The Most Common Places Online Business Owners Get Stuck with David and Dana Hagstrom- Ep. 47

Mostafa Hosseini  0:02 

And we’re live. Welcome to daily confidence for entrepreneurs. My name is Mostafa Hosseini, and I’m your host. For the show at daily confidence, we share tips, strategies, and actionable advice that you can use on a daily basis to boost your confidence in different parts of your business.

Now, we do draw on a weekly basis for gifts that we and our guests share. And for you to enter the draw. If you’d like to show folks come up to our channel comments and ask a question, tag a friend into the conversation on social media and or on our podcast, someone that may benefit from the conversation or a topic that we’re discussing.

You enter your name for the draw. And then if you also rate and review our podcast on Apple, Google Spotify, or any platform that you’re listening to, you also enter your name for the draw. Now, today, my guests are David and Dana, extra Welcome, David and Dana.

David Hagstrom  1:03 

Thank you. Thank you, great to have you. Great and are likewise Great to have you. And the topic is the most common places online business owners get stuck and how to avoid them. So let me do the proper introduction.

And we’re going to dive right into this very important topic. Because as COVID hit us and we are all working from mostly working from home, online marketing is essential. And so this is an important topic today. So second career Christian coaches and affiliate marketers hired David and Dana Hagstrom to help them build a profitable business online.

To do this, David and Dana have designed and perfected your pathway to profit and all inclusive step by step process that alleviates overwhelm. So you can build a profitable online business that will ultimately leave a legacy for your loved ones.

Mostafa Hosseini  2:00 

To x terms, retired from their respective career as a pastor and paralegal and are now living in in their dream in Mexico, living the dream in Mexico, in addition to work in one on one with their private coaching clients, and consistently, consistently delivering relevant content and value to their community.

David and Dana are both published authors and speakers, they will show you how to thrive with fees. Welcome, David and Dana.

David Hagstrom  2:29 

Thank you. Thank you. It’s the light. We’re delighted to be here.

Mostafa Hosseini  2:33 

Fantastic. So guys, what is your story? How did you get into what you’re doing now?

David Hagstrom  2:40 

Well, it goes back aways. I think, probably 10 or 12 years ago, we started with doing some ecommerce, we each had stores, online. And then, but really, really, it started

David Hagstrom  2:59 

five years ago in earnings. I had been a parish pastor for 35 years, and ended up in a congress, a huge congregation where I was executive pastor, doing long range planning, strategic planning, and coaching staff.

David Hagstrom  3:19 

And then they change their staff model, and I was downsized at age 58 ended up in a small congregation where I just didn’t fit.

David Hagstrom  3:29 

And after some time there, I looked at our pension funds and said, you know, Dana, we really need to work another six to eight years unless we do something radical, like retire right now and move to Mexico.

David Hagstrom  3:44 

And I was half joking. But she didn’t know that. I didn’t know that I knew that, you know, we had been struggling and this congregation was, I don’t know, we just we just didn’t fit. I like how he put that. And so when I’m thinking of having to be there for another six to eight years, I’m thinking God, there’s got to be another way.

And when he said let’s move to Mexico. I’m like, okay, and I think he was surprised by my answer is I was surprised by this question. But, you know, we prayed about it. We followed what God wanted. We checked with our financial planner, and all the doors kept opening. So it was destined to be and here we are.

A year later we were in Mexico and that’s when we really got serious about how you can make money online how you can help other people do what we did, you know, retire early and have a future that you want. It started out the way we got here. We got here and looked at each other and sort of said now what?

David Hagstrom  4:51 

And we’ve already been doing some blogging, so we had one blog that had to do with retire retirement journey. We have more One blog that had to do with language learning. And as we thought about well, we’d end you’d done some network marketing. Right? Um, we’d picked up some affiliates with our blogs. And so it you know, that’s how the journey sort of got started.

Mostafa Hosseini  5:18  

Love it. Love it. So which part of Mexico are you guys in?

David Hagstrom  5:22 

We’re about a half hour south of Guadalajara in the mountains.

David Hagstrom  5:29 

Lakeisha. Paula?

Mostafa Hosseini  5:30 

Yeah, I’m late jubbaland, beautiful area, about four and a half hours from the Pacific coast.

Mostafa Hosseini  5:36 

Love it. Love it. And it obviously must be warm down there.

David Hagstrom  5:41 

Um, it’ll probably hit 80 today, but it’ll be very dry. And very comfortable. Right? I mean, up here in Canada, it’s no, it’s right.

