You Can Build A Business That Funds The Life You Want

We talk with David Denning about turning insurance into a modern platform for freedom by using social media, referral partners, and real business systems instead of endless cold calls. We also dig into lifestyle design, identity shifts, and the habits that keep growth sustainable without burning out. 

• seeing insurance as a mission-driven industry that is ready for modernization 
• David’s early hustle story from storm roofing to marketing systems 
• using travel and entrepreneurship to build a business on your terms 
• why niche marketing makes content and sales more effective 
• treating an agency like a business with discipline, time management, and investment 
• avoiding the “I want freedom but I want a job” trap 
• building strategic referral partners who send consistent deals 
• making partnerships value-based instead of transactional networking 
• designing life deliberately with quarterly and annual planning 
• balancing preparation with action and avoiding analysis paralysis 
• keeping identity flexible while leaning into strengths 
• using podcasting as a high-leverage relationship tool 
• mental health through boundaries, presence, and real downtime 
• physical health habits including one meal a day and consistent movement 
• redefining community for a remote lifestyle and building local roots 
• a practical first step to take this week when you feel stuck 

Anybody involved in the insurance industry, probably the best place is our Facebook group, Marketing for Insurance Agents 
Or if anybody wants to shoot me a text or call, 404 631 7892 
If you happen to be in St. Pete, Tampa area, come on down to our office in downtown St. Pete, the St. Pete Content House 

How to approach David: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jumpstartgo/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/jumpstart-go/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jumpstartgo/

To Reach Jordan:

Email: Jordan@Edwards.Consulting

Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ejFXH1_BjdnxG4J8u93Zw

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordan.edwards.7503

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanfedwards/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanedwards5/

Hope you find value in this. If so please provide a 5-star and drop a review.

Complimentary Edwards Consulting Session: https://calendly.com/jordan-edwardsconsulting/30min 

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Overview

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Hey, what's going on, guys? It's Jordan Edwards here, and we have a very, very special guest today. We have David Denning. He's the co-founder of Jumpstart Go, and they help insurance agents utilize social media so they don't have to just smile and dial all day long. But David's more than that. He's a very kind person, he's very giving, and he is an expert in this in the insurance space and social media. David, welcome to the hashtag Clockedin podcast. The first question is what made you realize the insurance industry wasn't just a job, but a platform to build a life on your own terms?

SPEAKER_01 1:32

So, like most people, I didn't grow up wanting a professional athlete, astronaut, or involved in the insurance industry. In fact, when one of our business partners really suggested like focusing to this niche to working with, we're like, isn't that a bunch of like old guys with suits on ties knocking on doors? And he is like, yes, but it's changing. And that's where I realized it just had a lot of opportunity for growth, just being behind some other industries, but also while like truly helping people. You know, we're not selling snow cones and widgets for this industry. It's like making a big difference. So didn't know a whole bunch about it, you know, eight plus years when we really focused on it. But you know, it's a really amazing industry and uh really ripe for modernization to help even more people.

Storm Roofing Hustle And First Lessons

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Absolutely. And I I've actually attested to this. I've been to a few of David's events, and they're absolutely incredible because these people are getting experiences where they get to learn about social media in a completely different way that makes it a lot easier for them. But David, where did where did this journey start for you? Because you've had a very interesting career. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Well, it's that's that's a fun story. So I'll go through the the whole story. And uh if it's too long, uh you you can cut it. But you know, it really does start with my amazing partner and spouse, Sel Dinning, who is the other founder of Jump Start Go. But we started dating in high school at 16. Yeah, we were in the same high school, both out of district. They had a math and science magnet program, so we happened to both end up at the same school. You know, we both lived like 30 minutes away from the school, like, but within 10 minutes of each other, but we're still districted for different schools. But we ended up at this school, had the same friends' group, started dating each other, and then we ended up getting married in college. Data all the way, and we were right four senior year of college, got married at 21. Yeah. I mean, we've been dating for a long time. I mean, really, really knew that that that's that's who our best friend and partner was. And I had just finished a study abroad in Paris, came back a week before the wedding. Don't really advise that guys of like peace, I'll come back right before the wedding and let you plan it all. So, but it was also a fun opportunity and experience for the program I was in. But we got got married, and you know, if I go into the the deeper story, there was a company I had been working for, like project management for construction engineering was what my degree was. Yeah. And I had interned for them for a couple semesters. That's where the money of us being able to, you know, at least afford to eat while getting married and still in college was coming from. And they knew I was on the honeymoon, and they called me and were like, hey, we don't have as many internships as we thought. Sorry about that. And school, school was starting in three days, and and was like, oh crap, that's how we were like supposed to live. So we dropped like all of our classes except for like one class we need to stay on target for graduating on time. And we're like, well, what are we gonna do? And so we called up a family friend that I had done some work with him before it ran a very successful roofing company for residential commercial. And uh he was like, Hey, I actually have some stuff I think for you guys. I'm thinking about getting into storm roofing. I don't know if you know, storm roofing, like, yeah, places get hit by hail, and the roofers all come driving in, they're like there as soon as the hail starts falling. And it's like, hey, I can check your roof out. If it's damaged, we can work with your insurance companies, get it fixed, right? And so he's like, Hey, Tennessee's got hit by some hail. You guys go up there and go sell some roofs, and you know, and that would be great. So we're there two weeks after the storm. So everybody's already been claimed. We got no script, no training. We're cold driving around, cold door knocking. I mean, that's as cold as you can get. Yeah. And we don't, I don't even know how to really expect a roof. There's like, yeah, if you see some stuff damage or whatever. So I'm climbing on roofs. Uh, we don't even have a truck, so we got like a Ford Taurus. So I've got one of those giant ladders that you fold up like eight times to fit in your car called Little Giant. It doesn't quite reach the roof, so almost fell off a few roofs, and you know, it was it was terrible. Like we were like, man, door suck, door knocking sucks. And also when you have no training or no script or anything or any leads. What what even gave you the confidence to go? We needed to eat. I mean, you know, we we I mean, we're we know we're capable of of things and you know, and and definitely always open to new experiences and and stuff, and so we figured that was a good opportunity. And then it actually worked out that we ended up getting to like rebrand as company, website, marketing, a lot of stuff that led into stuff later on. And so it was a good opportunity at the time. I think we sold like one roof.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

So the starting point, but I just want the audience to understand this because the frame was to go there to help sell for him, and you ended up helping him with his marketing, which was also sales, but it was a different avenue and something that you found more interest in. And that's why I think David's so awesome is because half the time you just got to get in the game. So for the audience listening there, you just got to take that step and that leap of faith and see what happens. You never know where it's gonna lead you. That's the story of my life.

