The Code To Winning - LEAD GENERATION SECRETS EXPLAINED FOR YOUR BUSINESS || DAQUOTA AVILA || EPISODE 067

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

Daquota Founder and CEO of your media guy, talks so much about what happens behind the scenes. He breaks down the secrets of lead generation how they get them. Also stresses on the important of turning content/ views into revenues. Running multiple studios in the state of AZ shares his knowledge and experience about social media and how you can build a presence to generate income in 2026

The coat winning insights we need today to seize the world tomorrow. If you are interested in learning a lot about what happens behind the scenes, if you want to know about media, building your social media team, trying to convert content into revenue. If you want to learn about how to run a podcast studio, how you want to try and do the back office and learn all about that stuff, I have one of the guys going to be training me as well. He is the CEO and founder of your media guy.

I had a double check your guy my guy he's a very very good person very knowledgeable in this field in this industry as well very experienced he's got studios in Arizona so without further

you are amazing guests today we got Dakota how you doing brother good hanging in there it's a long day long day for you long day for me we're working and getting it done yeah yeah no what's crazy is that my first and my last I kind of go to the reserve tank

I like listen I got to be able to make sure I kind of step on the gas. I'm like, where the heck did that gas come from? So I'm here for it. If you heard from the intro, I still got it, brother. I still got it. So how are you doing, boss? Good. Just working. It's never ending. Like, I don't know, people are like, when I had my nine to five Mondays, it's like, oh, it's Monday. I got to go back to work. It's like, you own a business that's like every day is a Monday. Like, Monday is still a shit show, but every day's a show. So it's like, what do we have today? Like, what problems are we going to come and overcome today? Like, just keep moving forward. like you can only control what you can control.

And yeah, we make it happen. We have so many moving pieces. It's hard to have like a perfect day because it's like there's 20, 30 jobs, 10 phone calls, five sale calls, like all of this stuff. It was like nothing's going to be perfect every day.

You just got to focus in on the stuff that's good and keep moving on. Like you can't win everything. Do you do any roofing sales? So we do a lot of setting for our customers. So we have like 72 different social media accounts that we run and manage where you are not a sales team. We are a lead generation. So I just said it. Be like, oh, you have problems with your roof? Because I'm logged in as them. I'm like, hey, that's crazy that you have that, like roof leak. I need someone to get out there immediately. We do a free tarping service. Like,

what's a good number to call you at? They send me their number. I send that to the company or the CEO and go, hey, like, this guy's ready. He has a roof leak. He needs you guys to go take care of them. Like, that's where I hand the ball off. Like, I'm not a sales team. I don't close sales. We're not paid off of commission. We are a lead generation company. I just generate the leads and you got to do what you do. How do you get paid from that if you generate the leads for customers or like for clients? Yes, so they're on subscriptions. So we build them a subscription based model where it's like, hey, you're going to pay X amount

of dollars. We're going to plan your content. We're going to show up at job sites and record your content. We're going to edit that content and we're going to post it. And where we really, really thrive is after the posting, we find your ideal customers. So if you're like, hey, we did this job in the pecan. And Arizona, like the pecan is a super nice neighborhood, average house. price is like 3.5 million plus.

So like very good neighborhood gated like a great spot to live. Well, also everyone in that community has quite a bit of money. Well, Instagram will let you geolocate. So not only can you post that you were in that neighborhood working on a roof, but it's going to show all the people in the area. So it's like we use the geolocation to post. And then we go find the park that all the moms take their kids to. And we follow all the moms like,

hey, did you know this house has problems? It's 20 years old. Actually, all of your houses are 20 years old. roof's out here only lasts for 20 years. So for you guys, I want to offer you a complimentary inspection so you can sleep safe at night knowing when this storm hits us tonight, you're not going to wake up in a puddle. Well, what does the mom do? How much is it?

Oh, it's free. We'll come out and do it right now. We're already in the neighborhood. We're down the street. You can see your trucks outside. So they walk over there and be like, hey, I just saw your Instagram video. Can you come give me a quote? Well, it's like, how do you sell roofs?

You've got to climb on them and write quotes. So it's like, boom, immediately generation. And for those houses, we're talking about like $50,000 plus roofs. So it's not just a little tiny like patch job. So that's where our company thrives is ROI. That's like our big thing when we're planning content, we're recording it, we're posting it, is how do we get the business ROI? You know, it's crazy. I remember our conversation that we had yesterday.

