June 10, 2025 • 20 mins
What happens when skilled tradespeople, machinists, welders, and engineers step into business ownership?
Many hit a wall around $2–4 million in revenue. In this powerful episode, Dave McFarland of Focus Op-X breaks down why so many “accidental business owners” stall at that point, and how scaling up requires a shift in mindset, not just more hustle.
“You can't read the label from inside the jar,” Dave says, reminding us that true growth starts when owners let go of total self-reliance and build systems that empower others. He shares real-world stories of transformation, from simple tech upgrades that revolutionized daily operations to long-term consulting wins that clients still talk about years later.
Whether you’re a small manufacturer, service provider, or trades-based entrepreneur, Dave offers clear, actionable advice, including why buying an existing business might be your smartest move.
To learn more about breaking free from operational bottlenecks, connect with Dave on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/davemcfarland-investor-advisor-innovator or visit focusopex.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up everybody this Ryan Van Orden back with
another episode of scaling upsuccess, powered by synergist.
Today I have Dave McFarland offocus op X.
Dave, how you doing today, sir?
I'm doing great.
Ryan, how are you?
I am fantastic and I'm superexcited to be able to talk to
you a little bit about what'swhat you got going on on and
(00:25):
what you've been building out.
So let's just jump into it,shall we Sure?
All right, so well, tell us alittle bit about Focus Op-Ex.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, so Focus Op-Ex is my consulting company.
I've been consulting for abouta dozen years and I mainly focus
on small manufacturers,privately held companies, and
basically what I do is I helpthem solve problems and grow
their business.
I really focus on operations onthe factory floor and then I go
(00:57):
from there.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Okay, Okay.
So if you're looking at likepeople that you work with, what
would be like that, I guessquote unquote, avatar of the
people that are your people thatyou work with currently?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, so it's mainly owner operators.
A lot of times they're what Iwould call accidental business
owners, right, so they're peoplethat worked with their hands or
they had a skill and theyturned that into a company.
So think welders, machinists,maybe even engineers that are,
(01:33):
you know, have a service andthey're like, oh you know, I
could sell the service on my own, and then they just build a
business out of that.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So what challenges do you see with when see when
people take on businesses likethat?
Do you see that there arecertain things that maybe that
they're struggling with with thegrowth of the business Go more
in depth into that piece of it?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, and I will leverage that book you have
behind you.
Buy Back your Time.
I recommend that book to a lotof people.
I think one of the main thingsthat I see that folks like to
struggle with is they're soself-reliant and they're so good
at solving problems.
They feel they have to doeverything themselves, and so
they really paint themselvesinto a corner and really, you
(02:19):
know, the business ends upowning them because they spend
so much time doing it andthey're really good at what they
do, right.
So maybe maybe they're reallygood machinists, but maybe they
really shouldn't be doing theirbooks Right, maybe they really
shouldn't be doing the ordering,and so I think that's one of
the main things I see is thatthey really struggle to get out
(02:41):
of their own way and they reallyhave trouble giving up some of
those activities, and theyreally should if they want to
grow and scale.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, I mean if, if someone's a really good
machinist, but like man, they,they absolutely suck at ordering
or bookkeeping.
Like you said, man, whatthey've done is basically just
rewrote their job descriptionand something that they're awful
at and that they hate Exactly.
So how do you help people inthose regards?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, you know, it really depends on the purpose.
I can't help them if they don'twant to be helped.
So that's really the firstthing is sometimes, you know,
I'm a little bit of a coach, oreven a therapist, to try to get
them to understand they have tonot do more, they have to do
different, and that's one of thethings I really try to impress
upon them.
And so sometimes that'sdifficult and they bristle
(03:35):
because, well, dave, I've beendoing it this way for 20 years.
Why are you coming in andsaying I have to do things
differently?
And sometimes that's a toughconversation to have, but it's
really important because theykind of get stuck right.
So I see, you know companies, anindividual and maybe just one
or two other people they cangrow a business to two to four
(03:57):
million in revenue pretty easy,but getting above that it's hard
.
And they think they can getabove it by just doing more.
And you can't.
You really have to do somethingdifferent.
You have to put systems andprocesses into place so that
someone else can do some of thestuff that you're doing right
now.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Man, you were kind of like the bartender without the
good stuff, aren't you?
