Episode Transcript
Glenn Harper [:00:00:00
Hello everyone. Welcome to another edition of the Empowering Entrepreneurs podcast. I’m Glenn Harper.
Julie Smith [:00:00:04
I’m Julie Smith.
Glenn Harper [:00:00:05
We’ve got a wonderful guest. We’ve got David Stowers principal owner of Smash Success. He is also a business development specialist for Freedom Sensible Software and He is a TikTok influencer to keep his kids on edge that if they misbehave or embarrass them all over social media. That’s what it says. For some reason he flat out enjoys helping businesses grow and scale. He has a voice for radio and a face for tv. Is more comfortable in front of the camera than than Bob Barker. He has a storied career with many a stop that I’m confident listeners will enjoy.
Glenn Harper [:00:00:34
He loves to sell solutions for his clients problems but his passion is helping entrepreneurs grow and scale. He is solely responsible for the personal household credit of families to increase exponentially in the early 2000s as he was the face of the Shop at Home QVC platform. For those of you who do not know what this is, it was revolutionary TV concept at the time as it enabled one to purchase all the coolest stuff from your couch at home while watching TV while while eating popcorn in your PJs. His calming presence made people want what they were selling. The sales experience that he learned from this position resonated with David and led him to start Smash Success to help the companies making products and services grow exponentially. If he’s not helping companies grow or selling company solutions, you can find him on the local improv comedy stage telling dad jokes or smashing points on the pickleball court. Please welcome David Sowers.
David Stowers [:00:01:20
Thank you for having me.
Glenn Harper [:00:01:22
It’s a pleasure to have you. We are looking forward to chatting with you. It should be a hoot, I hope.
Julie Smith [:00:01:25
Today we like to poke holes in that because sometimes Glenn goes a little crazy on his introductions and they’re not always truthful.
Glenn Harper [:00:01:32
That’s not all true. The Internet said it was.
David Stowers [:00:01:35
I don’t know. Yeah, he embellished it a little bit.
Glenn Harper [:00:01:37
Just a little bit. Oh come on now. It has to be true.
David Stowers [:00:01:40
Well, we can correct a little if you want as we go here.
Glenn Harper [:00:01:43
Well, if that’s what you want to go with. Well, you know we’re trying to, you know, when we have our guests on here we try to try to get to know them, where they came from, how they got started doing what they do. And so we’re trying to figure out. It says that you maybe grew up in the city of Grand Rapids, in the furniture city. Is that True.
David Stowers [:00:02:00
That’s true. Yeah. Well, I’m. I guess, you know, when people are listening in here from anywhere in the world, you know, west Michigan is probably the way we say here, so.
Glenn Harper [:00:02:08
Gotcha. Second biggest city in the city in the state. Yes.
David Stowers [:00:02:12
You know how people say they’re from Detroit or Chicago, but it’s really a suburb, you know, so it’s a. Enough people where I’m. I say the big city name, but it really was, you know, outskirts.
Glenn Harper [:00:02:21
Doesn’t resonate. So growing up, your parents, were they entrepreneurs? They have real jobs. How’d that. How’d that work out?
David Stowers [:00:02:29
You know, my mom was in a hospital administration, and my father was a counselor. Psychology, psychologist. And so, yeah, I always like to say around our dinner tables, my father would bring home his work and say, what would you do in this situation? So I really tapped into the psychology side of that, and that’s where I love my marketing. And then my grandfather was a business owner, and I got inspiration there. So the combination. I’m an entrepreneur, but I’m really passionate about marketing as well. So that’s kind of where I think it came from.
Glenn Harper [:00:03:00
It’s interesting that your grandpa was an entrepreneur, but your parents, neither one did that path. Did what your grandfather do for a living terrify them that they had to work? Like, it was insane. And they’re like, I’m not doing that. Or how did that happen? How did they not choose that? Do you know?
David Stowers [:00:03:16
I think my mother was more. Wanted to play it safe, kind of grow up with the home, with the consistent paycheck. And my father was. He had these aspirations, but never took the leap. He just had a servant’s heart and just wanted to just kind of. He leaned into that a little bit more. So, yeah, you know, but in all fairness, and like a lot of entrepreneurs, I was hustling stuff as a teenager. I was always doing stuff.
David Stowers [:00:03:41
And that led into my career very early because of being able to make some relationships and very early. That kind of launched me into some early success with infomercials, if you remember the term back in the day. Yeah.
Glenn Harper [:00:03:55
So when you say you were hustling, were you hustling because you were bored? You wanted the cash to go out and buy a car and go date the ladies? Like, what was the motivation to want to say, I got to go make some money? Or, like, why did. How did you decide that?
David Stowers [:00:04:10
You know, I was. I want to say 15 or 16. I think I was 16. And the neighbors knocked on the door. My mother answered the door. I’M standing behind her. And they made some business presentation to her. My mom right away said, this sounds like Amway, and wasn’t interested.
David Stowers [:00:04:29
But I raised my hand behind her. I said, I’m interested. And so my parents had to sign for me. But at 16, I signed up and I started going to all these events and hearing motivational speakers and all these people making all this money. And at a young age, those seeds were planted. And. And so for a couple years I did that, and that was where a lot of that came from. I just got some.
David Stowers [:00:04:49
I think I would call it good mentorship at a young age. You know, at least saw the success and was. But this is the path I want to take. So it was that point forward, I think I sort of started to become unhirable.
Julie Smith [:00:05:04
I love that.Glenn Harper [:00:05:04
This is crazy. Like, two things are happening. Number one, your parents are like, yeah, go do all this stuff. Like, that’s a big leap for parents to say to their kid, go do that. But number two, you know, sales is terrifying to most people. And you’re like, I want that. Like, where did that come from?
David Stowers [:00:05:24
You know, my. My parents. Friends would always look at me sometimes and say, you’re different in a good way.
Glenn Harper [:00:05:30
Right.David Stowers [:00:05:31
Because I just kind of carried myself with a little more confidence. And I don’t know where that came from. Probably my father’s psychology background, and I had great parents, and they just instilled that positive mindset. I’m not saying they were always positive because parents can be, you know.