Mostafa Hosseini  5:57 

So what I love your guys’ energy, it seems like a knock on wood you guys are, you’re pretty happy. And it’s a good place to be in. And I’m really glad to hear that you followed your passion. And you started looking around and the doors kept opening and you listen to God’s wisdom in your own gut feeling. And you just were you like, Were you in a place where like, this is not for us. It doesn’t feel right. You looked around and you were open to change. And that’s, that’s great to see. And I It seems like you’re in a much happier place right now.

David Hagstrom  6:35 

We are we’re in a we’re in a very happy place. Now. Of course, like everyone else, we wish we could get out and around and see people more. But that’s, that’s as a situation we’ve all found ourselves in. And thankfully, we had already learned how to do our business online and interact with people online before COVID. Hit. So

Mostafa Hosseini  6:58 

nice. Nice. Love it. So what do you guys do these days? And who do you serve?

Dana Hagstrom  7:05 

Well, we that’s a, that’s something we went through your program. And we’ve really niched down. And we have always been serving the online marketer, someone that wants to, you know, make some money online, whether it be on the side or replace income so they can retire. But we wanted to niche that down.

And so coaches, you know, who people that are, are trying to get online coaches or affiliate marketers, and we’re like, we can go even deeper than that, you know, and it was seeming like all the people we were attracting just from our story and just who we are, we’re Christians. So okay, well, let’s, let’s just call it out there, we can be even more niche down. So that’s just a recent thing. But

David Hagstrom  7:49 

we tend also to attract second career, folks, since that’s where we are in our journey, right?

Mostafa Hosseini  7:56 

Love it. So what would you be your version of your tagline? As to who you serve and what you do for them?

Dana Hagstrom  8:05 

Well, we serve the I’ll just do the old one, because that’s what’s in my head. We serve online marketing rocks, while we serve online marketing solopreneurs with effective Breakthrough Strategies for their online success.

Mostafa Hosseini  8:17 

And then, David, if I’m not mistaken, you serve the Christian crowd, as your target market oriented that good.

David Hagstrom  8:25 

That is that is our target, target market. You know, we’re open to anyone. But what we’ve discovered is that since that’s our background, that’s who we sort of naturally attract.

Mostafa Hosseini  8:37 

Right? Right. And there’s nothing wrong with that. And you’re it’s not like you’re saying no to other people, but you would like your ideal target marketer, Christian coaches and consultants, if I’m not exactly what’s your definition of second career people? What does that mean? Well, if

David Hagstrom  8:55 

what I’m thinking of is people that have spent, you know, a part of their life, doing one thing, maybe it’s in a corporate job or something like that, and at some point along the way, either because of their own heart feeling that, hey, I need something different, or circumstances, you know, being downsized or, you know, with COVID, there’s been a lot of changes,

David Hagstrom  9:24 

finding themselves at a place where hey, I need to do something different. Very nice. And moving on into the online space at this time just seems like a natural progression for a lot. Yeah. I mean, if you’re not doing business online or using not using the tools, you would have a hard time.

Yeah. growing business and getting customers clients and finding them or them finding you. So what are some some places where business owners or online marketers get stuck along the way

David Hagstrom  9:59 

Yeah, we tend to see three of them that I will call out. And we may come up with some others as we talk, but one of them is not having all the pieces of the puzzle. So they, they’ve started to do things, but they’re missing some crucial steps. Another one that we see is that they get to a certain place, and they’re trying to do everything, and they are just overwhelmed. And the third thing is that they often try to put things in the wrong order, sort of the cart before the horse, and we can help sort that out for them as well.

Mostafa Hosseini  10:45 

Yep, yeah. Okay. Okay. And then. So I like that. So when they get overwhelmed, they don’t have things figured out. And they get stuck, obviously. So what are what are some of the myths or mistakes that online business owners make about online marketing?

David Hagstrom  11:04 

Well, let me just tell you a little bit about our process, and then that will be sort of become clear. Okay, we have three stages we walk people through, and the first one is getting your foundation set for your business. Things like, what is your what is your vision? Where are you headed?

David Hagstrom  11:26 

What problem do you solve for people? Who do you serve? And how do you make money doing that?

David Hagstrom  11:36 

And what we find is often we have people say, Well, I’m doing email marketing, and I’m putting out ads and, and I and I start asking those first questions, and they don’t have the foundation in place. And that’s one of the big that’s one of the biggest things, it’s not very sexy, or as exciting to focus on the foundation of the building. But if the foundation isn’t secure, the rest of the building isn’t either?