No, I love what you're doing,man, because what it does is
actually helps people understandhow to take it from.
You know, like, get yourselfout of your own way.
You know, like, and you know,once people start to buy into
that and it's not even buying in, it's like understanding, like,
(04:35):
here's what, here's the nextpiece of evolution of my growth.
Would you agree on that piece?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
on that piece.
Yeah, yeah, and that's, andthat's partly why I do recommend
books, because a lot of timeswhat I'll do is I'll say you
know what here I could preach toyou, but what I want you to do
is to listen to this guy.
Right?
He wrote a book and he sold abunch of them.
He's pretty credible.
Read that book and then let'stalk.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Isn't that funny Cause it's like I used to coach
college sports.
I coached college volleyballway in a different lifetime ago
and what I found is like I couldbe saying something as the
assistant coach and the headcoach would say it for months
and months and months, and thenall of a sudden, just because
myself or another assistantcoach may have said it just in a
(05:22):
different manner it's just aslightly different voice All of
a sudden that player clicked andit just so.
That's really fascinating thatjust using a different piece of
modality or a different voice, adifferent connection to
somebody, may have them clickexactly what you're looking for
them to take that to that nextlevel.
(05:42):
So very cool, very cool.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, I found one, one little phrase that has
helped me, a changed thismindset a little bit is I've
told people you know, there's anold saying that you can't read
the label from inside the jar,and so I've had that.
A couple of people just liketheir eyes open and it just
clicked with them and theyunderstood the value of that
(06:07):
outside perspective and theyreally realized that, oh, you're
right, you know, I that's whatI feel like.
I feel like I'm stuck in hereand run around bouncing off the
walls all the time, and so thatthat analogy really resonates
with people.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I love that, I love that.
So now you've been doing thisfor a minute or two now in the,
in the, in the consulting space.
What are you most proud aboutwhen, since you've been building
this, this, this business up?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I think what I'm most proud about is that when people
come back and tell me that Ireally helped in some way, and
sometimes it's not obvious atthe time.
So I'll give you a good example.
I had a client a number ofyears ago.
Well, for all intents andpurposes, I considered it a
failure because we didn't getthe improvement that I wanted us
(06:56):
to get.
And I had someone come back tome and this was oh my goodness,
it was at least five years afterI left there and they said hey,
dave, I just wanted to let youknow we're doing this in our
company now and these things aregoing great because all that
stuff you taught us and I waslike but you didn't do any of it
(07:17):
.
And they're like well, we knowwe didn't do it then, but you
know we ran into some problemsand we started doing some of the
things that you said and theywere really successful.
So thank you for that.
That.
Just two things.
It was kind of wowed me thatthat they tried it so much later
, but it was tried it so muchlater, but it was, uh, it was
gratifying to know, um, that Idid move the needle.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Man, that that's.
That's some quality stuff rightthere.
And then the other thing thatit makes me think of too it's
like you know, when you're kindof like raising kids and like
you, you talk, talk to your kidswho you're blue in the face,
and then they go off to collegeor they, they go into high
school or whatever level thatthey level up to, and then all
of a sudden it starts clickingwith them.
They're like I should havelistened to dad about that.
It's kind of similar in thathuh, and it's funny.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I've had that happen a number of times in my career,
Even before I was a consultant.
I'm a degree biologist, so wayback when, when I worked in the
science environment, it was thesame thing.
I'd have people come back threeyears afterwards and say hey,
Dave, remember when you told methat, yeah, I do.
Well, that was awesome and ittransformed the way I did things
(08:27):
.
I was like, oh well, that'scool, but at the time I didn't
even know it.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Right, right, no, that's I love and that's like
the gratifying piece about thisis like you can come back years
later to somebody and be likeman.
Thank you for that.
You know like it's.
It's like delayed gratification, but still pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
So, and the funny thing is, it's not always what
you would expect it to be.
That's what's funny.
It's like it's some littlething you're like oh, I didn't
think that would have that muchof an impact, but it did and
yeah, it's great Well let'sswitch gears but still talk a
little bit about unexpectedopportunities.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
So one of the things that that you you just kind of
said is, like you, you havethese unexpected, you know, like
like feel good moments but like, as you've gotten into
consulting, is there, has therebeen unexpected opportunities
that doors open up because ofthe, the career genre that
you're in now?