Glenn Harper [:00:05:46
Oh, yeah.David Stowers [:00:05:46
Times I thought they were negative, but yeah, it was just at an early age, it just sort of. Maybe the. Being the oldest child, too, you tend to get that little bit of social advantage, as they say. So. Yeah, I. I don’t know. That’s kind of where I think it maybe came from.
Glenn Harper [:00:06:04
You said you were special.
David Stowers [:00:06:07
Hopefully in a good way.
Glenn Harper [:00:06:08
That’s right. That’s special. It’s a good one.
David Stowers [:00:06:10
Not without my faults, for sure. That’s right.
Julie Smith [:00:06:12
So your siblings, how many did you have?
David Stowers [:00:06:15
I have a brother. He’s my bigger little brother, so he’s a lot taller, a lot more athletic, but he’s my little brother still, and we’re best friends to this day. And. And then my sister, who we’re all about four years apart, so my sister. So there’s three of us, and. Yeah.
Julie Smith [:00:06:33
Are you the only entrepreneur?
David Stowers [:00:06:36
I’m. I’m the optimum. My brother’s in hardcore sales, so he, you know, you guys understand enough talking. A lot of entrepreneurs that, you know Sales is when the person has that entrepreneurial drive, but they kind of want to buffer it a little bit. And so they want the independence and some of the benefits of being an entrepreneur. But, you know, he stays in that sales lane and he does extremely well at sales.
Glenn Harper [:00:06:58
You know, those tall, athletic salespeople. The average middle aged white guy cannot compete with that in that arena. It’s impossible.
David Stowers [:00:07:07
I can’t compete with pickleball with him either. He just, and I play competitive too, and he lets me play with him once in a while, but he’s one of the best in our city. I just can’t compete with that.
Glenn Harper [:00:07:17
It’s the damnedest thing. So we have to take what we’re given, right, what we’re provided, and then try to be the best at it. So when you’re, as a kid now, did you guys do a lot of vacationing? Did you stay at home a lot? Were you more of homebodies? How did that work?
David Stowers [:00:07:29
No, we took a few family vacations, but we didn’t, you know, by American standards, I would say we were lower income. My father, being a counselor, didn’t make much money and my mom was more on the secretarial side. So I often saw myself as maybe not having the nicest clothes or the nicest shoes and maybe that factors into some of the motivation. But yeah, we, we, we were kind of in that, you know, social economic.
Glenn Harper [:00:07:56
Range, which again, a lot of entrepreneurs start there because like they don’t, I don’t want this. I want something better. And it’s not a negative of where they’re at. It’s just like I want, it’s a drive to be the best they can at something. Right?
David Stowers [:00:08:08
Yeah, absolutely. And just make a better way. But I’ve traveled enough internationally too, where I can appreciate how wealthy we are as Westerners, you know. So I, I’ve always been super thankful. I’ve always told my kids that kings thousand years ago would have traded half their kingdoms for what the poorest people have here. So I, we’re very thankful at the same time. So once you get older, you put that in perspective. But it doesn’t change those see that were planted, as you mentioned, to kind of motivate you.
Glenn Harper [:00:08:31
So again, walk me through. I’m trying to picture my kids coming to me at age 15, 16, saying, Dad, I want to go off to a conference with all these motivational speakers and I’m going to have a sleepover there for a few days. And you just got to sign off. I got it. I’ll be fine. How do your parents go? Yeah, you’re set for that. Go ahead. How did that conversation go?
David Stowers [:00:08:53
It was a combination of the neighbors being trustworthy people, a local school teacher, and they knew them and I’m going with them. And part of it also was just my father being having a psychology and, and psychologist background. He wanted to push me and he also wanted to not have a rebellious teenager. So I think they let the rope out, as they say, maybe a little sooner than most and gave me that independence to go make my own decisions and a little bit earlier than most parents would get their kids to do that, even today.
Glenn Harper [:00:09:27
But you’re ready for it, right? I mean, obviously, I mean, and are we really ever ready? But they felt like you would be. This is a great opportunity. That, that’s, that’s fantastic.
Julie Smith [:00:09:36
Did you make the top 10? Like, how did this, how did this little career choice go?
David Stowers [:00:09:40
Well, in Amway, you know, it was a pretty mature company at that point. It can, it still is very mature, but mature enough that I didn’t, I did, I did okay for the resources I had because in network marketing it’s all about your network. I didn’t have a big network, but I had confidence to go maybe do more cold calling or talk to strangers. And so, yeah, I think for my age I did well. But what I gleaned most from that is the, is just the mental attitude to the positive mental attitude because I’m listening to these little cassette tapes that I’m spending, you know, my part time job through co op at high schools. I’m spending all my money on motivational stuff and listening and drinking in this positive mental attitude stuff. The early days of Tony Robbins and kind of thinking. And so yeah, that’s, yeah, I think that’s kind of how it all played out as I recall.
David Stowers [:00:10:34
I mean, I’m 59. That was, you know, a little while ago.
Glenn Harper [:00:10:37
You know, it’s, it’s funny. Good salespeople and you know, we get to come across them as clients and just in life, nothing phases them. You could tell them they’re the worst person. They suck at what they do. They’re the worst product they’re selling. They’re like, yeah, so can, can I count on you for an order tomorrow? It just doesn’t bother him where as a normal person you get rejected like that. You’re in therapy for a month, at what point and you started this, did you already have that confidence or did these couple years stint when you did this and went away, did that really just Nail it like I’m invincible.
David Stowers [:00:11:15
Human nature in general, none of us like that rejection. And so I wasn’t immune to it. I think what it did is it gave me, it encouraged me to take and step into that and embrace that a little bit more. Courage is like they say. It’s not like you don’t have fear if you have, you know, you just, you just go lean into it and you make it happen. So I think where that’s also benefited in life is it’s made me less, a lot of people shy away from confrontation. And it’s not that I enjoy confrontation, but I’ve learned that in the long run it’s, it’s a better, it’s more better to. If you can do it right with the right heart and right mindset and the right framework, you leaning into the problems is going to get you further in the long run.
David Stowers [:00:11:58
So yeah, that all came out of that for sure.
