Transcript

LEAD GENERATION SECRETS EXPLAINED FOR YOUR BUSINESS || DAQUOTA AVILA || EPISODE 067

From Code To Winning · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 38 min · 9,046 words · 85 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "LEAD GENERATION SECRETS EXPLAINED FOR YOUR BUSINESS || DAQUOTA AVILA || EPISODE 067", an episode of Code To Winning published October 27, 2025 (38 min, about 9,046 words). It mentions 37 people, works and ideas, including lead generation, Yike Your Media Guy, subscription based model, the pecans in Arizona, pyramid scheme.

What this episode is about

The discussion focuses on the intricacies of lead generation in business, emphasizing the importance of media, social media team development, and converting content into revenue. Dakota Avila, a seasoned expert in the field, shares insights on running a podcast studio and managing the diverse challenges that come with entrepreneurship, highlighting the need for adaptability and perseverance in navigating daily business operations.

Key takeaways

  • In lead gen, being A-list famous means nothing if you're not neighborhood niche famous.
  • Every day is Monday for entrepreneurs—who knew eternal grind could fuel perpetual growth?
  • Selling roofs on Instagram secures more blue skies than online stardom ever will.
  • Refuse ghost followers—target real people: Eyeballs in the right zip code pay your bills.
  • Solopreneurs: Craigslist might just have your business coach, proving good things come wildly unplanned.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: lead generation, subscription based model, the pecans in Arizona, Yike Your Media Guy
  2. – 10:00: camera, pyramid scheme, social media management, whiteboard
  3. – 15:00: closing ratios, Jim Ron, lead generation, onboarding
  4. – 20:00: comparison is a thief to success, fail fast, Gramza Tiffany
  5. – 25:00: Play TV, prior service military, sponsor
  6. – 30:00: film school, internship
  7. – 35:00: Disneyland, Fountain Hills, Natalie Dawson, PPFs (personal, professional, and financial goals)
  8. – 37:52: The Code to Winning, You're Media Guy

Notable quotes from "LEAD GENERATION SECRETS EXPLAINED FOR YOUR BUSINESS || DAQUOTA AVILA || EPISODE 067"

  • Stuff, I have one of the guys going to be training me as well. he you know he is the CEO and founder of Yike Your Media Guy. had to double check. Your guy my guy. He's a very…
    about Yike Your Media Guy · at
  • Have like 72 different social media accounts that we run and manage. we are not a sales team. We are a lead generation. So, I just set it and be Oh, you have problems with your roof. Because I'm logged in as them.
    about lead generation · at
  • Posting we find your ideal customers. So if you're like hey we did this job in the pecans in Arizona like the pans is a super nice neighborhood.
    about the pecans in Arizona · at
  • Up to a real estate and I'm Hey, is this real? Like is this just some like pyramid scheme type stuff? And he's Well, I've only been with him for a year. I was Okay, what did you do last year? He's Oh, I sold three houses last year. I was.
    about pyramid scheme · at
  • Dude, I'm killing it. I'm going to do like $60,000. And he's That's amazing. Let's go to my whiteboard. So, we go to the whiteboard. We map out everything. And he's Oh, dude…
    about whiteboard · at
  • To what you're surrounded by. And I think I also mentioned yesterday like even what Jim Ron says, you're the average of the five people you hang out with. And it's so crazy…
    about Jim Ron · at
  • Hard numbers, profit. And I didn't have I didn't have KPIs. I didn't have a team. I didn't know my closing ratios. I didn't know what lead genen was. Like I didn't know what I…
    about closing ratios · at
  • That and it should have been common knowledge but is it an SOP or their onboarding or their training that taught them not to do it and you're like no well that's your fault…
    about onboarding · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Jim Ron — Person · 1 mention · first at
  • Gramza Tiffany — Person · 1 mention · first at
    And I've learned this from one of your guests, too, Tiffany. we help her with her social media. And she's The best thing you can do is go on vacation for two weeks and turn your phone off. Come back. You'll know what.
  • Natalie Dawson — Person · 1 mention · first at
    You have to motivate people to do what they like and you have to know what they like. Like I stole this from Natalie Dawson like PPFs, personal, professional, and financial…
  • KG — Person · 1 mention
  • Robert T. Kiyosaki — Person · 1 mention