I was just fascinated to figure out that even when you were doing the lead generation thing, when you focus on those multiple accounts, you're actually targeting actual people rather than having like these larger numbers and massive. amount of followings and millions where some could be ghosts some could be different country could be in iran it doesn't really like it's very irrelevant where you actually focusing and targeting jurisdiction which is so important especially with leagues because you're targeting the actual market it could be more important and so can you talk about like when did you start this the lead generation so i started about four years ago i was a solopreneur and i met a guy on craigslist and now he's my business coach but he's like hey i'm i'm in business coaching I'm doing an open house.

I want like a hype video. Cool, I can do that. Here's some examples of me doing it before. Send him, he's like, looks great. How much do I owe you for the day to come out? And I was like, honestly, I'll do it for free. I've never heard of business coaching. And I think it's sort of a pyramid scam because I've never heard of that.

So like, don't pay me because I don't want to be obligated to stay in the room if I'm just getting weird vibes. I'm going to grab my shit and I'm going to bounce. So he was like, it's free even better. So I show up and there's 30 guys in the room. And I go up to a real estate and I'm like, hey, is this real? Like, is this just some pyramid scheme type stuff? And he's like, well, I've only been with them for a year. I was like, okay, well, what did you last year?

He's like, oh, I sold three houses last year. I was like, well, what did you sell this year? And he's like, I'm like, 37. We're only halfway through the year. I was like, you went from three houses a year to 37 in six months. How? The shit he taught me. So I go over to a roofing company.

I was like, hey, does this stuff work? And he's like, well, I've been at 10 million for the past 15 years. I've been stuck at 10 million. And he's like, dude, we did three million last month because of the stuff he taught me that I wasn't doing. I was like, oh shit, okay, that's pretty impressive. So I go and start talking to all these people, and everyone gave me this green testimonial of how great this coaching is

and how it's transformed their personal life, their business life, and they're just happier overall. So I sit in the corner, set up on my camera, sit in the corner, and I'm taking all these notes. And one of the assistants came up and she was like, hey, do you want a booklet? I would love a booklet. So I get a booklet.

I'm following along with him, taking all the notes, doing the cameras stuff. And then after he was like, that business coach was like, hey, like, what did you think of it? I was like, dude, I'm so interested. Like, this was very valuable to me. Like, I'm so happy that I'm here. Thank you. And he was like, well, you know, how's your business doing?

Like, I'm a business coach. You're a business owner. And I was like, at that time, I was a solopreneur. I wouldn't even say I was a business owner. And I was like, dude, I'm killing it. I'm going to do like $60,000. And he's like, that's amazing. Let's go to my whiteboard.

So we go to the whiteboard. We map out everything. And he's like, oh, dude, your numbers don't make sense. And I was like, I'm at 63,000. I'm on track to do 63,000 this year. I'm doing great. And he's like, oh, I thought you meant a month. And I was like, that's impossible.

There's no way my company can do $63,000 a month in social media management. And he was like, flips the whiteboard over, goes like crazy mad scientist, like draws everything out. And he's like, you're telling me if you don't do this, don't do this, hire person here, train someone here, blah, blah, blah, have this training video, have this subscription, fix your billing, fix your lead gen. Like, you're telling me, is anything I said on there impossible? And my, this is a roofer. He's not the smartest guy in the world. Love him to death, but not the smartest guy in the world. And I was like, no, everything you said is completely doable.

And he was like, well, the revenue on that being. I was like, shit, I'd be like $75,000 a month if I did it like that. Wow. And he's like, so why aren't you doing it like that? How much are we making at that time? Well, 60 a year. Yeah, I was at $6,000 a year. Now we're doing $30 on a bad month.

Wow. So have I done the $60,000 a month yet? No, but I've done $53. That was their best month ever. Wow. So totally made me look at everything different. And what I learned from that was like, I love my family. I love my friends that I've had.

