TBJA 431 How Entrepreneurs Can Get Unstuck, Dan Kuschell

Phoebe: Hello, Brand Journalism community. I'm Phoebe Chongchua. Thanks for tuning in to The Brand Journalism Advantage Podcast. Here we go with the inside scoop. On today's show, Dan Kuschell. Dan helps entrepreneurs get unstuck by implementing unique systems that achieve accelerated growth. With 25 years of experience, he started 11 plus companies and coached over 5,000 entrepreneurs from 180 industries and nine countries. He's rated a top 25 influencer by Influencive, and his podcast is recommended by Forbes Magazine. Welcome to the show.

Dan Kuschell: It's a pleasure to be with you, Phoebe. Thank you.

Phoebe: Hey, it's good to have you here and love talking to a fellow entrepreneur, especially when we're talking about this, Brand Journalism community, how to get unstuck because don't we all get there? I mean we really do, right, Dan?

Dan Kuschell: Yes. Yes, we do. There's a lot of roller coasters in being an entrepreneur.

Phoebe: Oh, man. You're not kidding. Well, this episode is going to talk all about how we get unstuck, and Dan's got some really great top tips to break it down and help you move through that point. At the time of this taping, it's around the holidays here. A lot of people start thinking about the new year, and they start thinking about what can I do to reenergize? What I can do to break free? Even if you're not "stuck" but you just want to reenergize the business, you want to find that growth factor and really explode in the coming year, then this episode will help get you there. But first, I want to hear about your ice breaker. Tell me something that not too many people know about you. Give us a little insight.

Dan Kuschell: Let's see. I mean there's a lot that's very public about my background. I would say the thing that most people may not know about me at the moment; I have an 11-year-old son that we're grooming to be a quarterback. We have a quarterback coach because I've always believed in coaching. Not only have I had a lot of coaching over the years, but my son who's 11 has a coach. We're having a lot of fun. I get to coach with him multiple times a week, Phoebe. I just learn a lot from watching my son play, as well as get coaching and a whole lot more. I mean we can learn a lot from our kids.

Phoebe: How did he develop his love for football?

Dan Kuschell: It seems on accident. It was an accidental thing. I would have guided him more towards baseball, but he was I guess watching games, hearing friends at school talk about it, throwing the ball around the playground. He came to me out of the blue and said, "Hey, dad, can I try playing football?" I said, "Well, sure. Let's give it a shot." We took him out, and I can remember the first practice. This was now a year ago when he did this. He went out on the field. The coach said, "Hey, I want to do a tryout for quarterback. Anybody here think he would like to do it?" He like raised his hand to me and said, "I want to play quarterback."

Phoebe: Wow.

Dan Kuschell: He stepped in, and his first season, it was like an anomaly. It was kind of this unicorn thing. He threw 30 touchdowns, no interceptions, also ran to win. That was his beginning.

Phoebe: Wow. That's pretty darn good.

Dan Kuschell: Yeah, it's a start. It'll be interesting to see where he goes. Having the coaching is a thing. He'll learn a lot from sports regardless of where football goes, right, that he'll be able to apply in anything.

Phoebe: Yeah, and that's so important. I mean just the camaraderie, the sportsmanship, the win-lose, all of that, which you have to endure. That's so important. If you're not grooming him for a quarterback, you're at least grooming to be an entrepreneur.

Dan Kuschell: Exactly. He's already demonstrated some of those skills with some selling stuff that he's done. My background, Phoebe, my dream was actually to play pro baseball. I had that dream since I was six years old and a series of injuries kept that from really being a reality. I had a lot of fun though. I played semi-pro baseball, college baseball. I coached a summer all-star team, which was a lot of fun. I think a lot of the entrepreneurial traits, a lot of the entrepreneur mindset things were groomed in my early beginnings with sports as well.

Phoebe: Yeah, for sure. Well, you know, that kind of plays hand-in-hand with this quote that I just want to get your feedback on. It's just short and simple, but I think it says it all both for the entrepreneurial world and the sports world. It goes like this, "Fear is the glue that keeps you stuck."

Dan Kuschell: Yes, it does.