South Africa And The Four Hour Shift

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Never, never a million years, like the twists, turns, experiences. But being open to that, hopping in, being comfortable with getting uncomfortable, because that's really where growth happens, both personally or in business, is so key. And that's what we had to do, whether sometimes by force and sometimes by choice. So we did that one by force. And then when I graduated, worked for a company initially that national construction engineering company, but they had a really big project in South Africa as one of those. And I was like, okay, we really wanted to work and travel abroad. And so I was like, okay, I'm gonna work with this company and I'm gonna annoy enough people to eventually get sent to this project. So about a year, year and a half into it, Mel and I got sent to South Africa for two years for the project. And so we up and moved everything. She had had her dream job that she was working for an architecture firm that did the Georgia Aquarium, and she worked on the College Football Hall of Fame while she was there. That was one of the projects. But we left everything, sold all her stuff, moved over to South Africa for the work work there. The the project sucked, but living there was great. And she couldn't work there on a spouse visa, so she was actually continuing to do marketing and consulting for some U.S. clients why we were there. And then we ran read the uh my friend introduced me to the stereotypical uh four-hour work week book. And we were like, wait a second, like there's people doing this. Like, we can do this, like this is great. And and I don't know about you, but uh, they don't build power plants and other stuff in usually nice areas. So when they're moving us back, they're like, oh, we got Mobile, Alabama, we got Amarville, Texas, and nothing against those areas, but they're not not, we're used to big cities, big areas, and not our yeah, it's important for us to realize because a lot of the audience is sitting there thinking, am I in the right place?

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Am I doing the right things? And how do we make those right next steps? And you have to think about the bigger picture of what even is the life that I want.

Choosing A Profitable Niche

SPEAKER_01 8:03

And that's key. Like, how are you gonna go hit what you want in life or accomplish those goals if you don't know what those are? And a lot of people just kind of go with the flow or what society kind of prescribes. And for some, that that is the the goal and what they like and enjoy. That's great. And for us, we knew that wasn't for us personally. Doesn't mean you know, I've tons of friends that that that is exactly the lifestyle they wanted, perfect, and that's great. And for us, it was different. And so we came back, we knew we wanted to continue living abroad, but we wanted to be in our control. So we're like, hey, let's start up our company working with small businesses, startups, tech, and marketing consulting for them. And you know, you do full time, I'll do nights and weekends, why finish up with this company, and within a year, we're gonna be working from a beach in Thailand. And Elle thought I was the craziest person in the world. She's like, there's no way. Like, you know, we both come from you know going through degrees, like working for corporate prior to that. My, you know, my dad was an attorney, my mom was a nurse, like very professional. Now her dad was an entrepreneur, so she did get the gene, I think, from her dad very much on that side. But uh, but we're like, okay, that seems crazy. But that's what we did. We built up clients over that first year. I got moved down to a project in Florida, and that's where we actually bought a home. So they like you to have W-2 income before you, you know, when you buy homes. So we we closed on that, and then I said peace, because we had enough clients by then. And we ended up renting it for winter for all the snowbirds coming and from like Christmas through Easter, and those three or four months pay for a whole year of mortgage. And so we were just like, well, let's go over to Thailand, Philippines, and Vietnam why we rented the house out, and that's what we did. And we went over and worked there, and it kind of led to us doing that year in, year out where we'd go over with Thailand, especially for three or four months of the year, come back, work from you know, where we were at in Florida, and eventually we met a third partner of ours who came from the insurance industry, built and sold a few companies, and he had just gotten a company he was running doing marketing for 200 insurance agencies. Oh, wow. And he said, Hey guys, I love working with you guys. We've done some real estate, some insurance projects and stuff with him. And he's like, I think this industry really, you know, it needs a lot of the help that what you guys are experts in on this. And we were like, What? Insurance, kind of like I mentioned before. And that's where all this eventually got started. We started jumpstart go together.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

You were doing a lot of the marketing stuff and you were building your business that way, but then he saw the vision of let's all link up and let's do this.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

And let's focus to this niche. Because before we were working on real estate, insurance, tech startups, SaaS companies, dry cleaning companies. You need help, I got help. Yeah. Yeah, we worked with a lot of different verticals and niches, e-commerce and stuff. And you know, when you work with some of those, you're like, insurance, like, you know, I work with like e-commerce and this new like cool tech startup. And they're like, Yeah, these guys are they're just like calling numbers all day or whatever. I'm like, that's so crazy in my mind that like blew my mind that people just sit there calling leads and getting yelled at. And and that's where we initially started the group.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

And for you, I know you've kind of gone through this experience of finding a niche. But when a lot of people are starting businesses, they go, find your niche immediately. How did you think that went for you? Was it like I think it's a developmental portion? Because I think you find it throughout your experiences, but but what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 11:12

I can I can agree with that partly, right? Like I think I think there's something to be said for both. It's if you know, particularly either niche you have some unique value as far as knowledge in, or that you love working with, or that there's a really cool opportunity, great. And you know, I do think it's easier to grow when you have a niche, and that's what you're working with. I mean, we've seen like Skyrocket all the time that at first want to be, I want to help everybody. If you got a pulse, I can help you. I do everything under the sun, which then they're kind of jackfall trades, master of none. And it's really hard when you don't have something in particular you can really focus to grow and scale through.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