But they were not the right circle for who I wanted to be and where I wanted to grow. It wasn't the group for me. So it was like when you hang out with your friends and it was like, it literally happened. I went back home and they're like, hey, dude, we're having a bonfire tonight you want to come through? It's like, dude, I would love to come through. Like hang out with all my high school buddies. Like, I'm so in. And they're like, could you pitch in like 10, $10, 20 bucks for like some shit?

shitty beer. It's like, no, dude, I'll just go buy some beer and bring it. Like, it's fine. Like, I got you. We're good. Like, $100 of alcohol, I show up and I'm like, I'm the guy. Like, bro, you spend $100 in alcohol for us? I was like, yeah, it's like not a big deal. Like, at that time, I'm doing $100,000 plus a year, like a profit. Like, not a big deal at all. Happy to do it to hang out with my friends. And then I realized, like, the people I was hanging out with we're so happy and content with all of them kicking a few bucks together for some horrible beer to sit by a bonfire like they in their minds they're like you've made it you're at the cream of the crop best of your life like good for you well then i come to rooms like this and i'm like

oh you're doing a million a year that's cute i do a million a month i'm like that lights a fire in me and i'm like that okay i'm so interested like okay like i'm looking at things all wrong and that's what it came down to i was the biggest fish in my pond and I had to just get in the ocean. Like, if you're in the room and you're the biggest person, there's a problem. I love being in rooms where I'm the smallest person, the smallest business, the smallest entrepreneur, because it makes me look at everything. Like, the problems I think I have in my business, I listen to their problems, and I'm like,

do that. My problems are nothing compared to that. And I'm like, hey, your problem, I can't help you with, you're mind blown there. But this is my problem. And they're like, oh, do that's super simple. Just do boom, boom, boom, boom, and you're good to go. And I'm like, shit. No, and dude, I couldn't agree more.

And I think that's what they say. If you're the smartest person or you're the biggest fishing like your thing, you've got to change circles. You have to because you naturally end up becoming accustomed to what you're surrounded by. And I think I also mentioned yesterday, like even what Jim Ron says, you're the average of the five people you hang out with. And it's so crazy when I, this mastermind was, the reason I like this mastermind, it was a very engaging one. It wasn't one of those like just talk, talk, talk, go God, they'll go to. It was like you start off. push-ups. We start off for those questions. What can we do? What can we do? Another person comes up

spotlight. I'm like, this must-em. And I wonder everyone's coming every single week because it's an engaging thing. But not just that, like, it's a different room because I think I was mentioning all those people that are named up yesterday and even today that you are on stage with. But like, just to take it a notch further, when you start hearing all the amounts that everyone's making, you're like, I swear we got the same body. No, we're human beings. We breathe the same air. It's just somebody managed to crack the code and they're willing to teach. So I'm willing to pay to try and make sure I can be in that room and I can try and get the connection. And just that's what networking is.

And which kind of even segues to what I'm about to say like, did you always have like a networking mindset or is that something happened over time after you met that one coach? No, my mindset, honestly, everything was so bad. So like when I was a solopreneur, it was pure luck that I made 60,000 a year. Like pure luck. I think Craigslist was my only source of lead gen. and they were horrible leads. Like the stuff that I was doing for the price I was doing it,

like I was racing to the bottom. So there would be like multiple jobs. And it would just be like, are you going like, oh, someone said they did it for $100. Well, I'll do it 50. Oh, cool, cool. You got the job. And I'm like, okay, cool. There's an hour of planning, two hours of recording, four hours of editing.

And I'm like, so I'm paying myself a dollar an hour. Why did I race to the bottom? And that was the problem I had. I was like, I was racing to the bottom for what? Like, there was no profit in it. Like, I was able to barely pay my bills. Like, now I'm the exact opposite. People are like, dude, this is my budget.

I'm like, this is what I'll do for it. And they're like, ah, no, someone's going cheaper. I'm like, okay, go with someone cheaper. Like, but if you want great turnaround time, you want this, you want this, you want this, you want this. This is what my agency offers. Like, if you want the best of the best, go with that. Oh, I thought something was wrong. No, I love that.

And I think the fact that there was no adjustment, like you said the precedent right there, how did you start forming your own lead generation kind of like business apart? Like how did that start about? I'm curious. I got roasted. So what we did is we did that one on one. And I pretty much just got told like, dude, you have no lead gen. One source of legion is you don't have a company.

It's like, why are you not? When you hit the home run out of the park and the customer's like, this was the best thing ever. Thank you so much. Like, hey, do you have any friends in the air? doing the same thing. Like one text message. Actually, I have four of them. Can you send me their numbers?

Boom. Four leads. That was more than I was getting like a month through Craigslist. So I was like, so there was a lot of things I learned and how I learned it was I got roasted. I sat in front of a room of 30, 40 business owners,

open my books, opened everything. Like this is everything I'm doing. This is what I think's working. This is what's not working. What can you guys tell me? I'm the small fish in the room. And they roasted the hell out of me.

Like, Was that very similar to what happened today where it's like, hey, what can you do better? What can you do? What's it different? That one was a presentation. So yeah, they got roasted on a five minute presentation. No, this was like numbers, hard numbers, profit. And I didn't have, I didn't have KPIs.

