¶ Pathway To Profit
Welcome to another episode of the big picture business podcast today, we are so excited to tell you that we have some very special guests with us, David and Dana
¶ Welcome Dana and David Hagstrom!
Hagstrom. They are professional mentors, inspirational speakers, they're business coaches who specialize in empowering business owners with effective breakthrough strategies to boost home businesses. And they also happen to be married. They're like the ultimate power couple. So again, we're just we're so excited. And we're so honored to have you on the show with us today. So welcome. Hi.
Hi, thank you to Dominica and Rory, we're delighted to be here.
¶ David & Dana’s Mexico Story (How did we get here?)
What I would love to hear is just your story. Because I might know and you might know, a little bit of background, but your story is so unique. So if you wouldn't mind sharing that with our listeners, it would be great.
Yeah. Which part of the story? Why don't you start with our Mexico story?
We have a great Mexico story. Yeah. I mean, how did we get here? You know, that is what we get asked a lot. And I love to share that story. Because, in case you your listeners don't know, David was a pastor for 30. Some years ago, I was a paralegal. And we were living a happy little ho hum life in Iowa. And we were serving an adorable little congregation, but they were struggling. And you know, we're big city kids. So it was first of all, hard to
be in a little town. But you know, the people were so adoring and loving that we, you know, knew God put us there. But when David came to me one night and
¶ How to Retire Early
said out of the blue, you know, we have to work another six or eight more years, before we can retire. All these thoughts are going through my head because he'd been downsized from the prior congregation of this huge church. And here we are in this small church that struggling, how are we going to work another six or eight years? Hmm. And then he said, or we could retire to Mexico this year?
Wow. Okay.
Because I had I was already, you know, in that mindset, and I was going through all of that. I said, Well, let's do it. I'd rather I'd rather spend time with you. And, and live a little differently than in the way we were. We were just going in so many different directions. Oh, and that just sounded so enticing. No more Iowa winters for us.
This, the ultimate leap of faith? Wow.
Yeah, we spent a few months doing our due diligence. But within a year we were here in Mexico.
Wow. That's incredible.
Mexico. We've been here for years now. Yeah, a little little more. But, you know, we got here, we sort of looked at each other after a few weeks here and said, Well, now.
It had been such a whirlwind to pack up things and sell things and downsize and figure out rules for crossing borders and all of that, that when we finally got here and rested for a few weeks, it was like, Okay, next, what do I want to do when I grow up in a full clean slate? What could we do?
Well, we already been blogging. And we had two blogs going at that time. What about learning a new language, and one about retiring? And so we were we continued working on those. And we picked up a couple products that well, they're both network marketing products at the time. But in the process of doing that, built some friendships with especially with another power a couple in the marketing space that have really been mentors for us over the
last few years. Yeah. And I think it was a couple years back that we were at an event with them. And when
you can go to events when Yeah,
back when you can go to events. And late one night after we'd been in sessions all day we were in our hotel room. And I was going over my, our 90 day plan for where where our business was going and talking with our mentor. And he helped tighten up a few details and things that we were working on and then said, okay, you're ready. You need to be out there coaching others, and you know, we hadn't really considered that particular direction. And I certainly didn't feel ready at
that time. But in retrospect, we realize that well in my 35 year ministry career, my gift for strategic planning has really come from come to the fore. And that's that's why I was in this huge church over 1000 in worship every week, and I was executive pastor doing strategic planning and coaching other staff members. And that was before I was downsized, because as we they went through some changes. But what had happened over over
¶ How to Monetize Your Gifts
the years that we've been, that we've switched to online marketing is that I had learned to apply my gifts for strategic planning in this new business. And what he was pointing out to me is, okay, now it's time that you're coaching other other folks, you've got such a systematic way of looking at everything that would be helpful to the others. And that was, so that led us in a new direction, doing some coaching. But we still felt a little bit of like,
there was something missing. We could help people with almost any piece of online marketing,
¶ Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together for Business and Leadership
but it was sort of hit and miss what piece to work on when. And we sort of had the feeling like we were putting pieces into a jigsaw puzzle. But we didn't have the box cover, you know how you look at the box, see what the overall picture is supposed to look like, the overall picture was still unclear. And
¶ Develop Clear Questions for Focus
then one day, as we kept on sort of working at things in whatever order they came. Finally, that picture came into focus for us, and for coaching others where we could walk through a list of questions with people and say, Okay, here's where you need to focus now. To take the next step. Yeah, yeah. And that's when that changed. Yeah, that's when things got really exciting for us. Yeah. And we had the, that was really the birth of your pathway to profit, right? Mm hmm. And which is your
course, right? Which is, which is the course Yeah, it took us it still took us another year to develop the whole course. But we started leading people through that process as we worked with them. And it
out, you know, it worked for us. But will it work for other people?
