Why Systems and Partnerships are the Key to Scaling Your B2B Online Business With David Sandel (Systems Mini-Series (2/3) | TNE074

Ever wondered what it was like to be an influencer before it actually became a thing? Then you’re in for a treat! In this week’s episode, I am joined by David Sandel, who got to experience that life and may have helped shape the influencer marketing business model to what it is today. However, that life is behind David now, because these days he’s busy with scaling his marketing agency, Low Gravity Solutions. David remarkably scaled his business to where it is now thanks to his multiple partnerships with e-comm platforms like MailChimp and Klaviyo. 

In this week’s episode, David and I touch upon his freelancer past and his experience of the early influencer life. David also talks about how he got his big break thanks to word of mouth and the value of connections and strong social proof. We also cover why and how getting a partnership can change the trajectory of your business and life, even if you’re still relatively new to the industry or already have several years of experience under your belt. 

Timestamps:

[4:43]How Words Changed David Sandel’s Life

[11:45]Why You Need To Have Strong Social Proof

[13:43] The Advantages of Getting A Partnership

[21:38]David On Programs That May Help Make Agency Owners’ Lives Easier


David Sandel’s Website: https://lowgravitysolutions.com/marketing-minute-solution/

David Sandel’s Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/davidsandel/?hl=en

https://twitter.com/Sandel_David?s=20

https://davidsandel.com/

Omar's (Host) Social Media:

Instagram - @nomadables

TikTok - @nomadables

Facebook Group - NOMADABLES - Accountability & Growth Community for Remote Workers- Perfect to meet fellow online entrepreneurs, remote workers, and digital nomads.

YouTube - Omar Mo

LinkedIn - Omar Mo Nomads Cast

Twitter - @nomadables

Pintrest - @nomadables

Clubhouse - @pods

WEBSITE: https://www.nomadables.com/

Transcript

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Why Systems and Partnerships are the Key To Scaling Your B2B Online Business With David Sandel (Systems Mini Series ⅔) 

Omar  

Have you ever heard of the concept: Dream 100? The idea behind it is you come up with a list of 100 people whose audiences fit your ideal customers for your business. From there, you start finding ways to serve them, slowly winning them over until you're able to collaborate with them. That's the Holy Grail. 

What if you could do the same sort of collaborations with businesses that are in the same vertical as you and are much more established? Our guest today has built his business off the back of giants like MailChimp and Klaviyo. 

For those of you who don't know what they are, MailChimp and Klaviyo are email webapp SAS products, or one of the two that are used for email marketing. And they're absolutely gigantic in their industry. 

Join us today and learn how you can use partnerships and create systems to take your business to the stratosphere. Remember nomad fam, we've got some incredibly value filled episodes planned out for you so please hit that subscribe button and leave a review. Your review helps this podcast become more visible and ultimately inspire more people just like you. My name is Omar Mo and this is the Nomadic Executive.

Intro  

You're listening to the Nomadic Executive hosted by Omar from Nomadables.com. Join Omar as he sits down and speaks with leading online entrepreneurs, remote workers and digital nomads about everything from business strategy to travel and lifestyle design. Together, we're here to help you achieve a life of happiness, health, and freedom. And now here's your host, Omar Mo.

Omar  

All right, David Sandel, welcome to the Nomadic Executive man, super stoked to have you on you've got a pretty dope story. You've been featured in quite a few places. 

And I'm excited to dive in both to the marketing agency as well as the systems as well as your awesome backpacking slash van life stories. Why don't you give my audience a quick little elevator pitch about who you are?

David Sandel

Yeah, sure. So yep, I'm David Sandel, I own a boutique marketing agency called Low Gravity Solutions, which coincidentally comes from the climbing world. It's a little play on having a high gravity day when things go bad. It's like, “Man, it's just not going well. It's high gravity.” 

So I wanted to start an agency that was low gravity and make, you know, make your business, increase and make all of your marketing efforts just easy and flawless so that you don't have to worry about it and will take care of it for you.

Omar  

Right. I like the idea behind that. So before you even started your marketing agency then and everything that you're doing right now, you started off as a freelancer back, I believe you said 2008?

