because everyone, you see it online, you know, with nothing, love click funnels. Absolutely amazing. I'll say, but we have like the two comma, three comma, whatever clubs, all of all the sales. Let's talk about the profitability. Yeah. You know, because they're like, I did a million in sales, but yeah, you read a million dollars in traffic. What does that really matter? Right.

So that's where unfortunately, when people are starting their. companies, I think really putting the blinders on where all that noise, where you're just staying in your own lane and only worried about building your company because it's hard where when you look online and so I may see your podcast. They're like, oh, man, I can't start a podcast. He's already crushing me. It's like he was, you know, Chris was you a long time ago, you know, and he's got his own lane. And when you try to just do your own thing and you enjoy what you're doing, then it's not going to be waking up every single day and being hard work for yourself. Yeah, and I think that people don't realize, or maybe they realize it, but it doesn't

always, like, they don't always realize that on social media, you're seeing the best five minutes of someone's day. You're not seeing the other 23 hours and 55 minutes that may have been mundane or it may have just been awful, but you're seeing like the highlight reel of the day. Yeah, you know, and even myself, you know, we never had to be on. I mean, I was always on social media, but I didn't really have to like, you know, be doing videos and all that stuff. And when we first started our teams like, Dave, you got to do videos. You got to do this. Like, it was like, I didn't get my hair done yet.

You know, I was like, but I'm not ready. You know, I just want to tell you that, you know, I gained 10 pounds this week. Just why like, nobody cares. And now I used to be scared about a year ago. I used to be scared, which you could enjoy since you've been on TV and stuff. I used to be scared about pre-recorded videos with one person in the room. Like, Dave, I can make you 100 pounds less of you. I can make you whatever.

I'm like, I'm like sweating bullets. Now, last week I had to shoot a bunch of content. My team sent me like 20 videos. I had to get it done in an hour. When I was uploading the videos, I saw on one of the ads that I gave them, I had my one dog's long piece of dog hair hanging from my mouth the whole entire time. And you know what? I was like, I don't got time to redo it.

Send. But it also makes it like so incredibly relatable. Yeah. You know, but at the same time, you find your. yourself when you're doing those videos where you're like, you know, is, is this going to get me canceled, you know, or is this going to get people to be like, oh, I don't want to see that side of them, you know, or they didn't look perfect or what have you. And it's so much work to try to think to be perfect and to be like, okay, I got to shoot videos tomorrow, you know, and you're like

getting yourself prepared 24 hours in events where you could just turn your phone in five minutes, shoot it. And it's out of your mind. And now you're not waking up in the middle of night and cold sweats, thinking about it. Yeah, well, and it feels relatable. right? Because everybody knows what it looks like to be inside of a studio with makeup on and fancy lights and great cameras. But everybody also knows what a FaceTime video looks like or a forward facing camera. You see in the background of my phone here. I love that dog. Look at that. Everybody knows what that looks like. And I feel like that's almost more like I'm having a one-on-one conversation with David right now. Yeah. And I mean, you know, think about it. Rich or good-looking or whatever people do. as somebody better than them. 99. I don't know what the stat is, but 99% of people are normal people, right?

So, you know, I also think now I'm seeing, we get it all the time for messages, people are like, hey, Dave, you know, love that. Like, I can, I relate to you. I feel like I'm just like you, right? And regardless of whatever information you're putting out there, if you don't think about, like, what am I going to say today? Or like, you know, or let's say like last night,

our family, my wife's family, own a bunch of nightclubs and restaurants. And Kevin Hart last night was performing at one of the clubs. We went to go see him. And, you know, I was on the way there. I'd love to get a picture. Because then people will think I'm best friends with Kevin Hart. And I'm like, who do I do?

Who do I care? I don't like, why is that even a thought? And because no matter what, and that's why I always tell everybody, no matter where you are in your career, no matter how rich you are, it's never going to be enough. It's never going to fix whatever your issues are, whatever your problems are. So when you start going like, those. Those thoughts will creep up in your head.