Exactly, exactly. So that's the place where we got
¶ Helping Others Without Overwhelming Them With Too Many Tasks
really excited about things and where we became really confident that we could help others to develop an online marketing business without an overwhelming task list.
Hmm. Keep it simple.
That's really important. If you give too many things for people to do. They don't do it. And it's just basic psychology. Right? So, you know, that's great that you've come up with a system that you can then share with your clients and, and help them implement that they know what they need to do in their business. And that I'm sure that gives them clarity, Am I correct?,
right? Yes, yes. And I know for me, even, you know,
¶ Develop a Strategic Plan in Order to Stay Focused
when we're working on something new, you know, David, and his strategic thinking, he'll come to me with a blueprint and say, Okay, this is what you need to do what? And I'm like, Oh, it was like, he's given me such gold. Because my brain doesn't think like that. I'm kind of all over the place that I'm super touchy feely and want to make everybody you know, happy. I'm just encourager, right. So we're this great, great mix. He helps
me figure it all out. And then I make everybody feel good doing it.
That's a good team.
That's, so one of the things that you said is that you weren't, you didn't feel like you were ready to coach? How did you? How did you deal with that? How did you come to the conclusion that you actually could? And what did that feel like when you actually made the decision?
We started out in is probably not the best way to do things. But we started out with group coaching, and
work with people in a group setting and help them deal with whatever they're working on and read
started sort of ad hoc, because we would just sort of say, Okay, what questions do you have tonight?
Like on the hot seat all the time, but, you know, we had the knowledge we had the background, and it was, it showed us that we could because we have the answers. And we were watching people have the breakthroughs are like oh, well, this, this works kind of like when the motherboard pushes the baby out. The baby doesn't think it can fly. But once it starts flying, that Oh, yeah, I can do this. So that's kind of how we felt about it.
Yeah. It seems like you just jumped in. But you
¶ How To Address Internal Conflicts So You Can Blow Past Limitations
had to get to that point of view making the decision to jump in. What decision was that that we're in or what what were you dealing with that you had this conflict of? I don't know if I'm ready.
I'm Just knowing my background, I've got a PhD, which means that I learned more and more about less and less until finally they said, I knew almost everything about almost nothing. So that's sort of the way I approach things. I want to master a subject. Before I start teaching, and, and your head,
you're not ready. And so in
my head, I'm not ready. So so but, but a
Todd was looking in and they could see you were ready. Yeah, he
was telling me, Hey, you got it, just get out there and do it.
¶ Two Little Words You Must Ingrain in Your Brain if You Want Success
I love that you know that about yourself that, you know, I really just want to master this. I want to make sure I know everything there is to know. But I'm sure as you know, at this point, and you've probably known this all along, especially with starting your own business. There's always so much more to learn. It's like every day something new comes up, right? But then also, fun, fun for you, right? Because that's your personality.
Oh, I love I love to learn. But But together we've had this. We've had this thing of saying, okay, we can learn but we've got to implement as we go. Yes. Even if it's not comfortable yet. Yeah, just get out and do it.
Yeah, there are nights where I've been frustrated. I've come into his office, and he's watching another training video. I'm like, Hey, we haven't put into action. What we just learned. Stop it Stop. But he's like, no, that's my happy place. I love learning.