So then how how do you how do how can the audience refine their niche or how can they think about that? Because you don't want to pigeonhole yourself too much because the opportunity might come from somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

So I'd say like having a niche that you're focused on, but it doesn't mean you're saying no to other opportunities or clients that are coming from you. Because like we'll have a client's maybe they focus on like widowed seniors or veteran seniors. Well, if a senior who isn't a veteran or a married couple like that are seniors come to them, they're still helping them, of course, and they're still going to reach out. But with their particular audience, when you're speaking to someone, you can speak so much more effectively, you know, the pain points, the desires, the goals, all these things that are so important for marketing and sales and growing a business when you have that niche, because the concerns of a widowed senior aren't necessarily the same as a veteran, aren't the same as a young married couple that just bought a home and had their first kid. And so it's really watered down to ineffective marketing when you don't talk to a particular niche. And it can be scary. It is scary, right? Like a lot of people are like, oh, if I pigeonhole, I'm missing out on all these opportunities, then I can't be successful. And 99.9% of the cases, that's not true. And it's usually the giant jump. It's only, you know, I've only I don't think I've ever run into someone who's pigeonholed themselves. So like I only work with people that are 45 named Bob with type, you know, blood type or whatever, you know. And it's like, okay, maybe you're getting a little narrow then, but you know, I think most of the time people are just like, I work with seniors or I work with families. I'm like, well, technically everybody's like kind of a family, so you didn't narrow it down at all.

Entrepreneur Mindset And Sustainable Growth

SPEAKER_00 13:19

But that's just the way to present it. So for you, you've worked with tons of insurance agents, a ton of it, tons of different agencies. What do you think it takes for an insurance agent to hit that next level and really sell without the burnout?

SPEAKER_01 13:31

So, I mean, there's a whole bunch of different methods that you can grow and scale a business. I mean, you you can work leads, especially if you've got a good source and a good process with them, and definitely willing to put in the work there. You can grow through social media, referral partners. That's like our preferred method. But there's so many ways you can. So I'm not gonna say there's only one way to grow, but I would say it does take knowing who I'm trying to grow through. It does having good like time management and discipline, which is something I run into all the time. Agents are like, I have no control over my life and I can dedicate five minutes a day and I wanna, you know, be a millionaire in insurance. It's like it doesn't work like that. It's yeah, you know, it's a great industry, but it doesn't, doesn't you still need to put in the work. But I'm also not one that's like, oh, I gotta hustle like 20 hours a day and never sleep to grow a business either, because that's not sustainable, also. So I think I think that's a couple things off the bat. And ultimately, even though most agents it's gonna be just them at the beginning, maybe starting up, but really starting from day one and as soon as possible, like treating it like a business of I'm putting this in place and then I'm putting systems to free up more time so I can put that in place. I'm then bringing on team members or staff so I can free up that time and eventually get in like building and scaling a business. I can't tell you how many insurance agents will be like, Oh yeah, what was your PL last month? I was like, What's a PL? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Like, no, it makes it it's a big, big deal because a lot of people get into insurance space and when they think about it, they sit there and go, I'm an entrepreneur, I make my own schedule, I have all this freedom. And you have to view it as I'm a business owner and I'm investing in this business, which is a very different mindset than hey, I'm working the nine to five. So it's these two different avatars. Meanwhile, there's a third one, which is the business owner, where it's like, hey, we're gonna bring in the right people, we're gonna support us, we're gonna get coaches, we're gonna bring these things in, and we're gonna allow ourselves to develop so that we can become the person who does earn a million dollars in a year. Because the ones who go, Yeah, I'm free, you just it depends.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

I mean, it depends what they want out of it. Because some some and I think most say they come in, they want to be entrepreneurs, they want the freedom, they like the the idea of it, but in reality, they're kind of looking for a job. Yeah, like, okay, so when do I clock in? When do I clock out? Everybody like teach me, provide for me. And it's like, okay, you're you're just looking for a job. So when I tell you, yeah, there are there's no like clock in, clock out hours here, and you gotta like invest in your business and do all these things, they're like, I never had to do that in the corporate world. And it's like, well, yeah, you're you're looking for a job here, which is fine. And there's plenty of positions in the insurance industry where absolutely you can work the job side, right? Whether for a carrier, yeah, no problem. But if you really want to be entrepreneur and grow and scale something for yourself and that you have ownership in, that's really how you need to look at it and treat it. And it is going to look like starting any other business and running a business. You need to pay attention to these things. But it's probably one of the outside of P and C like probably one of the most affordable businesses to start up and get into for a few hundred bucks. You can have a license and get contracted and start rolling. But even still, I think agents, because it's a little bit easier to get into, are like, okay, I've got, you know, 300 bucks to start a business. Let's rock and roll. And then they're like, oh, I can't afford to buy leads. I can't do, you know, afford to invest in any technology or to go to any events or like, you know, host things. And it's like, it's a business. Like you have to invest in things. And I will say P and C has a little bit different when they start an agency, they normally have to pay to get market access. Sometimes$50,000,$150,000. Oh, wow. Or ever. I actually just had someone on our podcast that had made$150,000 into a franchise realized, oh, that wasn't a great opportunity. So it was this$150,000 mistake, right? Where you don't, that's not a thing on the life side. But they also know I'm not really going to make a bunch of money the first six months or year. I'm going to have to sale and stack that up, right? But agents get in, hey, I want to make a whole bunch of money really quickly and without learning, I've never done sales before and all these things. And it's like the short.

Referral Partners That Fill Your Pipeline

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Yeah. Yeah, the short term versus long-term mindset, seeing an actual direction, seeing what's possible. It can become very challenging. Now, David, one of the things you mentioned is that you said referral partners are a big part of your business. What does that mean? And how can the audience kind of utilize that for their own business or their own ideas?