David Sandel  

Yeah, I started out as just a blogger, my first get out of the nine to five grind was going to be a personal trainer and eventually own a gym to train athletes. So I started my first blog and my first social media handles back then. And I was -  I'm a engineer by degree and by trade. 

And so I reverse engineered the social aspect of it back then, and got into SEO and believe it or not, that thing kind of grew. It fell through then I became like a blogger for the outdoor world. And that picked up more traffic than my personal training stuff. 

And I started to get noticed by some big brands. I was an influencer before that word even existed. Right now I'm probably considered a nano influencer because I'm so small. But I got in at the ground floor and started writing for outdoor publications. And that's technically when I earned my first dollars as a freelancer.

Omar  

That's really cool. You got a pretty early start. I mean, most people - the digital age is just starting to like blossom, you know, and you got in back in 2008 when I didn't even know you can make money online to be honest. So very impressive.

David Sandel  

Yeah, I mean, that's when I first started my own stuff. Like said fitness is a really, really massive industry with a lot of competition. So it wasn't until I got into the outdoor stuff, which is more in 2012 and 2013. So…

Omar

Right

David Sandel

It was still early in the game. Like I said, influencer was not even a word back then. But yeah, I got in and got out I guess before the peak.

Omar  

How would you compare like the back then digital world versus the digital world today?

David Sandel  

It's different. I mean, right when I kind of got out of it. That's when people like made being an influencer a profession. Back then there was nobody making six to seven figures just being an influencer. I think I also got out right as Snapchat was growing. 

Tik Tok was, I don't know, maybe in somebody's development stage, but it certainly wasn't out for the masses. So it's just different. You know, Twitter was the big one at the time. And then Instagram came along. So I don't know, it's just been an evolution. And so..

Omar  

Right. When you got, you went to go do the climbing thing, that's when you're getting sponsored by people to go climb in, that's when you're living in a van.

David Sandel  

Yeah, well, actually, that was, the reason I got sponsored was because of my social media at the time, so like, that's what I was gonna say at the end, there was just that there was less competition. So it's a lot easier to be known by brands. 

And now that... and so there was also a lot of trying to figure it out from both sides.Like as an influencer, can you pay me? And as the company, well how much should we pay you, if anything? 

And now brands have to be much more aware of like, “Okay, if we're gonna pay this person $10,000. So what are we actually getting in return?” And that is much more defined now. 

Or at least there's a lot more case studies to show what they should be paying somebody, whereas back then it was just like I don’t know, you both just have to figure it out at the same time.

Omar  

So they kind of threw money at people, they thought it would give them results, but not necessarily knew how to track it.

David Sandel  

Right. And also, I'm only speaking in the outdoor industry, because that's where my home was, but, you know, I never really got paid cash money for that. I got paid and free gear and some some badass trips. 

Columbia Sportswear took me to Utah. Where was that in Utah? I can't remember where all the ski resorts are. I forgot. They brought me…

Omar

Red River?

David Sandel

No, that's over in… that's over on the east coast. It's right on the tip of my tongue. But anyways, they flew me and nine other influencers out there for seven days, in an all inclusive ski trip, basically. 

And then after that, that was actually a competition. And the winners of that competition get to go to Jordan for an all inclusive paid tour for 10 days. So I got to do that. 

And then once they flew, they made a documentary out of that. They flew us back and for the release party. Flew us all back out to Portland, Oregon at their headquarters to watch it. So it was pretty cool back then.

Omar  

Sounds like a really dope life, man. How was it living in a van? How was that entire process?

David Sandel  

That just came from again, working or not working necessarily, but blogging and living in the outdoor world. I mean, I became enamored with the dirtbag lifestyle. 

And I was already... I mean, like I said, I started my first side gig in 2008. And so I was always trying to get out of engineering. 

Just so happens this was the avenue for me to do that. And once I got into the climbing world, I thought, “Oh, yeah, I need to live in a van, I need to travel, you need to be a dirtbag and just live life on the road and have experiences.” 

Like I was tired of working for money. I wanted to actually live my life and see what was out there.