(09:24):
You know like maybe it's aconversation that happened and
it's like it opened up intosomething else.
Tell me some, tell me somethingalong those lines.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yeah, yeah, it happens a lot, and so I think
that happened because of mymindset shift.
So when I first startedconsulting, I decided I was this
and I was going to do this, andpeople said they wanted
something outside of that.
Say, no, I'm this and this iswhat I'm going to do.
So part of it is because I'vebeen a little bit more of an
opportunist and so now, now,consulting opportunities come
(09:55):
along that aren't really what Isay I do or advertise that I do,
but I was like, yeah, I can dothat and they need the help.
So I will.
I'll give you a specific example.
I'm in conversations right nowwith two people that want to buy
a business, right?
And they said, dave, you know,we worked for this business.
(10:18):
The owners sell it.
We want to buy the business,but we don't know how to do that
.
We don't, we don't have to getfunding, we don't know how to
make an offer.
We don't know any of this.
Can you help us?
And I'm like, well, yeah, Ithink I can.
And so that's turned into aconsulting opportunity that,
like I said, that's not my corebusiness, but it's a skill that
(10:38):
I have that I can share withpeople, and so now I'm very open
to doing things like that.
So that's one example.
And then another thing I'mdoing right now is I'm working
on a healthcare startup, of allthings, and the reason I'm doing
it is because I have thenetwork that would allow me to
access those people.
(10:59):
So there's no reason for me notto do something like that.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I kind of love that and I'm kind of like the blue
collar, kind of gritty.
I came from the military sideof stuff and it's like the hold
my beer mentality.
You know what?
Let me figure that out, I canmake that happen for you.
And I love that man becauselike it just kind of shows like
you know you're not, you're notjust going to like pigeonhole
(11:27):
yourself into one, one area,that there's so many
opportunities out there.
Why not, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I really believe that the most value I bring to
clients now is my network.
So so that's kind of a hardthing to sell.
Oh, you should hire me becauseI know people.
But honestly, that's really themost value I bring, because I
really truly believe whateverproblem that we run into in a
business I can help them solvethat, not because of what I know
(11:55):
, but because of who I know.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
And and you know, one of the the analogies that that
pops in my head with that is,like your net worth is your
network, yeah, so, um, kind ofkind of switching a little bit
here, like you know, like whatyou've been doing and being able
to stay ahead of stuff.
It goes kind of into that with,like your, your network of
(12:19):
people, but like what's yourstrategies to stay ahead of,
like industry trends and whatyou've been seeing over the last
, you know, like decade or two.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, so again, it really does start with my
network.
I do a lot of networking and Italked to a lot of people,
especially folks in the techspace, so I actually just
started.
I'm on the advisory board of atech startup and so that kind of
helps keep me in the mix.
I know a lot of AI experts sothat you know there's a lot of
(12:51):
stuff going on with AI.
Now, you know there's industrywhat are we on?
Industry 3.0, 4.0.
I don't remember which onewe're on now, but that kind of
stuff, and so I do kind of stayon top of that.
Especially, you know, this isreally important for small
business owners, not just inmanufacturing, but in any type
of service industry.
(13:11):
Technology can help you right.
So I have a great example of alawn service company where
they're like technology why dowe need technology, new tech?
Come in and did an analysis andthey found out well, the owner
(13:32):
you're spending 80% of your timejust answering phone calls or
calling people back 80% of histime and the reason was is
because he was taking a lot ofcalls he shouldn't be taking,
right.
So they put a tech solution inplace.
They had some AI in it andbasically a lot of the questions
could be answered by the AIchat bot, and then the other
ones got either directed toother people that he didn't, so
(13:53):
he only had to answer reallyabout 10% of those calls, and
that transformed his business.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Right, right, and it gives him back his time with
much of that stuff.
What we do with Synergist isvery similar.
We actually build those thingsout for people, so it's really
cool to be able to see thegrowth and like.
A lot of people get worriedabout what may be coming instead
(14:19):
of like embracing whatopportunities may be coming
their way.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yep, Especially with AI, people are waiting for
something.