Companies & orgs

  • Yike Your Media Guy — Company · 1 mention · first at
  • prior service military — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Could you have done this differently? But I was I need that I was prior service military. I need that person to slap me in the face with be you're stupid. you messed up, fix it.
  • Play TV — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Thing? I had the parlor guy reach out again. The one I interviewed says Listen, I want to get you on Play TV.
  • film school — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Don't care if you're the best. I want it done this way. Well, well, I went to film school, a prestigious film school, and no, you want to do it like this. And I was well, my…
  • Disneyland — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Off of the account she post for. So it's like I still sent her check full and she's at Disneyland with her family and she's Hey, I don't think you meant to send this to me. And be No, I absolutely did.
  • You're Media Guy — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Yeah, you're media guy. Any social media platform, you're media guy. That's what everyone sort of called me. So that's what we just went with and it was yeah, you're a media guy, any social.
  • Google Maps — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

  • camera — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Business life, and they're just happier overall. So, I sit in the corner, set up on my camera, sit in the corner, I'm taking all these notes, and one of the assistants came up…
  • whiteboard — Product · 1 mention · first at

Concepts & topics

  • lead generation — Concept · 6 mentions · first at
  • subscription based model — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Yeah. So they're on subscriptions. So we build them a subscription based model where it's hey, you're going to pay X amount of dollars. We're going to plan your content. We're going to show up at job sites and record your content.
  • pyramid scheme — Concept · 1 mention · first at
  • social media management — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    You meant a month. And I was That's impossible. There's no way my company can do $63,000 a month in social media management.
  • closing ratios — Concept · 1 mention · first at
  • onboarding — Concept · 1 mention · first at
  • fail fast — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Stronger. So that's sort of my thing. I was let's fail. Let's fail and fail fast and hard so I can fix it so it never happens again.
  • comparison is a thief to success — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    I'm like hang on these guys have been doing it from like that time and some you know what I'm saying stop comparison is a thief to success that's all and it's hard for me…
  • sponsor — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Like hardearned money like sales and so like there's no investor, there's no there's no sponsor, but like just this trip of like Miami, Vegas, back blah all these different…
  • internship — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Are in place it's easy for the company to end up like generating and moving and I did an internship in like AB like a Bloomberg kind of company he was hardly there guy would…
  • PPFs (personal, professional, and financial goals) — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    They like and you have to know what they like. Like I stole this from Natalie Dawson like PPFs, personal, professional, and financial goals. If you don't know your employees…
  • The Code to Winning — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Dakota, in your opinion, like I said, I've always asked all my guests this thing because it is the code to winning at the end of the day. What does the term winning mean for you?
  • Cashflow Quadrant — Concept · 1 mention
  • culture (company culture) — Concept · 1 mention
  • geolocation — Concept · 1 mention
  • geotagging — Concept · 1 mention
  • ROI — Concept · 1 mention
  • SOP — Concept · 1 mention
  • systems and processes — Concept · 1 mention

Places & events

  • the pecans in Arizona — Place · 1 mention · first at
  • Fountain Hills — Place · 1 mention · first at
    I have no beef against other people that and the stuff that's been happening especially like in the Fountain Hills area.
  • Salt Lake — Place · 1 mention · first at
    And that's why I'm like listen I just sense something good about you. I'm I'm going to fly you out of Salt Lake and I'm going to take notes like everyone else. As much as yes…
  • Vegas — Place · 1 mention

Full transcript with timestamps

The code towinning insights we need today to seize the world tomorrow. If you are interested in learning a lot about what happens behind the scenes, if you want to know about media, building your social media team, trying to convert content into revenue, if you want to learn about how to run a podcast studio, how you want to try and do the back office and learn all about that stuff, I have one of the guys going to be training me as well. Um he you know he is the CEO and founder of Yike Your Media Guy. Um had to double check. Your guy my guy. He's a very very good person, very knowledgeable in this field in this industry as well. Very experienced. He's got studios in Arizona. Um so without further ado, our amazing guest today. We got Dakota. How you doing, brother?