Omar  

And that you did, I can definitely relate to the whole dirtbag life, man. There's something enamoring about it. 

And even to this day, with a successful agency, I still think back like would I leave it all to go live in a van again? Half the time, probably, yes. The other half probably not.

David Sandel  

Exactly. Yeah. When you're putting in eight to 10 to 12 hour days, and you've managing clients and contractors and all this stuff. It's like, man, I just want to go back to my van.

Omar  

I can relate to that a lot, man. So along that journey, then, you got these sponsorships, you did the van trips. Somewhere down that road, you kind of stumbled into what you're doing now. When did that transition happen for you?

David Sandel  

Yes. So part of living in the van was also traveling internationally. And I met my girlfriend while we were both traveling in Spain. And then one thing led to another, we did the two year long distance thing. And then finally, I just moved to Spain. 

And once I was there, you know, I could not really rely on friends and family for places to live. Like we actually had to rent an apartment. And so I needed money. 

And just writing freelance articles for $150 a pop wasn't going to do it. So I decided to combine all of my experiences as a content writer as a social media -

Omar

Influencer.

David Sandel

Personality, that was the word I was gonna go for. Promote, like promoting myself. I, you know, I knew that I could do that for other people. And so then I finally decided, well, people won't believe me that I can do all this stuff. 

So I'm going to brand myself as an agency. And as soon as I branded myself as an agency, I got sufficient clients, and I actually had to hire some subcontractors. So I was a legit agency at that point.

Omar  

Right? How did you get those initial clients in the first place, right? 

So in the beginning when you were freelancing, but let's touch on the articles writing articles for 150 a pop, where were you getting your clients there? Or were you on a platform like Fiverr and Upwork? 

And then after when you transition to the agency space? How did you get your clients initially there?

David Sandel  

Yes. So I have never, I think I toyed with Fiverr like right when it started and it seemed viable, but even then I realized it was just a race to the bottom. So I've never actually been on Fiverr or Upwork seriously. 

I basically got my first gig working for a professional outdoor photographer through word of mouth. Like my best friend knew that I was doing this, she also knew that photographer that needed some help, so she connected me. 

And then one thing led to another and I ended up getting a few word of mouth clients. And then my big break, which I cannot take any credit for. Other than the fact that I had the experience and the knowledge and the skill was that I got invited to join the MailChimp partner program.

And once I got invited on to that thing, and I got put on there experts directory, leads just started coming in. And then once you have a, like, a steady stream of leads and a steady stream of clients, then yeah, then word of mouth is much easier to come by.

Omar  

That's really interesting. How did you manage to land a gig like that randomly?

David Sandel  

I mean, I think I think they just noticed that I had some accounts connected to mine. 

And they sent me an email, or I mean, probably not me individually, but they somehow identified people using their platforms that were also helping other people and said:

“Hey, why don't you guys, or again, they're talking to me in my email. So why don't why don't you fill out your application, we'll take a look at your credentials, we'll take a look at your accomplishments. And if you're good enough, we'll invite you in. If not, like get some more experience and you can apply again later.” 

So I literally just applied like it was an online forum, I had to write some stuff about myself and my success as an email marketer. And they came back and said, “Yep, you can join.”

Omar  

Interesting. And from there, that's where clients because there was such strong, strong social proof, you started to get clients that way?

David Sandel  

Yeah, strong social proof. And also like, they literally have an expert's directory. So like, if you go on to a MailChimp help article, and you're not exactly at the very end of it, or if it's a complex one about doing something with code in the middle of that article that will say, “Find somebody from our MailChimp experts directory”, you click on that link. And then there's a list of people to choose from.

Omar

What a great system to go in for that. 

David Sandel

Yeah. 

Omar

Go ahead. 

David Sandel

Well, that just turned into more social proof, then all of a sudden, another email platform and Klaviyo launched their partner program. And again, I just applied, they didn't even reach out to me.

I applied and said, Look, I've been doing this for how many years and I'm a MailChimp partner. So you guys should probably add me as a Klaviyo partner. And they did. 

So now I've got two things of social proof and I'm on two directories. And one thing just led to another and I just started posting my own content and getting some organic SEO in and it's just a snowball.