Mostafa Hosseini  12:04 

Absolutely, absolutely. If you don’t know who you’re serving, and what exactly you’re doing for them. In my experience, even if you go on Facebook, even if you’re going on LinkedIn, or any other social media, or online places, your ads and your message won’t be as effective.

Because it’s not tailored towards anyone’s needs, your general, you know, and can you talk or touch on the power of specificity? And how picking a niche or identifying exactly what you do for your customers helps you or any business owner out there that is listening or watching?

Dana Hagstrom  12:46 

Okay, well, I would I picture it like a big pond or the big ocean, actually, you know, there’s a lot of fish out there. And if you don’t know what fish you’re looking for, you’re going to be overwhelmed with all kinds of fish, you might not have the right bait, you might not have the right pole, you aren’t prepared. And so you need to be clear on who you want to find.

So that you can go out and find them. Or you may even need to be in a different ocean, because your people aren’t there. So it’s, it’s key to know who you want to work with. Because then not only will you know where they are, so you can go find them and attract them to you. But then you’ll know exactly what it is that they need. And you’ll be able to provide that for them.

David Hagstrom  13:36 

Dana does most of our email, mail, writes most of our emails. And one of the things that’s essential for writing an email is knowing who you’re writing to. Because you want to focus on one person and make, you know, when you when you have one person in mind that are writing directly to them, then the person that’s reading it has a tendency to feel like oh, they’re writing to me. And when you when you write to people in general, it doesn’t really hit home for anybody.

So we have we have written out our you know, we’ve got a very clear avatar, not just the little phrase that we mentioned of second career, Christian coaches and affiliate marketers, but we’ve written out three or four pages of, of what we think that those people are, like, what their struggles are, what their dreams are, and so on. And data draws on those pain points and on those dreams every day she writes her emails,

David Hagstrom  14:50 

no, I love it. Blog Posts too. And it goes to social media posts. I mean, it’s the whole gamut anytime open my mouth, I want to be, you know, providing the value that those people are waiting to hear.

Mostafa Hosseini  15:07 

Absolutely, exactly. And it becomes a lot easier, I guess, to write content when you know exactly who you’re writing it for and creating marketing material for that specific group of people. Right? One? Yeah, go ahead. No, I would say it just really does. When you know who you’re writing to, you know what they want, you don’t exactly.

Mostafa Hosseini  15:34 

After a while, well, once you start serving them, you get to know them, they get to know you, you can write to their problems, challenges, fears, frustrations and issues that they’re experiencing on a daily basis. And you still wouldn’t be tired, because and if you get an I guess, if you get to pick and choose a target market where you actually like them, and you’re truly certain, like serving them, then don’t work anymore. Right. Right. Right. Right.

Mostafa Hosseini  16:02 

What we find out is without when we talk with these people, you know, face to face on Zoom. Usually it’s a delightful interchanges we find out that there, we have so much in common, even though we come from different places, and so on.

Mostafa Hosseini  16:21  

Absolutely. So for those of you who are joining us now, David, Dana and I are talking about the most common places online business owners get stuck, and how to avoid them and how to fix them. If you have any questions about what we’re talking about, put them in the chat box, if you know a friend that could benefit from this topic, tag them in it in a comment. And then you will also enter your name into the draw for the gifts that will be given away. Now, what are the stages for developing a truly profitable online business?

David Hagstrom  16:55 

Okay, that’s a great question. The first one I mentioned already was establishing our foundation. The second one is building your pipeline for profit. How do you how do you attract people to your sector? How do you build an audience? How do you lift yourself up as an authority in the need in your niche?

David Hagstrom  17:22 

all those things we refer to as building your pipeline for profit, and some of it ADCs some technology and stuff that we’ve put in place. But so much more of it is knowing how to write to these people and how to speak to their needs.

David Hagstrom  18:00 

And then the third stage that we have is, once you’ve got the pipeline in in place, so that when someone is attracted to you, they move from stage to stage to stage until they become a customer, then the third stage is that we need to release the flow of leads, and ultimately cash flow. And that starts with getting free ball eyeballs on your offer, which can happen through social media or through partnerships. And we’ve got all sorts of specifics we help people with. And then how do you put out consistent content that speaks to them?

How do you move into advertising? If that is part of your plan? And how do you optimize the whole process, all of those things are part of the process that we lead people to. But you know, I mentioned advertising. So I’m just gonna say one more thing. And that is that we are very careful to tell people don’t get into advertising until you’ve got a system that works. And once you got a system that works, you can put some more, you can put some money behind it to draw more people in.