You just have to smack yourself back down the reality and be like, why, like, whatever happened to like actually enjoying meeting people and not having to think about, oh, this is going to get me like, so this is going to get me whatever it may be. Yeah. And it's a journey, right? It's about appreciating the process as it's all continuing to happen. Like, there's no end game here. Like if you meet Kevin Hart and take a photo with him, well, you still have tomorrow and next week

and the month after that, like it doesn't just end right there. So I'm curious for you in building your business. What do you think's been like the one or two keys that have really stepped things up and really taken them to the next level? The one biggest thing that I really want to tell everybody is, you know, there's no overnight success. I don't care. Listen, we've been in credit card processing for a very long time. So we see the back end of we do everything from your mom and pop shops to some of the big names you see online with whatever it may be to their credit card processing. Craig Hart-possing. I've seen the back end all the numbers that everyone does, right? And how long

it takes some people to really build their businesses. So when you, which you're not pointing anybody out, if you see somebody online, it's like you can work a minute a day and become a millionaire, you need to run as fast as you can. And if you also believe that, you need to go see somebody for help. You know, there's something that the one thing that I always tell everybody when we come to teach people is it's not about and we and what I mean is we teach people how to build their own payments companies and make residual income off credit card processing when we were training people and we still are today obviously I was like well we need to make it easier for them to learn we need to give them more information we need to give them more support and I really started to realize it's like

I'm having people that are coming to me with their brain so messed up I can't even teach you yet we need to rework this because everything I'm telling you is going one year out in one year out the other because online has us where we think we're supposed to get immediate results. And if you're willing to set realistic goals for yourself, let's say first of all, don't put yourself in a situation where you really need the cash. Number two, let's say you set a two year goal for, you know, I want to be like Chris. I want to get to Chris's numbers. Set a longer goal. I would say than two years. But let's say said a two year goal. If you hit it in six months, great, we can restructure that goal. But set a real long, long term goal for yourself is the first thing I would say. Yeah. And I think that you're right.

Everybody's looking for that quick fix. And we always see like, you know, how can I lose 15 pounds in a week? Or you'll talk to people who've gotten like great shape. It's like, well, what's the secret? Well, the secret is you started eating better and you started doing the things that someone would do if they're a healthy person. And that's exactly what you're talking about here. Yeah. And, you know, the other thing is like, you know, even, let's say even, you know, with today, right, I can be like, I'm on, I'm on Chris's podcast. Amazing. He's got such a big following. This is going to change my life. I don't need to go on anymore. Wrong. You know, like this may be the big, the worst podcast ever. We're like the worst numbers, Dave, can't ever have you on again. Or it may be the best. Let's say this is your number one podcast. It still isn't enough because it's not reaching enough people. And no matter what, you can't rely on anybody else to get you to where you need to succeed. And there's so many people online, even with good intentions, they're like, I can do this for you. I can connect you with this person.

I can do this. And then you're like, oh, wait, oh, he's going to do that for me? Okay, I'll wait. And then three months goes by, six months goes by. You wasted all that time because you were sitting back because they were supposed to connect you with one big celebrity or one big person who was going to take your company to the next level. and then never came to fruition, and now you wasted a half a year of your life. Or you said, but I was on Chris's podcast.

He said my, I would get more sales. It has a happiness yet, but I know they're going to come. Like, what are you waiting for? That's where, you know, that's where I think everyone gets it wrong, where they think someone else is going to save them and they're not. No, nobody is looking out for you more than you're looking out for you. I actually did a podcast episode recently that I called, what the F are you waiting for?

And it's the idea of like, just start. You're right there. ready to do the thing that could change your life. And a lot of people just won't take those steps. And I think it's so important to echo what you're saying is just take those first steps and make that happen. Go fail and then learn from it. That's it. I think what's really interesting about your story is your business partner is your wife. And I think that's terrifying for a lot of people. Is it? I think it could be. So what do you say to someone when they talk about the idea of maybe going into business with their wife or a family member or a really close friend.