Omar  

Wow. So at this point, like are just clients pouring in for both platforms constantly.

David Sandel  

Not so much from Klaviyo but I have proven my worth to MailChimp. And so I've been able to participate in now three beta programs that they do. And when they test new services that they want to launch across their whole business, they'll get a group of us partners and ask for us to help them. 

I've done two of those now and I'm in the middle of my third. So I'm also building a reputation with the actual MailChimp corporate too.

Omar

Makes sense. How about in terms of like other lead gen sources? Do you use partnerships? Do you do any outreach? Do you run any ads, anything along those lines?

David Sandel  

Nope. I just do my my blog, and LinkedIn which again, for probably the last three years has been severely neglected just because like I've been having, I've had a steady lead of clients and I've been doing the work for my clients and I haven't had time to produce content for myself.

I think I finally have gotten down enough systems in place that it's freed me up to start creating my own content. And so again, I don't really have a nice thing to say but I don't say it with arrogance, it's just I've gotten to this point where I don't do any active marketing other than putting out my own content. 

And then people will still either come to me from MailChimp, from word of mouth or from organic SEO. And that's about it.

Omar  

That gives my audience a ton of value there. I didn't know personally that partnership programs like that really existed. I knew there was one for one software that I was using, but I get that outsourced to somebody else. So…

I guess the biggest lesson and takeaway there would be if you're able to get on a big platforms partnership program in some way we're using their platform for a service that you offer. That's a fantastic way to bring in new leads. 

David Sandel  

Absolutely. And the MailChimp Partner Program has evolved to being invite only to anybody can apply so I don't know exactly where it is on their website, but if you just go to MailChimp dot com and maybe scroll down to the footer, they have a link for joining their program. 

I think Klaviyo also has a link for joining their program. I haven't brought this up, because it's not a big part of my business, but I'm a Shopify partner. So you can apply to that program. If you're a WordPress or WooCommerce developer, you can research that one. 

That one's really difficult to get in. But once you are, you're like one of very few. So if you're already a developer, and you're very comfortable on that platform, but for sure, go check that one out. And you can get certifications through Google for Analytics, AdWords, Tag Manager, those are all things that are just more social proof and like give the perspective leads and clients the trust that you can provide these things that you're going to give them.

Omar  

That's amazing.

David Sandel  

Yeah, once I got in the MailChimp partner program, I was like, Man, what other programs do I eat? Or what other platforms do I use that have these programs? And that's exactly how I found out about all of them.

Omar  

Really smart, move. It  double down on the thing that's working for you as well.

David Sandel  

So yeah, so if you're using anything else, like any other marketing platforms, whether it's Zapier or Automate.io, or I think even if you just use the app Po, which is a review and loyalty program, but you put that on every single client that you work for, I mean, they probably have a partner program as well. So whatever you're using, go out there and look for it.

Omar  

Very true. So speaking of automations, and things like that, where was that transition from? Or not rather transition, but a new startup? Where you were already doing email marketing, but also decided to start doing automations and systems? And how are you using the word CMTO?

David Sandel  

Yeah, that's a funny one. So I actually got to this point, through a lot of just trial and I wouldn't say error, but just working with a lot of clients and figuring out what I liked. So I used to offer everything under the sun, social media management, like the day to day posting stuff, creating newsletters, running ads, and doing the ad strategy, doing the actual design work. 

And I myself, and like, I don't have an eye for design, but yet I was offering it. So finally, by doing all these things that I didn't actually like, I realized, well, this is what I do like doing. And like creating the automations that our behavior based and behavior driven in email made me realize, like, I really like automating stuff. 

And that led me to getting some clients where I was their web admin. And this is my favorite client, probably in terms of like, the work I was doing, I was just the web admin stuff. So not even marketing, technically. 

But he had a WordPress website, he was using one plugin for his appointment forms, another plugin to actually schedule the meeting, and none of that stuff. And I think it was incorporated with WooCommerce, so that people can pay him for those meetings. 

But then that said, he would have to manually go into every single meeting, check it, send the invite to both people, add it to his calendar, create a Zoom meeting separately, blah, blah, blah. And so I got in there, and we just automated everything. 