Good. Hanging in there. It's a long day. Long day for you. Long day for me. We're working and getting it done.

Yeah. Yeah. Know what's crazy is that my first and my last I I kind of go to the reserve tank. I I like listen I got to be able to make sure I kind of step on the gas. I'm like where the heck did that gas come from? So

I'm here for it. If you heard from the intro I still got it brother. I still got it. So how you doing boss?

Good. Just working. It's it's never ending. Like I don't know people are like when I had my 9 to5 Mondays I was like a it's Monday I got to go back to work. I was like you own a business it's like every day is a Monday. Like Monday is still a show but every day is a [ __ ] show. So, it's like, what do we have today? Like, what problems are we going to come and overcome today? Like, just keep moving forward. Like, you can only control what you can control. Um, and yeah, we make it happen. We have so many moving pieces. It's hard to have like a perfect day because it's like there's 20, 30 jobs, 10 phone calls, five sale calls, like all of this stuff. It was like nothing's going to be perfect every day. You just got to focus in on the stuff that's good and keep moving on.

Like, you can't win everything. Do you do any roofing sales? So, we do a lot of setting for our customers. So, we have like 72 different social media accounts that we run and manage. Um, we are not a sales team. We are a lead generation. So, I just set it and be like, "Oh, you have problems with your roof." Because I'm logged in as them. I'm like, "Hey, that's crazy that you have that like roof leak. I need someone to get out there immediately. We do a free tarping service. Um, like what's a good number to call you at?" They send me their number. I send that to the company or the CEO and go, "Hey, like this guy's ready. He has a roof leak. he needs you guys to go take care of them.

Like that's where I hand the ball off. Like I'm not a sales team. Um I don't close sales. We're not paid off of commission. We are a lead generation company. I just generate the leads and you got to do what you do.

How do you get paid though from that if you generate the leads for customers or like for clients?

Yeah. So they're on subscriptions. So we build them a subscription based model where it's like, hey, you're going to pay X amount of dollars. We're going to plan your content. We're going to show up at job sites and record your content. We're going to edit that content and we're going to post it. And where we really really thrive is after the posting we find your ideal ideal customers. So if you're like hey we did this job in the pecans in Arizona like the pans is a super nice neighborhood. Um average house price is like 3.5 million plus. So like very good neighborhood gated like a great spot to live. Well also everyone in that community has quite a bit of money. Well Instagram will let you geollocate. So not only can you post that you were in that neighborhood working on a roof but it's going to show all the people in the area. So, it's like we use the geolocations to post and then we go find

the park that all the moms take their kids to and we follow all the moms like, "Hey, did you know this house has problems? It's 20 years old." Actually, all of your houses are 20 years old. Roofs out here only last for 20 years. So, for you guys, I want to offer you a complimentary inspection so you can sleep safe at night knowing when this storm hits us tonight, you're not going to wake up in a puddle.

Well, what does the mom do? How much is it? Oh, it's free. We'll come out and do it right now. We're already in the neighborhood. We're down the street. You can see our trucks out outside. So they walk over there and be like, "Hey, I just saw your Instagram video. Can you come give me a quote?" Well, it's like, "How do you sell roofs?" You got to climb on them and write quotes. So it's like boom, immediate lead generation. And for these houses, we're talking about like $50,000 plus roofs. So it's not just a little tiny like patch job.

Um, so that's where our company thrives is ROI. That's like our big thing when we're when we're planning content, we're recording it, we're posting. It's how do we get the business ROI?

You know, it's crazy. I remember our conversation that we had yesterday. I was just fascinated to figure out that even when we were doing the lead generation thing when you focus on those multiple accounts, you're actually targeting actual people rather than having like these larger numbers and massive amount of followings and millions where some could be ghost, some could be different country could be in Iran. It doesn't really like it's it's very irrelevant where you're actually focusing and targeting jurisdiction which is so important especially with leads because you're targeting the actual market. like could it be more important? And so can you talk about like when did you start this the lead generation thing?