Well, we're weird again. So my whole thing is in life is like I don't sit back and like think and like like if I'm, if I want to do something, I'm going to do it and either it's either going to work or it's not. Yeah, just start. I love it. Met my wife. We moved in with each other like three weeks after, got married in a year. Wow.

And formed all of our companies together. and only to about a month or two ago was the first night I ever spent apart from my wife in 10 years. Wow. So you can see I'm in my house. This is where I'm not an office guy. I'm not eating that stuff. This is where we work wherever we are. We're together.

We're either traveling or we're in our house. We own all of our companies together and we work almost whatever. When we're not sleeping, we're working seven days a week. And, you know, it's a perfect marriage and openness. in where if we get in a fight, the biggest thing that I'll tell everybody, if we get in a fight, whether, you know, she's usually wrong. But, you know, if I'm wrong or whatever, whatever it may be, you need to squash it right away because you know how something small can really escalate. And then when that really big fight explodes where, you know, you're close to chucking knives at each other. But you know you got, you know, a conference call or a podcast you have to be on or wherever it may be. Your whole mental is all screwed up because now you're just, you're just churning on a million different things. So whoever's wrong, we do a really great job at being like, you know what? Even if I think that she's wrong, I'm like, I'm so sorry. I love you.

Can we just get over it and we'll talk it out really quick? And then, you know, 30 minutes later, another fight may erupt. But we will squash that again really, really quick. So for us, it really, it's one stopping fights as soon as possible, not letting them roll on. Because then you're, if I just kind of fight right before this, like I wouldn't even be, I would be so distracted, right? And number two, the other thing is splitting up tasks. Like, we now know we've gotten into a rhythm. Well, I don't, like, I don't have to write stuff down. Like, by the way, I'm working on this today. Like, make sure you don't go over to this side. Like, we know what we're

doing. We stay in our own lanes. And then when one of us has some projects that, projects that's done, will present it to each other. And, and we also trust each other. Like, sometimes I may disagree. I like, sounds like a good idea. You're heading that project up. Go for it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it also sounds like you're playing to your strengths, too. Like the things that you work on each day are probably the things you're better at doing than your wife might be. Yeah. I mean, we're complete opposites. You know, she has phobia, which is fear of being included. And I have phobia, you know, fear of missing out, right? So I haven't heard of phobia before. Wow. Yeah. You know, it's kind of like, hey, they watch you guys at this event. Like, ooh, no. It has nothing to do with anything. And that's where we're ying and yang with all that. And that's where it works really well where she'll call me on my stuff sometimes. I'll call her on her stuff sometimes.

And you don't have to be the same. You can be completely opposite in your ideas and how you want to run your business. But also another thing is, you know, when it comes to spending money and putting money places, there's got to be a compromise there. You don't go, hey, you know, just talk to Chris, and I'm just a random example. I really loved him after this. I'm going to pay him 50 grand to mentor me this year. Like, what?

Like, you didn't talk to me. You know, regardless of it's the best idea or not, you also don't want to be a year later that, let's say my wife was against me investing in whatever it may be. And I actually was right. I don't need to turn around a year later, but I told you so. I don't need that win over her. What do you think is the best advice that you've been given throughout your career? You know what?

Probably from, well, I'll give you two. I'm really quick for my dad. He always taught me if you can't pay cash for something, you can't afford it. Oh. Right. So just because you end up making more money doesn't mean you need to spend more money. Okay. And actually I'll stick with this for a second.

I want to go to the next one. The worst, there's people. People are like, well, it's terrible. You know, if I'm working my ass off and I'm an entrepreneur, I'm missing out on vacations or my neighbor bought a nicer car. And I don't got that nicer car because I'm investing back my business. And I'm working so much harder. And I missed out on that vacation.