That's so wonderful, but also so good that you can encourage him like, let's take action because Rory and I talk about that all the time. Even in this last episode, we released it today. Actually, we were talking about just our own clients that they spend 1000s of dollars on courses, and then don't do anything with it. Like, what's the point? You have to put it into action? Yeah, exactly. What do you
want to be a professional student your whole life? And I think that would be his aspiration? Just share, I can't let it all stay up here.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've seen the extreme of that I had a family friend growing up, you know, she was older than me. And but my grandparents were friends with her parents. And she basically just spent her whole life going from a degree degree degree degree degree. And it left her with so little options in life, because she had no life experience to back up information. She was learning or
real world experience. And, and then you get in that that situation where it's like, Okay, well, you can become a professor, and teach the information you've learned. But you haven't implemented any anything in the real world. So, you know, you can't just like go and start a business really, when you just got the
information. And, and you get so sucked into that, that just learning learning cycle, always feeling like you need the next bit of information, the next bit of information is going to be the thing that solves the problem, but, and, you know, it helps. But if you haven't implemented anything, you don't get any feedback. And if you don't get feedback, then it's all information in a vacuum.
¶ David Shares a Story from His First Year in Ministry
That sort of takes me back to my first year in ministry. You know, I had just finished a PhD, I had a couple master's degrees. Now I'm out in this small community. And I was out with a farmer in the congregation writing on his tractor together. And he, he turns to me and says, you know, that was a really interesting message you had for us last Sunday. What were you trying to say?
¶ The Importance of Identifying Your Target Audience
And so we're all there, which, you know, you know, reminded me at that point, that no matter how profound I may think I am, if it doesn't speak to the the people that I'm speaking to, it doesn't really make any difference. So,
so true, right, which totally applies to doing online marketing, right, where you have to know your target demographic, how to talk to them, your brand, your messaging, all of that, right.
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yep.
And one of the things that, you know, it seems like you touched on this point is that you had to change your business model to continue to grow. And if you hadn't started, that wouldn't have happened. Right, exactly. Exactly. Even
¶ Change Course Toward Success
though even though we've changed directions a couple times along the way. Exactly. If we hadn't gotten started, we wouldn't, we wouldn't have got where we are.
We have to start somewhere. That's for
¶ The Three Places People Get Stuck in Business
sure.
That's right. And, you know, you had asked, I guess we were talking earlier, and you had said something about the three places that people get stuck.
Yeah, yeah, tell us.
And when we're when we're coaching people, what we find is that there are people that that have started, but they've got, there's missing pieces, you know, they, they've got an idea how to get started with this, they know where generally they want the business to go, but they don't have all the pieces in place. Like you were saying, knowing who their target audience is, and knowing what their core message is, and how they're going to use how they're
going to make money. You know, I had somebody, for example, in one of our coaching sessions that was so frustrated, you know, with the little bit of cash flow she had. And I asked her just a couple simple questions like, well, how much? How much do you make on each on each sale, or transaction you have? And I think it was $5. And I said, Okay, then how many? How many transactions Do you need to make each month to make what you your goal, your goal? And she said, Well, that's impossible.
There's no way I could do. But she hadn't thought she hasn't thought through that. And no, and I said, Okay, that's great. You just learned one business model. That's not working,
not viable. gift.
Let's figure out one that does work for you.
Well, that's encouraging. That's so lovely that you said that rather than Okay, well, good luck. Okay. Well, let's talk through something we can monetize properly.
Exactly. So some of them have missing pieces. Another
¶ The Single Biggest Mistake Entrepreneurs Make When Trying to Grow a Business
thing we've learned is that people trying to do things in the wrong order. You know, there's things like, oh, social media marketing has become so popular. And it's great to get out there and build an audience on social media and try it. And, and, and looking for sales out there. But when we when we're talking with somebody, and they say, well, I've got 5000 in my audience on Facebook, since that seems to be the go to one right now. We started on on Twitter. But that was a few years back.
And I'd say okay, and who is who exactly is your target audience? Well, sort of whoever will listen, and and so they've built this big audience. But they have nothing in common. They have no particular relation to what they're selling. And, and I'm thinking, Okay, let's, let's go back to the first steps. And begin with the foundation and put things in place. And then yeah, we'll get to these these things, or they're doing, you know, another one is a third one people wanting to get into
Facebook ads. Oh, when they haven't? Yeah, that's when they don't know how they're how they're going to monetize, monetize, or how they're going to nurture their people or how they're going to sell their product yet. Mm hmm. And, boy, you can lose a lot of money, though.