Don't wait.
It's pretty good right now.
It's only going to get a lotbetter and it's changing so fast
.
Whatever you wait for by thetime that you think that's cool,
there's always something better, so you need to embrace it now
and the thing that I keeptelling people is like it's not
(14:45):
like Terminator 2, skynet kindof stuff.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
So you know it's more functionality and it you know
it's based to be able to helpcreate better productivity for
you.
So totally, totally on board,on the same page as that.
So do you feel like nowadaysthat there are unique set of
challenges that are differentthan days gone by for business
(15:09):
owners when they're starting abusiness right now?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, I think there are a couple of things.
So I know right now everybody'stalking about tariffs, right.
If you're in manufacturing,that's impacting you one way or
another.
So, yeah, it's kind of happenedin the past, but not to the
level it's happening now.
So I think for a lot ofmanufacturers that that's
something they didn't have todeal with before.
And then again I'm back to tech, right.
(15:37):
So there's never been a timewhere tech applied the way it
does now and it can reallychange things.
So, especially requirementsaround tech, I think a lot of
people don't understand that.
So let's say, you're a smallmanufacturer and you want to do
government work.
Well, do you know that there'sa cybersecurity law that you
(15:59):
have to pay attention to?
Right, and so that's a techissue that they haven't had to
deal with before.
So I think you can't avoid it.
So I'm not telling you.
I'm not telling you, mrManufacturer, that you have to
get rid of your 50-year-oldequipment out there that's still
working.
That's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying there are other techsolutions in your front office
(16:22):
and back office that can reallyimprove your operations and you
should embrace that 100%, 100%.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
I love that.
So, as we, as we kind of getcloser to wrapping this up for
you, so like what's one piece ofadvice, if you could give
somebody that is looking tostart a business or buy a
business I mean, the thing thatI've kind of heard lately is
like maybe it's not even thatyou want to start your own
(16:49):
business that you couldpotentially even buy a business
and not have to put too muchmoney into it.
Is that something that's outthere right now?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, yeah.
So I get a lot of founders cometo me, you know, trying to find
money to start up a business,and I tell all of them
especially if they're amanufacturer, they're building a
widget you're much better offbuying a business.
It's going to give you a headstart.
So let's say you're a medicaldevice maker.
You have this electronicmedical device that you've come
(17:18):
up with right, and now you haveto get it built.
Okay, well, you can get a lotof money and give away a lot of
your equity and go out and builda new facility.
Or perhaps you can find a smallmanufacturer that has all the
skills you need to build yourwidget right, so that leaps you
ahead.
Plus, you're buying an assetinstead of giving away equity
(17:41):
and, honestly, in a lot of ways,it's easier to get money to buy
a business than it is to getmoney to fund a business.
So I think that's a perfectlyviable way to go forward.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Love that man, love that.
So what as, as you've kind ofbuilt your, your business in the
you know over your career, what, what would you?
How would you summarize thatjourney for yourself in like a
sentence or two man.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah, so it's uh, I've.
I've looked at theopportunities and taken what was
given to me.
So I wasn't like I said.
I changed from being thispigeonhole thing and trying to
do what other people do.
Instead, I looked at theopportunities presented and said
okay, which one of those can Ireally go after?
How can I serve those clientsand monetize that?
(18:29):
So I think being flexible hasreally helped me in that regard.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I love that.
I love that.
Is there anything coming downthe pipe that you're really
excited about that you want toshare?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Let's see.
Well, I'm trying to acquire myown business, so I have a few
conversations going on therethat I can't really tell you too
much about, um, but but that'skind of exciting to me.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
You may either have to kill me or sue me until I, uh
, until I submit.
Right, I love it, man, verycool.
So, uh, if people areinterested in knowing more about
Focus, opex and yourself, howcan they get a hold of you, man?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yeah, so I'm on LinkedIn.
That's probably the easiest wayto find me, so all my contact
information is on there.
You can even access my calendaron LinkedIn.
My email address, my phonenumber is all there, and then
also my website, focusopexcom.