I missed out on that car. I missed out on the nicer house. I missed out on wherever it may be. There's nothing worse than missing out on a business opportunity because you bought that car or you bought or you went on that vacation. So I am with my wife. And I see, she always just correct. I always say I. We don't mean I. I mean we, but that's her one thing. It's like, we, you know, but we, the business. I don't meet it that way is we have now put ourselves in a

situation that, you know, if we got together, you're like, hey, Dave, I want to start this. I'm looking for investors. I'm like, I'm on board because I've now put in the years of work and stacking the cash where now I put myself in a position to be able to invest in whatever I want in, you know, in any given time, essentially. Is that also the best advice? that you would give someone if they were asking for just one piece of advice from you? Yeah, my buddy called me the other day and he's, you know, we, we're teaching him. He's building his payments company. He's making good money. I'm not going to say his name. And he's starting to make more money than he's ever made in his life.

He's like, Dave, you know, I'm making more than I need. He's, you know, and really on you get into the number. And he's like, what should I do? I need some advice. And I was like, you know, you could invest in crypto or anything that stuff, whatever you want or any stock market, et cetera. But I said, which I truly believe is, you know, I'm a big real estate person, but I said, the market has to turn. It's going way too crazy right now. And I said, I said, start sacking your cash away. It's going to happen. And no matter what, if the market doesn't crash, you know, I recommend you buy some houses when the market does crash, let's say, in two years from now, because then people are going to be able to get mortgages. You can turn them into rentals. You can make the longer term play.

But I said also at the same time, businesses are going to crash or they need to sell their business is to get quick cash. The people that have the money when the market turns are the people that win in the long run. Yeah. What book would you say has inspired you the most, either in your personal life or in your business life? I've never read one. No way. I can't. So my wife fought me a book the other day, which I read a paragraph. Okay. And she bought it for me. It's been sitting here for a couple months. And I finally read a paragraph because they put a camera on me And it was more of a joke, but I'm going to read it. And it was the book, I forgot who wrote it, but it's called, can I curse?

Of course, sure. I didn't. I curse a lot. So I was holding back. It's called fuck being humble. And what the book is all about, which is super cool, is it's about like everyone waiting to like, like you've even taught you can't talk about your success. You can't talk about money.

You can't talk about that because that's like kind of bragging, right? But you should wait for someone else to tell you when you, can. But if you wait, who else is, who else is better than yourself to scream from the rooftops like we are now and putting ourselves out there? So my thing is, you know, we read every single day on Facebook and Instagram, et cetera. But when I see a book and a page, it just goes blurry for me. And I just, I don't know. Maybe audio books are more up your alley. Yeah, but at the same time, I'm like, it's taking up my day. I get back to work. I'm weird. I don't know. But, but I do, but the book seems amazing.

So I would recommend, fuck being humble. Based on the paragraph that you read. Probably the best paragraph we've ever read. What's the first thing you do? When someone comes to work with you, what's the first thing that you do or the first piece of advice that you give them?

So it's funny. We hired a couple new people last week. And the guy's like, what's my job description? What do you want it to be? I'm like, everyone works 70. So everyone works remotely who works for our companies around the world. There's no, nobody has a job description. Everyone works seven days a week. Nobody has hours. Nobody has any days that they need to work. We know if you're not doing your

job because it stuff, because we're so busy that stuff gets backed up. So it's task orient is what you're saying. I ask people not what are you good at, not what are your credentials, not where did you come? I say, what do you like doing? What excites you? And they're like, I like, I like, go do it. And I always tell people, come back to, I talk to my team every single day. So come back to me in six months. I said, if you still like where you're at, you can stay there. I said, if you want to go to one of our other companies or one of our other projects or head up something, come to me, give me a month. And when you do your role, you need to make sure that you put a blueprint together for someone to take over your role.

Once you teach that person, take over your role, you can move over here. I also give people the openness where come up with ideas. I'm like, come up with stuff that you want. I want you to think like you're a mini CEO in this company, right, to let you just kind of explore your talent. And I'm like, if your idea sucks, I'll tell you. If it's great, we'll try it. And people are they're like, for some people, they need, they need, you know,

they fail at that. And they're like, I can't. This is more for you. But other people, they're like who've never, who always kind of wanted to dive into entrepreneurship or eventually maybe want to own their own companies, you know, it kind of gives them like a first taste. of like nobody's watching you like like you know so that's what's kind of and you know what's weird I haven't had to fire anybody everyone's really happy I mean maybe no one's working maybe maybe

no but um for whatever a reason like no one has any roles no has anything and that's where some people want it I'm like for why do you care calling yourself that like you know wouldn't you care about having more freedom and you know and be able to work from home and we've been doing this forever before the pandemic this is how we've always run our There's going to be a lot of people listening to this right now that go, that sounds amazing. How can I work for you? Are you hiring? Yeah.