Mostafa Hosseini  19:23 

Alright, so what’s your definition of a system that works? What would that look like in real life?

Dana Hagstrom  19:30 

What that looks like, might be having, having a tested lead magnet that that draws people in and begins a relationship. It’s not just giving somebody something to get their email address. You know, anybody can do that.

But it’s beginning a relationship with someone and then thinking through your customer journey so that you know a step by step How you put yourself out there to them, and build your authority, build the relationship, nurture them step by step until they become a customer. And I can talk about all the technical stuff that that’s behind that, that you have to do to make that happen.

But it’s the process that’s important that you’re always thinking about, where are they in their journey right now? And how can I help them take the next step?

Mostafa Hosseini  20:31 

So what’s the best approach for nurturing your prospects? And what why? Why should we nurture our prospects? And what’s the best way to do it? What are some of the good ways to do it?

Dana Hagstrom  20:45 

Well, I, I personally, since I’m a writer, I love to write and so an email, having an email series or a web series and nurture series, where you’re continuing to bring, you know, great value, that not only starts to build a relationship, they start to learn who you are, and you’re, you’re building your trust, and your likability.

And it’s, it’s a beautiful thing, when you can look at your customers, your clients, almost as your friends, you know, they, they see in who you are, and they trust you.

Because there’s so many, so many people out there doing the same thing right now, you need to stand out, you need to do something that people like, well, I like her because, or I like him, because he doesn’t waste time he gets right to it, you know? And so what is that, that you can do to share a little bit of yourself, like, for instance, I write a daily devotional blog, some people really resonate with that they want to connect with God, they want to understand the Bible better.

And so that’s something that helps me stand out from all the other women out there, trying to help people build a business, I’ve got, you know, this thing that will help people with their, with their mindset with their own identity, just writing a news,

David Hagstrom  22:13 

our emails and writing a blog. But we also have ourselves out there in one way or another all the time, in terms of video, whether it’s appearing on an interview like this, or putting out things on our YouTube channel, or the very first place people often see us is on a thank you page, you know, they opt in for a lead magnet. And depending on what that’s about,

David Hagstrom  22:43 

on the thank you page, we have a video where we introduce ourselves and let them know what they’ll get out of this lead magnet and what the next steps would be. So, you know, video is very important for being in front of people these days as well.

Mostafa Hosseini  23:02 

Love it. So I want to talk about video. But before we get there, and tell me about Dana, tell me about how often do you write your tear list?

Dana Hagstrom  23:13 

Well, about three times a week, we send an email, and it’s generally, you know, letting them know about maybe a new blog article, or a new video training that we’ve put out, or promoting something, you know, one of our friends, you know, we do, you know, some joint ventures, so we’re out there, you know, doing, we’re wanting to give our, our lists lots of value.

David Hagstrom  23:39 

Long, long, long time, you know, everything was free. And our audience began to think well, all they do is give away free stuff.

Mostafa Hosseini  23:47 

Wow. Alright, that’s, that’s the third thing I want to talk to you about. I’ll tell you why. That’s a touchy feeling. touchy topic.

And so my question is, a lot of people think that writing to their list even once a month is too much. How do you go about writing three times a week, and you’re still nurturing your list? Isn’t that they say, Oh, I don’t want to bother my people. How do what do you say to that?

And what’s your experience with that?

Mostafa Hosseini  24:24 

We started there as well. And for one thing, people we don’t well, if you if you look at the statistics on email. The email open rates today are not what they were a decade or two ago. So we don’t make the assumption that somebody reads every email that we send out. If they do, that’s great.

Dana Hagstrom  24:55 

But what we find is that the more we put out there, the more we find ourselves interacting with people. And Dana mentioned writing three times a week, what she didn’t mention is that we often then send on the other three days of the work, we may send out a, the same email with a different title to those who didn’t open the first one.

David Hagstrom  25:24 

And it’s a way of making the most of your time that you spend writing, and giving them another opportunity thinking, Well, maybe if we present it this way, it will attract them more than the title we tried the first time.

Mostafa Hosseini  25:46 

Love it, love it. And that becomes a part of nurturing your list staying in touch, providing value. And since you have picked a specific topic, and a specific group of people, you speak their language, they speak your language, you guys understand each other, and then it’s not bothering them when you email them, or when you send them a message. Right, that’s my hope.