Phoebe: Right? I mean that's just one you got to post, you got to make it stick, post around your computer or wherever, in your wallet. Because when you see that, you remind yourself that if you are living with fear, chances are you are living stuck.

Dan Kuschell: That's right.

Phoebe: Yeah.

Dan Kuschell: How cool would it be to get the antidote to fear?

Phoebe: Yeah, I think we're going to get that, right?

Dan Kuschell: I think so.

Phoebe: I think that's where we're going, Dan. All right. Well, give us a success quote or a tip that's meaningful to you.

Dan Kuschell: One is "leadership is as leadership does. Don't watch what people say, watch what they do."

Phoebe: I love that. Yeah. Right. Just walk the talk.

Dan Kuschell: That's it.

Phoebe: We're just full of it today. All right. Well, you know what, Brand Journalism community, we're going to dive deeper into getting unstuck, learning how to defy the fear if you will and unpack that a little bit more coming up in our top tip section, but I want to learn a little bit more about you. Now I know your son is going to be this amazing quarterback, and you wanted to play baseball, but I want to hear a little bit more about your entrepreneurial background. We know how you have started so many different companies. Take us down the path and that journey, what that was like, and then to that moment in time that you consider your career highlight. What's most meaningful to you?

Dan Kuschell: I got started in the late 1980s, Phoebe, in direct response marketing. I worked in an agency where they did direct mail, radio, and TV advertising. I just got so fascinated with it, and I was enamored and in love with it. For me, that became like my playground and my education. Even though I was in college, my sister, I have her to thank for getting me that position in that company, I took a deep dive, and that's when I got really involved in personal growth. I started working with people like Tom Hopkins and Tony Robbins and Brian Tracy all the way back then. Then, I started my first company in 1992 because I figure I had a better way, a better mousetrap so to speak.

We went out into the marketplace to solve a problem for health club owners at that time. We would come to you. Like if you were a health club owner, we'd go, "Hey, Phoebe, if we could show you a way that we could bring you another couple hundred clients in less than 90 days, and it wouldn't cost you anything upfront out of your pocket, and our company would risk and run ads and direct mail, TV, and radio, would you want to know more about it?" Inevitably, we'd get seven or eight people out of 10 to say yes. It was like a great lesson just in that little snippet there, right, which is you've got to have an irresistible message, right?

Another way to maybe think about it is if you put a $1 bill and a $100 bill side by side or on top of each other, isn't it interesting that a $1 and a $100 bill, they're the same exact weight, they're the same exact size, the same exact color ink, kind of probably what you hear a lot about in all your niches and all your industries, same size, same color, oh, we do that, oh, we're better than that, same size, same color, same weight, the only difference between the $1 and $100 bill is what? It's the message on the paper. When you have a better message, you can get better results. We led with a great offer, a great message, and we started generating clients. Unfortunately, I wasn't a business person starting my first business.
I just had a good message and a good offer, and unfortunately, things didn't work out with the business partner. I had to regroup. Fast forward now, 11 companies later, now what does this mean, 11 companies? One, I like to create and innovate new things. Two, I've had some failures along the way. I had to bury three of companies of the 11 in the backyard. I've had several seven-figure companies and eight-figure companies. I bought companies, I've sold companies and had a lot of fun, but I would say that the things I've learned the most from are some of those huge failures, right? Burying three companies will certainly teach you a bunch.
Today, we now get to work with business owners because a lot of business owners struggle with getting a steady flow of new clients and using marketing or digital marketing to get those clients. We work with clients to help them have a steady flow with less stress, less drama, and less predictable.
Phoebe: Doesn't just that just sound beautiful, Brand Journalism community? That sounds good to everyone. Well, I appreciate you sharing your background, taking us through it. Also, you kind of hinted to a couple of things, that you had to bury a couple of companies and that's never fun, but that takes us into our when it didn't work moment. Sometimes it's moments or months or years. It can be awfully frustrating. Pick a time, share a story, and take us deep in it and tell us what you learned from that when it didn't work time?