I didn't have a team. I didn't know my closing ratios. I didn't know what Legion was. Like, I didn't know what I didn't know. Like everything I've learned was through YouTube and just like trial and error. And you said it earlier, like you're the average of five people. But it was like how I was taught, like the metaphor that got me is like, like, hey, if you show up to buy the brand new iPhone and the line is a seven hours

around the block, do you want to wait in it or do you want to pay $500 and cut the first person in line? I'd pay $500 to be the first person in line. So am I smart enough to get to where I am today? Absolutely. But it would have took me years of failures and errors rather than I just paid to cut the line. I paid to listen to someone else's failures and for them to audit me and be like, you're doing this wrong.

Why are you doing it like this? And I was like, because I don't know what I'm doing. Like, so it's being as a business owner, everything is your responsibility. Trial error, failure, succession, all of it comes down to you. So it was like, one, you have to own that. If you own that everything is your fault, even if like your customer screwed up and like, well, why wasn't your, or, you know, your employee screwed up, like, well, why didn't you train them better? Like, yeah, they were stupid and they shouldn't have done that. And it should have been common knowledge.

But is it an SOP or they're on board? or their training that taught them not to do it. And you're like, no. Well, that's your fault. Like, totally undue. So it was like, I took full responsibility for everything. And I've built that out where it's like, I'm the first one to blame myself for everything that goes wrong.

And it should be me. Like, it's my systems. It's my processes. Like, and I tried to break them. I'm like, how hard can I overload this to see what breaks first? Because once it breaks, I can fix it. But if I don't know what breaks and I don't know where that weak point is, you can't do it. And I've learned this from one of your guests, too, Tiffany. We help her with her social

media. She's like, the best thing you can do is go on vacation for two weeks and turn your phone off. Come back, you'll know what the problems are real fast. As soon as you're not there, you're going to see who covers down, who picks up the slack, what systems failed, what went wrong, like, and then you can't fix something you don't know. So overload your system and try to break it because what happens is you just come back stronger. And it was like, yeah, it's going to suck. you may lose a customer, like, whatever. Like, it's not good to break a system. Someone's going to drop the ball or something.

But on the back end, you can come back stronger. So that's sort of my thing. It was like, let's fail. Let's fail and fail fast and hard so I can fix it so it never happens again. One of the things I love the most that you said there, you spoke about accountability. You know how many times people like jump in something and they're always ready to point the finger. Oh, no, I shouldn't have done sales with this person because the company sucks. Oh, I shouldn't have done this thing.

but that thing is I should have went to that area and then you realize that hang on there are people that are in the exact same boat as you are but they're finding success and I won't lie I don't want to be a hypocrite but I've also been in those situations where I just blame everything but myself and accountability is such an important factor especially when you become an entrepreneur when you want to try and upscale and that's that's it just stuck out to me it's like gosh like how many times do people find themselves in the thing where they play the blame game and pointing at every other's finger because we are capable of literally achieving anything we want to achieve. We just put our mind to it as well. And from our discussions and all the

stuff that you've been doing, everything just comes down to how like you're structured. How many times you work out? Like you work out all the time. You do the small things that just add up. You know, the small stuff eventually add up because my favorite term is consistency. You know what I'm saying? Like I go from state to state doing what I do. But when every time when I keep posting every single day, And I start seeing new subs and we do all these different stuff and people engaging like, hey, I've been following you for a while It's excited to see that because you may not see the end goal. You're like, oh yeah, I've been monetized since my second episode But it's like, why we're not making I show speed okay side thing? And I'm like hang on, these guys have been doing it from like that time and sometimes you know what I'm saying? Stop comparisons to thief to success. That's all like and it's hard for me because I'm like Look at the guests I'm bringing. I'm like I should be a hundred K at least, you know? But it's like

listen, success comes in many different ways as well. So have you ever felt discouraged and say like, damn, like, I've been busting my butt. I'm doing all this stuff running all these studios. I should be 1.2 mil a year. Has that ever discouraged you? Oh, every day. There's not a day where I'm like, could I have done more? Could I have done better?