We always are. And we're on the path right now where we're either going to be creating companies or we're going to be acquiring companies. And what I mean by that from SaaS companies to nothing retail and stuff like that, it's going to be mostly e-com companies. So that's what's also interesting is like we own a CRM company since CRM, it's going to be launching. soon to the public. It's just private now for our members. And one of our guys who's on our residual payment side, our one training program side, I was like, he likes it. I'm like, I do your work here. I'm like, if in six months you want to head a project over there, you can do it, or you can, I'm like, or you can do both. You could work for both companies at the same time. Essentially,

it's just working on projects, right? And that's all it is. And then I always tell them, I don't want, I want to make sure that you're always looking at your day, that anything that you think is not below you, but taking up too much of your time where your brain could do more, you tell us and we get someone to fill that spot for you. But I want people to be creative. And that's where a lot of entrepreneurs, even myself, we have these dreams to build these companies. And in the beginning,

it's all about the talent and the art of building that company, right? I don't mean art by like drawing. I mean the art of putting all the pieces together and making something. And then once the company actually starts being successful, and you can know this, you know, especially with your podcast, then you become like a CEO and you almost get drowned out and you're not doing your art anymore, right? So finding the right people that can do the tasks that you may hate or that maybe you shouldn't be doing, that's where you'll always flourish and you'll

always keep having fun because if you stop innovating because you're having to do paperwork, you lost your drive. Yeah. I think that that's been a very difficult thing for me is delegating, is realizing you don't have to have every single task on your business. plate. If somebody else can do it and do it better, you should pass that over to them. Do you mean delegating in terms of like giving them something or trusting them? Oh, it's a little bit of both, you know, a little bit of both because it's your business, right? And you know that nobody will be able to care about your business as much as you care about your business. And just being able to relinquish that and go, all right, if this person does it 80% as good,

that should be okay. But if you think about it, if you give somebody, maybe hopefully one piece of this i always tell everybody whenever i talk anybody talks listen i am nobody i am a normal person i always say i hope one thing i said may spark something else in your brain not exactly what i said but just something and for you you know if you have that that like that worry right or you're concerned and you're like i need to watch you i need to make sure you're doing your job because you can't do what i do you're putting them in a corner to feel like an employee you're feeling like they have to be like where's chris is chris oh shit chris is Like, you know, and if you're like, you know what, I trust you from day one.

I hired you because, you know, I, you know, you inspire me. You've given them like where they can breathe and they can produce their talents because that's what you're doing. I always tell everybody as well who works with us is like, you know, I didn't hire you. We're partners. We're working together. If in six months or not six months, but a year from now, right, you're like, you know what, Dave, I want to do what you do.

maybe I could turn around and help you invest in your company if you actually do a good buy. Maybe I can connect you with the right people to help you with your dream. Just I need you just if you have a dream that's separate from our dream and doesn't, you know, and you're not conflict of interest or what have you. You know, I'll be more than happy to support you, right? And then some people don't want to go after something. But it's kind of like when you're just so open in the beginning, like all cards on the table, if anything ever comes up, you come to me.