Yes, yes. It's like buying the furniture before you've built the house.
Exactly. Exactly. That's so missing pieces, doing things in the wrong order. And then what we talked about earlier,
¶ How to Focus on ONE Thing at a Time
just overwhelmed. I've got all these things I need to do. Where do I focus? Yeah, how can we run into a lot of people that that are just paralyzed? Because there's, there's so many things that they've learned that they need to do? What one thing do I need to do today?
And to have that clarity to know Oh, I get it tomorrow. And I'm going to do this because you're following a process? Yeah. I mean, it just takes away the overwhelm. And to me, that's the biggest and being you know, I like to work with people on their time. optimization skills. That's my favorite one.
Right? Right. Yeah.
¶ Causes of Overwhelm Related to Online Marketing
Yeah. So one of the one of the things that I like, that a lot of people don't realize is that there's about 1000 different types of software just related to the online marketing world.
Wow. Yeah, it's extreme.
And you think about that, think about all the time it takes to research just one software to see if it will work for your business, then to go through a trial just to implement it and learning curve and the learning curve of learning the software or You know, whatever it is, and then suddenly, you, you sit there and you go, Well, if you're being bombarded with ads all day to do this, you're being told by this coach and this coach and this course and this book that I read
to do this, and this and this and this. It's just so much, it's too much for people to handle. And so what do they do? They? Well, they do nothing.
They do nothing. Yeah, exactly. We see
¶ An Ingenious System for Getting Unstuck in Your Business
that a lot, though. Yeah, we do.
So what what strategies do you do you pull from to help people overcome some of the overwhelm? And and see that bigger picture of a business?
Yes, yes. Well, the way we the way we visualize it is
Yeah, and that's one of the biggest things that we, we see three stages, the first one we think of is testing their foundation. And then the second one is building a pipeline for profit. And the third one is releasing the flow of leads in cash. And then, so then, each one of those stages, we break down into four steps. So in the foundations, we want to work on, understanding where you're headed. And then after that, what, what's your problem?
And by that, I mean, what is the problem that you can solve for somebody else? And, okay, once we know that, then we usually move on to Okay, who are the people that have this particular problem or need? And let's identify them, and figure out where they hang out? And then the fourth step is monetization. How are you going to make money
doing this? And once we've got those four sets of questions figured out, and we've done entire webinars on each one of them, and you know, they're each one is a module in our pathway to profit, then we get to stage two. And in stage two, we want to start out by attracting leads into their pipeline. And then how do they develop their own authority, so that people will listen to what they have to say? How do they nurture the people that come into this pipeline?
And finally, at some point, people have to decide, am I going to buy or not? And, you know, so that's, that's the fourth step in in that just? How, what are you going to use to create a moment of decision where people decide if they're, if they're in or, or not. And once we've got all those in place, then we move on to the
¶ How and When to Scale Your Business (hint: most people do this backwards)
third stage. And that begins with getting free eyeballs on your offer. And in our day to day, that's usually through social media. And although we've we've discovered that partnerships are working better for us, not that we don't use social media, but we're getting more leads through partnerships than we are simply through the the social media, then people need to think through their content strategy, how are they going to develop their
authority? And then if they ever get to this, then then comes paid ads. And the final, the final step, being how do we optimize all of these pieces and maximize our cash flow from this? people don't understand is that when you go to paid ads, it's to scale, what you are doing after you've got systems and processes and things in place, but also at least a general idea of what's converting and what's not.
But I have to I have to say, though, that some sometimes social media ads can be used as a great testing ground as well.
if you have the budget. Yeah, you
have the budget, correct. Yeah.
Yeah. And there's, there's times that we've gone to ads for exactly that. That reason we've got we've got a concept or an idea here that we need to test, or we need to know is is this going to convert people cold traffic or not, right. And then we wanted, let's run a test. And see
¶ Network and Develop Relationships with Those Who Know More
I got my online marketing, start doing a lot of Facebook ads, and I remember, it was so fun and it was so lucrative at the time, and it just changes so quickly.
It's amazing how the results today versus years ago like the difference obviously, there's so many more people online right now, have you found that with your, with your clients that the strategy around social media or paid paid online marketing ads in general has shifted pretty significantly from when you first got started in this business?