Dan Kuschell: Well, imagine building up a what you would call your dream business. You crossed over to the multimillion eight figure a year company. In this case, you had a hundred plus employees. You had three offices. Things are going really well. You have a two-year-old daughter. You have a son that's just being born, and you wake up a few weeks after your son is born and you have chest pains. Then, you find yourself going to the hospital as a precautionary thing. You get to the hospital. They start running some tests, and next thing you know, all hell breaks loose. They put you on a gurney, roll you into a room, and then you're not just there for a few hours, but literally, you're there for four days.

On the third day, you have a surgery and sign a disclaimer that says, "You have a one in X chance of dying."

Phoebe: Wow.

Dan Kuschell: What would that do you for you?

Phoebe: Oh, man.

Dan Kuschell: Well, that is what happened for me. It was a wake-up call, Phoebe. It was one of those moments that I think God has a unique way. He test us, right? Taps us on the shoulder. See if we're paying attention. He'll hit us with a two by four for not paying ... And then he'll bring a telephone pull in, which for me this was one of those telephone pull moments. I had to evaluate what I was doing. I mean for a decade ... I was in my thirties at this time. Like a lot of people probably in their thirties, I was like, "Oh, I can conquer anything." Like for example, sleep. I was a typical type A type personality. Highly driven, high achiever type. I was like, "Oh, I'll sleep when I'm dead, and I can live on two to four hours of sleep."

I did that for a decade literally. Long and the short of it, I came out on the other side of this experience realizing I needed to make some fundamental shifts. I hired yet another coach because I've always believed in having a coach or coaches on my team to help me see the blind spots, see things, help me get unstuck. I had a coach. Her name was Christi. She took me through a really powerful process. I make every decision I'm doing today through the lens of these three questions that she asked. There are other things to do too, but these three are really key part of the foundation. Number one question is what do you want without strings, without attachments, without labels?

For me, I remember sitting in her office going through this strategy, one question, that sounds very simple on the surface. I wrote one answer on the piece of the paper, and I stared at it the rest of the session. I left. I went home. I was supposed to come back a week later, come back to the session. I was so embarrassed I couldn't get any ... I was stuck on this answer. I called and canceled. I did that again for two weeks before I finally came back in and got a little bit unstuck. It was a sign of where I was really ... Now keep in mind, I spent up to that point probably close to a $1 million in personal development. It's not like I wasn't aware of certain things.

I had a very successful company, right, with hundreds of employees, and I was stuck on a simple question of like what do I want.

Phoebe: Right.

Dan Kuschell: Right? Because I had realized for me at that time, most of my decisions for a long time were based on like my wife at the time or my kids or my hundred plus employees or vendors or suppliers, not really what had I want, right? Then, I went through this process of getting clarity around the answer to this question, what do I want? Then, she took me to the second question which was who are you? Again, not labels, not titles, not all these fancy things about being featured here or featured there, CEO this, CEO that. None of it. It was who are you? The human being side of your life, not the human doing side. That was a little tough, and I had to come through it and get clarity because I had never thought that deeply about it.

Then, the third question that she got me to look at, which it was actually the easiest of the three, which is what do I stand for? We've all heard in your company, you've got to have great core values, have three to five core values. What about your personal life? What about your family life? For me, we adapted this process of having core values in our family, which ours is an acronym called CHAMPION, choose health, action, mastery, purpose, invest in yourself, be an opportunity seeker, never quit on you. One of my greatest joy is my kids were interviewed by a good friend of mine Joe Polish who runs a great organization. Joe was a client of ours at this time with Genius Network.

My kids came with me one day to the office while I was doing some things with him. He interviewed them for a few, and he got my kids to actually go through our core values and how you make money and how you sell and all those kind of cool things.

Phoebe: That's awesome.

Dan Kuschell: Right? But those three core questions, Phoebe, really had been a foundation of making the decision to be on this show, the decision to do travel, the decision of what clients I say yes to and what clients to say no to. Start with the process of filtering through the lens. If you're listening right now, I'd encourage you to sit down for you and give yourself a gift. A lot of people talk about goal setting. I think it's one of the biggest lies in the world. The biggest ripoffs in the world is goal setting. No such thing as goal setting. It's goal achieving.

Phoebe: That's right.