Then it's kind of like a free flow where from day one, that person's like, no one's ever spoken to me like that. No one's ever given me the freedom. Like, why does he trust me that much? Now, you'll find the people that abuse it, but you get rid of them. What's the way? You fire them. Okay. You know, you find another person. Yeah, and I think it really just comes down to trust, right? You're letting that person know, I trust you. I hired you for a reason. So show me what you got now. I mean, and that's where I'm, I mean, for you, even at the same time, I'm sure, you know, millions of your listeners, you could, you probably get a lineup of people to do, to help you out. I've been, I've been very fortunate that people who listen to this show or

watch my YouTube channel are now part of my team now. And it's, it's been amazing how this has all come together. You know, and what if you had, it's going to, sure, my podcast, you see, like, Chris, let me ask you a question. Random thought, but maybe I give something. I just like, you know, give it back. Maybe what if you had, you hire five people and they sign. an agreement that they can't ever go after your audience once they learn all the tips and tricks or whatever maybe you hire five or one person with random five number sure you hire five people that are really going to bust their ass to help you with your podcast along while they're doing that you're going to train them and from day one you know that in a year or two

that they do they actually want to have their own podcast and that's why they're working with you or alongside of you and then you could say hey i know you want to do that. But there's a lot of people that want to be entrepreneurs and they don't know where to go, who to trust, or they don't have the money or the capital behind it to skyrocket, whatever that is, right? What if you're like, if you do goodbye me and I like you, I'll publish your podcast and we'll be 50, 50 partners. How's that sound? Yeah. You're right. And this has become the David Carlin show. No. Now, that those are, it's a great idea. And I think that anybody is listening to this can apply this to whatever it is that they're doing in their life or their business.

And to bring this back around to you, when a business comes to you and wants to grow or to be profitable, what does that look like? I ask them. So, you know, everyone wants to sell, right? They look somebody up online and they sell them, right? Let's say I look you up online. I know you do a lot of things, but we'll just talk about the podcast right now. And you're like, hey, Chris wants to talk to you, wants to talk to you about his business, right?

And I just start talking and not asking. And I tell you about I took hours out of my day to build a whole, how I can take your podcast from here to here. You finally get a word and you're like, it's for my new ice cream shop. You know, it's like, it has nothing to do with a podcast. Like, oh. So, you know, what I'm on calls, like even for right now, like, I naturally have a red face. I don't care. I naturally, I'm in sweatshirts every single day.

I don't care. So I don't care if I'm speaking to someone like yourself or someone that is less. less than yourself, which, you know, no one's less than anybody, but you get where I'm saying, maybe someone's like day one for their podcast, whatever may be. And I'll ask them, one, after we help you with the merchant account, if someone's like they do want to skyrocket their business or increase their sales, I'll ask them first. One, do you have interest in doubling your sales? Okay, cool. Can you double, do you have the capacity if we do double your sales? Like, are you ready if your sales doubled tomorrow? We'll figure it out.

No. That's a lot of chargebacks are going to happen. Like, do you have things in place? And number two, people always come to me like, Dave, this guy wants help with marketing because outside of merchant services, we, you know, we're partnered and we provide branding, marketing, social media because we want to help our clients succeed. So they stay with us forever. You know, I ask them, like, what's your directive? Like, how much money do you have allocated to it? Right. Because, and like, what exactly is the result that you're after and how long of a play, are you willing? Like, do you know this may take three months to even get to where you're at? Right. So, you know, when we're just talking to business owners, it's just a casual conversation like

anything else. And, you know, I don't care who I'm speaking to. And maybe we're at a point in our career. We just don't care. But people always get so caught up like, hey, Dave, I got this guy. I need you to help me with the account. He's so big. I'm like, still a person, right? Okay. Well, we'll talk to them, you know. So that's me for us, you know, it just, it's, it's, asking the simple questions, right? And talking to people like they're normal people. Like, I hate when you, you get this. I know you get this. On Facebook, someone from me question you accept them. A minute later, you seem like an entrepreneur like me. It's like, why are you talking? First of all, you know, you don't even know me, so we're done. But like,

why are you talking so weird? Like, if my buddies were like, hey, Dave, let's got a drink this weekend. What bar do you recommend? We're coming into your town. I wouldn't be like, well, let me recommend this bar. It's got the happiest beer. It's so delicious. Like, So why, when you wouldn't talk differently to your friends, right, off camera, why do you have to be different on camera and why do you have to be different when you find out someone's a business owner and talk to them differently? Yeah. I completely agree.