So from the user standpoint, all you would do is show up on this nice looking website, pick your date, and time and sign up, pay for your session and show up. But the customers and that's all he literally needed to do too, was he needed to check his calendar for the day, see who he was meeting with. And that's it, have the meeting. So… ton of time and ton of frustration, because he had to do that literally every single day, multiple times a day just to see if or when he was meeting with somebody.

Omar  

What are some automations software's that you use?

David Sandel  

Um, I tried to do as much of it direct as possible. So a little bit of custom programming. That was the other thing that led me to automation was I'm an electrical engineer and I had been for nine years before doing this stuff.

Omar  

So are you like using someone younger than I think you are? But you're saying and making me think you're like in your 50s? Like, how old are you? 

David Sandel

38. 

Omar

Wow, you seem way younger than that, man, like late 20s at most.

David Sandel  

Yeah, no, I'm all old. I went to Thailand when I was 31, I think. So I was hanging out with all these 18 and 19 year old backpackers and they thought I was one of them. I was like, No, no, I've done this. I've had my party days already.

Omar  

Yeah, I know what you mean by that. Staying in a couple hospitals. But there's always either being one of the oldest ones or having people around me that are even older than I just don't want to partake in anything.

I’ve been there, man. I've been there. I know it's back to going back to what you were saying. You were talking about the automation software that you're using.

David Sandel  

Right, so I know quite a few programming languages from my engineering days. And I also taught myself all over the web web programming languages. So I can get in there and kind of hack away and be enough to be dangerous. 

And if it's a simple integration, by all means, I will do that. I will just go direct before using a third party. But it just depends on what platforms we're integrating. So Zapier is pretty much my first go to just because they are the easiest to use. 

I've used Integra mat, that one, they claim that you don't need to have any programming skills but even with all of my programming skills, it's still really difficult to get things to connect and work well.

Omar  

And then one of the other one, automate.io, like what are those things? What did those things do?

David Sandel  

So you mean any of these services.

Omar  

Yeah, any service rather than just automation, specifically, but rather, like I know, ifttt.com, and things like that. But all the time I hear different services that kind of play into the whole system side of marketing. Things like Zapier combined with like hot jar on your website, and Google wants to see how your funnels working and all these different things. So like, what are some services that you would recommend? 

David Sandel

I've never good at generalities. 

Omar

Let's put it this way. If someone were to make a new website for their business…

David Sandel

Yeah.

Omar

Not anything that needs to be connected to Slack or anything like that. But what do you think are some common things that entrepreneurs, especially agency owners deal with that they can add to their website to automate some things to make their life easier?

David Sandel  

Yeah, well, that's why I'm never good at these things. Because it really depends on what your business is. If you're so let's just use some real world examples of the person that I just talked about with the scheduling problems, we did end up using Zapier just in order to automatically create and schedule his Zoom meetings. 

But like the actual form that we fill, had people filled out that was done with custom Java and PHP. So that way, we can pass those fields into Zapier and then in but ultimately into zoom to create those schedulings. 

Another client was it was a Pilates studio. And they use very popular platform in the fitness industry called mind body. And that, like, doesn't integrate with anything. So there we were heavily using pi sync, which just got bought by HubSpot. So now, I don't think pi sync even exists anymore. 

But it really depends on what you're trying to do. If you're an agency owner. I use Zapier just because I also use HubSpot as my CRM and I don't want to pay, like I'm a very low volume high ticket agency at this point. So I'm not managing tons of clients. Therefore, I cannot justify paying like $140 a month just to automate a few tasks. 

And so I use Zapier to integrate HubSpot with my MailChimp account. So that way, I can follow up with my leads automatically or if people you know, they just were looking for some information, but they're not quite ready for an agency to take over? 

Well, I want to keep them on my list and and send them materials because who knows, maybe at some point in time in the future, they will be interested. So that way I can stay in touch and stay front of mind. 

Omar

Makes a ton of sense. 

David Sandel

Yeah. So it really depends on what platform also, I mean, your individual plugins, so my website is on WordPress. And if you pay for a premium plugin, you might have a chance to do all of the... 