Absolutely, absolutely. And that's why it's so important for us, you know, as coaches that are teaching it, you know, to stay up on it, and stay in communities where the people that that's what they do know, we can lean in on them and say, Okay, what what is happening, you know, so that we can be relevant without having to do it all ourselves. And that's what those partnerships come in, you know, we, we don't dive super deep on any of these things. We get everybody on like a first or
second level. And then if that's where they're going to take their business, we have these partnerships designed to help people dive deep.
Yeah, that's wonderful. That's something that's a journey,
it's brand new, we're developing those as we speak,
¶ Building Exponential Growth into Your Business
it's been really helpful to realize that even though we are, you know, it's the two of us in this business, by ourselves. Yeah. That still this is a team effort. And, you know, that we we are in relationship Well, with, with YouTube, and with all sorts of other businesses, some of whom come before us in the flow of things. And when, when they help get people started, they need what
we have to offer. And some of whom come after us and and we work with them for a while and then say, Okay, now you need to go see so and so for this. Mm hmm. That was just a real insight for us when we realize that it was much better to see ourselves as just one piece of the whole process.
Yeah, I feel like there's a good opportunity for exponential growth, when you bring in your team, right? When you when you build those relationships and those partnerships, Rory, and I do that all the time, we know, hey, we're not going to go ahead and learn the ins and outs of this thing over here, that person is the expert, let's bring them in, right, because there's only so much in a day. And when you start to build those relationships, it's
amazing. And I'm sure you'll find this to the amount of work that you want to have will come back tenfold to you, right? Where you make these relationships. And people will start thinking, oh, let's go over to the Hagstroms and we know exactly what they have going on. And it becomes this pretty wonderful feelings, great community that can really come out of it. So I'm glad that you're deciding to take your business in that direction.
Because I know for me, I can't speak for Rory, I hope I hope this is how you feel very, but it just, it just feels very full. It's a very full way of running, running business when we're all doing it together in a in a fun way and including everybody.
Yeah, absolutely, that that's how I built my business is tons of partnerships. Dana, you'd
¶ The Time Management P.L.A.N Formula
mentioned some stuff about time management, that was something you were really interested in. So I wanted to you to speak a little bit about that. And, you know, maybe some strategies that people can use in their daily lives to help them with all these tasks that we have to do as business owners.
I would love to I mean, that's, that's my sweet spot. But you know, everybody has their own relationship with time. But at the same time, we all have the same 24 hours. So, you know, everyone's going to be a little bit different. So what works for you might not work for me and doesn't work for David, but there's plenty of opportunities to explore what those are. But just a simple easy takeaway, I would say is, is my plan formula. And I love
this. It's just super simple, but it's, you know, we all have things we have to get done every day. And so the P and plan because it's an acronym, I love acronyms, you know. The P and plan is to prioritize and you get really good at, you know, listing things and prioritizing your tasks, we all have tasks we
need to do. And so listing them out so that they're not floating around in your head, causing you chaos in your brain, get it on a piece of paper, and then you can, you know, figure out what are non negotiables that you need to get done. What can wait till tomorrow and start to you know, plan that sort of thing out so that it's visual, you can see it it's not in your head anymore. You know taking up space and try not to make anything more than three or four must do's but then make sure you
get the stuff. So that's the P the L is leisure and that is important to her every day that you build in some fun, some leisure something that is work. And that look will look different for everybody. You know, it could mean reading a book for someone, you know, like a chapter in a book. And it doesn't have to be something you do for hours, it could even be something 10-15 minutes, maybe it's a walk around the block, just something that isn't work. That is something you want to do.