SPEAKER_01 17:51

And this applies to everything. I mean, a lot of the stuff applies to a lot, even outside the insurance industry, but especially this. I think a lot of people are familiar with the idea of referral partners, but they maybe don't know what that truly looks like for like a strategic referral partner. A lot of people, when I mention like referral partners, like, oh yeah, I go to a bunch of networking events and hand out business cards and we shake hands and we eat free food and and then we you know head out and nothing ever happens, or once a year they send somebody. So that's a referral partner, right? And it's like, no, you know, like those cards go in a shoebox. I've got some shoebox from back in the day when used to go to a bunch of those events before I realized the time versus return is just not worth it in a lot of cases. And then it's it's just whoever you're talking to, who's mostly just there to try to get something out of it in free food. Um they're like, I want someone to send stuff to me. I have no interest in anybody else, and I, you know, just here because you know it's an open free networking event. Whereas what I'm talking about, strategic referral partner, I'm talking about someone who like deals with your target audience, like those are clients or they have influence over those, those, that target audience base, and that they can consistently send 10, 15, 20, 50 plus deals a month, you know, to you, and that it's a value-based relationship. I don't really like transactional, except in like rare cases. Like we had a client on the life side who had a P, there was a PNC agency they connected with, and that PNC agency had 8,000 clients, and they were like, I don't want to touch the life, it's not something I focus on. I'm an expert in. If you want to be my life division, I'm happy to set these 8,000 clients over to you and referrals to your calendar to write. And so, yeah, they did like a split commission. But in general, I'm not a big fan on transactional, but it is if you find the right referral partner that deals with your target audience and that you can set up value-based whether you're doing content together, whether you're helping them stuff with their own business. I mean, there's lots of ways to set up the value-based stuff, but that's what I'm talking about. Only two, three of those, and you're full. Your pipeline is just packed. Like we had an agent who wasn't writing any life production, and he was like, Hey, I really want to go build these referral relationships and leverage social media for getting connected and doing those too. And he built them with real estate agents, and he liked doing mortgage protection for the life, which is writing life insurance to help protect the home, you know, if someone was to pass. And those real estate agents sent him 544 referrals his first month, and he wrote like 36,000 with no lead cost, no cost at all. And these real estate agents would invite him to closings for the homes, and they would close on the home, and then they're like, Yeah, we want to protect the home, right? And they're like, Yep, and they would do the mortgage protection policy right there, and then he'd move on to the next meeting. So, you know, when you have stuff like that, it's like game-changing, even one relationship with those, and that's what I'm really talking about. It's not try to get a card to everybody, it's build good relationships with referral partners that make sense, and that's also going to provide value to them too.

Lifestyle Design Planning Rhythms

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Yeah, it's it makes a big deal. And you start to realize that more is not always better. No, you it makes it harder because you got to keep those relationships going and you have to satisfy all of them. So it makes sense to have one, two, three, four relationships and then divvy out which ones make the most sense, which ones don't make sense, and it allows you to go deeper and deeper with what you're trying to create because it can be really challenging for us. It's hard for us in business where everyone thinks, I gotta buy leads, I gotta do this way, I gotta do this way. And there's other ways of doing things, there's other creative ways, and just in business in it in its own capacity. Now, one of the big things about you, David and L that I find super interesting is that you guys love to travel. You love lifestyle design. How do you think about designing your own life? Is this a question that you guys have? Is it a meeting you have? Is it something you do? Or you guys sit there and go, Elle, I have an idea. The time is now.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Yeah, L always gets stressed out whenever I say have an idea, because usually it means uh extra work, right? So you've read traction, right? Like visionary integrator. I'm definitely falling the visionary side. She falls on the integrator side. So I have all these ideas and and and everything, and she's the one who actually gets anything done, which would just be ideas in my head, unless that was the case. So we work well together because of that. But but yeah, it is it is usually like set aside planning time. Now, of course, we're always discussing things, you know, day to day, and things come out of that too, of what we want, what we like want to work towards. But we do try to take time at least, you know, a quarter, once a year, sit down of like, okay, what do we want? Where are we at from last time and where do we want to go to design that? And that's where we're really purposeful, even starting this business and with travel and you know, what last year was working with more larger agencies and IMOs and FMOs and stuff like that. That was a goal, and so that's what we work towards, and you know, and even this year, like you know, started to form relationships with some of the MA side and some of the private equity and some of the things too. Like, say, what does that future look like for what we want to do? We have a brick and mortar location to start to work with local businesses. Personally, do we where do we want to live? Like, right? Like, we get the itch every two years or so of like, okay, we need to relocate somewhere. And we love home base here in Florida, but we're about to head out to Portugal for a bit for a mastermind, but also start exploring Europe. We technically qualify for the Spain, Spain's digital nomad visa and can could live in Spain and the EU, which is very interesting to us. So for us, it's Living somewhere that fits, you know, we got to be near water, one. Like, you know, that's that's why we're in Florida. But but like really designing, you know, to fit your goals, right? Like for your goals, like, hey, I want to have three kids, I want to live in a beautiful home, I wanna be involved in their sports and their lives and you know, work whatever job or or business I'm running provides that time. Like that is that's a goal. And for us, our goal is like we like good food, we like travel, we like cultures, we like new experiences, we like, you know, building relationships all over the place while supporting our team and supporting our clients with whatever we do. And so that's really how we've designed it.

Prep Versus Action Mental Model

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Yeah, it comes very close to me because I've traveled last year. I was traveling for seven weeks in Europe with my wife, and we went around to all these different places and you get to see these new experiences, and it it just gives you such a broadened horizon, and I think it's so important. I actually asked a question in my coaching group last night where it was if you had a hundred percent and you could add prep prep and action, what do you think that percentage would be for you between preparation and action? Do you think you're more action-oriented or more preparation, or do you kind of divvy between both?