Glenn Harper [:00:12:02
So you’re, you’re studying, doing or you’re, you’re doing sales, learning things, traveling the world. Then you’re like, you know what? I think I’m off to college. I’m going to go far, far away. I’m going to cross Route 6 and go to Davenport University and go far, far away. How did, yeah you decide that college and why did you even decide to go to college when your sales was just happening? Like what made you kind of goes.
David Stowers [:00:12:22
Back to the parents again? My parents, you want to make them proud. And they kind of had pushed me and wanted me to go to college and so I made the 45 hour trip from north of Grand Rapids to Grand Rapids and set up shop and went to college. It took me 10 years to get my bachelor’s. Just so you know though, because I did get married and very early and kids early and sort of had to, you know, burn the candle at both ends for a long time to eventually get that act out. And in the end I, they know it, I did it for them. I didn’t really do it for me. I don’t know that it’s the right path for everybody, but yeah, it was just some mixed motivation, A little cocktail of mixed motivation that was going on there. So.
David Stowers [:00:13:04
But yeah, I’m glad I did it. It’s nice to have, nice to say you have but man, I wish looking back I would have just focused on that entrepreneurial thing for those years instead of putting in the hours there. It’s just who I am.
Glenn Harper [:00:13:17
It’s tough. We’re just led to believe that college is the thing to go to. And if you don’t go, well, you’re just some sort of lesser person, God forbid, do a blue collar job. But at the end of the day, the skills that you learn and how you do it, maybe it helped you a little bit as you hung up your shingle and did your own business, but you know, the resources now you just hire somebody to do that. You don’t have to know it. Right. And so you just use chatgpt. Right, or that.
David Stowers [:00:13:43
Yes, yes. And maybe that’s the segue to where we’re going with this conversation today. Right. Like nowadays we have that. Back then, though, college even more so was just the thing you did. Right? It’s the thing that sort of, at least socioeconomically, if you could do it, you did it. And. And I could.
David Stowers [:00:13:59
So, I mean, I had to pay my own way. And that’s actually how it led into my entrepreneurial ventures, was figuring out how to pay for college because, you know, I had to come up with the money on my own.
Glenn Harper [:00:14:10
So, you know, all these.
Julie Smith [:00:14:11
So walk us through that. What all did you do, boy?
David Stowers [:00:14:15
How long do we have for this show?
Glenn Harper [:00:14:16
As long as you need.
David Stowers [:00:14:19
So it is an interesting story. I think it is worth telling. And it starts where I’m in college and I have a in between my freshman sophomore year, I decide I’m going to apply to sell cars at a local dealership a few miles from from where my apartment was. And I got the job. So I’m 19 years old and I’m selling cars. My mom’s like, I can’t believe you’re doing this. Like, that’s for 30, 40 year olds. And I’m like, I don’t know.
David Stowers [:00:14:44
They gave me the job. So I made some good money that summer and didn’t know if I was even to go back to college. I met a gentleman there and through a series of events ended up finding this little toy item. And it’s a boomerang airplane, a little piece of foam. You throw it and it loops around, comes back to you. I watched these guys make a ton of money at these glorified flea markets. And I’m like, you know, making a grand or two on the weekend. So I bought those wholesale, actually started importing them, figured out how to do that.
David Stowers [:00:15:14
And I started going to these glorified flea markets on the weekends and I traveled. I’d go to Nashville on the weekend and while I’m in college that next fall and I started making a grand or two on the weekends, you know, 500 bucks. A thousand bucks. And that led to me doing a summer fair the following summer. And I’m set up at a booth next to this Malaysian guy, and he’s selling this little product that you can look up on YouTube and go to RollingRuler.com or Rolling Rulers, type it in. You’ll see my hands on the infomercial we made with it. Because this guy walks up to me, and he’s selling Ginsu knives, and I have no idea who he is. And he says, that ruler that you.
David Stowers [:00:15:52
You’ve got there, that I started importing after I met this Malaysian guy, and now I started selling those as well at the glorified flea markets my sophomore year. He says, yeah, have you ever seen the commercial called the Mooley at Slices at Dices that makes Julianne fries? I’m like, yeah. He goes, well, that was my commercial. And I’m like, yeah. He’s blowing smoke. Turns out it was him. And he says, we can make a commercial out of that little ruler that you’re importing. And so we did, six months later, after flying to New York, going to television studios, and I’m in my early 20s, and we made a commercial.
David Stowers [:00:16:24
Now, this was before the Internet, so it was cash or cod, but we sold almost a million of those over the next two years on TV with an infomercial, so.
Julie Smith [:00:16:31
And you’re still going to school, correct?
David Stowers [:00:16:34
That. I did take some time off. Then it got busy. I had an office, and, you know, I’m 23 or 4 years old, and I’m getting these commission checks of, you know, 15, $20,000 a month. And I’m like, school is definitely not the priority at that time.
Glenn Harper [:00:16:48
No.David Stowers [:00:16:49
So we. I just had that success at a very early age. And what I lacked at that point, and this is something I always try to bring up when I tell that story, is I lacked mentorship. I lacked. I didn’t. My parents didn’t know how to even guide me in that process. I didn’t have people around me. And so two years later, making crazy money, building a beautiful home and fancy cars and being able to take my daughter to Disney World whenever I wanted, I went.
David Stowers [:00:17:16
I started on a downward financial path because I learned what a product lifecycle was, because my business partner, this gentleman at the time, he says, what are you going to do when this product run is over? I’m like, what are you talking about? We’re probably winding down here. Sales are going to start falling off. And there’s. I’m like, what are you Talking about, I had a lifestyle, I had some money in the bank, but anyways, we couldn’t repeat the success. So in, I think it was 1991, lost the home. 1992, I lost the fancy cars. Filed bankruptcy a year later. Like, it was a real life lesson that.
David Stowers [:00:17:51
A hard one, which you hear a lot with entrepreneurs, but not a fun thing you want to go through. But it really was so good in hindsight. Right. 2020, looking back on it, it’s interesting on that.