Like you playing the piano, like,
yes, exactly, exactly. And then every day should have the A stands for achievement. So what are you doing to learn to grow to be the better you and
personal development? You know, we say that that's the kind of the key phrase in you know, the online space, but achieve, what are you what are you working for, maybe that's watching a training video, maybe that's reading the book, that's where you put that in, but to plan something in each day, and then the the other one, and I struggled with this one, but it's neatly organized, and that speaks to your environment, you want to always be looking around you and picking something that
you can do to organize your environment or, or make it fit you better. So if that bathroom sink is driving you crazy, because it's, it's full, and it's messy, and there's all that loose hair in there, maybe that's what you do that day is clean out your drawer. But you're you're building something where you're, you're you're cleaning, you're cleansing your environment, because that will help also in in just making you
a happier person. So those are the things you can do, whether you're business owners or not, is just make sure that you have those pieces in every day. And you'll be amazed at just that those tweaks will help
I have to reiterate something that you said, and really drive it home for our listeners, you said everyone has a different relationship with time. And we all have the same 24 hours. And that's really, really profound. If you actually think about that. It's like it's so much can get done when we do have a plan. Right. So it's, I thank you, thank you for saying that.
It's really important. And and one of the
¶ Secrets for Rewarding Yourself
question, because I know that this comes up with the clients and and with people that I talk with is that they so let's say they put six items on their list, and they prioritize three, but three other ones are much more fun to do. That are priorities. And they just want to do the fun ones. How do you approach that? And how do you help people get past that, so they actually get the priority ones done?
Well, you can set a reward reward system, you know, however, it works for that person. Now, it could be those fun things are hours long. But if they're short, you know, use it as a reward, you know, you you get one of your must dues done, oh, that means I can go play the piano for a second or whatever it is use it as a reward. But you know, don't overdo it. But sometimes our brains need that, that little bit of encouragement.
So and there are times when I've even taken a day, to just I've gotten this, all these all these little things that have accumulated on my task list that are not the main priority, but just having all these items there is distracting me. Hmm. And sometimes so then I'll just set aside, you know, a period of time or even a day to just get a bunch of them off the list.
And that can be a huge relief. That relief. Yeah, will really catapult you into action as well, to get
Yeah. So for example, if you had like 50 emails that you had to get done, you just set aside a time block to just focus on that and get it off. Yeah, get it off.
Problem with emails, those they just keep coming.
Oh, I know. I know,
a blessing.
But you know, it's a lot. Like another job just checking and responding. I have a question for both of you.
¶ Advice for Business Owners Wanting to Move to a New Country
I'm wondering what advice you could offer business owners who are looking to move to a new country, because that's something really unique that you've accomplished, and you're still there and you're still thriving. So what advice would you offer?
Do your homework, we bought a course actually, that was helping people do to make those transitions abroad. And that gave us a whole checklist of things to to look into. And there's also a wealth of information like the consulate, we visited the Mexican consulate in the United States and you know, you have to go through a lot of paperwork and all of that but their website will also have a lot of information. That's how we knew what to do with our
dogs, our pets. You know, you can't just come across the border with dogs who knew Unless, well, if you have four dogs, you can't bring four dogs into Mexico without some extra
hoops. And even if one, you have to have all the certificates in order,
right, and have a vet do this and do that. And so it's so do your homework.
So you do your homework and put it on a calendar, I need to get this done by this date this done by this date. And the Actually, that's what that course was that we had purchased at that time. They, it was 90 days of emails. And each each email simply said today, you need to get this done.
Wow, that seems really helpful.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And and they let you know, ahead of time, sort of what the what the schedule was going to look like. But if you got all those things done, and you know, when they needed to be done, when you got to the end, you were ready to go.
hopeful, I love that someone even thought to do that.
I know, right. And then when we got here, we realized there is there is a service here. So if an expat service that was helping people do the same thing, this course was we'd already we knew what we were doing. So it was alright. But for people that didn't know that course existed. Sometimes there are agencies and expat communities at their destination, and you can check into them as well. Right?
¶ Misinformation about Mexico
Now, you know, something along along these lines is in the US, we get fed a lot of information, misinformation about Mexico, how it's portrayed, and in the media and in movies and stuff like that. What is your advice to people, you know, that are maybe considering Mexico as a place to live? Like? What What has been your experience? And, you know, the the good and the bad?
Sure. One of the things that I would say is, tell me about going to a big city in the United States? Are there areas where you wouldn't go at night by yourself? Yes. You know, are there are there some simple, practical things you can do to keep yourself safe? And, you know, okay, we are, we're in a different country, they have a different way of life than we're used to. I'm not going to change Mexican culture, no, I need to learn how to fit in as part of
Mexican culture here. So in some areas, I feel completely comfortable walking the streets at 3am. And I'm not worried at
and we've done that that. So pre COVID
there are other places where I would want to make sure I was in a group and even then get out of the area as quickly as possible and
probably be in a car.