Dan Kuschell: When you make that shift from goal setting to goal achieving, right, and what that will be for you and what it will do for you, that's when your business and your personal life mentally, physically, socially, emotionally and financially will transform, right? I challenge you as you're listening right now, go through these three questions. It will transform you and/or give you greater clarity into the decisions that you feel good about already. It may sound simple but really go deep on those three. That was a really critical part, Phoebe, of like a big breakthrough. I ended up through that process selling my companies. I was very blessed. I was very blessed to be able to sell it, exit, take some time.

I worked on my health. Since that time, I've lost over 70 pounds. I've kept it off. I'm in an amazing relationship with my wife. I have a great relationship with my kids. Now, I really go out and just work with clients that I enjoy and have fun with and so on.
Phoebe: That is so cool, and that's why your family word is champion. It's perfect. I love it. I love it. All right. Well, in the essence of time, we have to dive into these top tips of how entrepreneurs can get unstuck. Actually, we've kind of been unpacking that along the way. All these things, like asking these three questions, what do you want, who are you, what do you stand for, all of those things will cause you to go deeper. We're recording this around the holidays, and that's the time when folks usually start to kind of reflect as we head into the new year. I remember as a TV journalist, one of the stories we would always cover is like what are your goals, what are your resolutions.

I kind of hated it because I knew most of the time that people wouldn't keep those. I mean it was fun to hear them and all the different things people would say, but most of the time they start that gym membership in January and then they never go by the time it's February sadly, or they have a goal to write a book, and that doesn't get done. A lot of those things are easy to accomplish if you set your mind to it. In fact, Brand Journalism community, I have an episode on writing a book. I'll drop that in the show notes at Think Like A Journalist. Maybe you want to write a book over the holidays or at the start of the year.

Right now though, tell us if someone's feeling stuck in their entrepreneurial career, how do we go about getting unstuck? Just unpack that in the next few minutes. Give us some top tips.

Dan Kuschell: Top tips. One, I would go through the process of the three questions that we covered already, right? Then, speaking of the antidote to fear, which holds all of us back, and here's something I've discovered probably like you, Phoebe. I mean you've had some amazing guests. We also have to give a shout out to our friend, Cloris, for introducing us and connecting us for today.

Phoebe: Oh, yes, Cloris Kylie. I think she has actually been on the show twice.

Dan Kuschell: Yes.

Phoebe: I will put that in the show notes, Brand Journalism community. We don't want to forget that. Fantastic episodes to listen to there.

Dan Kuschell: Yes. With all these amazing super people that you have interviewed, that you work with, that you've coached, right, and on our end, we've done the same. We all have fears. We all have insecurities, but the antidote to fear I have found in discussions and conversation with thousands, tens of thousands of business owners, entrepreneurs, some of the biggest names in the world, is gratitude, right? Really getting clarity around gratitude. What are you grateful for right now, right? It's a great exercise to do in the evening. Like one of our bedtime ... We call this the bookend breakthrough process. Everybody has their things that drive them and motivate them at the start of the day.

What if you started your day with some physical movement, exercise, meditation for example? That's what it is for me, but for you, as you're listening, it might be something. It might be a walk. It could be a run. It could be weights, whatever, but physical movement and some kind of a breathing exercise, right, with gratitude built in. What are you grateful for right now, right? Imagine starting your day that way. On the end of the day, you end your day, and so like with my kids, this is typical of how we end our day. I'll tuck them in. We'll say a prayer together. What's interesting, Phoebe, is I ask my kids, "Do you want to say a prayer tonight?" My son is like 99% he'll say yes.

We'll do the Lord's Prayer followed by the gratitude, what are you grateful for today, and then what do you want to ask God for. My daughter what will happen is she'll say ... About 50% of the time she'll say, "Yes, let's do the prayer." I pray over her anyway, but then we always follow it with are you grateful for today, right?

Phoebe: Right.

Dan Kuschell: Imagine bookending your day, right, with one physical movement of some kind, plus a gratitude, and then closing your day with a gratitude exercise and reflecting on some of the things that went well, maybe some of the things you did well, what are you happy about right now, right? I can tell you what that has done for me. I've had people who we've challenged to do this type of thing. Thousands of people have commented and given us feedback saying, "Oh my gosh. That simple process of bookending my day gives me peace, gives me joy, gives me fulfillment." The antidote for fear, anything keeping you stuck, I mean it's one of many things is gratitude, right?