The one message I get that I cannot stand is, can I ask you a question? No. You already did ask me a question. I think that it's like, it's lead with value too, right? Like if you are going to ask someone a question, put it in that message. and then lead with value, what's in it for that person on their end, too? You know, I think everyone's looking for the quick win, kind of what we've been talking about, and no one's looking for the long-term play of building that relationship.

And everyone wants to automate everything nowadays. So many people, which I shouldn't say because we own a CRM company, still use the CRM. But what I'm getting is there's a lot of other things is people try to study how to automate to their list of five or 10 people, right? What if Chris gets back to me? I need to make sure this trigger goes to Chris. but like I'm like but Chris lives up the street like do you own a pair of shoes like maybe go knock on his door like you're doing so much stuff waiting for a text back and all this stuff. Another thing is people are like well you know if Chris reaches out to me, you know, he wants to be on my show.

I don't have a show but he wants to be on my show. I'm going to wait a day or two because I'm going to look desperate. He's going to be like he's going to think I'm nobody if I respond right away. That's the wrong misconception that everybody has. If you reach out to me and I reach out right back, you're like either this guy's support. Four teams amazing or he's on his game. Yeah, I agree. Look, I think there's so many different things that people can pluck out of this.

Like, there's so many nuggets of knowledge. And I'm super grateful to be able to spend this time with you. What's the best way that people can connect with you and work with you as well? So you can connect with us on our social media. I don't run them. I do run them. I'm on them, but I don't answer the message. We'll say that.

But I do look at them and I do answer some of them, but we're just slammed. But we do answer the comments. So meet the Carlins, meet the Carlins on Instagram. No relation to George. I don't know. It's a whole weird failure thing that maybe. I never met the guy. So I'm not going to do that.

Nothing to plug. So meet the Carlins. Meet the Carlins on Instagram. The one company that we're really focused on right now is residual payments. And that's the company where, you know, like I said, we've been in credit card processing game forever. And we're now, we own the largest and the only really in my mind, online training. program teaching people how to make residual income off of credit cards. So you can look at residual payments

on Instagram, Facebook. We have massive communities. We're also on TikTok now. We never thought I'd be on it before, but now I'm on it at Meet the Carlins as well. Great. And I end every conversation with the same question because I'm all about gratitude. I start and end every day saying out loud three things that I'm grateful for. So David, for you, what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now? The number one thing that I'm really grateful for is, you know, my wife and I, we have three dogs. We don't have any kids. We may do foster care or something later because my family does foster care. And the ability to change other people's lives and that it helps their kids out. Right. So that's what's really amazing for me is something to be able to like just be able to help

in a little bit because they're doing most of the work, but help people change their lives that may be the catalyst to the rest of their lives. They're generational, right? Number two, you know, I'm grateful for my parents. You know, they just, that's where it really starts. You know, I had two great parents. They're always there for me and are still there for me today, you know, and supported me. And I'm grateful, lastly, probably for my wife.

That's where, you know, finding the right partner, whether you're running your company and your wife's behind the scenes, your husband's behind the scenes, wherever it may be, having someone that's going to support you, no matter if it's involved in the business or not involved in the business, are the three catalysts for success. So, you know, you can't really look for a new mom and dad. If you have one,

you could look for a new partner if you don't have the right one behind you. But having a community of people like you can relate to, of people that on the days when you're like, what am I doing? You know, what, like this is not like, I'm nobody, right?

And then you have someone write that one message where you're like, this is why I'm doing it. Yeah. I love it. David, this has been so insightful, pun intended, but thank you so much for sharing this with us. No worries at all. Thank you for having me. Have a great rest of your day. There we go, my friends. Big thank you to David for joining us. Big thank you to you as well for being on this ride with us. As he mentioned, you can find him and his wife, Patricia, on Instagram at Meet the Carlins. You can find me at Chris Van Fleet. And I'll leave you with the words of John Rockefeller who said, don't be.

be afraid to give up the good to go for the great. Be great, be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do with rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan. social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Ticket banjo, but get up in here.

The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.