It also has ways that you cancontact me, and then I have a
bunch of blogs on there that youcan kind of dig into my brain a
(19:36):
little bit and see how I thinkby reviewing those blogs and
giving us a better focus onexactly how you help
manufacturing companies succeedin today's, you know, crazy,
crazy work environment and theeconomy that's going out there
(19:57):
right now.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Man, thank you so much for your time today, really
appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Thank you for having me, ryan, it was a lot of fun,
thanks.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Absolutely.
Once again, dave McFarland,focus Op-X, and I'm Ryan Van
Ornam with Scaling Up Successpowered by Synergist.
Have a great one everybody.
What's up everybody this Ryan Van Orden back with
another episode of scaling upsuccess, powered by synergist.
Today I have Dave McFarland offocus op X.
Dave, how you doing today, sir?
I'm doing great.
Ryan, how are you?
I am fantastic and I'm superexcited to be able to talk to
you a little bit about what'swhat you got going on on and
(00:25):
what you've been building out.
So let's just jump into it,shall we Sure?
All right, so well, tell us alittle bit about Focus Op-Ex.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, so Focus Op-Ex is my consulting company.
I've been consulting for abouta dozen years and I mainly focus
on small manufacturers,privately held companies, and
basically what I do is I helpthem solve problems and grow
their business.
I really focus on operations onthe factory floor and then I go
(00:57):
from there.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Okay, Okay.
So if you're looking at likepeople that you work with, what
would be like that, I guessquote unquote, avatar of the
people that are your people thatyou work with currently?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, so it's mainly owner operators.
A lot of times they're what Iwould call accidental business
owners, right, so they're peoplethat worked with their hands or
they had a skill and theyturned that into a company.
So think welders, machinists,maybe even engineers that are,
(01:33):
you know, have a service andthey're like, oh you know, I
could sell the service on my own, and then they just build a
business out of that.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So what challenges do you see with when see when
people take on businesses likethat?
Do you see that there arecertain things that maybe that
they're struggling with with thegrowth of the business Go more
in depth into that piece of it?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, and I will leverage that book you have
behind you.
Buy Back your Time.
I recommend that book to a lotof people.
I think one of the main thingsthat I see that folks like to
struggle with is they're soself-reliant and they're so good
at solving problems.
They feel they have to doeverything themselves, and so
they really paint themselvesinto a corner and really, you
(02:19):
know, the business ends upowning them because they spend
so much time doing it andthey're really good at what they
do, right.
So maybe maybe they're reallygood machinists, but maybe they
really shouldn't be doing theirbooks Right, maybe they really
shouldn't be doing the ordering,and so I think that's one of
the main things I see is thatthey really struggle to get out
(02:41):
of their own way and they reallyhave trouble giving up some of
those activities, and theyreally should if they want to
grow and scale.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, I mean if, if someone's a really good
machinist, but like man, they,they absolutely suck at ordering
or bookkeeping.
Like you said, man, whatthey've done is basically just
rewrote their job descriptionand something that they're awful
at and that they hate Exactly.
So how do you help people inthose regards?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, you know, it really depends on the purpose.
I can't help them if they don'twant to be helped.
So that's really the firstthing is sometimes, you know,
I'm a little bit of a coach, oreven a therapist, to try to get
them to understand they have tonot do more, they have to do
different, and that's one of thethings I really try to impress
upon them.
And so sometimes that'sdifficult and they bristle
(03:35):
because, well, dave, I've beendoing it this way for 20 years.
Why are you coming in andsaying I have to do things
differently?
And sometimes that's a toughconversation to have, but it's
really important because theykind of get stuck right.
So I see, you know companies, anindividual and maybe just one
or two other people they cangrow a business to two to four
(03:57):
million in revenue pretty easy,but getting above that it's hard
.
And they think they can getabove it by just doing more.
And you can't.
You really have to do somethingdifferent.
You have to put systems andprocesses into place so that
someone else can do some of thestuff that you're doing right
now.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Man, you were kind of like the bartender without the
good stuff, aren't you?
No, I love what you're doing,man, because what it does is
actually helps people understandhow to take it from.
You know, like, get yourselfout of your own way.
You know, like, and you know,once people start to buy into
that and it's not even buying in, it's like understanding, like,
(04:35):
here's what, here's the nextpiece of evolution of my growth.
Would you agree on that piece?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
on that piece.