Glenn Harper [:00:18:06
If you had a mentor that says, hey, this is how you pay tax, this is how you save your money, this is how you budget, this is how you do all the things, would you be where you’re at today? The answer is probably no, right? It couldn’t have happened any other way. But that tasting it and then it’s gone had to just trigger something primal in you that’s way different than just going, oh, this is how you do things. I feel like this is the best thing could have happened to you. I know it sounds weird, but we.
Julie Smith [:00:18:38
All know the peaks and the valleys. We don’t learn anything at the peak. Right. We learn everything at the Valley. And so literally, my thing was like, well, what did you pivot and do next? Like, you didn’t. You didn’t stop?
David Stowers [:00:18:49
No, I like. I like how you. I like how you said that John is a primal part of you comes out of it. So, yeah, you. I was a very spiritual experience during that time because it’s not just losing your home and your cars and the embarrassment and the pain and how are you going to pay the bills and kids that you have to feed mouths and stuff. It is a question, like you said, Julie, what do you do next? But you also start to tap into that, who am I? What do I want to be in life? What’s my purpose? And all this kind of thing, and you just. Survival kicks in. And I did flea markets on the weekends, and I remember literally not having money to get my wife to buy diapers.
David Stowers [:00:19:37
So the home has. You know, we lived in that home for almost 18 months before the bank got it. So fighting that a little bit and not even having money to give my wife for diapers. So, I mean, I’m the. That’s a. That’s a tough place to be. So now it’s. It’s potentially losing your marriage because that’s being strained to the max, which, thank God, we didn’t.
David Stowers [:00:19:58
But that’s a. Yeah, it’s primal. You get real primal. It was probably the most deeply spiritual time of my life too. Which as going back to what you said. Would I be the same person today? No, no. I had to learn humility. And that was some, I was, I was arrogant and Prideful at time.
David Stowers [:00:20:16
24, 25 with.Glenn Harper [:00:20:18
Why wouldn’t you be?David Stowers [:00:20:18
You know?Glenn Harper [:00:20:19
Yeah.David Stowers [:00:20:19
Maximum. Yeah. All this success, right, that you see. You know, we see it now in this, in this tick tock culture, but a little bit more, it’s a bit more in our face. But that’s who I was just without the Internet. So. Yeah. And it was a great time looking back for that reason.
Glenn Harper [:00:20:34
Yeah. You had to, you had to fight your demons, you had to go deep because nobody was going to save you. It was only you. And then you had to fight yourself to go. I mean it’s these stories give me goosebumps because it’s just like everybody kind of has to go through it. Some it gets worse than others. This one sounds like heck. 18 months in your house, you’re not even fully moved in yet and you’re like, oh my God, now we’re out of here.
Glenn Harper [:00:20:56
Like it had that had to be horrible experience. But yeah, made you stronger.
David Stowers [:00:21:01
Yeah. And you know, you learn, you learn you’re hiding things from people for tell till you can’t hide it anymore in terms of, you know, just friends and family. And just mostly that’s just the personal embarrassment, I think, of the whole thing. But to kind of segue into your question, Julie, what I did next was I had, I was an entrepreneur still and I couldn’t make a living doing the flea markets. I could, I could keep a little food on the table. And what I, what I looked at was I did have that spiritual journey. What could I do entrepreneurially that would take very, very little capital but give me significant upside? And that’s when I got into network marketing. Really heavy with a company.
David Stowers [:00:21:41
At the time it was a telecommunications company. And this was when long distance was first, you know, going from 50 cents a minute to 10 cents a minute. And I, I, I did network marketing for about five years and that’s where I really excelled. I found a second career, I guess you could say. And that’s, I got into, you know, training and doing the, you know, belly to belly dinner table type conversations to recruit people. And, and yeah, that’s, I did, I did well, I hit the top of that company.
Glenn Harper [:00:22:07
Was that MCI or what was that one?
David Stowers [:00:22:10
Because I think it was called Excel Telecommunication.
Glenn Harper [:00:22:13
I think I might have got sucked into that for a second or two. And, and I remember And I was like, the guy’s trying to get me into. I’m like, well, show me where I’m going to save on my bill. And he couldn’t do it. I said, I’m not doing this. But I remember that was a big thing back in the day.
David Stowers [:00:22:25
MCI was just a hair before that. And this is this, you know, MCI had those little credit card looking things. You dialed the long sequence a number before you dial. So yeah, it’s, it was, this was.
Julie Smith [:00:22:36
I have no idea what you guys were talking about.
Glenn Harper [:00:22:38
We know, we’ve been there and there’s people that are listening. They know exactly what this is. Network market was just becoming thing. And it was either people were making bank on it, but at the same time it was like the stigmatism, like it was a scam. But at the end of the day, what was most people were selling was a good product. It was good stuff. It’s just the negative connotation overshadowed it until you could crack through that. Then people could see it.
Glenn Harper [:00:23:03
And that was hard to do.David Stowers [:00:23:04
You know, you say that and it’s funny, you’re actually describing why I went into a third career. It’s fascinating because I did not enjoy that side of it. I did not enjoy the stigmatism that went with it. And so I, I eked it out and I did it after, you know, five years. I’m like, man, I don’t want to make a career out of this. But it dug me out of a hole. And so that’s when I’m. I’m run into a guy who had had an Internet dial up Internet now once again, Julie, you’re not maybe old enough.
Julie Smith [:00:23:37
No, I know. Dial up Internet.David Stowers [:00:23:39
Oh good, you’re right on the cusp of that probably. And he starts talking to me and there was. So he. I’m having this conversation with him around the time when AOL, if you recall was. Do you remember the CDs they would send out in the mail? It’s free 500 hours of Internet discount. Internet was just on coming along. Instead of 24.95amonth, you see start seeing ads for 9.95amonth for unlimited or whatever. He starts telling me how he had started ISP and sold it.
David Stowers [:00:24:07
He moved up back to Michigan. He says, you know, we could charge a penny a minute if we wanted to. And I’m like, ding, ding, ding, ding. And I’m like, really? He goes, yeah, the billings easy to do that. So we are to this day, I think we’re the only ones that ever took that concept and you can go to. I think it’s not netpenny.net still around. Believe it or not there’s a company that ended up buying us who to kind of go forward a little bit on the story and I’ll jump back. They still offer a.