Let's just go back to scheduling because as agency owners people want to want our time. You can buy a plug in that basically does the same as Calendly. And if you use calendly, that's another good opportunity for using Zapier but there are premium and premium ones out there. 

So if you have a premium plugin that will do all of this for you, then you don't really need a third party integrator. So it depends. Everything depends. And sorry, I don't have a good general answer for you. But just depends on what you're using.

Omar  

What you did right there, for me, though, I would say extension for my audience as well is open up the thought because I was so unclear in my head about what's possible when it comes to automation. 

And like things that I'll use, obviously, currently and loom and things like that. But I didn't know they were like custom plugins that you can use on WordPress for specific things I didn't.

And I'm also curious how many different software's are able to zap together but then you made me realize that you can also use custom code to make some things work in place. And I didn't know you could do that. 

So having some sort of programmer on your team is pretty helpful, especially when it comes to automation. So how many clients do you serve with that right now?

David Sandel  

Right now I have about three. Some of them are some of them are like ongoing retainer customers that I've had and they just basically need a web admin or a marketing admin, where they have a, they have a strategic person, they have a copywriter. 

And somebody will just dictate to me like this is the, this is what we need to happen, we're gonna run these ads to this web page to this landing page. We need to track those people all the way through the journey that needs to connect to our email marketing, it's also we have to make sure that the pixel is firing and that Google Tag Manager is firing so that we can retarget on multiple platforms. 

So like, that's where the automation and integration comes in. And that's, like you said, having a tech person on staff that knows how to do all that is quite beneficial. The problem is like, it's also quite a new field or a new area. 

So even successful businesses don't even realize that they need something like this, they think, well, I've got a VA, or I've got a copywriter that, you know, has used MailChimp before. So they can just do all of that like, Alright, but you'll get to a point where they're not going to be able to. Or they don't know everything that's involved with like, the other thing too is, once you're a specialist in one part of marketing, you know what's going on in the market, you know what's available. 

As you just mentioned, you weren't aware that there were some plugins out there that do these things. And so, so like, there's nothing wrong with not knowing what you don't know. But if you know, there's people out there willing to help you then like, they can help you a lot.

Omar  

Absolutely. I think a lot of business comes to people realizing you need to delegate a lot of things. I've sourced a lot of things out, you know? I think a lot of people and you yourself, whenever you first started, you were trying to do a million different things at once. 

But as time goes by, you start to realize your time is the most important asset, because you can build your business and a lot better if you actually focus on it, rather than trying to do the service delivery ability or focus on systems and things like that, or rather things that you enjoy, and that you know, you can double down and make better.

But it's a good point that you brought that up, or I wanted to discuss something else. And I wanted to ask before if you're comfortable discussing it before I asked and if you're not getting cut this part out, but how comfortable are you talking about monthly recurring?

David Sandel  

I mean, I'm fine talking about it. It's just I don't have that much. Because my income comes in so many different ways. I've got little one off projects that last me two hour. I've got projects that last me, let's just say a span of three to four months. And then I've got one recurring client. 

So I see if I'm happy, I'm happy to talk about money. It's just I don't have anything that steady. The only thing that is steady, is that I steadily have clients.

Omar  

That's good. Well, that's something.  How much do you make on average monthly recurring wise? Average, like, estimate between a certain number and a certain number?

David Sandel  

Yeah, between? So you're just saying like, regardless whether it's a short term project or retainer, like on average, what am I?

Omar  

What can you expect upwards northwards of some number?

David Sandel  

Yeah, on average, I can comfortably say, between six and 8000. And I've got a goal for this year to double that.

Omar  

Cool. And do you have a team behind you at all? Or is it still all you doing this?

David Sandel  

Now I've got. So again, depending on the project, I don't have any full time contractors, but I will still offer web design, but like you just said, focusing on what I enjoy doing. 

So I enjoy doing the backend of websites, but I don't enjoy doing the design or the copywriting anymore. So I will still offer somebody a website, but I'm not going to be doing any of the design work or the copywriting work I'm going to hire my contractors to do that for me.