So I started about four years ago. I I was a soloreneur and I met a guy on Craigslist and now he's my business coach. But he's like hey I'm in business coaching. I'm doing open house. I want like a hype video. I was like cool I can do that. Here's some examples of me doing it before. Sent him. He's like looks great. How much do I owe you for the day to come out? And I was like honestly I'll do it for free. I've never heard of business coaching and I think it's sort of a pyramid scam because I've never heard of that. So like don't pay me because I don't want to be obligated to stay in the room if I'm just getting weird vibes. I'm going to grab my [ __ ] and I'm going to bounce. So he was like, "It's free." Even better. So I show up and there's 30 guys in the room and I go up to a real estate and I'm like, "Hey, is this real? Like is this just some like pyramid scheme type stuff?" And he's like, "Well, I've only been with

him for a year." I was like, "Okay, what did you do last year?" He's like, "Oh, I sold three houses last year." I was like, "Well, what did you sell this year?" And he's like, "I'm like 37. We're only halfway through the year." I was like, "You went from three houses a year to 37 in 6 months." How? The he taught me. So I go over to a roofing company. I was like, "Hey, does this stuff work?" And he's like, "Well, I've been at 10 million for the past 15 years. I've been stuck at 10 million." And he's like, "Dude, we did 3 million last month because of the stuff he taught me that I wasn't doing."

I was like, "Oh, okay. That's pretty impressive." So, I go and start talking to all these people and everyone gave me like this green testimonial of like how great this coaching is and how it's transformed their personal life, their business life, and they're just happier overall. So, I sit in the corner, set up on my camera, sit in the corner, I'm taking all these notes, and um one of the assistants came up and she's like, "Hey, do you want a booklet?" And I was like, "Dude, I would love a booklet." So, they I get a booklet. I'm following along with him, taking all the notes, doing the cameras, stuff. Um, and then after he was like, that business coach was like, "Hey, like what did you think of it?" I was like, "Dude, I'm so interested. Like, this was very valuable to me. Like, I'm so happy that I'm here.

Thank you." And he was like, "Well, you know, how's your business doing?" Like, I'm a business coach. You're a business owner. And I was like, at that time, I was a soloreneur. I wouldn't even say I was a business owner. And I was like, "Dude, I'm killing it. I'm going to do like $60,000." And he's like, "That's amazing. Let's go to my whiteboard." So, we go to the whiteboard. We map out everything. And he's like, "Oh, dude, your numbers don't make sense." And I was like, "What? I'm at 63. I'm on track to do 63,000 this year. I'm doing great." And he's like, "Oh, I thought you meant a month." And I was like, "That's impossible. There's no way my company can do $63,000 a month in social media management."

And he was like flips the whiteboard over, goes like crazy mad scientist, like draws everything out, and he's like, "You're telling me if you don't do this, don't do this, hire person here, train someone here, blah blah blah, have this training video, have this subscription, fix your billing, fix your lead gen, fix like you're telling me, is anything I said on there impossible?" And mind you, this is a roofer. He's not the smartest guy in the world. Love him to death, but not the smartest guy in the world. And I was like, "No, everything you said is completely doable." And he was like, "Well, what would the revenue on that be?" And I was like, "Shit, that'd be like 75,000 a month if I did it like that."

Wow. And he's like, "So, why aren't you doing it like that?" How much were you making at that time? Well, 60 a year. So,

yeah, I was at 60 grand. Now, we're doing 30 on a bad month. Wow. So, have I done the 60,000 a month yet? No. But I've done 53. That was their best month ever.

Wow. Um, so totally made me look at everything different. And and what I learned from that was like I love my family. I love my friends that I've had, but they were not the right circle for who I wanted to be and where I wanted to grow. It it wasn't the group for me. So it was like when you hang out with your friends and it was like it literally happened. I I went back home and they're like, "Hey dude, we're having a bonfire tonight. You want to come through?" It's like, "Dude, I would love to come through. Like hang out with all my high school buddies. Like I'm so in." And they're like, "Could you pitch in like 10 20 bucks for like some shitty beer?"