David Stowers [:00:24:36
I don’t know it’s like 295 or 295 minutes because there are farmers there’s requirements for some companies that have an extreme backup situation there. I think these got several 7800 customers still still using dial up to this day. But I regressed a little bit there that that guy and I started that company. We raised a bunch of capital and we just grew like crazy. Just crazy. I mean we had one month our we took 20000 phone calls into our phone call system. We just exploded. We only had about 20 employees at the time but we bought a building and you know grew it and we got into.
David Stowers [:00:25:14
We did a five year run. It was a good run. And then high speed kind of came along and we couldn’t really make money on the high speed. There just wasn’t enough money in it for us to transition. So I can shorten the story by saying you know I bought him out and then sold off to our GM and they sold to this other company. So yeah that was got me into technology. Alongside of that I get a call from my old Mooly rolling ruler friend in that who I’d stay he’s still one of my dearest friends this day as well. And he says hey, got an opportunity to go on QVC and sell, you know, sell this product.
David Stowers [:00:25:50
And I’m like that sounds interesting. So flow to Philadelphia where their headquarters were went on the air, sold this product and that was about a seven year run. And that led into me doing live television for about seven years until the travel got to me because you’re just getting on a plane flying to Philadelphia, getting on a plane flying to Philadelphia at the last minute a lot of times but made hundreds of national television appearances selling dozens of different products on qvc. And I would find them, I would rep them and I did that in in concert with this Internet thing until the Internet thing went away.
Glenn Harper [:00:26:23
You know it’s funny, the kids these days have no idea how great when the Internet came out. Nobody would tolerate that kind of quality today. Nobody would tolerate it but at the time it was like we’ll take it. It’ll eventually show up on my screen. But if it can’t be instant today I don’t even know how we even did commerce back in the day when it came out. So that’s a tribute to everything right there. People wanted it so bad, they didn’t care.
David Stowers [:00:26:52
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that’s true. It was four to six weeks. I think the Federal Trade Commission required you to deliver within six weeks. So.
Glenn Harper [:00:27:00
Unbelievable. So, so again, it’s so weird. You’re, you’re, you’re, you’re kind of have a business, you’re selling it, you’re doing your thing and you go off, you’re selling this other thing. You’re doing the QVC thing. You’re not really. You’re still the entrepreneur thing on the side, but you’re, you’re probably doing better at the QVC thing and you’re in a whole new type of market. And then again, for some reason that stopped and you decided, I’m going to do this whole thing will help companies scale. How did that transpire?
David Stowers [:00:27:27
Yeah, so the QVC thing was from 2000 to 2007. I. My kids were at that age of 6 to 16. I’d have five kids and I just was missing too many birthday parties and that and just got to me and I decided, you know, it’s, it’s kind of time to hand that off. I handed the products I was on television with to some other people and, and it was a great time, by the way. I was the most fun I ever had in business that, that still to this day. I mean, you’re meeting famous people. You’d sit in the green room with Lori Greiner, who’s the qvc.
David Stowers [:00:27:57
You’re, you’re meeting Billy Mays. I traveled with him. Like you, it was so fun. But it, work, life balance and kids, like priority. Right. I was weighing it and I’m like. So I gave it up and temporarily went back into network marketing as a filler. But during that period, I started a couple SaaS companies because I fell in love with technology too.
David Stowers [:00:28:21
I liked the. I don’t know, I fell in love with selling the invisible a little bit instead of the tangible and so started a e Newsletter company. This was. The Internet’s coming on strong, obviously. So ran with that for five years and then I, I’m kind of consulting a lot in that period of time. And then now that I’m older, I kind of enjoy just coming alongside of a company and helping them with their market. I usually have one client at a time and for the last, I don’t know, 10 or 11 years, I’ve had three clients and about a three to four year run with each one. And I kind of work myself out of a job as a good consultant should I guess, or good marketing person.
David Stowers [:00:29:03
And yeah, come in, help them work their marketing, their business development, get some systems in place so they can turn the faucet on and off. And this company I’m with now, Freedom Dev, Sensible Software, I’m sitting in their offices right now. I actually stepped out of one of their planning meetings here, the annual planning meeting to come and do this. I appreciate it. Oh yeah, no, yeah, it’s. I, this is an incredible company. I could probably work here until I’m 80 years old. I just love these guys but I’m still independent.
David Stowers [:00:29:31
I, I’m 1099 but no one in the building would probably know it and so yeah, that’s. I just love. We’re doing that for them. We’re setting up like how I met Julie through. We have a podcast ourselves. We’re using that as a way to create content and I’m kind of setting up a marketing system for them and it’s a process. It’s not going to happen overnight and it’s learning. Right.
David Stowers [:00:29:55
A lot of math involved. We tested this. That didn’t work. We tested that work a little and that’s kind of where we’re at.
Julie Smith [:00:30:01
So I have a question. If this company were to ask you to be a W2 employee because they see some longevity or whatever, would you give up your freedom?
David Stowers [:00:30:11
You know, I, if they did, I don’t know what circumstances would create that.
Julie Smith [:00:30:16
I’m just asking because I.David Stowers [:00:30:17
If it required me to report in and you know, put 40 solid hour, 60 solid hour or come into an office every day.
Glenn Harper [:00:30:24
No, not going to happen.David Stowers [:00:30:26
No, I’m too close to. And yeah, that’s not going to happen.Julie Smith [:00:30:30
I knew the answer, but I thought I’d throw it the.David Stowers [:00:30:32
The truth is worth asking. Yeah.Glenn Harper [:00:30:34
Once you become self employed, you can’t be employed anymore. It’s the damnedest.
David Stowers [:00:30:37
Like he’s both are self employed, you know, you know that feeling so well.
Julie Smith [:00:30:42
He started the podcast off with.
Glenn Harper [:00:30:43
He’s unhirable, unemployable. Yeah. By anybody else. So that’s a great segue. You know when you, when you’re doing the commercials and then you went on the qvc, did you do any. Have to do any special training to, you know, be acting, be comfortable on stage, speech thing, gargle vinegar and battery acid. Like how did you. It was just natural or was it just like I just going to do this like hold my beer.