What could I have done different? Like, you've been here for two days doing podcast. So, like, I was thinking about today. I was like, shit, I don't. have the names and number. I think I got two of your your guests contact information. They're all local. They obviously like to do podcasts. They show up to podcast. You brought me 12 of my ideal customers. What have I done as a business to closes? And I'm like, shit, I'm going to have to message this guy and be like, hey buddy, like, can you send me the names and phone

numbers of everybody just so I can. Yeah. And so there we go back to Legion. Like, you brought me 12 ideal customers. All I have to do is send him a text to be like, dude, I'm so happy that you came to our podcast studio and checked it out. If you thought about it. doing a podcast or that's something that's interest to you like I'll do your first ones to free to get you in here and hook you like and once you're hooked on it and it was like then you'll do another one and then I charge you and then I put you on subscription so it's like there's ways to do it it's just like discouragement is huge like if you're going to fail just accept you're going to fail um but you can't let it like you're you're going to get kicked

while you're down but you you have to get up and it's an everyday thing like improve yourself and I wanted to get a tattoo and I think I'm still going to it's like 1% better every day like I'm like I'm I didn't come up with that, but it was like, if you're just one percent better every single day, like, you will succeed. You just have to do it. And that's where I think people give up is like, I posted five times on social media and I didn't get a lead, so I stopped. Cool.

I posted 500 times on social media and I got one lead. Like, talk to me after your 500 posts. And I have other people, yeah, I post one time on social media. Three people reach out. It was great. Like, cool, good for you. High five. Like, but did you post the next day?

No. I was like, well, did you post the day after that? No. It goes back to the consistency. You're going to lose battles. Welcome to entrepreneurship. It's not for the week. You're either in it or you're out of it.

But it's like, you know, consistency, accepting defeat, improving yourself. There's so much to it. And that's why I push people to coaching. Like I love coaching. I have like nine different business coaches. Some of them being more on the life coach. Some of them being harder on the business coach. Some of them in the middle.

Like you just have to find that person that speaks to you. and helps you get to where you need to be. And I have different coaches for different things. I have some where it's like, I could tell them like, oh, yeah, do I do this podcast? This guy, he had 12 guests. It was cool. We made a little bit of money off of it. And they'd be like, but you didn't generate any leads.

You suck. And I have other ones out with sugarcoat. It'd be like, oh, well, you know, you should have thought about like this. Like, could you have done this differently? But I was like, I need that. I was prior service military. I need that person to slap me in the face with me like, you're stupid. You messed up.

Fix it. Yeah. And I was like, that's the coaching that I. need. So it's like, and some people are like, well, that's way too intense. I need something nicer. Like, didn't find a coach that's nicer. But it's like, you have to find that person that speaks to you, motivates you, and can

get through. Like, we're all stubborn. Like, there's, there's something that gets through to you and you just need that person that gets through to you and has done it. And that's like, there's too many coaches online right now, in my opinion, that haven't done what they're selling. Like, in theory, do this, this and this. No, find a coach who's done that.

And after you find a coach that's actually done it, hire them as your coach. because they've done it. They've been in their trenches. They paid for the losses. Like, they paid a million dollars on ads. It didn't work. They paid, you know, $50,000 for a billboard. It didn't work.

Or it did work. Regardless, use their money, paid to cut the line, take their failures, take their wins, and then just implement from what you learn from them. You know, brother, you're not so crazy. Is that everything you sing,

I believe, but sometimes hearing it again is amazing. You know, the reason I'll share that because you and I've had so many raw convos. I'm so grateful, like, Jason got to connect us because obviously I know what we're going to be doing in future and the stuff you're going to be training me and my team as well but it's the fact that I'm doing this right now has just always been so much of like hard earned money like sales and so like there's no

investor there's no there's no sponsor but like just this trip of like Miami Vegas back blah blah all these different stuff I've had people reach out and say listen have you got a sponsor have you got this thing. I had the power like I reached out again. I want to interview you. I said, like, listen, I want to get you on play TV. Let's talk about other stuff as well. I've had people's, you know what I'm saying? It's a fact that it's like sometimes you put yourself in situations where opportunities are there. And then when I started speaking about that vision, I'm like, how the heck am I going to get like, I don't want to say obviously what we're going to be doing, but like 200 to 300 people in that certain industry and you're

like, hey, listen, I know a few guys that just went there, blah. But it's stuff like it's like, oh my gosh, sometimes just opening up and letting people know because we're all in this thing where we want to win together. And nothing as good as winning as bringing people together. But one of the things I like about winning is people like you that see the vision and also see the opportunity rather than like trying to like just scam people. And that's why people also are afraid of coaching because people want to try and teach something that they're not living.