Yeah, yeah, and that's, andthat's partly why I do recommend
books, because a lot of timeswhat I'll do is I'll say you
know what here I could preach toyou, but what I want you to do
is to listen to this guy.
Right?
He wrote a book and he sold abunch of them.
He's pretty credible.
Read that book and then let'stalk.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Isn't that funny Cause it's like I used to coach
college sports.
I coached college volleyballway in a different lifetime ago
and what I found is like I couldbe saying something as the
assistant coach and the headcoach would say it for months
and months and months, and thenall of a sudden, just because
myself or another assistantcoach may have said it just in a
(05:22):
different manner it's just aslightly different voice All of
a sudden that player clicked andit just so.
That's really fascinating thatjust using a different piece of
modality or a different voice, adifferent connection to
somebody, may have them clickexactly what you're looking for
them to take that to that nextlevel.
(05:42):
So very cool, very cool.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, I found one, one little phrase that has
helped me, a changed thismindset a little bit is I've
told people you know, there's anold saying that you can't read
the label from inside the jar,and so I've had that.
A couple of people just liketheir eyes open and it just
clicked with them and theyunderstood the value of that
(06:07):
outside perspective and theyreally realized that, oh, you're
right, you know, I that's whatI feel like.
I feel like I'm stuck in hereand run around bouncing off the
walls all the time, and so thatthat analogy really resonates
with people.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I love that, I love that.
So now you've been doing thisfor a minute or two now in the,
in the, in the consulting space.
What are you most proud aboutwhen, since you've been building
this, this, this business up?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I think what I'm most proud about is that when people
come back and tell me that Ireally helped in some way, and
sometimes it's not obvious atthe time.
So I'll give you a good example.
I had a client a number ofyears ago.
Well, for all intents andpurposes, I considered it a
failure because we didn't getthe improvement that I wanted us
(06:56):
to get.
And I had someone come back tome and this was oh my goodness,
it was at least five years afterI left there and they said hey,
dave, I just wanted to let youknow we're doing this in our
company now and these things aregoing great because all that
stuff you taught us and I waslike but you didn't do any of it
(07:17):
.
And they're like well, we knowwe didn't do it then, but you
know we ran into some problemsand we started doing some of the
things that you said and theywere really successful.
So thank you for that.
That.
Just two things.
It was kind of wowed me thatthat they tried it so much later
, but it was tried it so muchlater, but it was, uh, it was
gratifying to know, um, that Idid move the needle.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Man, that that's.
That's some quality stuff rightthere.
And then the other thing thatit makes me think of too it's
like you know, when you're kindof like raising kids and like
you, you talk, talk to your kidswho you're blue in the face,
and then they go off to collegeor they, they go into high
school or whatever level thatthey level up to, and then all
of a sudden it starts clickingwith them.
They're like I should havelistened to dad about that.
It's kind of similar in thathuh, and it's funny.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I've had that happen a number of times in my career,
Even before I was a consultant.
I'm a degree biologist, so wayback when, when I worked in the
science environment, it was thesame thing.
I'd have people come back threeyears afterwards and say hey,
Dave, remember when you told methat, yeah, I do.
Well, that was awesome and ittransformed the way I did things
(08:27):
.
I was like, oh well, that'scool, but at the time I didn't
even know it.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Right, right, no, that's I love and that's like
the gratifying piece about thisis like you can come back years
later to somebody and be likeman.
Thank you for that.
You know like it's.
It's like delayed gratification, but still pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
So, and the funny thing is, it's not always what
you would expect it to be.
That's what's funny.
It's like it's some littlething you're like oh, I didn't
think that would have that muchof an impact, but it did and
yeah, it's great Well let'sswitch gears but still talk a
little bit about unexpectedopportunities.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
So one of the things that that you you just kind of
said is, like you, you havethese unexpected, you know, like
like feel good moments but like, as you've gotten into
consulting, is there, has therebeen unexpected opportunities
that doors open up because ofthe, the career genre that
you're in now?
(09:24):
You know like maybe it's aconversation that happened and
it's like it opened up intosomething else.
Tell me some, tell me somethingalong those lines.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yeah, yeah, it happens a lot, and so I think
that happened because of mymindset shift.