Glenn Harper [:00:31:08
I got it.David Stowers [:00:31:09
It’s such a great question. So about a year after I started with qvc, they did start requiring first time on air people to go through a little training. And you had to do a dummy pitch with, you know, or pitch your product to, you know, in front of a room and go through that little exercise. I didn’t have to. I sort of skirted that because that program wasn’t in place at the time. But I don’t know, I think they first timers back then, around 2000, the, the host, I, he says, are you nervous? I says, heck yeah, why wouldn’t I be? You know, it’s going to be between. I said, how many people are watching us go, there’ll be between 800,000 and 2 million people depending on clicking through the channels. And they watch for an average of six minutes.
David Stowers [:00:31:53
And, you know, he goes, but here’s the advice I’m going to give you. He goes, go out there and just have fun. Just smile and have fun. He goes, make sure you don’t swear, he says, because you know, it’s live, you know there’s a little delay, but, you know, you won’t come back, but to have fun. And so I don’t know, that really resonated with me. And I went out there and just had fun with it. And also looking back, one thing that they said to me, after you’d meet with the buyers and you meet with the, you know, the, the producers and directors and so forth, afterwards, he’d be like, it was just my personality apparently resonated with the QVC audience as a. Someone who comes off as trustworthy.
David Stowers [:00:32:35
And that really resonated. And so it just worked. And so now a lot of companies wanted me there to sell their product, or when I would bring a product to a buyer, they’re like, yeah, let’s do it. You think it’s going to work. And that’s something that you actually don’t. Sometimes these TV pitchmans, you know, the hype and psych, the Billy Mays back in the day. But wait, there’s more. I didn’t come off that way.
David Stowers [:00:33:00
No, no, that’s what they said.
Glenn Harper [:00:33:01
Well, it’s totally true. And I think as an entrepreneur, one of the things that we sometimes lose track of is we’re so busy, the pressures. We’re trying to get this thing done, we’re trying to do it. Just sit back, smile and have a good time. If you’re going to do it, either choose to be stressed out and ticked off or have some fun with it. And I’m telling you that the having fun with it lifts everybody up around you and it’s hard to do. Right. You got to be a conscious effort to do that.
Glenn Harper [:00:33:30
But you can have fun doing anything, right?
David Stowers [:00:33:32
Yeah. Yeah. And there’s angst, but I think it’s like going on a first date or something. You know, it’s like there’s, there’s butterflies, but you’re still embrace and enjoy it. It’s, you know, it’s an awesome experience. So.
Glenn Harper [:00:33:45
Yeah, they say the number one things that chicks look for when you go on a first date, that the guy, the guy’s got to be funny. So that’s a rule.
David Stowers [:00:33:51
Heard that. I’ve heard my dad told jokes. Oh, my God, he had joke books everywhere.
Glenn Harper [:00:33:56
And yeah, that’s why I said Glenn.Julie Smith [:00:33:58
Hasn’T had many first dates.Glenn Harper [:00:33:59
No, that’s why. That’s, that’s, that’s why at the local improv telling dad jokes. I know you tell them. I know you do.
David Stowers [:00:34:07
And yeah, I don’t think that one was. That was an embellishment. I’ve had many people say I should do stand up. And I used to have a joke newsletter, but I gave that up.
Glenn Harper [:00:34:14
See, I. I knew it.Julie Smith [:00:34:16
What about the tick tock? Do you do that to embarrass your kids?
David Stowers [:00:34:18
Don’t do TikTok. What it was, was Facebook. I have 2500 friends, but about 700 people follow me, I’m guessing. I know it’s 700 some followers and most of them, some of them will message say, hey, I heard you’re funny. Because if you look at my Facebook page, it’s just humor and it’s not corny. It has to be that relevant, relatable, witty, like correct. I’m really careful. Oh, yeah, Yeah.
David Stowers [:00:34:43
I just had someone Sunday at church. Oh, I love your humor on Facebook. You know, like, I’m like, thank you. You know, I love the one about this. I shared it with my friends. So it’s like a little mini blogger on Facebook with humor.
Glenn Harper [:00:34:53
But it’s fun, right? And again, you have a brand yourself, right. You’re obviously recognized by people they grew up watching at some level. And again, that trustworthyness is a real thing. And that’s where, you know, it’s said here that you’re training to be the face of the Department of Commerce as they want you to sell the benefits of AI to the masses because people trust you so much. Is that, is there truth to that?
David Stowers [:00:35:17
I don’t know where that Came from, I’m telling you. But it said your producer typed that into chat GPT.
Glenn Harper [:00:35:22
I’m the producer.Julie Smith [:00:35:23
Glenn’s the producer. That’s where we go wrong.David Stowers [:00:35:25
Oh yeah, the Department of Commerce. I’m trying to think of where that one would.
Glenn Harper [:00:35:29
No.David Stowers [:00:35:30
So, yeah, I don’t know. I. If you want to go into AI Though, especially on the subject of, you know, streamlining operations and to maximize efficiency, we could spend the rest of the time there too. I love AI but. Yeah.
Julie Smith [:00:35:44
Well, I want to know where your ruler friend is.
David Stowers [:00:35:47
My ruler friend?
Julie Smith [:00:35:48
What does that look like now?
David Stowers [:00:35:49
So you might recognize him. He’s Chef Tony. He’s the guy. If you recall this infomercial, he throws a pineapple up in the air with a Ginsu knife and he cuts it in midair. Yeah. So that’s Tony. And actually we just. We’re gonna talk over the holidays here.
David Stowers [:00:36:03
But he, He. He lives in Vancouver and he’s nine years older than me and he’s still doing some work here and they did a lot of international work. He may do one more knife commercial, but. Yeah.
Julie Smith [:00:36:16
So do you. Will you guys do business again or what? I mean, is it like this just like ebb and flow and.
David Stowers [:00:36:21
Well, we could. It’s interesting. We did. He was one of my clients, I should say, for. For the. One of the. That three and a half, four year period. One of the first.