Yeah. You know, a lot of things are common sense to Mexico is a developing country, many of the people are very poor. I'm not going to flash my wealth, I'm probably not gonna walk down the street wearing a Rolex watch. And or
drive a fancy car, or Yeah, to draw anything that will draw attention to you. I know a lot of the xpat women here, they were a lot of beautiful jewelry. And I'm like, Why? You're just kind of setting yourself up as a target. You know, we don't see a lot of homicides happening, you know, for for that sort of thing. But we do see, you know, burglaries, you know, because these people, like you said it's poor, and right now with COVID it's even scarier. So most of the violence, not your wealth.
Yeah, most of the violence that has nothing to do with, like you say, burglaries or robberies or things for the most part, if they want something, they'll take it, they don't want to they don't want to hurt anybody. But the violence has to do with it with the drug trade. And, and the cartels, right. And as long as you stay away from that, you're generally
generally pretty safe. For the people in, for the Mexican people, that's something that they worry about a lot because it's so attractive to young people especially to be able to make a lot of money real fast. If they get involved with this with this group, then you know, they like like gangs in any place, they can sound very attractive. And of course, that's where that's where people end up, either disappearing,
yeah, or being killed. But it's interesting the Mexicans in general look at the United States. They hear about school shootings and shootings at malls and concerts and things like that make, it's hard for them to understand how could how anybody can live in a society that that's that crazy with that kind of violence.
It's like then the negative from all countries seem highlighted. It's like that's what we get from each country.
Right. Right. Exactly. That's what they hear about the US. Yeah. Right. And that's what the US hears about Mexico. And they don't realize that, you know, just like in the US, you know, 90% of the people around you, and I throw that out as a number. There's no statistics behind that. Most of the people around you are really fine people. And I'm not, you know, afraid of them or worried about relating with them. But the same is true in Mexico. The the people around us are wonderful
people. We love the the people in the culture. Yes, there's a few bad eggs out there that you have to watch out for. Right. But now, Yes, that's true everywhere. Yeah.
The big question is, do you both speak Spanish? I love your transparency about that.
We, we speak a lot more Spanish now than we did when we arrived here.
We understand a lot. You know, when our maid is here, she, she doesn't speak any English. So she talks to me, and I know what she's saying. I can't always say back or answer her so that I go to Google Translate, and I type my answer. And then I have her read it. Because I want to, you know, have a conversation. I don't want to just speak in
words. Very, very comfortable with trend transactions, right? You know, you go to the store and you need to do something there you go to a restaurant, you need to order something, you know, all the all the basic transactions of life are pretty easy for us now in Spanish
good. Well, that's great.
¶ Slow Down to Absorb Information
But to have an extended conversation with someone or
to coach, one of our clients is is Spanish speaking first language. And so it's Yeah, it's sometimes tricky. So we have to kind of dummy down our language a little bit because her English is good. But her English is better than our Spanish. So she
Yeah. But it's helpful to think of it when when she's when we're talking to her in English. She's having to translate that much as we have to when Yeah, when we deal with so
so I find myself talking slower, because that's what I appreciate. When when the Mexican speak slower to me, I can hear a little better. We watch our Mexican television on half speeds that we can hear it. Oh, my house. Okay. 7.7.
point seven or point eight. Okay. Oh, God,
that's smart, you know, just slowing stuff down. Because, you know, we tend to do the opposite. When we're learning and speed stuff up, you know, in our own language,
right, like, get it in here.
I don't have the time get it in. Right. But in, but that's smart. And it's actually one of the strategies you use when you're learning an instrument slowed down? Exactly. it slowed down what you're playing to learn it properly.
Right, right. Count it, count it down. Go. I hate counting. Counting. But it's still the best way to get. Yeah, yeah.
So memory. This has been such a joy speaking with both of you truly just an honor. And and I love how we met I believe it was on Instagram, right? We sent an Instagram message. So there you go. Social Media Marketing, right. I love that connection. Is there any final thought or
¶ How to Get in Touch with David & Dana - Davidndana.com
advice that you would like our listeners to know about you and what you do or just in general about business and online marketing.