What would have to happen for you to reflect on gratitude? Here's another one that's more of a business strategy to think about, right? There's so much noise coming at you and me right now, isn't there?

Phoebe: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dan Kuschell: Right?

Phoebe: Absolutely.

Dan Kuschell: What can you do to keep from distraction because it's so easy to get caught up in distraction, noise, overwhelm, burnout, etcetera. You've got multiple experts contradicting each other about what is the latest greatest fad and tactic that's going to save or grow or expand your business. Here's an antidote to that, fall in love with strategy, not tactics.

Phoebe: Okay.

Dan Kuschell: Fall in love with strategy and not tactics, right? You might go, "Well, what does that mean exactly?" The strategy that we, as a company ... Now, here's a reality. When you're a hammer, everything is a nail. My greatest breakthroughs in my business journey have come as a result of integrating systems around marketing and sales. I see it through that lens. Now, are there other lenses that work? Sure, but the greatest multiplier we have ever seen is integrating marketing and sales together to create momentum, advance momentum, multiply momentum. Strategy versus tactics is like how could you integrate good marketing and good selling in your business. That will shift the game.

We don't have time probably, Phoebe, to go deep into this, but here's an example. A lot of people have a little bit of a negative connotation towards traditional marketing and traditional selling. Here's the reality, traditional marketing, and traditional selling are dead. If you're using old practices, old outdated marketing and selling, you're right. It is dead, and it won't work for you, but there are new methodologies today and here's a new viewpoint on potentially marketing, which is a strategy. Marketing is simply storytelling. The companies or the entrepreneurs or the business owners that could tell a better story about their business are the ones who are going to have the biggest impact.

I mean in many ways, when I researched about your show here, your community, your following, Phoebe, you have great story, and you also bring people who tell great stories. Marketing is storytelling. Nothing more, nothing less. It helps move people closer to make the opportunity to work with you. The other part is selling. What is selling because it also has such a misunderstood rep? Selling is simple influence, right? What are you doing today in your business to influence and tell your story? Like if you could just focus on that every single day, like the different ... Like Apple. Apple is not known as a hard selling organization, nor is a company like Starbucks.

They have built something completely different. Ideally, as you're listening, you'll start looking through the lens of how can I go out and create a buyer's culture in business. Not a selling culture. That's outdated. Companies that have a selling culture in the next year, two years, five years, 10 years, are going to be out of business. They'll be another statistic, but the companies who can build that great buyer's culture, a culture of enjoying the buyer process, are going to be the ones that win. That's a strategy that you can hang your hat on and be proud of for the long-term. I know there's more, but for the sake time, I'll cut it short.
Phoebe: Yeah, no, that is great. So on point. I love it, of course, the storytelling. I love what you're doing here because really when you're stuck, a lot of times ... Whatever the situation is, it varies from person to person, entrepreneur to entrepreneur, but when you get stuck, you have that fear. If you can shift the mindset to gratitude, that'll open up the flow because you have to open the flow in order to dive deep into the stuff that you're talking about. Then, you could start to drill down and create that space and that time where you can do maybe some journaling, some business journaling around this.

Because what I find goes wrong is people move so quickly in the entrepreneurial world from project to project, task to task. They're filling their days up with to do list and busyness, but they can't stop. This is me too syndrome here where you can not take a moment to just chill out and say, "I'm going to spend some time doing this because actually, this is most important to all of my entrepreneurial business." It's not a side note. It's really critical to take this on. You can't do it when you're also juggling other tasks and handling the service work that happens day to day. You've got to take that time and plan around it.

Literally, I would say you have to put it on a calendar and say, "This is what I intend to do." Much like a workout. Like you started with getting up and moving and getting out. You have to make that happen.

Dan Kuschell: Yes.

Phoebe: Yeah.

Dan Kuschell: Yeah. I think David Bach said it, was the first person I heard say this. He says, "Your not to do list is more important than your to-do list."