SPEAKER_01 24:06

It depends if you're asking L or me. Like me, I'm probably like 25% prep, 75% action. Okay. Because also in my mind, like you can prep, but doesn't always mean that that you know, prep is what actually happens, or you're not adjusting or or finding out like maybe what I prep for wasn't what I actually ended up wanting or needing change and stuff. But you know, but also that means you can run into trouble or issues because you didn't do as much prep as maybe you need to do. So I maybe jumped the gun on a few things, you know, that I should have done more prep on. Whereas L is probably like, you know, probably 50-50 or maybe a little more prep to the action, and that's also why we're great balances to each other as well. So I don't have like a solid, like that's an answer. I'm just I'm a big fan overall of and L is too, of avoiding analysis paralysis and getting caught in the constant prep with no action, because nothing happens unless action's taken, even if it's imperfect action. Yeah. So we teach our clients that all the time like take imperfect action. That you know, I know the comp some of the clients you work with on the insurance side. If they never picked up a phone or or called someone, then nothing's gonna happen either. So you gotta take action, even if it's imperfect or scary. Um prep's not gonna completely eliminate that.

Identity Without Getting Stuck

SPEAKER_00 25:16

And we'll iterate along the way. And that's what I think part of it is is it's getting yourself into that action. And some it was funny because the group was literally split down the middle, half for prep, half for action. And then I asked them all, I was like, hey, what what do you want to be? And they all sat there and they looked at their weaknesses and they go, I could probably use a little bit more of that. I could probably so we know that both are super important, but it's how do we get ourselves into those? Because it's a challenge that we all have. So for you, David, I know your your business has changed a little bit for jumping into insurance. How did your identity have to change to kind of get there? Because I know that's a challenge for a lot of people is stepping into that new role, or do you just view yourself as I'm world traveling entrepreneur, David and L. Well, even and even that's changed over the years.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

I mean, that is a big part of of what we do, like is the travel and experiences, and that's really important to us personally. You know, is it like absolutely key that we, you know, go to some of these places for the business just business purposes? No, some of that is just personal enjoyment and experience and enrichment, but we also there's a really awesome worldwide entrepreneur community we're part of that does it's conference meetups. So people like us. So it's like meeting up with your best friend all the time. So that is fun, right? But identity-wise, uh, I've always had like a kind of fluid identity. Like I'm not this person who has this degree that works in this place or like this, you know, life moves, it changes, and I like that. So I try not to get too sad and defining myself as one thing, but there's also knowing like your strengths and weaknesses and what you enjoy. And for me, I'm a very social person, a very extrovert. I like connecting with people, I like relationships. And so for me, it really is like business development, running like our webinars and like trainings for you know different audiences and stuff like that, and like really good at like kind of community aspects as well, like whether within our clients or just like our friends and stuff like that, too. And that's what I really love leaning into. If you're handing me spreadsheets and like SOPs and like technical tracking and things like that, it's not anything like super interested into, even though I did like five years of crazy, crazy Excel sheets for like project controls, like for back the construction side, which maybe that like burned me out.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

It was like I never want to do this again. Well, I think that brings up a good point is that you start to learn about what you like and what you don't like, and then also not being stuck in a certain identity of I am this NFL player or I am this athlete or I am this whoever, because that's how many people really struggle later in life because they go, I compete. I could never get to that point again, I can never get to that place.

Podcasting For Real Connection

SPEAKER_01 28:00

And if you see some of the most successful people out there, like they maybe had like one area they first focus on and did really well in. But if you look at it, they then expand to so many others. Like Shaquille O'Neal is a great example of like, you know, NBA, but then huge, huge entrepreneur and has made even more through the entrepreneur side than he ever made in the basketball side. And like you, Michael Jordan, another great example. I actually got uh later day on the podcast an NFL player that moved into tech, uh tech startup and is running that now, and so kind of moved a successful career there to something else. And you look at a lot of things there, they also have discipline. They're not defining themselves just as one thing, but they're also playing to the advantages of those things, right? Like, I know I was formerly this and now I'm this. You know, I think that's I think that's something good for people to have is like not be stuck in one mindset of yourself or one area, because then you miss out on so many opportunities and growth. Because when you get stuck in one area, it's very easy to just limit and not have growth. And this is me, this is who I am, this is life, which there's something to be said for being like confident in who you are, but really growth and experiences happen from the unknown.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

How did you get into the podcast? How did the podcast thing start for you? Because it's always interesting.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Yeah, I it for for me, it was we were already doing like Facebook Live and webinars pretty much weekly for years and years and years for like our Facebook group and stuff. And so we're already doing a lot of that, but realized like, hey, podcast's really popular, it's a great medium. I like that medium. In fact, that's part of how we even got exposed to the entrepreneur world through call the Tropical NBA podcast, which is great, highly recommend. And but I was like, okay, this seems like a great experience initially of just another a format for us to still do our live streams and trainings, but now we have podcast episodes for it, and we can you know bring on clients and show before and afters and talk with them and edify them and highlight them. But I didn't really realize at the time, and now I do now, just how amazing of a connection tool it is. And now that's what I'd highly, highly recommend is having it as not just a platform to talk about really important things or you know, have great discussions, but who you're connecting with to have them on the podcast, build relationships and stuff is just a huge, huge opportunity of the point where I never thought of like I'd have like head executives for some of the largest insurance companies out there, like popping on or NFL players or you know, big tech startups and stuff, you know, that just came through the podcast to then lead into hey, we should probably have a meeting, talk some more after this, and then all kinds of really cool stuff has come out of that. So, you know, whether or not you know you're like, oh, I'm a podcaster, that's like a core part of what I do. I I encourage it because it can be so good for really no matter what industry you're in of having it.