But the first thing we want to say is how to get in touch with us. Yeah, please. And our website is David, the letter N dana.com. And if you'd like a walkthrough of our
solution framework,
or our solution framework, how
to have a lead magnet,
bring people into your funnel. Yeah. That is simply David and dana.com slash solution. And since you talked about time, what about you've got another giveaway there that they could they could get his
super popular to. Same thing, David and dana.com. That's slash time. And that's my time management tool today. Take back your control of your time. And my parting thought is
¶ How to Have Daily Gratitude
gratitude. Always lead with gratitude. Be thankful, like we're super thankful to have this time with you guys today and with your audience, but wake up each morning and before your feet hit the floor, what are those three things you're grateful for. But first three things that come to your mind and start the day every day with gratefulness.
¶ Why You MUST Have Accountability to Succeed
The other thing that I would bring up is out 30 years ago, I took a year off from ministry to study guitar in Hollywood. Oh, wow. And, and I always intended to continue that study and focus on jazz improvisation. And, but I was always too busy. During my career, I was too busy. And even now in retirement, focusing on our business and other things going on, it's easy for me to say I don't have time to get get
to practice, huh? What happened over the years is my, my skill slipped from lack of practice, and got to the place where I didn't even really enjoy picking up my instrument, because everything, you know, I couldn't play at the level that I was
used to playing. And then I saw an advertisement for an online course that was exactly what I needed to, to review the basics of jazz guitar improvisation, and then take it to the next level together with an excellent jazz musician that I that I already knew of outside of the course. You know, and but then I thought, but it's not free. And it's stuff I I really know myself, and it's just a matter of getting into the focused practice. And but another year went by, and I still hadn't
gotten any better. Mm hmm. And so I finally signed up for the course. And I was amazed in just a short period, how much I learned how much came back, just with the accountability of, you know, somebody that was facilitating a group that was doing the work together, knowing what I needed to get done this week, and the following week,
and so on. And that, that was, you know, such an experience for me, I just realized that that simple accountability of the teacher in the curriculum and stuff made such a difference. Yeah, and I just want to encourage people that, as they, you know, they'll, they'll hear the next thing that they need to work on. And, and it'll sink in, and you say, okay, that's exactly what I need. Well, if that's exactly what you need, then just do it.
Do it? Yeah.
Yeah, it's the right, the right course, the
¶ How To Make Progress in Just 5 minutes a Day
right information, the right coach, it can change your life. Exactly. Exactly.
Never truer words.
And into a pen that also because I've spoken about this in other episodes, and I have a book coming out about it. Just spending five minutes a day, doing something consistently every single day. Doing this with, you know, practicing guitar, you can make progress. And it adds on it builds on itself. Yeah. If you aren't consistent, you don't do it. It doesn't happen. Exactly. See,
¶ How to Get Half Off Dana and David’s Pathway to Profit Course
yeah. Yeah. Well, we will have a link to all your free gifts and offers thank you so so much, as well as a link to their pathway to profit course if that's of interest to anyone, you can pick that up at bpbpodcast.com. And we'll have all the ways that you can connect with them. And so thank you so much again, just for being on the show. Again, this has been a joy to speak with you. And hopefully we can do this again. Sometime. This was really fun.
Oh, it was it was really fun.
Thank you. Yeah,
absolutely. Really appreciate it.
¶ On The Next Episode
Hey, thanks so much for listening to the big picture business podcast this week. On the next episode, we ask the question, did Kenny Chesney steal our song? On May 1 of 2020 Kenny Chesney released a song and an album, title here and now, on May 6, 2013, almost seven years Exactly. Before that, Dominica, I released our top 100 song and album, both titled you guessed it, here and now, it's a great story and we're going to share a comparison of the two songs and let you decide if he stole our
song or not. But more importantly, we're going to discuss intellectual property rights in music and business so that you know what you can do if you find yourself in a similar situation. New episodes are released every Tuesday. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find us online at bpbpodcast.com, and we have the full video episodes up on the BTB podcast YouTube channel. So check them out and we'll see you in the next one.