It’s my hope, when they see Oh, David and Dana are in my inbox. Oh, they’ve got treasures in their emails, I want to see what it is, you know. So I always want to have something that’s such a nugget, they have to open it because

David Hagstrom  26:25 

you know, they’re missing out otherwise. Another thing I tell our clients too, is, you know, if you can’t do it three 510 times, you know, if you can’t do it every day, pick what works for you, and then be consistent with it. If once a month is all you can do for now, do once a month, until you can do something more, but be consistent.

David Hagstrom  26:47 

We really hope that they’re at least once a week. Another thing is that a lot of times people starting out are afraid Oh, somebody might unsubscribe. And therefore I don’t want us right too often. And we take the opposite approach and just say, Okay, we found out three people this week that

David Hagstrom  27:15 

didn’t really fit in our niche. They weren’t relating to us. And they decided to go somewhere else. That’s great. We’re getting we’re getting exactly the people we need.

Mostafa Hosseini  27:27 

Exactly. And you just covered my next question, which was beautiful. That is, how do you deal with people that are bothered by your message?

David Hagstrom  27:37 

Right? let it bother us. Exactly. So if to your point, if somebody is bothered by me or my message, they shouldn’t be on my list to begin with. Exactly. They have the unsubscribe link and they can get out and that’s fine and dandy because we don’t like each other apparently so or they don’t find value in what we do is all right.

And we’ll even mentioned sometimes oh, by the way, there’s an unsubscribe link down at the bottom here. If If this isn’t really meeting your needs.

Mostafa Hosseini  28:12 

Yeah. Okay. One thing that I’ve seen some people do is at the beginning, when someone subscribes to the list, they say, and they make it clear that look, I send an email on a daily basis on a weekly basis. If that’s too much for you, if you’re not interested, here’s the unsubscribe button. And now, if they don’t unsubscribe, you know that and they know that they’re going to get the messages from you. And they know, you know that they’re actually looking for your stuff.

David Hagstrom  28:38 

Exactly. That’s pointless stuff. I really like that. In fact, we do that in a lot of our opening series, we will put that right in there. So you’re gonna hear from us on a regular basis. Yeah, you want the you want them to understand what the journey looks like with you.

Mostafa Hosseini  28:55 

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you want to make it clear about what they’re going to get them what they’re not going to get. And if they don’t want it, then that’s fine. We’re looking for people that are looking for this and they want it. Right, right.

Mostafa Hosseini  29:05 

One of our mentors had that had a saying like that. I’m looking for people who are looking for me.

Mostafa Hosseini  29:12 

Exactly. I like how you put that together. So guys, I understand that you’re sharing a gift with us. Can you tell us about it?

David Hagstrom  29:22 

Yes, we call it our solution framework. And what it is, is solution is an acronym and it gives eight elements that need to be in an E in your lead magnet for it to be effective in building relationship and leading people on to the next step.

And what we have found is that we once we finally came up with this, and we would we went back and revise lead magnets that we’d written before. And we’d always find three or four things that we missed the first time around when we wrote them, and use this to make, you know what we’ve done in the past better.

Mostafa Hosseini  30:15 

Luck. So the title of the gift is solution template, how to generate 10 to 15, high quality leads on a daily basis. And if you’re listening or watching to this, the address is David, and dana.com. That’s not end. It’s David, the ward N character en dana.com, forward slash solution.

So David, and Dana, that comm forward slash solution, you can go there opt in, get access to this valuable resource that shows you and walks you through how to generate 10 to 15, high quality leads on a daily basis. Now, let’s talk about some personal stuff here. And we’ve talked I think a lot about business.

Now, what are some of your favorite books, that actually, before we do that, and a very important point that I forgot to bring up. And that is, I over the years, I’ve worked with a lot of people and many religious people, whether they’re Christian, more Muslim, Jewish, or you know, different, different faith? A lot of them, I find that they have a hard time charging people, they like to give their stuff away for free. And you talked about that.

And I think, Dana, you said, you’ve been giving away your stuff for free for a long time. Did you have a moment where you switched around, and something that helped you overcome that obstacle?

Dana Hagstrom  31:45 

Well, it all comes down to mindset, you know, the money mindset, and most things that you bring with you from childhood. And so we did we worked through a program working on our money mindset. And it was at that point, we’re like, this is ridiculous. Yeah. So we’ve been told you should give away everything, because that’s how come people will people will love you. But it comes to a point where you have to start saying, Well, this is going to cost Yeah.

And we worked through that program. And I think that was, that’s where I started noticing. It was a lot easier, you know, to say, to ask to feel valuable, and to know that I can receive money for what I get.