Phoebe: Ha, ha. I love it. All right. Well, I thank you for what you shared. It's good stuff, and really there's a lot of meat there, Brand Journalism community. It'll all be in the show notes at thinklikeajournalist.com, but just do spend some time taking these questions into consideration and get that notepad out or better yet, your computer, somewhere where you can have it on all platforms in the cloud so that you can grab it at any moment when you have some free time. But here's the scenario that I'm going to put you in, I want to see where you'll go with this. You've been hired to help an ailing company. It's about to financially collapse. Its reputation's shot.

You've got a month, $1,000 budget, a smartphone, and a laptop. How do you begin to turn this company around?

Dan Kuschell: Oh, wow. Number one, you got to start with market research. Biggest mistake, you can have the most amazing offer in the world, but there's nothing worse than shouting from the rooftops when there's no audience, right? The old adage "find a need and fill it" is like one of the biggest lies in business also. It's an old school approach, an old school technique. It's not find a need. It's find a want. Start with the want. Find a hungry market. Really simple. Find the hungry market and then make offers to that hungry market. If you can start with making free offers. You know, when I've had to start over again, which I've done numerous times in my business career, usually it started I had a number one goal.

I found a market. I found a gap in the market, like in other words, what problem do you solve? That's another thing. I was speaking to somebody today. If I mention the name, all of you would know who he is. He's like a high profile expert. At the end of the day, he wanted to make pivot his business, so we kept going back to okay, well, what problem does this solve, right? Many times we get so focused on our product or our service or our glop we'll call it of whatever we have for the market that we stop and forget that what matters is what does this solve for the end user, the end client, the person that is going to buy it so to speak.

We lose track of what is the breakthrough it's creating for somebody, how is it making their life easier or making their life better or making them money or saving them money. Focus on the market. How does it help them? What problem does it solve? Then, go out and initially in the case of having no reputation, or you've lost a reputation, what can you do to rebuild the reputation? An easy way to do that is go work with one, two, three, four, five clients either for free or a results-based, performance-based opportunity and then build success stories around it, and then be able to go out and make your irresistible offer in the marketplace.

Now, you might say, "Well, Dan, how can I put an irresistible market offer in the marketplace?" Well, think of like what would be a dream come true solution for an end user? I learned a lot from my very first company, Phoebe, in 1992. We went out. Literally, our offer was this, if I could show you a way that we'd bring you a couple of hundred clients in the next 90 days or less, it won't cost you anything up front, and our company will run direct mail, TV, and radio for you, would you want to know more? Many times people would say yes. How could you package up, as you're listening right now, your irresistible offer to the market? Again, it starts with the market.

It starts with identifying what problem you really solve in the market and how do you make their life better, save money, make money, save time, etcetera. Then, what could you do to package up your offer to build up two, three, four case study, testimonials, results type thing. Then, go out to the market and make your irresistible offering thinking through like how is this is going to help somebody get a 10 times value for what they spend. Phoebe, this stuff that you're putting out in the marketplace. I mean you put better free stuff out on the marketplace than many so-called experts do paid stuff.

That's why you likely built up ... One of the many reasons that you've built the following that you have because you put value out into the marketplace in advance. I think that strategy is a proven strategy and it works, and it can work for you. There's more, but that would be like if I were starting with less than 1,000 ... Had to start all over, reputation scared or lost; this would be a few of the critical steps.

Phoebe: Love it. What is one piece of technology, video, multimedia equipment or an app that you just can't live without?

Dan Kuschell: Oh, geez. There's so many. I'm going to point on like this new app that I got about 10 weeks called MyFitnessPal because it's so simple to ... Right? What I love it is it makes tracking what you eat so simple because sometimes, and this has nothing to do with business, but your health has everything to do with it. Because if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. That old Indian proverb, "He who has his health has a thousand dreams, he who does not has only one."

Phoebe: Yes.

Dan Kuschell: I've been on both sides of that. This MyFitnessPal just gives you the reality, better choices when it comes to what you eat and how you eat, right? I can just tell you, the only thing I've shifted in the last eight, nine weeks since I got this app has been this, taking pictures of the food. It tracks it for me. Makes it really simple to know how many calories I've got, how many calories out. I've been able to drop like 17 or 18 pounds in like eight weeks. It's been amazing-

Phoebe: Fabulous.

Dan Kuschell: ... how simple it is.