So when I first startedconsulting, I decided I was this
and I was going to do this, andpeople said they wanted
something outside of that.
Say, no, I'm this and this iswhat I'm going to do.
So part of it is because I'vebeen a little bit more of an
opportunist and so now, now,consulting opportunities come
(09:55):
along that aren't really what Isay I do or advertise that I do,
but I was like, yeah, I can dothat and they need the help.
So I will.
I'll give you a specific example.
I'm in conversations right nowwith two people that want to buy
a business, right?
And they said, dave, you know,we worked for this business.
(10:18):
The owners sell it.
We want to buy the business,but we don't know how to do that
.
We don't, we don't have to getfunding, we don't know how to
make an offer.
We don't know any of this.
Can you help us?
And I'm like, well, yeah, Ithink I can.
And so that's turned into aconsulting opportunity that,
like I said, that's not my corebusiness, but it's a skill that
(10:38):
I have that I can share withpeople, and so now I'm very open
to doing things like that.
So that's one example.
And then another thing I'mdoing right now is I'm working
on a healthcare startup, of allthings, and the reason I'm doing
it is because I have thenetwork that would allow me to
access those people.
(10:59):
So there's no reason for me notto do something like that.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I kind of love that and I'm kind of like the blue
collar, kind of gritty.
I came from the military sideof stuff and it's like the hold
my beer mentality.
You know what?
Let me figure that out, I canmake that happen for you.
And I love that man becauselike it just kind of shows like
you know you're not, you're notjust going to like pigeonhole
(11:27):
yourself into one, one area,that there's so many
opportunities out there.
Why not, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I really believe that the most value I bring to
clients now is my network.
So so that's kind of a hardthing to sell.
Oh, you should hire me becauseI know people.
But honestly, that's really themost value I bring, because I
really truly believe whateverproblem that we run into in a
business I can help them solvethat, not because of what I know
(11:55):
, but because of who I know.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
And and you know, one of the the analogies that that
pops in my head with that is,like your net worth is your
network, yeah, so, um, kind ofkind of switching a little bit
here, like you know, like whatyou've been doing and being able
to stay ahead of stuff.
It goes kind of into that with,like your, your network of
(12:19):
people, but like what's yourstrategies to stay ahead of,
like industry trends and whatyou've been seeing over the last
, you know, like decade or two.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, so again, it really does start with my
network.
I do a lot of networking and Italked to a lot of people,
especially folks in the techspace, so I actually just
started.
I'm on the advisory board of atech startup and so that kind of
helps keep me in the mix.
I know a lot of AI experts sothat you know there's a lot of
(12:51):
stuff going on with AI.
Now, you know there's industrywhat are we on?
Industry 3.0, 4.0.
I don't remember which onewe're on now, but that kind of
stuff, and so I do kind of stayon top of that.
Especially, you know, this isreally important for small
business owners, not just inmanufacturing, but in any type
of service industry.
(13:11):
Technology can help you right.
So I have a great example of alawn service company where
they're like technology why dowe need technology, new tech?
Come in and did an analysis andthey found out well, the owner
(13:32):
you're spending 80% of your timejust answering phone calls or
calling people back 80% of histime and the reason was is
because he was taking a lot ofcalls he shouldn't be taking,
right.
So they put a tech solution inplace.
They had some AI in it andbasically a lot of the questions
could be answered by the AIchat bot, and then the other
ones got either directed toother people that he didn't, so
(13:53):
he only had to answer reallyabout 10% of those calls, and
that transformed his business.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Right, right, and it gives him back his time with
much of that stuff.
What we do with Synergist isvery similar.
We actually build those thingsout for people, so it's really
cool to be able to see thegrowth and like.
A lot of people get worriedabout what may be coming instead
(14:19):
of like embracing whatopportunities may be coming
their way.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yep, Especially with AI, people are waiting for
something.
Don't wait.
It's pretty good right now.
It's only going to get a lotbetter and it's changing so fast
.
Whatever you wait for by thetime that you think that's cool,
there's always something better, so you need to embrace it now
and the thing that I keeptelling people is like it's not
(14:45):
like Terminator 2, skynet kindof stuff.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
So you know it's more functionality and it you know
it's based to be able to helpcreate better productivity for
you.
So totally, totally on board,on the same page as that.