Mostafa Hosseini  32:27 

Mm hmm. So what advice would you have for someone that has an internal thought or blockages about charging, they like to, and then they’re at a place where they are burnt out with giving away a lot of themselves and their expertise. And they’re not charging and getting?

Oh, I’m actually getting emotional about this, because I’ve seen this, that people giving everything away, and the hope of pleasing others. And what happens is that they’re not getting much in return. What advice do you have for that person that is watching or listening?

Dana Hagstrom  33:12 

Well, I think it comes down to you know, they have to, they have to feel valuable. They know how they pay for things that they want. They know they look to other people and pay for the things they need. Shouldn’t they be receiving the same? It’s a business or if you have to think of yourself as a business. And it’s, it’s a shift.

David Hagstrom  33:43 

Well, and our primary model is coaching. And we do a lot of things. But number one is we speak to people one on one and do and do coaching. And to get better at what we do. We have pretty much always had a coach ourselves that we paid in order to help us to take the next step in our journey. And just like we are willing to invest in becoming better ourselves, we realize that we need to give other people the opportunity to do the same.

And when they invest in it, then they’ve got you know, then then they’re then they take it seriously. It’s not just you know, here’s a grab bag of things you can have for free. This is going to this cost you something and so you invest yourself in in getting the most out of

Mostafa Hosseini  34:46 

1. Absolutely. And correct me if I’m wrong for people that want to market themselves. Unless they overcome this obstacle, they’re going to have a hard time marketing and getting business and getting Money and sales?

David Hagstrom  35:03 

Oh, yeah. Oh, yes, we struggled with that at the beginning ourselves, one being afraid to go out and, and, and market ourselves, like you said, you know, just the idea of coming out and saying, Hey, I’ve got some skills, I’ve got some expertise, I can be helpful to you.

You know, at the beginning, we that was a little bit imposing. We’re used to having people come to us, and so got to be in the online space, you have to be able to present yourself to other people. And that doesn’t mean in a sleazy way, it just means to say, hey, here I am. This is what I do. Here’s the gifts that I bring. Let’s talk. And, you know,

Dana Hagstrom  35:57 

when you think of how you’re sharing something, you know, but you’re sharing it. You’re sharing it for a fee. You know, you go to a dentist, yeah, don’t He doesn’t just give you free stuff. You have to pay him to fix your teeth. Or the doctor, you don’t just, he doesn’t just give you his services, you pay him for it. Yeah. So why shouldn’t we, as marketers that have a service, expect not to get paid?

David Hagstrom  36:28 

And I’d like to know, bring up the matter. It’s like barter was, it’s an exchange of something that I’ve got that you want, and something that you’ve got that I want. I give you something of value, you give me something of value, we both walk away feeling good about the exchange?

Mostafa Hosseini  36:51 

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And to me, an exchange is a 5050 transaction, to receive is not any better or worse than to give exactly vice versa.

I mean, you give something in exchange to for something else, whether it’s time or money, or maybe back in the day would have been food and animals and stuff, but today’s like you give your expertise or your give a product in exchange for money.

And I, in my experience, as long as we’re sitting Well, with that 5050 transaction, that one is not better or worse than the other, then life becomes a lot easier. Yeah. And

David Hagstrom  37:31 

you just say you say 5050, but I like to think that the other person walks away feeling like they got a good deal. That absolutely, that they are more than pleased. And if I can, if I can, you know, give a little bit more.

And, and, and, you know, I’m going to receive something myself, but I always want the other person to walk away feeling like this was a really good value.

Mostafa Hosseini  38:02 

Absolutely. Now, guys, what are some, maybe top two or three books that have made a massive impact in your life in yourself? Or in your business? A book that maybe you recommend to others all the time?

Dana Hagstrom  38:17 

Why don’t one that I just recently read I’ve been it’s been on my wish to read list for a long time. And that was how el rubs book. Miracle Morning. And it was a terrible again. Miracle Morning.

Mostafa Hosseini  38:32 

Miracle Morning.

Dana Hagstrom  38:33 

Yeah. And I’d seen him speak several times at conferences when we were still doing conferences in person. And I knew I wanted to read his book because his story was so compelling. And it’s basically just how you set yourself up for the day.

And love is the process that you do. And I’ve been doing it since the first of March so it’s just brand new for me. So I can’t say it’s life changing yet but it’s moving in that direction. It gets me out of the day without an alarm. I’m just super excited to go through that process.

Mostafa Hosseini  39:11 

Beautiful. Any other books that you guys have?

David Hagstrom  39:16 

I’ll bring I’ll bring young guy we’re not in his studio. He’s we’re surrounded by books in his studio.