It's like, "No, dude. I'll just go buy some beer and drink it. Like, it's fine. Like, I got you. We're We're good. Like, $100 of alcohol." I show up and I'm like, "I'm the guy." Like, "Bro, you spent $100 in alcohol for us?" I was like, "Yeah, it's like not a big deal." Like, at that time, I'm doing 100,000 plus a year like of profit. Like, not a big deal at all. Happy to do it to hang out with my my friends. And then I realized like the people I was hanging out with were so happy and content with all of them kicking a few bucks together for some horrible beer to sit by a bonfire. Like they in their minds they're like, "You've made it. You're at the cream of the crop. Best of your life. Like good for you." Well, then I come to rooms like this and I'm like like, "Oh, you're doing a million a year. That's cute. I do a million a month." I'm like, "That lights a fire in me." And I'm like that. Okay. I'm so

interested. Like okay. Like I'm looking at things all wrong. And that's what it came down to. I was the biggest fish in my pond. And I had to just get in the ocean. Like if you're in the room and you're the biggest person, there's a problem. I love being in rooms where I'm the smallest person, the smallest business, the smallest entrepreneur because it makes me look at everything like the problems I think I have in my business. I listen to their problems and I'm like, dude, that my problems are nothing compared to that. And I'm like, hey, your problem I can't help you with.

mind blown there, but this is my problem. And they're like, "Oh, dude, that's super simple. Just do boom, boom, boom, and you're fixed and you're good to go." And I'm like, "Shit."

No, dude. I couldn't agree more. And I think they that's what they say if you're the smartest person or you're the the biggest fish in like your thing. You got to change circles. You have to cuz you naturally end up becoming accustomed to what you're surrounded by. And I think I also mentioned yesterday like even what Jim Ron says, you're the average of the five people you hang out with. And it's so crazy when I this mastermind was the reason I like this mastermind. It was a very engaging one. It wasn't one of those like just talk talk talk god they go to. It was like you started off we all doing push-ups.

We start off with those questions. What can we do? What can we do? Another person comes up spotlight. I'm like this must wonder everyone's coming every single week because it's an engaging thing. But not just that, like it's a different room because I think I was mentioning all those people that I name dropped yesterday and even today that you are on stage with. But like just to take it a notch further when I when you start hearing all the amounts that everyone's making, you're like like I swear we got the same body, you know, we're human beings. We breathe the same air. It's just somebody managed to crack the code and they're willing to teach.

So, I'm willing to pay to try and make sure I can be in that room that I can try and get that connection. And just that's what networking is. And which kind of even segus to what I'm about to say, like did you always have like a networking mindset or is that something that happened over time after you met that that one coach?

No, my mindset honestly everything was so bad. So, like when I was a soloreneur, it was pure luck that I made 60,000 a year. Like pure luck. I think Craigslist was my only source of lead genen and they were horrible leads. um like the stuff that I was doing for the price I was doing it. Like I was racing to the bottom. So there would be like multiple jobs and it would just be like are you going like oh someone said they do it for $100. Well I'll do it for 50. Oh cool. You got the job. And I'm like okay cool. There's an hour of planning, two hours of recording, four hours of editing. And I'm like so I'm paying myself a dollar an hour. Why did I race to the bottom?

And that was the problem I had. It was like I was racing to the bottom for what? Like there was no profit in it. Like I was able to barely pay my bills. Like now I'm the exact opposite. People are like, "Dude, this is my budget." I'm like, "This is what I'll do for it." And they're like, "Ah, no. Someone's going cheaper." I'm like, "Okay, go with someone cheaper." Like, but if you want great turnaround time, you want this, you want this, you want this, this is what my agency offers. Like, if you want the best of the best, go with that.

Oh, I thought something was wrong. No, I I I love that. And I think the fact that there was no adjustment like you set the precedent right there. How did you did you start forming your own lead generation kind of like business apart? Like how did that start about? I'm curious.

I got roasted. So what we did is we did that one-on-one and I pretty much just got told like, "Dude, you have no lead genen. One source of legion is you don't have a company. Like why are you not the when you hit the home run out of the park and the customer's like this was the best thing ever. Thank you so much. Like hey do you have any friends in the area doing the same thing? Like one text message actually I have four of them. Can you send me their numbers? Boom. Four leads. That was more than I was getting like a month through Craigslist.