David Stowers [:00:36:31
He was the first one. And I ran. He. He had a television shopping channel in the UK called Ideal Shopping that wanted to take his brand all throughout Europe to start. Had a big budget to work with and I. That’s what I did. I flew over there a lot with him and we worked with that television shopping channel. So we did work together.
David Stowers [:00:36:51
We also used to. This is part of the story I had to skip because it’s just not enough time. But for many of those years, while we attempted to try to recreate our success, we were business partners and we had a team of five different crews that went to home shows and boat shows around the country selling Ginsu knives. And I kind of managed that for him. Them. So we could. Yeah, I. I don’t know if opportunity.
David Stowers [:00:37:16
If. If our paths crossed again. Sure. We just enjoy chatting once in a while and, you know, having. Laughing and getting the other. He. He came to all my daughter’s weddings. He flew in like.
David Stowers [:00:37:28
I mean, he. That’s the kind of friend he is, you know?
Julie Smith [:00:37:30
Well, I just think when you find a business partner like that that you can trust and it’s that respect Expect is, you know, back and forth and mutual that it’s hard not to continue to cross paths with opportunities so bring.
Glenn Harper [:00:37:43
Each other along for the ride. Why wouldn’t. Why would you not spend time and money and effort in building something with somebody you know as good for you?
David Stowers [:00:37:50
Yes. Yes. And there was a. There’s a part time detour I took with my Internet business partner. Best business partner. I mean, nothing against Tony. Tony’s awesome. Tony.
David Stowers [:00:38:00
Tony’s the infomercial guy. But in terms of like operationally, my favorite business partner in that sense was John. He passed away Cancers last year. But he. We started us. He started a SaaS company and asked me to come along and help him do with the marketing. And we worked about three years on that. Unfortunately, his death has kind of put a hiccup on that and so I did that on the part time to help him.
David Stowers [:00:38:21
But he. He was amazing. Like you said, the partnerships I’ve always thought of as the old adage partnerships are like, are some sink fast and some sink slow. Right. They’re partnerships and they usually. But I’ve been fortunate to have some amazing business partners that became dear friends. Just dear friends, you know. Yeah.
David Stowers [:00:38:41
Rare. Very rare.
Glenn Harper [:00:38:43
All partnerships end. It’s. How do they end is the question. And some people get lucky and they turn out well. And other people, you just find true colors. And it’s just unfortunate, but it happens and that’s life. And you sounds like you’ve been very fortunate. And I wanted to go to something that’s interesting too.
Glenn Harper [:00:38:59
You probably have a little bit different way you have to approach things because an average person in business, an entrepreneur, their centers of influence is in this town, this neighborhood, this group. And their reputation is here. If they mess up in there, okay, they can move to another town. So their standards are still going to be high. But things happen, right? You’re global. So you have this high standard where you have to be. I said have to be. You choose to move within purpose and intent and you got to do things the right way because your reputation, everybody knows you.
Glenn Harper [:00:39:40
Right. You can’t take a chance on that. Does that make it harder for you to do business or is it just something look as a core value. I just do things the right way and I don’t worry about anything else else.
David Stowers [:00:39:53
You know, early on, as a marketer, I think that’s something I wrestled with is how you be integrable at the same time trying to sell somebody something right where you. Because manipulation is. Is the negative part of manipulation is so easy to fall into. And so I, as a young, I wrestled that for a long time. And it goes back to that, that spiritual experience I was telling you about. And kind of getting to the point where you’re. You, you’ve got your heart in. And I love this next generation.
David Stowers [:00:40:32
They’re looking for that authenticity. They really want authenticity. And when you can do business from an authentic heart, then it just flows naturally. And for me, that was part of the journey, just getting to that point. So I don’t worry about it now. I don’t have to think about it. One thing I loved about, just to use. Give you an example, this company that, that I’m working with now, one of the marketing things we did early on is we did a lot of direct mail.
David Stowers [:00:40:59
I’d write, Take a notepad and I’d write and send this to somebody with a handwritten message. I did 100 of these a week. And I remember sitting next to the guy, the GM or at the time, and he said, let me read some of those. And he’s. And he looked at me and he says, you’re selling too hard. I’m like, what do you mean you’re selling here? He goes, you’re selling too hard? He says, we don’t, we don’t manipulate here. It feels like you’re manipulating with your technique. And I’m like, really? He goes, yeah.
David Stowers [:00:41:22
I’m like, so that threading that needle of brand awareness and stuff is. It was versus selling. I mean, I’m for selling, don’t get me wrong. But I just trust my heart at this point. But I think everybody’s gotta figure that out for themselves, you know, and, and it’s good to check that.
Glenn Harper [:00:41:41
When I think the, the, the great salespeople, if I were to guess on this, you have a potential customer, and it’s either you’re selling them what they need, or you’re selling what they want and trying to decide which it is. Because they may not need it, but they want it. That doesn’t mean you’re doing. You’re selling something wrong and you’re being negative. It’s. They want it. So I’m going to sell it to them because that’s what they want. And I got to convince them, do they really want it or they need it? If they need it, it’s a whole different pitch.
Glenn Harper [:00:42:15
But wanting it is a whole, Is a, Is a different thing. So did you have to navigate each of those as each of these stints you had, or was it always something that you think it was A need or want that your customers were asking for.
David Stowers [:00:42:28
Yeah, I had to navigate it each time. I mean currently, when I go into a meeting with a potential client on behalf of this company, the sometimes I talk people out of software or will say, you sell me. Why you think you need this? Because you see that it maybe isn’t in their best interest. And. And so yeah, we’ve had some conversations where could have probably shoved it down their throat or made it happen, but it just wasn’t in their best interest. And so that goes back to that integrity. I’m like, I can’t sell this to that. I can’t sleep good at night.
David Stowers [:00:42:59
If. If I force this in square peg into the round hole.
Glenn Harper [:00:43:02
That’s a sign of a good salesperson. It’s not it. If once the customer knows or ever knows that you’re selling something that they don’t need, it’s over. Like why would you. It’s hard to get up in the morning and do that. It’s more. You got to sell something that people can find useful.