Mental Health Habits That Stick

SPEAKER_00 30:47

Yeah, I I completely agree. The podcast has been it's an incredible journey because you have so many people coming across your desk that actually want to speak with you and they're very high level. And you go, Oh, this is amazing. This is what I want to do. And you get to meet them, but it's a very easy way to connect and say, let's go a little bit deeper, let's have another conversation, let's see how this could work. So I I completely agree with it. Now, in the Clocked Podcast, we have uh at Edwards Consulting, we have five pillars. The pillars are mental health, physical health, community service philanthropy, spirituality, and relationships for you today. I know it's I know you were traveling, I know you got Portugal coming up. How's your mental health on like a one to ten for you? Like, how are you feeling today? The reason I do this is so that the audience can humanize a lot of the guests because we look out here and we go, David is incredible. L is incredible, but are they human? Like, do they have challenges too? So this helps with I got I got the pulse.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

Mental health right now, I would probably put slightly lower just because of everything going on and getting ready and and trying to wrap up some meetings and get everything in this week. Uh so I'd probably put it like a seven, seven and a half, or I generally feel like I have fairly high mental health on average. I try to very much, if we can go down habits and like uh, you know, how how you how we plan out times, routines, and stuff there. But uh, but yeah, I would I would say like it's a little stress right now, but overall more also balanced with excitement for the trip and the travel and some of the things we got planned there. So what usually helps you with mental health, like helping it stay high? For me, it's trying to really separate like when I'm not working, I'm not working, and when I am, I am, which the time balance isn't like 50-50 or anything like that at all, but it is like if if I'm if I'm like chilling at home or playing a video game or sitting by the pool, like I'm it's fine. I was just like my mind is clocked out. It's um it's not worried or stressed about something. So I'm very good at like separating, separating things, like especially when it's like, oh, I can't take any action on that or do anything about that right now. So I'm gonna sleep well because now's the time to sleep. Not it's not the time to worry about things, right? So and not everybody's that way, but for me, that's yeah, maybe it's it's doing something you enjoy. So L and I go on walks in the morning, and Florida's a great place to do it because we get a little nature safari of all the different crazy, like, you know, birds and ospreys and and herons and all kinds of stuff. We got ducks that live in our yard and and all kinds of stuff. And for us, that's like a great way to like just you know start off the day. We don't really talk even that much. It's just kind of like an easy way to we're we're not book morning people, so it's an easy way for us to like get adjusted to the day, do a bit of like just like kind of mobile games and and games at home or pool. Like I mix mixologist, so I like do craft cocktails, yeah, you know, and then we we cook. And so for for us, it's like finding whatever it is you enjoy and making sure that's like built into it, because even a little bit of that can have a huge stress relief.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

And so it's finding those things, implementing them in your schedule, and then also be and David, this is something I've seen very good with you, is you're always very, very present. I try to be, I try to be.

Physical Health With One Meal A Day

SPEAKER_01 33:58

I mean, I it's something I respect with a lot of the people that I look up to in areas and things like they're they're present. They're like you can feel they're paying attention. I don't even think I'm that amazing at it. I it's something I'm intentionally like trying to work on and be good about because I love connecting with people, I love talking, but you know, certain people like you know you that you got their full attention and they're really you know enjoying the conversation or really like diving into it, and I respect that a lot because people people like to feel seen and heard because they don't get to feel that way a lot of the times. So absolutely now. Physical health on a one to ten, how you feeling about physical health? That's been going up over this last year. So I'm pretty pretty happy with like the trending on that. What's helped you with that make it go up. So one was starting to change habits, losing a little bit, losing weight, probably down like 30 pounds over the last year. That's amazing. Thanks. Yeah, but it was moving more to like intentional, like let's go with like how I eat for first, right? That also fits my lifestyle and what works for me as well. For me, that was like if I was eating multiple meals a day, I would eat each of those meals and have food and everything. And like I was like, oh, I'm gonna have to like restrict what types of food I eat, which is always tough, especially when you and two other people in the same household and they all have you all have different like types of things you like kind of eat or focus on too. So ended up just moving to what fits me is a one meal a day. So I do one meal in the evenings, so I do water with a little bit of salt in it just because I need electrolytes uh during the day, and then one cup of coffee, and then I'll eat dinner at usually like 8:39, 9:30 in the evening. And so that's it works for me. I don't I don't miss it, I don't feel hungry through the day. I did I did like intermittent fasting for like years before I did that, so it wasn't a big jump necessarily, but I I love it. That fits me, and I can eat whatever for the dinner, don't worry about the types of food, and naturally like the weight just like falls off of it.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

How long did that take you to like how long did that take you to get normal with?

SPEAKER_01 35:58

I would say, I would say like I had done a 16-8 like intermittent fasting for just basically not breakfast and eat a late lunch, early dinner kind of thing. Okay. I done that for like a year and a half, maybe even two years, you know, kind of off and on a little bit for that. And so I knew I could do that. So moving into one meal a day, the very first time I ever did it, maybe it took me like a day, day and a half to kind of get used to it or whatever. But then after that, it's it's pretty easy. I literally takes in fact, it actually is harder if I have any sort of food for breakfast or lunch, because then I feel hungry throughout the day. I feel like a little sluggish, it affects my mental a little bit. So it's just for easier for me to like I function better with the one meal day. Because you get you get in that state. My brother's done like 48, 72 hour fast and stuff like that. I'm not necessarily doing that, but I'm just doing the one meal day.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

Well, you're bringing it up to a very interesting point, is that I mean, and people have talked about it that we're not always hungry, but we're addicted to food. And it becomes, and you never would say to, oh, you're addicted. Like you need it to survive. And it becomes an interesting thing where when you can disengage from that, it forces you to start to see it as a food supplement that's a source of energy instead of oh man, does that taste good?