So I was like so there was a lot of things that I learned. And how I learned it was I got roasted. I sat in front of a room of 30 40 business owners open my books. Opened everything. like this is everything I'm doing. This is what I think's working. This is what's not working. What can you guys tell me? I'm the small fish in the room. And they roasted the hell out of me. Like

was that very similar to what happening today where it's like a what can you do better? What do you what can you do different?

That one was a presentation. So yeah, they got roasted on a fiveminute presentation. No, this was like numbers, hard numbers, profit. And I didn't have I didn't have KPIs. I didn't have a team. I didn't know my closing ratios. I didn't know what lead genen was. Like I didn't know what I didn't know. Like everything I've learned was through YouTube and just like trial and error. And and you said it earlier like you're the average of five people, but it's like how I was taught like the metaphor that got me is like, "Hey, if you show up to buy the brand new iPhone and the line is a seven hour late, seven hours around the block, do you want to wait in it or do you want to pay $500 and cut the first person in line?"

I'd pay $500, be the first person in line. So am I smart enough to get to where I am today? Absolutely. But it would have took me years of failures and errors rather than I just paid to cut the line. I paid to listen to someone else's failures and for them to audit me and be like, "You're doing this wrong. Why are you doing it like this?" And I was like, "Cuz I don't know what I'm doing." Like, so it's being as a business owner, everything is your responsibility. Trial error failure succession all of it comes down to you. So it's like one, you have to own that. If you own that everything is your fault, even if like your customer screwed up and like well why wasn't your or you know your employee screwed up like well why didn't you train them better like yeah they were stupid and they shouldn't have done that and it should have been common knowledge but is it an SOP or their onboarding or their training that taught

them not to do it and you're like no well that's your fault like totally on you. So, it's like I took full responsibility for everything and I've built that out where it's like I'm the first one to blame myself for everything that goes wrong. Um, and and it should be me. Like, it's my systems, it's my processes, like and I try to break them. I'm like, how hard can I overload this to see what breaks first? Because once it breaks, I can fix it. But if I don't know what breaks and I don't know where that weak point is, you can't do it.

Um, and I've learned this from one of your guests, too, Tiffany. Um, we help her with her social media. And she's like, "The best thing you can do is go on vacation for two weeks and turn your phone off. Come back. You'll know what the problems are real fast. As soon as you're not there, you're going to see who covers down, who picks up the slack, what systems failed, what went wrong." Like, and then you can't you can't fix something you don't know. So, overload your system and try to break it because what happens is you just come back stronger. And it was like, "Yeah, it's going to suck. You you may lose a customer like whatever." like it's not good to break a system. Someone's going to drop the ball or something. But on the back end, you can come back stronger. So that's sort of my thing. I was like, let's fail. Let's fail and fail fast and hard so I can fix it so it never happens again.

One of the things I love the most that you said that you spoke about accountability. You know how many times people like jump in something and they're always ready to point the finger. Oh no, I shouldn't have done sales with this person because the company sucks. Oh, I shouldn't have done this thing, but that thing is I should have went to that area. And then you realize that, hey, hang hang on.

Uh there are people that are in the exact same boat as you are, but they're finding success. And I I won't lie, I don't want to be a hypocrite, but I've also been in those situations where I just blame everything but myself. And accountability is such an important factor, especially when you become an entrepreneur, when you want to try and upscale. And that's that's it just stuck out to me. It's like gosh like how many times do people find themselves in the thing where they play the blame game and pointing at every other finger cuz we are capable of literally achieving anything we want to achieve if we just put our mind to it as well. And from our discussions and all the stuff that you've been doing everything just comes down to how like you're structured how many times you work out like you work out all the time. You do the small things that just add up. You know the small stuff eventually add up because

they my favorite term is consistency. You know what I'm saying? like I go from state to state do what I do but when every time when I keep posting every single day episodes and I start seeing new subs and we do all these different stuff and people engaging like hey I've been following you for a while it's exciting to see that because you may not see the end goal you're like oh yeah I've been monetized since my second episode but it's like why am I not making I show speed okay sai thing and I'm like hang on these guys have been doing it from like that time and some you know what I'm saying stop comparison is a thief to success that's all and it's hard for me because I'm like

look at guess I'm bringing I'm like I should be a 100k at least you know but it's like listen success comes in many different ways as well so have you ever felt discouraged and say like damn like but I've been busting my butt I'm doing all this stuff running all these studios I should be 1.2 2 mill a year if that has that ever discouraged you?