Julie Smith [:00:43:17
I think so as you reflect on your journey, I think we’ve. We’ve walked through every peak and valley as we should call it. Is there someone who is just a really great mentor where it just really stands out that you wouldn’t be where you are today without this person?
David Stowers [:00:43:34
Yeah. It’s a collective for sure. And if you’re trying to identify one or even two people. The business partner that just passed away. I learned a lot from him business wise. And he was a little older than me. He really helped me understand how critical operations are because I’m a mudslinger. You know, I’m out there slinging mud.
David Stowers [:00:43:55
I got to make it happen. Sales, sales. And you know, behind the scenes. I don’t. I. You guys are accountants. I hate accounting. You’re just not my thing.
David Stowers [:00:44:02
You know, that hurts me. Someone like you to do that. You’ve heard that before.
Glenn Harper [:00:44:05
It cuts me real deep. It cuts me real deep.
David Stowers [:00:44:09
But we’re all built for different things. And I’m like, it’s, it’s. It’s. I. I appreciate it. You know, I use. Hate’s a strong word. I just.
David Stowers [:00:44:17
Just was like, oh, it’s just like cleaning out a closet. Like it’s just not my thing. So he taught me the importance of it and taught me the importance of math in marketing. The ways and we were able to grow so fast with that Internet company is the reports he would give me. He was a spreadsheet king and he would give me data. And he would ask me and he knew how to draw it out of me. He’d say, okay, you’re running this billboard campaign and you’re running this radio campaign and you’re running this campaign. Newspapers, if you can remember, remember newspapers?
Glenn Harper [:00:44:45
Oh yeah, they’re great.
David Stowers [:00:44:47
And he would give me all the data and he, we tried. He had the team because he ran the, you know, the sales people, or I should say customer service people. And they would ask or on our drop down menu, how’d you hear about us? And we tracked it and I was able to make good decisions from that. And you know, that’s kind of the, a norm now in marketing. You got to know the math, you got to get the, you know, you got to know where your money’s best spent. But back then it was especially in an entrepreneur, you’re in the young stages, you’re just trying to throw mud and hope it, hope enough sticks to the wall. So he taught me some really good, important lessons. So I, to answer your question, I would say, yeah, kudos to Rich Marring for that.
Julie Smith [:00:45:25
So I love that. So we have one more question as we come to a close here and it’s the hardest question of the podcast, but what is your end game?
David Stowers [:00:45:38
Well, at 59, my wife is still teaching school and we talk about this a lot. She’s also the same age. She won’t say she’s six months younger. So she hates, you know, yeah, you’re older than I am. Yeah. So with, with five kids and now 10 grandkids, we’re on that, on that leg of life where we’re starting to look at the typical things that people at that age look at. Right. Fortunately though, we have the freedom, the flexibility to, to make all their games and their birthday parties and, and travel.
David Stowers [:00:46:12
I think my end game is too. I’m just, I’m starting to get more involved with entrepreneurial hubs here in our area. One’s called Startup Garage to be able to give back. And, and so it’s kind of typical in a way of people who kind of start to lean in towards the latter part of their life after being an entrepreneur. So I see more of that type of entrepreneurial volunteership, more travel, we love to travel and more time with the family. So kind of typical, but, but, but so perfect in a way for us.
Julie Smith [:00:46:47
You know, I mean, you answered it kind of correctly, but there is no end game for you. You have too much passion, too much knowledge and you can’t, you’re not going to get up every day and. And literally do nothing. That’s.
David Stowers [:00:47:00
I’ve had this conversation twice this week with people saying that I have a good friend who. Who’s he. He had to make a same similar decision and he said, yeah, I’ll never. I said, yeah, I’ll never retire. But while my brother even. We talked this week. What one. We’ll always do something.
David Stowers [:00:47:16
Right. But we will do it under a controlled environment on your terms.
Julie Smith [:00:47:21
I don’t know. I think I’m gonna wait for that email in January from you when you tell me you and Chef Tony are going to do something. I just. Maybe I’m manifesting that, but I definitely.
David Stowers [:00:47:31
Very possible. Very possible.
Glenn Harper [:00:47:33
The reboots. The reboots are real popular. The people will be watching. They’ll be buying. It’ll be awesome.
David Stowers [:00:47:39
Absolutely. I. I’m open. I really am. I’m always open. Never say never.
Glenn Harper [:00:47:44
Well, is you. You have a plug for your company where people can get a hold of you if they want to tap in.
David Stowers [:00:47:48
I appreciate that.J
ulie Smith [:00:47:49
Yeah, he’s winding down. He doesn’t want anyone to find him.
Glenn Harper [:00:47:51
Oh, they want to find him. He’s not going to this thing.
David Stowers [:00:47:54
Well, you know, would rather plug the company that I’m working with, the one that kind of led me to you guys, which is Freedom Dev. We. We custom software support for. For. For your business. And we do a lot of integrations and migrations and things and we work a lot with manufacturers, but any company. And so yeah, that’s what we do. And freedomdev.com they can find us and.
David Stowers [:00:48:17
And just have a conversation about maybe some pain points. Right. That’s where it always starts. And see if. If we, if there’s a. If there’s a fit and we’ll be. As you mentioned, we’ll be up front. If there’s not, we’ll tell you.
David Stowers [:00:48:27
So that’s it.Julie Smith [:00:48:29
Stay tuned for Chef Tony.David Stowers [:00:48:32
I’m going to tell him. I’m actually going to tell him you said this. So we’ll see where it goes and I will reach out if we do connect.
Julie Smith [:00:48:37
Perfect.Glenn Harper [:00:48:38
Well, David, I really appreciate you taking the time to be on our show and it was a pleasant chat and I’m sure our listeners will find a lot of things that hopefully will provide some inspiration, give them some hope, and help them try to get through whatever peak and valley they’re through to get them to the next level. Because it’s worth it to go through all this. And it’s hard when you’re by yourself and if you can share these stories with people and inspire them. That’s why we’re here doing it. So, again, appreciate your time being on our show.
David Stowers [:00:49:06
Thank you. Thank you.Glenn Harper [:00:49:08
Empowering Entrepreneur Podcast. I’m Glenn Harper.
Julie Smith [:00:49:11
I’m Julie Smith.