Yeah. And so and I'm the same way, man. I'm just saying direct to me like, hey, hey, this is not good. do that thing rather than try and get you spend over close to 100k from your sales money or this amount of money from that side hustle try and work efficiently because youtube is not going to pay you 100k when you're only on 40k subs it's no stuff like that but at the end of the day like it starts with that 1% better consistency and just doing it over and over again because unless i've done over a hundred episodes i haven't i've already had people potentially reach out as well you know it's

just there's many things that you just do what you want to do like i've seen when you're there like yesterday when we were watching you and Jason walk and then coming here, I think we saw you do three workouts yesterday. I think we were talking about your story as well but it's the habits, you know what I'm saying? The habits that get instilled in your head

and then it gets you moving as well, which kind of kind of segues to what I want to talk about right now. Like, yes, you did that. What was the hardest part or the hardest part of being an entrepreneur? Oh my gosh. I know exactly.

The hardest thing I did was hire this. assistant. So I was making like around $500 a week and my assistant cost me $500 a week. So go from a small business, all of your money paid to one person to do the back and stuff. So week one, I trained her. Week two, I trained her. Week three, she started. Week four, I tripled the size of my business because I took so many my new easy tasks that were just time consuming off of my plate and paid someone else to do it. So I went from making $500 a week and in a month I made nothing because I paid everything to her. And then that next month I tripled my business.

Two weeks after that, I five-ex my business. I was like, mind you, my business wasn't huge, so it was easier to do. But I went from $500 a week to like $4,000 a week with one hire of doing the minute back and stuff. So it's like it's so hard as a business. You put all your heart and your energy into like building this business and it's your baby.

But eventually you have to pass parts of it away to actually like grow it to a business. And I still don't think I have a business because I can't leave for a month. So someone told me, if you have a business, you can turn your phone off for a month and just disappear. Go on vacation, go to Mexico, do whatever. Turn your phone off for a month and come back. Do you have a business or do you have a ton of ashes that are burnt down?

Like, I have a ton of ashes that are burnt down. It would burn down so fast. Maybe not that fast, but like I would like to think it wouldn't. But I know we would have anything declined. We would have lost customers. Revenue would have gone down without me here. So I don't have a business yet. I'm still an overpaid employee working in my business.

I have a business when I can just disappear and I know that I'm going to generate leads. I'm going to close leads. I'm going to have new customers and everything is going to improve. So it's like I still don't think I have a business. I'm just an overpaid employee. Which goes back to that cash flow quadrant. You know the Robert you cycle thing of like E for employee, S for small business. And then there's B and I.

He said you want to be in the right hand side. B&I, big business and investor is like the big business. You can go for months. but because of the structure and also the systems that are in place, it's easy for the company to end up generating and moving. And I did an internship in like A.B., like a Bloomberg kind of company. He was hardly there. Guy would leave for like months on it.

He's in the UK. He comes back. But because there's like CEO, there's like border directors, there's this and there's that thing. There's like people taking care of interns. It's like a freaking story building of all those floors and stuff. But it's like... It's almost sometimes better that they are gone.

Yeah. It grows more. without you in their micromanaging people. And that's, I mean, that's where I want to get where it's like, oh, it's better. Like, I have some of our clients that are like, will you send so-and-so? They're just better than you. I know. That's why I hired them because they're better than me.

Yeah. That's why I send them. Like, I am so happy you want them to do it because I don't want to do it. I'm trying to do bigger tasks. So like, yep, they'll be there every week on Monday. Yeah. Like, not a problem. Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more.

And that's one thing I do like, a collaboration. There's so much. in this world where there's so much ego and i tell you man like every time i see people with ego you only can go so far before it all comes crumbling down and i think we spoke about like the like the like the crap that's been happening with some of the leaders and they you know the and their teams falling apart and this thing and that thing man i i always reach out i'm like listen i'm willing to and i'm willing to not just like reach out and try and like scabble people like i'm reaching out saying listen yeah i need you do this thing from you can i'm willing you know well how important is collaboration

and networking working together. Networking is everything. Like, you're only, like your, what was it? Your net worth is your network. Like,

I heard that and I was like, oh, does that really make sense? And I sat down and thought about it. Like, yeah, dude, my network of people are so powerful.