So do you feel like nowadaysthat there are unique set of
challenges that are differentthan days gone by for business
(15:09):
owners when they're starting abusiness right now?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, I think there are a couple of things.
So I know right now everybody'stalking about tariffs, right.
If you're in manufacturing,that's impacting you one way or
another.
So, yeah, it's kind of happenedin the past, but not to the
level it's happening now.
So I think for a lot ofmanufacturers that that's
something they didn't have todeal with before.
And then again I'm back to tech, right.
(15:37):
So there's never been a timewhere tech applied the way it
does now and it can reallychange things.
So, especially requirementsaround tech, I think a lot of
people don't understand that.
So let's say, you're a smallmanufacturer and you want to do
government work.
Well, do you know that there'sa cybersecurity law that you
(15:59):
have to pay attention to?
Right, and so that's a techissue that they haven't had to
deal with before.
So I think you can't avoid it.
So I'm not telling you.
I'm not telling you, mrManufacturer, that you have to
get rid of your 50-year-oldequipment out there that's still
working.
That's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying there are other techsolutions in your front office
(16:22):
and back office that can reallyimprove your operations and you
should embrace that 100%, 100%.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
I love that.
So, as we, as we kind of getcloser to wrapping this up for
you, so like what's one piece ofadvice, if you could give
somebody that is looking tostart a business or buy a
business I mean, the thing thatI've kind of heard lately is
like maybe it's not even thatyou want to start your own
(16:49):
business that you couldpotentially even buy a business
and not have to put too muchmoney into it.
Is that something that's outthere right now?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, yeah.
So I get a lot of founders cometo me, you know, trying to find
money to start up a business,and I tell all of them
especially if they're amanufacturer, they're building a
widget you're much better offbuying a business.
It's going to give you a headstart.
So let's say you're a medicaldevice maker.
You have this electronicmedical device that you've come
(17:18):
up with right, and now you haveto get it built.
Okay, well, you can get a lotof money and give away a lot of
your equity and go out and builda new facility.
Or perhaps you can find a smallmanufacturer that has all the
skills you need to build yourwidget right, so that leaps you
ahead.
Plus, you're buying an assetinstead of giving away equity
(17:41):
and, honestly, in a lot of ways,it's easier to get money to buy
a business than it is to getmoney to fund a business.
So I think that's a perfectlyviable way to go forward.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Love that man, love that.
So what as, as you've kind ofbuilt your, your business in the
you know over your career, what, what would you?
How would you summarize thatjourney for yourself in like a
sentence or two man.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah, so it's uh, I've.
I've looked at theopportunities and taken what was
given to me.
So I wasn't like I said.
I changed from being thispigeonhole thing and trying to
do what other people do.
Instead, I looked at theopportunities presented and said
okay, which one of those can Ireally go after?
How can I serve those clientsand monetize that?
(18:29):
So I think being flexible hasreally helped me in that regard.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I love that.
I love that.
Is there anything coming downthe pipe that you're really
excited about that you want toshare?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Let's see.
Well, I'm trying to acquire myown business, so I have a few
conversations going on therethat I can't really tell you too
much about, um, but but that'skind of exciting to me.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
You may either have to kill me or sue me until I, uh
, until I submit.
Right, I love it, man, verycool.
So, uh, if people areinterested in knowing more about
Focus, opex and yourself, howcan they get a hold of you, man?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yeah, so I'm on LinkedIn.
That's probably the easiest wayto find me, so all my contact
information is on there.
You can even access my calendaron LinkedIn.
My email address, my phonenumber is all there, and then
also my website, focusopexcom.
It also has ways that you cancontact me, and then I have a
bunch of blogs on there that youcan kind of dig into my brain a
(19:36):
little bit and see how I thinkby reviewing those blogs and
giving us a better focus onexactly how you help
manufacturing companies succeedin today's, you know, crazy,
crazy work environment and theeconomy that's going out there
(19:57):
right now.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Man, thank you so much for your time today, really
appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Thank you for having me, ryan, it was a lot of fun,
thanks.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Absolutely.
Once again, dave McFarland,focus Op-X, and I'm Ryan Van
Ornam with Scaling Up Successpowered by Synergist.
Have a great one everybody.
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