Omar  

makes a ton of sense. And you hire locally or or I mean, rather, in the US, wherever else or do you hire in Spain? Where do you hire for that?

David Sandel  

No, I mostly hire from...how do I want to say it? From word of mouth. So once I've built up a relationship with somebody, I'll just keep going back to them. 

But you know, for the very first time I need a graphic designer, I'm going to go to my to my network of other agency owners and see, “Hey, are you happy with anybody? Can I poach anybody that you're using right now?”

And most people are happy to give references and so I'll use you know whoever they refer me to wherever they're located if they have amazing results and they happen to live in the Philippines great. If they get amazing results and they live in California, great. Like that's all that matters.

Omar  

Yeah, I'm very margin focused. I'm always hiring out of the Philippines but I realized they're incredible people and they can do a lot of great work depending on the person. I almost hire exclusively for my team from the Philippines minus like a few operations people. 

But yeah, I think it's kind of - for my audience, lot of them always outreach and ask, like, what do you do for team, what do you do for teams? Because -

David Sandel

Yeah.

Omar

The first point is realizing that you need to delegate things. And then the second point is finding who to delegate to, so yeah, you point that out. You're very merit based, which is cool.

David Sandel  

Well, that and like time, this is, this is a great podcast. For me to realize how much I'm valuing My time is I don't have time to vet somebody else, you know? I'm sure there are, besides Upwork and Fiverr, I'm sure there are other directories where I can find people from overseas.

But I just don't want to start over from nothing. I don't want to reinvent the wheel. If I've got a trusted agency owner that's already using a graphic designer, I don't need to vet them. I already know that they're good to go. As long as their rate and my rate match up, like that's it. Let's do it.

Omar  

I get it. So to go towards the end of the podcast here. One I wanted to ask you about that Mexico story. 

David Sandel

Yeah. Well, back in my van days, and climbing days, me and my friends, two of my friends from Colorado, we wanted to go down to this really famous climbing area in Mexico called Potrero Chico. 

And so we drove down there, we drove across the border. We opted, like you for sure had to register your car there. Otherwise, if anything happened, you could get into big problems. 

But for whatever reason, whether it was lost in translation or not, we decided to not get Mexican car insurance. And so we get to prepare -

Omar  

I can imagine this is about to turn really bad.

David Sandel  

What’s that?

Omar

I said, I can imagine this is about to turn really bad.

David Sandel

So we get to Potrero, we climb for like a week, one of the people had to leave early. So we drove back into Monterey, which is actually I think, one of the top five or for sure, top 10 largest cities in the world. And she had to catch a flight. 

So I decided, sure I'll drive. I rented a scooter in Thailand, and I've driven in other countries. So sure I'll drive in Mexico. So I'm driving. I was in the - I was going to turn. And I realized that was the wrong turn. 

So then I was trying to merge back into the flowing traffic and I'm pretty sure I checked my blind spot but apparently not well enough. So I started to merge into the flowing traffic and got into a significant car accident. Like not -

Well it ripped off her entire front bumper, busted her headlamp. Shredded, well actually not shredded, but put a cut into the sidewall of like a dual axle truck. 

Omar

Dang.

David Sandel

And, and everything was shattered across the highway. So it stopped all of the traffic and it was like three lanes in Monterrey. And so we're like, oh, crap, like, I don't have an international driver's license. We don't have insurance. We're gonna end up spending the night or multiple in Mexican jail. This is not gonna go well. 

Omar 

Jeez.

David Sandel

Yeah, and I mean, the scariest part was that truck was rightfully going the speed limit. Full speed. And if I had just been a few moments sooner, like my best friend that was in the passenger seat could have had an extremely horrific accident. 

So I'm just glad that everybody was safe. And also that it has a funny outcome. 

So we pick up all of the all the parts off the road traffic keeps going, this guy tells us my tires, okay, and no problem. But right as we finally understood, no problem. That's when like three cop cars showed up, and they're like, crap. 

So only one of our friends actually could speak Spanish at the time. This was before I lived in Spain. And he was doing all the translating, whatever. So long story short, we ended up paying, um, I think 400 US dollars and a bribe. And then they are so happy with us. 