Like, and I have people all the time. Like, hey, I need this. Do you call this guy? He's my AC guy. He'll take care of you. Just tell him you're with me. Oh,

you're roof's bad. Oh, dude, call this guy. Oh, that guy's busy. He can't get out soon enough. Call this guy. Like, I have a,

a roster of every blue-collar business that are the best in their industry, first off, and that they would jump through hoops because they knew they would do it back for me. And I have it sometimes, like, whatever reason right now, we've had a lot of people die. And it was like, hey, dude, so-and-so's, like, brother just died. Cool. Reach out to them. I want to do the memorial video. Oh, well, you know, they're a little, like, struggling with it.

No, I don't want money for it. Like, that network and keeping that network so close and just taking care of people will go so much farther in your business than paid ads or anything else. And that's where people like, if you have an ego, I just don't mess with you in the first place. It was like, if you have an ego and we see it, it's the hardest thing for me to hire videographers because they all have the ego. They're all the best videographer. And it was like, well, I don't care if you're the best.

I want it done this way. Well, I went to film school, a prestigious film school and no, you want to do it like this. And I was like, well, my customer wants a social media video and they don't. don't want to pay $20,000 for a 30 second video, so do it not to your standard. Like, no, no, I refuse to do that. Well, cool, then you don't work for me. And then we'd look back about some of the overpriced people and I was like, wait, so you did like $25,000 in work last year?

Like, that's cute. I've done that in a month. And they're like, oh, aren't you cool? I'm like, no, I'm just saying like your ego is stopping you from all of this. So it's like, it's super tricky in my industry to find badass employees. that don't have an ego, and I have to get them to buy in on the culture, and that's so hard as a business owner,

I think people miss that. Like, your culture needs to be strong enough where people want to come to work. They're happy to come to work. And we talked a little bit off-camera about how I break it down. Like, I have my videographers, and I have my editors.

My editors love to stay at home and just edit. They're not people, like, they're not people, they like to just sit at the computer and play on their keyboard all day. And then I have my super creative people that are like, they need that interaction, and they hate going and locking themselves in a box to edit.

it and I'm like, why don't I split it? Like, yeah, it's expensive. I have to double my like payroll. But I was like, you guys go be creative, go out in the field and go make awesome content. Then upload it to the Google Drive and then this person is going to download it and edit it. And it was like now as a consumer, like our turnaround time is amazing because it's like this person was so high energy. They came out there. They made us awesome videos.

They went home that night, uploaded it. 3 a.m. Our guy woke up, click download. 6 a.m. He woke back up and he's editing. like noon all your videos are done and you're like dude we finish less than 12 hours ago like I just got on the flight just got home

and I opened it as like click on the link all of our videos are done and I was like well how do we do that because we build an agency like so you have to motivate people to do what they like and you have to know what they like I stole this from Natalie Dawson like PPS personal professional and financial goals if you don't know

your employee's goals and you're not helping them achieve those goals like you're not the business for them they'll leave you for money so it's like how do you move you motivate your employees where like they're untouchable and unrecruitable. Like there's always going to be a dollar amount or whatever, but like ideally there's not a dollar amount.

You pay them good. You've met all of their goals. They're hitting their life goals. They're hitting their family goals. They're hitting their personal goals. Like they're hitting everything they want to do with their life. Why would they lead the company? No, they're happy.

So and that's where I think people go wrong is like you forget like your employees aren't like workhorses. Like I have some workhorses, but it's like, what are their goals? at the end of the day and what motivates them. And then how do I help them motivate? Like one of my assistants right now is on vacation. I was like, I still sent her her paycheck and she's salary. So like, or she's not salary.

She's like based off of the account she posts for. So it's like, I still sent her her check full and she's at Disneyland with her family. And she's like, hey, I don't think you meant to send this to me. And be like, no, absolutely did. You bust your ass while you're here. You took a week long break and I'm so happy for you that you get to go to Disneyland with your family. but like I know what I pay you is sort of like your play money and you guys are out playing right now.

So like I want you to still have a good time with your family and kids. That's nice. So it's like go to her right now while she's on vacation and be like, hey, come work for me. I'll pay you more. Like dude, my boss just paid me and I didn't do anything all right. And sent me a text saying like, hey, good for you. Have fun with your children. Like, dude, at the end of the day, people are people.

Yeah. You know, I just like it so much because if you start treating people like people, I think that's where things start like working super well. And I think that's where we're talking about I'm not going to name drop because I have no beef against other people and the stuff that's been happening, especially like in the Fountain Hills area. Go on. Now where we're going? But my point is if you just, because people will, if they buy into the idea, it's also if they see the vision, but if their vision also aligns with their goals and by understanding their goals. And I think that's one of the things I like the most. And that's

why I'm like, listen, I just send something good about you. I'm like, I'm going to fly out of Salt Lake and I'm going to take notes like everyone else as much as yes, they're going to be in my team. I'm going to recruit them. I need to know what the expectation is and I'm willing to learn as well because one of the things I liked a lot about Jason, he was in the trenches. He's selling. He's out there on the roofs and stuff like that.