David Hagstrom  39:24 

I’ll just bring up one author that I have grown to appreciate lately, and that’s Michael McCalla wicks. And one of his books that I really enjoyed was Profit First. Another one is fixed this next and they both have been fixed this next the author of a Michael McCalla wakes, Calloway and I probably don’t pronounce that entirely right. But if you remember the titles, you can find them on Amazon quite easily

Mostafa Hosseini  39:59 

or you can So you were saying in the book again,

David Hagstrom  40:04 

one was fixes next, and the other was profit first.

Mostafa Hosseini  40:08 

Okay, and then you were saying what you got out of them?

David Hagstrom  40:12 

Well, I’ll just, I’ll just pick one profit first. One of the things that I got out of it was that we all want to make profit in our business. And yet, especially at the beginning, everybody’s proud about how they reinvest everything back in their business.

Well, if you reinvest it all back in your business, then you aren’t making anything yourself. Luck, and you need to, you need to think of both. Yes, it’s a good thing to invest and reinvest part of what you are bringing in, in your business. But if you aren’t paying yourself something, and if you aren’t having a positive cash flow, then there’s something wrong. You may have a good hobby, but you don’t really have a business.

Mostafa Hosseini  41:05 

Love it? Would Bible be on your top list?

Dana Hagstrom  41:11 

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Mostafa Hosseini  41:14 

All right. Give me without I don’t want to make this a religious conversation. But give us one thing that Bible teaches that you use in business on a daily basis, that would be Everyone could use.

David Hagstrom  41:31 

Yeah, that’s, that’s an easy one. Gratitude. And to approach every day with Thanks. And thanks for all that, that you have received. And thanks for all that is to come. If you can approach every day with gratitude and have that attitude in your heart, whether it comes from a religious standpoint, or or not. If you can approach each day with gratitude, you’re going to be a lot more attractive to people than if you don’t love and you’re gonna have a lot more fun, beautiful.

Mostafa Hosseini  42:10 

I like I said, the mindset of gratitude and being grateful for what we have and what we don’t have, and all the customers and people are coming our way or not coming our way, is an absolutely essential mindset to have on a daily basis, too. So I really like that. So if you guys had a Facebook ad, or a Google ad that everyone on earth could see, what would your message be?

David Hagstrom  42:41 

Oh, that’s a great question. I don’t do ads, you’re the you’re the ad guy, I would want I would want people to know that. Don’t wait to find that Goldmine inside. That will change the world if you let it out.

David Hagstrom  43:02 

And I would say that, you may be able to figure it out. By watching YouTube videos and reading blog posts, and eventually, over a period of years, learn what you need to, to build your business. But we can sure help you save a whole lot of time and money by leading you through the maze.

Mostafa Hosseini  43:32 

Love it. Love it time and money. That’s all. It takes a lot more time when you tried to do everything on yourself, with yourself on your own. And it will cost you quite a bit more versus having someone or a mentor or someone that has done this before to show you how it’s done and navigate you through the maze and a lot easier and faster and less costly.

People think that hiring a coach or a consultant or a mentor is costly. And I would say think about not doing it how much it would cost you to not do that.

Mostafa Hosseini  44:10 

Exactly, exactly. What

Mostafa Hosseini  44:12 

is one piece of advice that you received that made a massive difference for you maybe in business or life

David Hagstrom  44:22 

one of the thing that we received in business is a message that I heard again, on the weekend I spent with you recently and that was not to be afraid to niche down and to get specific about who you’re trying to reach. You know, it’s a lot of people go into business thinking, Oh, I’ve got this wonderful product that would be good for everyone.

Everyone needs it. Well, that may be what you think. But when you ask yourself who really knows that they need it and wants it right now. And focus on those people, the others will hear and if they are persuaded they’ll come along to but you’ll do far better to niche down and focus than trying to reach everybody. Love it.

Mostafa Hosseini  45:19 

Love it, love it, love it No. David and Dana, what advice would you give your 20 year old selves?

David Hagstrom  45:31 

You know, we’re a little older than you 20 years is

Mostafa Hosseini  45:37 

the 20 years or your, your 20 year old in front of you, and you’re giving your 20 year old self advice? What would you ask yourself?

David Hagstrom  45:47 

One of the things that I would say is, you don’t, you wouldn’t believe how much of this world is going to change over the next years. And that it’s going to be it’s going to be so important for you to continue all the time learning and adapting.