Phoebe: Yeah, I love those. I am a big fitness person. Used to do a TV fitness segment here in San Diego and on Instagram on Keep Fit With Phoebe, but love, love that because people don't recognize how important that is to the journey of keeping fit. If you're not tracking what you're eating, you really think a lot of times that you're doing better than you are. A lot of people, especially around the holidays, are eating way more than they need to be for the level of caloric output, right?

Dan Kuschell: Absolutely. I'll give an example.

Phoebe: In other words, exercise goes down.

Dan Kuschell: Yes. I'll give you a direct example. I eat a lot of salads and have for years in my new health journey, but I would put things like caramelized pecans ... Two tablespoons of caramelized ... It's like 250 calories.

Phoebe: Right. Right.

Dan Kuschell: Right?

Phoebe: It's a killer.

Dan Kuschell: Then, I would do the same thing with raisins, Craisins, and two tablespoons would literally be another two ... There's 500 calories in something that you might think would be healthy and not that much in caloric intake. Yeah, the awareness it creates is amazing.

Phoebe: Well, absolutely. We got to mention just the one that ... This is just a marketing genius, but it's crazy. It's build as a really healthy bowl, the acai bowl. It can be, but it also can be almost 900 calories of mostly sugar. You know?

Dan Kuschell: That's right.

Phoebe: I'm not saying fruits aren't good for you. They are in small portions, but even natural sugars like that when it's piled on, the acai has its own level of sugar content usually, and then you've got the coconut and the strawberries and blueberries. It just ends up being a sugar burst.

Dan Kuschell: That's right. Reese's pieces or the acai bowl.

Phoebe: That's right. That's right. Exactly. Name one book, documentary, blog, podcast or internet channel you'd like to recommend.

Dan Kuschell: Oh my gosh. It's so challenging. I'm going to name a good friend of mine's book, Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference. It's a book on negotiating. Former FBI agent who transformed those skills into a business, helping a lot of other people transform their skills. For me, not only did I read the book, listen to the audio twice, it's a book on not just negotiating, but it even serves to be a better communicator at home with your spouse, a better communicator with your family and friends, as well as a parent. For me, that was really insightful. I read a couple of books a month, so narrowing it to one is tough. There you go.

Phoebe: Expert predictions. Just real briefly, share with us what you think the future will be like in 2025 and leave us with some parting advice to build a competitive advantage may be to continue to stay unstuck in the marketplace.

Dan Kuschell: Technology will continue to grow, of course. Chances are many companies will be having been forced to adopt AI, VR, all these different crazy things that we think about today, but the companies that I believe will thrive are going to be those that focus on vitamin C, which I heard for the first time from a guy named Dr. Ned Hallowell. What is vitamin C? It's connection. As the world of the internet and technology is supposed to bring us together, it's doing something really crazy. It's creating AI, but not the AI that you think. It's artificial intimacy. Those companies that can bring real connection to their markets are going to be the ones that thrive as technology splinters us apart.

Phoebe: Well said. I love that. All right. Final question, tough one, where do you like to wine, dine or play?

Dan Kuschell: My favorite restaurant in Phoenix is a place called Different Pointe of View. It's up on the top of a mountain. It's beautiful here in Phoenix. If I'm traveling, probably my favorite restaurant is a place called Poseidon, which is in Del Mar, California.

Phoebe: Yes, I know.

Dan Kuschell: It's right down the coast.

Phoebe: I live right near there, yeah.

Dan Kuschell: Then you know the restaurant probably.

Phoebe: I do, yes.

Dan Kuschell: Yup, so those two.

Phoebe: Excellent. All right. Well, I haven't been to a Different Pointe of View in Phoenix, although I've been to Phoenix many times. I'll have to check that one out. Thank you so much, Dan. This has been fabulous. I love what you shared, and I'm definitely inspired. I know, Brand Journalism community, I'm going to carve out some time to just sit down with this, listen to this episode again and really go through those questions. Because, you know, I've done tasks like that before and I find them just really, really helpful. A lot of good comes out of it, so thank you for the reminder and for opening me up to some new ideas about getting unstuck. Thanks for being on The Brand Journalism Advantage.

Dan Kuschell: Thanks, Phoebe.