And like you always like in and about you're involved. You've taken calls, seeing how that studio is doing how that studio. What's the goals for this thing? KPIs, all these different stuff. it's all a process. And the minute you take your foot off the gas and you stop becoming complacent, I think that's when everything falls apart. Complacency is also another dangerous attribute as well.

So how do you continue to stay motivated yourself? Being the smallest person in the room. Like I refuse to be the biggest person in the room. Like, yeah, it's just not going to help me grow. And I'm very open-minded. Like, as nice possible, I lose a lot of money by trying marketing things. Like, oh, dude, so-and-so said they, did this and it worked really good. Cool, let's do it. Hook me up with a person. Oh, it didn't work for us.

It was great for blue collar, not good for tech company. Well, I tried. But it was like, once you're complacent and you're like, I'm not willing to grow. I'm not going to integrate AI in my company. Like, your business is going up or down. As soon as you stop willing to grow and like take notes and improve yourself, you're going down. And that's where like I'm still, my business is only three years old. We're thriving. We're like, I feel like we're dominating. Like, you go to a Facebook group. for Arizona, they're like, I need a videographer. I have 60 comments, 30 of a mermaid. And they tag me personally and I've never even worked with them. But it's like, we've built that team in that culture where it's like, no, these are the guys you want to use? Like, are they going to be a little bit more

expensive? Yeah. They're reasonable with their prices. They're not going to give you this crazy quote. And that's why I hate giving people quotes because I'm like, well, what do you want? Oh, I just want you to record. Well, do you want editing? No, I just want like one 20 minute long video, very basic. I'm like, then I'm not going to quote you 10 grand. Like it doesn't cost me 10 grand. And it's like we built that team

where we can be reasonable with our prices. We do a ton of work. We have fast turnaround times and everyone's happy. So just keep growing. Like as soon as you're complacent, it's over. Like be a small person in the room,

be open minded, take notes from the best. And if you feel like you are the best, then you either have an ego about you or you're just in the wrong rooms. Love that. I know, I know the reason I've been looking at the time. I know you guys have to go somewhere right now. And I really respect and I appreciate

the time that you've taken to jump on this podcast and we open up and discuss and so forth as well. I'm excited to come back here. By the way, you know, he's, this is his studio right here. So the great hospitality that's been given here in Arizona, it's been amazing to be able to bring the guests all last minute and we end up managed to pull 12 out, you know, like so it's another thing I have a passion for as well. So now, Dakota, in your opinion, like I said, I've always asked all my guess this thing because it is the coach winning at the end of the day. What does the term winning mean for you? Winning, I think, is that freedom where I can just leave. Like my dad's going to retire 10 years tops, but he's aiming for like seven years. I was like, I want to sell my business in seven years

the same time he retires where it's like money's not an issue. Like where do you want to go? What do you want to do? So I'm raising my dad's a retirement. Like I won't retire like ideally I'll sell my business the same time her retires, we'll have plenty of fun money for a year or two to travel and do our thing. And then I'll probably start another business or do. Like, I have too much ADHD. I have to do something. But yeah, so like winning for me is being able to like achieve that. Like race my dad's to retirement.

And then when I retire, just be able to like money not be an issue. Or even if I don't sell in seven years being able to be like, dude, I'm going to go hang out with my dad for the next six months. like my board everything the company's going up or down without me like all the systems are in place everything is going to run smoothly i'm going to come back let's say i left with a five million dollar company and like i'm at least going to come back in six months and we're doing 5.5 million like it has to increase without me and that's what's winning for me is if you have a real business where you're not an overpaid employee your business can thrive and honestly sometimes thrives better with you when you're not there like that's what winning is powerful if you could let off

viewers know where they could get a hold of you if they want to try and like you know jump rent a studio out in Arizona videographer for the different stuff can let people know they can get a hold of you yeah you're media guy any social media platform your media guy that's what everyone sort of called me so that's what we just went with and it was like yeah you're a media guy any social media platform send us a DM or if you just follow us you're going to get a DM from us anyway so that's how you do it awesome stuff the code winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow to Thank you very much, brother.

Yeah, no problem. Awesome. Appreciate it.