Of course, they each just got like $200. So then they're like, Hey, we just got done from I think wherever they make mezcal, which is Oaxaca. Or maybe…

Omar  

Oaxaca, right around there.

David Sandel  

Yeah, so like, we just got back from Oaxaca, we've got some fresh mezcal. Like, you guys shouldn't come party with us tonight. Like -

Omar

Cops?!

David Sandel

Yeah. We're not gonna come party with the cops that we just bribed. That's $200 each. So no, that's all right. 

But I wrote a big long post about that on one of my older websites, but it was pretty funny. In the moment. We were all scared. We all thought we were gonna be in Mexican jail. We bribed the police and then you know, I hate stereotypes.

Yeah. We, they actually like, “Oh, we have a cousin that is right down the street that does auto body stuff.” So we took the car to this guy's cousin's shop and they had, somehow they had like, a near 2000 Subaru Outback bumper and headlight just laying around. They put it on there, they color matched the paint, and we were out in like three hours and that only cost $175! 

Omar  

That's amazing. Wow. I'm gonna come to Mexico to get my auto work done. So...

David Sandel  

Yeah, I know that's always I do like, man, if we need anything. Let's just drive down here.

Omar  

Right, cool. So, final question here for the podcast. And this is one that I asked everybody that comes on the show, right from Dan Lok down to the dirty backpacker, like everyone.

If you had a billboard in space, and you could write whatever you wanted on that billboard, and everyone from Planet Earth could read it in a universal language and see it every morning. And then when the sunset it went away, every single day. What would you write?

David Sandel  

Oh, man, this is too easy:

Live your life. 

I’ve got that tattooed on my lip - on my ribs.

Omar  

Oh I thought you said your lip. I'm like, I was looking for it. 

David Sandel

Yeah. No, that's just the mustache. 

Omar

Alright.

David Sandel  

Live your life. Well, I come from an extremely small town and very rural Wisconsin. And the way of life is just you go to school, maybe. And then you get a job, you get married, you have kids, and then you live in the same small town. 

And, you know, I realized I didn't want to do that, I wanted to travel and get out. So my first job even out of college was I left and moved to Texas. That didn't work out for me, but at least I did it. 

And then, you know, I eventually moved back to Minnesota, worked there for six years and decided no, I want to make rock climbing a big part of my life. So I moved to Colorado, then, you know, at that time, I was making close to $90,000. And I was only 30 years old. 

So people looked at me like why would you leave a secure job with a professional degree, making $90,000 to live in a van and start something new. I was like, I don't know. Because I feel like it because this isn't working for me. 

Like I was, I was happy. I had money. So I was comfortable. But like nothing was fulfilling. I still had never other than Mexico and Jordan and I still had never really traveled to anywhere else in the world. 

And even though theoretically, I had like three to four weeks of vacation, they would only let me take one week at a time. So the one week is not really enough to travel halfway across the world, see a country and then make it back to work by Monday.

Omar  

You had the nomad spirit, I get it.

David Sandel  

Yeah. So I mean, listen, don't listen to what other people tell you you have to do, like listen to yourself and make the life that you want. 

And the other big thing about that is nothing is permanent. 

In the back of my mind. I knew I had a degree. I knew that if I fail, I can still get a job somewhere else. Or even if it's not engineering, I have a four year degree. So that's something to fall back on. 

And so nothing is forever and nothing is permanent.

Omar  

I love that. And I think that is what we stand by here at the Nomadic Executive. So an incredible way to end the podcast. Thank you so much for coming on today, David.

David Sandel  

Yeah, thank you for having me. It was a blast. And hopefully it went well. My first one ever.

Omar  

Thanks for tuning into our Systems Mini Series episode two out of three. Next week will be the final three out of three episode and we'll be joined by Jonathan Zamora. 

Jonathan has an email marketing agency that he runs fully remotely, making about 70 to 100K a month and has some of the most airtight systems I've ever seen. So make sure to not miss this episode. 

Remember nomad fam, we've got some incredibly value filled episodes planned out for you. So please hit that subscribe button and leave a review. Your review helps this podcast become more visible and ultimately inspire more people just like you.

Outro

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