SPEAKER_01 37:11

And it's true, it's true. Like I enjoy like really good food, and I'd rather have that occasionally than like snacking on stuff I don't really care about or find that amazing, or just because I'm like snacking or hungry, which which my my family like has lots of snack. I also have a bunch of niece and nephews, so they're of course snacking all day as kids, of course, right? But but I'm like, oh man, I need to get back to my my one meal days coming back from a weekend with with family up in Atlanta this weekend. And so moving back to one meal, already feel better, kind of moving back to it just because it fits me, it doesn't fit everybody, and well, everybody's body's different. So I've I've never been one to ascribe to like, oh, here's the best like health plan or diet or anything, because it is different for everybody. L L is very different than me and what her requirements are and what she what she eats or focuses on. Yeah, but that's been a big thing, the one meal a day. And also it fits because that was something I could easily control. Yeah. Whereas with work and other stuff, like hitting the gym a certain amount of times a week and stuff just was a little it was tougher, yeah. But I could control the one meal a day. And food probably 80% affects your your health and weight, yeah, or 20% of the exercise. So then I started adding in basketball once a week. We try to try to hit the gym one more time than that for like weights, but I definitely hit in basketball once a week, which is great because it's some some clients, but people from work or the industry, but we go to LA Fitness and then a bunch of other people there too, and we place I enjoy it because that's a sport I I grew up playing a whole bunch of, and it's something fun. But I'd say that's kind of the the biggest things trying to get a little bit better on my sleep. Insomnia does run in my families, so that was where, yeah, it would be like 3 a.m., you know, before hidden going to bed. And so gotten better to where got it back a couple hours earlier to like a one o'clock or like 12 30. But so yeah, so eat eating better for for me, a little bit of exercise, losing some weight, you know, part of the health journey, still, still ways to go, but it's an all ever ongoing thing.

Community And Service With A Home Base

SPEAKER_00 39:02

Yeah. No, it's challenging, but it uh it's as long as we're iterating and we're getting better, we're improving. And now the next one, the next pillar is community service and philanthropy.

SPEAKER_01 39:11

Yeah, so that that's an area I'd probably rate on the lower end that is something that's now able to make some movement on and feeling better about our movement there. Community is always interesting because I think a lot of people and myself even prescribed it to where I'm physically located, is my community. And when you're live kind of a nomadic lifestyle and a virtual lifestyle where most people I know interact with, and clients and team are all over the place and not local and stuff, you know, is my community like where I'm physically located, or is my community these people I interact with day-to-day, just not physically here? And so now that we do have a brick and mortar or a content house, the St. Pete content house here, we have this for three years, and we are very much starting to want to get very ingrained in the local community here, throwing networking events here at the office, making connections with local network with businesses. I know I loved you coming to the last one. And so that's that's gonna be a big focus for us. We love where we live with St. Pete. It is our home base, even though it doesn't mean we're gonna be here year round, uh, you know, all the time, but it's our home base, and we love the community here. So getting more involved in the scene, like we got library cards because we're like, oh, this actually gets you to a lot of the local like museums and other stuff. So we've been diving in there, building relationships, and then yeah, looking looking for areas that we can get involved with. Elle actually just got a part of a group that connects women entrepreneurs with each other, like hand selects them, and then you go on walks, you go on walks together or ever. And then like once a quarter or something, they swap you up with some more entrepreneurs and you like rotate, and it's a great way to meet people. So we're we're looking to get more plugged in. It is an area like we're just starting to make shifts on now that we're like, okay, we're gonna be here physically and doing more with people here physically with that, but and and in community service area. I think is something trying to look and identify here what we want to do. But before we moved up here from Fort Myers, Cape Coral area, um, we did volunteer at a horse rescue. That was really big. Elle grew up riding, she was like a state champion for Sage, and then I think she helped help with hip hippo hippotherapy, which is like therapy with horses for for kids and stuff there too. And so there was a horse rescue that we volunteered at, and you know, I mucked stalls, I did all that stuff, and she actually trained some of the horses that were healthy enough to actually be able to ride again so they could get adopted and stuff like that. So, yeah, that was a lot of fun. So we'll look maybe for something like that up here. But yeah, that is it is it is a unique uh question too when like what is your community?

SPEAKER_00 41:39

Well, what I I was actually can I give you my yeah, I would I would love to. So I think you're in St. Pete, you want to be more involved with the people, you want to help the people, you're very good at social media, you have the content to put together. I would see if you can get some leaders, maybe of nonprofits, and maybe they can get a discounted rate or get a free like something along those lines where they can come like you're really interested. Like for myself, I'm really interested in like financial literacy. So if you could bring in these different people and kind of give them a voice or give them a space, or like what I've realized from asking all these people and interviewing all these people, you start to realize very quickly that you don't have to sign up and volunteer your time, you don't have to donate money, but you have a value in what you do. And if you can provide that to people who are less than that, that's community service. Like, like to be honest with you, David, last time we came to your event, that was like a couple weeks ago, there was a random group that showed up, and you're like, dude, I saw them. They're visiting in town for one week, and I thought they should come here. That's community service to me. You might not view it that way, but I think there's it's interesting ways of doing it.

SPEAKER_01 42:46

And that's that's my favorite thing. And I know, and you're already kind of talking about what Ellen I have started discussing a little bit was like local networking groups. Hey, you can use you can host your weekly meeting here. Or like, hey, if a nonprofit wants to do an event here or a gal or something like that, would very be open to talking. We've had some like local comedians come in here for the space of like start checking out. They're like, oh, I've you know grown on Instagram, I'm local St. Pete here. I've got you know some brand deals with like rolling oats and stuff like that. And I think this would be a great uh place to be able to, you know, do more of my content, my platform. Um, someone came last week, was checking this out, works with local artists and does interviews with them, was like, I'd love to use the podcast, start highlighting them. Do you work with like the St. Pete Arts Association and stuff like that? We're like, hey, we love the art scene. So yes, I I very much hope it leans into that because I think one of my biggest skill sets too is connections and like, you know, hey, you and you absolutely need to meet each other, and there's a lot of really cool stuff there. And I think that would allow me to to do some more of that too, and just really get ingrained with what's going on here and support it because I I really I like St. Pete and and its whole kind of culture, it's very open, it's very art, it's very music, it's very like friendly, entrepreneurial too. And so that's I don't know, it fits us so well. So it's a good home base for us too.