Oh, every day. Like there's not a day where I'm like, could I have done more? Could I have done better? What could I have done different? Like you've been here for two days doing podcast. So like I was thinking about today I was like [ __ ] I don't have the names and number. I I think I got two of your your guests contact information. They're all local. They obviously like to do podcast. They show up to P. You brought me 12 of my ideal customers. What have I done as a business to close this? And I'm like, [ __ ] I'm going to have to message this guy and be like, hey buddy, like, can you send me the names and phone numbers of everybody just so I can Yeah. And so then we go back to Legion. Like, you brought me 12 ideal customers. All I have to do is send him a text be like, "Dude, I'm so happy that you came to our podcast studio and checked it out. if you thought about doing a podcast or that's something that just interests you

like I'll do your first one for free to get you in here and hook you like and once you're hooked on it and it was like then you'll do another one and then I charge you and then I put you on subscription. So it's like there there's ways to do it. It's just like discouragement is huge. Like if you're going to fail just accept you're going to fail. Um but you can't let it like you're you're going to get kicked while you're down but you you have to get up. And it's a everyday thing like improve yourself and I wanted to get a tattoo and I think I'm still going to. It was like 1% better every day. Like I didn't come up with that, but it's like if you're just 1% better every single day, like you will succeed. You just have to do it. And that's where I think people give up is like I posted five times on social media and I didn't get a lead, so I stopped. Cool. I posted 500 times on social media and I got one lead. Like

talk to me after your 500 post. And then I have other people. Yeah, I post one time on social media. Three people reach out. It was great. Like cool, good for you. High five. Like but did you post the next day? No. I was like, "Well, did you post the day after that?" "No." I was like, "Post every like it goes back to the consistency." Like, you're going to lose battles. Welcome to entrepreneurship. It's not for the week. Um you're either in it or you're out of it. But it's like, you know, consistency, accepting defeat, improving yourself. Like

there there's so much to it. And that's why I push people to coaching. Like I love coaching. I have like nine different business coaches. Some of them being more on the life coach, some of them being harder on the business coach, some of them in the middle. Like you just have to find that person that speaks to you and helps you get to where you need to be. Um, and I have different coaches for different things. I have some where it's like I could tell them like, "Oh yeah, I did this podcast. This guy, he had 12 guests. It was cool. We made a little bit of money off of it."

And they'd be like, "But you didn't generate any leads. You suck." And I have other ones that will sugar coat it and be like, "Oh, well, you know, you should have thought about like this. Like, could you have done this differently?" But I was like, "I need that I was prior service military. I need that person to slap me in the face with be like, you're stupid. you messed up, fix it.

Yeah. And I was like, that's the coaching that I need. So, it's like, and some people are like, whoa, that's way too intense. I need something nicer. Like, didn't find a coach that's nicer. But it's like, you have to find that person that speaks to you, motivates you, and can get through. Like, we're all stubborn. Like, there's there's something that gets through to you and you just need that person that gets through to you and has done it. And that's like there's too many coaches online right now in my opinion, that haven't done what they're selling. Like, in theory, do this, this, and this. No, find a coach who's done that. And after you find a coach that's actually done it, hire them as your coach because they've done it. They've been in the trenches. They paid for the losses. Like they paid a million in ads, it didn't work. They they paid, you know, $50,000 for a billboard. It didn't

work. Or or it did work. Regardless, use their money, pay to cut the line, take their failures, take their wins, and then just implement from what you learn from them.