And your ability to adapt with the changes and to develop new strengths, and to head in new directions, is going to be more valuable than any particular expertise that you’ve developed right now. Love it. That’s great. Day. Now, what about you? It’s just like something? No, God?

Dana Hagstrom  46:40 

Well, I would I would you want to finish what you were thinking? Well,

David Hagstrom  46:44 

yeah, I was just thinking about how some people go to college and think, well, but if I don’t get a job in this field, it won’t be of any value to me. Whereas what’s really, of most value is that you’ve learned how to learn and how to acquire skills. And now, when you get out into the the world, you’re going to have to continue to do that. Again and again, and again, acquiring new skills.

Mostafa Hosseini  47:17 

Absolutely. Absolutely. Dana, what would you say to yourself, I think your 20 year old self?

Dana Hagstrom  47:23 

Yeah, mine goes back to more mindset. I was I was confident at my 20s, early 20s That I could change other people and make, make them the way I wanted them to be.

And I would tell myself, don’t try to change other people just try to be the best you can be.

Mostafa Hosseini  47:50 

Love that feeling that you could change. Someone else led you

David Hagstrom  47:55 

to i my first marriage was not a pretty sight. And you stayed with it. Trying to change it. And it wasn’t.

Mostafa Hosseini  48:03 

Yeah, it wasn’t changing. So no, actually, it’s a lot easier to change ourselves than to change others around us.

David Hagstrom  48:11 

Oh, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Much more profitable to work on on myself than trying to work on anyone else.

Mostafa Hosseini  48:19 

Yeah, absolutely. Guys, it’s been it’s been a pleasure. And it’s been an amazing conversation. Is there anything that you’d like to add or say that you we haven’t gone over?

David Hagstrom  48:33 

I’ll just, I’ll just tell you a story. A, well, 30 years ago, I took the year off and went to Hollywood, and spent a year studying guitar in Hollywood. And then I got back into my career and caught up in all the things that had to be done. And as a pastor, and as a husband and father, there was more than enough to do and my skills slipped in terms of playing the guitar.

And I had always intended to focus on jazz improvisation and to get really good at it. And I I got more and more frustrated, even picking up a guitar. And then I heard about an online course led by a professional jazz guitarist.

That was exactly what I needed. And I thought to myself, yeah, but it’s not it’s not cheap. And I could probably do it myself with real focused practice and, and so on. A year later had I had I did You know, developed any new skills, no.

And I saw that same ad again, and jumped in with both feet. And I was amazed how quickly I made progress just given, you know, a coach a curriculum to follow a community that was doing the work together. So if you’ve heard something today that you think, Oh, I really ought to do that. Just jump in and do it.

Mostafa Hosseini  50:32 

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Trust your gut feelings. Go for it. Don’t let the fear stop you. If someone is sharing their experience, and, and you can hire them and have them show you what to do, it’s a lot less costly. Trust me, I’ve done it.

I’m like the biggest smartass out there. And for years and years. Oh, no. And I always say that, you know, try to figure things out on my own, has been costing me millions and millions every year. Not not award ly Oh, I’m gonna do this on my own.

Yeah, it took me 30 It’s like, let’s say it’s took you 30 years to figure something out. It will only take me 30 years to figure it out. And we always think we’re smarter than someone else. But like you said, if you if you get someone to help you out, just go for it, get them to do it. And it will be a lot easier, faster and less expensive and restless.

So guys, thank you very much. I really appreciate it. It’s been a great conversation David, did you want to add something

David Hagstrom  51:45 

I was just gonna say it’s been delightful talking with you, my staff aware so like, you should give of your time as well.

Mostafa Hosseini  51:52 

Like was great to have you on the show. Love your energy. I really appreciate the love between your two. And I wish you luck and happiness and calm in the future. So Gangga just just so you know the way one one of the ways that we help our audience grow become more confident with their business is to about by helping them create an implement their one page marketing plan through our weekend simple marketing formula. I’m going to put the link in the chat box if you want to check out simple marketing formula. Next one is coming up in April.

And then if you visit the page, you’re going to see the upcoming dates that are coming up. Now. If you were again interested in dare to learn how to create and generate 10 or 15, high quality quality leads on a daily basis. Grab Dana and David Zach gift, the solution template. And you can get that at David and Dana comm forward slash solution.

The link is in the show notes you could get grab it from there and tap into the wisdom and the rest of it. Thank you for joining us. My name is Mostafa Hosseini. Thank you for joining daily confidence for entrepreneurs. And we will see you on our next show. Bye now. Bye bye

Mostafa Hosseini  53:16 

bye