Relationships Built By Inviting

SPEAKER_00 44:03

I love that. I love that. Let's get through the last two. Yeah, relationship pillar, which you can deem how you want, it could be.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

Yeah. I mean, you know, I I don't know if that I mean, I guess, yeah, it's deeming how you want, whether like your relationship with like your speech business other business and whatever you want it to be. All kinds of stuff. I mean, overall, I would say probably like a like an eight. It's been like trending up a little bit with getting to do more in person, which I love virtual, and I love when I'm connecting with like people I haven't seen in a long time traveling internationally for these conferences and stuff. But being able to have local community and like like you and some of the other like DC and entrepreneur friends here that we meet up with regularly and stuff like that, that's been big for us because we didn't have that where we moved from in Cape Coral. We had some you know close friends like our partners on the business there, but there wasn't like a regular community of hanging out and younger community and stuff there, and that's where. I love here is being able to do that. So I it's been something we've been intentional about, whether it's doing events personally with people and fun things, or starting to like, you know, kind of have that group get involved with like business and networking and fun stuff here. So it's something I want to grow deeper and deeper. So I'd say something we're making progress on. I'm in the right direction that I'm really excited about because I thrive on that.

Spirituality As Curiosity

SPEAKER_00 45:20

So absolutely. Well, I would say one of the tips for the audience is one of the things David's great at is inviting. He invites people to a lot of things and he'll invite a lot of people to different things. So it's important to realize that if you're looking to grow your relationships, you can just send, send out those, hey, what do you think about this? Would you want to come to that? Even if the people can come because they always appreciate the thought. Then the last one is spirituality. Some people align, some people kind of think about it wherever. I mean, for you, what what do you think on a zero to ten?

SPEAKER_01 45:47

I would say, I would say like probably a four or five. It's it's an area that does interest me, but is an area that like I don't put as much time and attention to. It may be different from Elle, that's probably her favorite thing in the world to talk about and ask people about, and just from all over the world and their experiences, and very interested in that herself. And I I am too, I but I think she's a lot more intentional, intentional about that than I am. And so it's I haven't put it as high priority in some of the other areas. And I know you know it everybody has their their own journey and definitely have had our journey over, you know, growing up in in the church and what it looked like over those years and through high school and college to what it looks like now and done travel and stuff. So I think it's like ever ongoing, like kind of journey and experience, kind of forming our own like viewpoints and how we experience things and what that looks like. So for me, it's still like a curiosity and like learning stage, and I think I still like ultimately kind of lean back to how I was raised around that some, but you know, also just kind of open to continuously like learning experience on that side. So it's something I stay stay open to. Absolutely.

The First Move When Stuck

SPEAKER_00 46:57

No, it's it's kind of where I put myself on that. It's awesome. And David, I know we could go forever, but I I we'll have one final qu I got two final questions. We'll do one and then we'll perfect where people can find you. So the last one is if someone feels stuck in their career right now, what's the first courageous move they should make this week? Like what's an action they can take to kind of get unstuck?

SPEAKER_01 47:19

So, I mean, if someone feels stuck, I I think the first thing is if you feel stuck, then there's probably somewhere you want to be or something you want to do or something you want to change, right? Like that feeling itself is probably an indication I should take some time to sit down and what do I want? What what do what do I, you know, just something different? Or is there something in particular, or I want to go from corporate to entrepreneurial, or like I feel like I have no no time to myself or or family, and so I need to change my work hours or what that looks like. I'd find out what you want and define that so that you can actually make the changes to to accomplish that. And some of that may be just talking with people, right? Like I think that's one of the easiest things is talking to people and experience, especially people that are where you want to be or have maybe a somewhat similar lifestyle to what you would maybe want to adjust to if you feel stuck. And that's what we did. I mean, like, you know, we're we're taking action, but we very much like, oh, going from corporate, the whole world we've ever known to like running your own business and being responsible for everything. Like, that's a huge jump. So we hung around entrepreneurs, asked a lot of questions, like, you know, what does this look like? How can we best prepare? We didn't, you know, and why I know people do, and I have nothing against it because I think it definitely makes action happen. Like, we eased our way into finally making the full jump from the corporate by running the business for about a year where it was full time, and I was kind of nights and weekends before I made the jump. So we'd already built up some client base. It wasn't like an immediate, like, okay, I'm back, I'm at zero right now. But but yeah, I mean, you can you can talk and you can plan and make action. And that's what I'd really advise is nothing changes unless something changes, right? So if you feel stuck, is sit down. What do I want? And then start to make an initial plan of a couple actions I can take to start moving towards that.

Where To Find David Denning

SPEAKER_00 49:00

100%. And then I also think it's leaving space, leaving yourself some space to think, to figure out what you might want to do and ask yourself better questions. But David, you've been absolutely amazing. Where can people learn more about you? Where can they learn more about your business? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:14

Yeah, I would say anybody involved in the insurance industry, probably the best place is our Facebook group, Marketing for Insurance Agents. 36,000 insurance agents in there. We do a lot of training, connections, and you know, great place to meet other agents, learn more who we are, what we do. And I always like to lead with value. So we do a whole bunch of like trainings there and who we are for people, you know, necessarily work with us because I love showing that off the bat. But for really anybody, if you want to just shoot me a Facebook message or friend request, because that's one of a big platform we use, that's where I spend most of my time. But yeah, or if anybody wants to shoot me a text or call, 404 631 7892. I'm always love making connections, love talking to people. Or if you happen to be in St. Pete, Tampa area, come on down to our office in downtown St. Pete, the St. Pete Content House. Uh we'd we'd love to connect with the guests. Absolutely. Amazing. Thank you. Thanks, everybody.