You you know, brother, I'm you know what's so crazy is that everything you sing, I believe, but sometimes hearing it again is is is amazing. You know, the reason I want to share that because the you and I have had so many raw convos. I'm so grateful like Jason got to connect us cuz uh when I obviously I know what we're going to be doing in future and the stuff you're going to be training me and my team as well. Well, it's the fact that um doing this right now has just always been um so much of like hardearned money like sales and so like there's no investor, there's no there's no sponsor, but like just this trip of like Miami, Vegas, back blah blah all these different stuff. I've had people reach out and say, "Listen, have you got a sponsor? Have you got this thing?" I had the parlor guy reach out again. The one I interviewed says like, "Listen, I want to get you on Play TV.

Let's talk about other stuff as I've had people's, you know what I'm saying? It's the fact that it's like sometimes you put yourself in situations where opportunities are there and like when I started speaking about that vision, I'm like, how the heck am I going to get like I don't want to say obviously what we're going to be doing, but like 200 to 300 of people in that certain industry and you're like, hey, listen, I know if you guys just went there, blah, but it's stuff like it's like, oh my gosh, like sometimes just opening up and letting people know because we're all in this thing where we want to win together and nothing is good as winning as bringing people together. But one of the things I like about winning is like people like you that see the vision and also see the opportunity rather than like trying to like just scam people. And that's a hard that's why people also afraid of coaching because people want to try and

teach something that they're not living. Yeah. You know, and so and I'm the same way man. I'm say direct to me like hey KG this is not good. Do that thing rather try and get you spend over close to 100k from your sales money or this amount of money from that side hustle. try and work efficiently cuz YouTube is not going to pay you 100K when you're only on 40k subs. So, stuff like that. But

at the end of the day, like it starts with that 1% better consistency and just doing it over and over again because unless I've done over a 100 episodes, I haven't. I've already had people potentially reach out as well. You know, it's just there's many things that just do what you want to do. Like I've seen when you're there like yesterday when we were watching you and Jason walk and then coming here, I think we we saw you do three workouts yesterday. I think when you were talking about your story as well, but it's it's the habits, you know what I'm saying? The habits that get instilled in your head and then it gets you moving as well. Which kind of kind of segus to what I want to talk about right now. Like, yes, you did that. What was the hardest part or the hardest part of being an entrepreneur?

Oh my gosh. I know exactly. The hardest thing I did was hire an assistant. So, I was making like around $500 a week and my assistant cost me $500 a week. So go from a small business, all of your money paid to one person to do the backend stuff. So week one, I trained her. Week two I trained her. Week three she started. Week four I tripled the size of my business because I took so many minute easy tasks that were just timeconuming off of my plate and paid someone else to do it. So I went from making $500 a week and then a month I made nothing because I paid everything to her. Um, and then that next month I tripled my business. Two weeks after like that I 5xed my business. I was like, mind you, my business wasn't huge, so it was easier to do, but I went from $500 a week to like four grand a week with one hire of doing the minute backend stuff. So, it's like it's so hard as a business. You put all your

heart and your energy into like building this business and it's your baby, but eventually you have to pass parts of it away to actually like grow it to a business. And I still don't think I have a business cuz I can't leave for a month. So, someone told me, "If you have a business, you can turn your phone off for a month and just disappear. Go on vacation, go to Mexico, do do whatever. Turn your phone off for a month and come back." Do you have a business or do you have a ton of ashes that are burnt down?

Like I have a ton of asses that are burnt down. It would burn down so fast. Maybe not that fast, but like I would like to think it wouldn't, but I know we would have anything declined. We would have lost customers. Revenue would have gone down without me here. So, I don't have a business yet. I'm still a overpaid employee working in my business. I have a business when I can just disappear and I know that I'm going to generate leads. I'm going to close leads. I'm I'm going to have new customers and everything's going to improve. So, it's like I still don't think I have a business. I I'm just a overpaid employee. Like, which goes back to that cash flow quadrant. You know, the the Roberts thing of like um E for employee, S for small business, and then there's B and I said you want to be on the right hand side, BNI, big business and investor. is like the big business you can go for months but because of the

the structure and also the systems that are in place it's easy for the company to end up like generating and moving and I did an internship in like AB like a Bloomberg kind of company he was hardly there guy would leave for like months and then he's in the UK he comes back but because there's like CEO there's like board of directors there's this and there's that thing there's like people taking care of interns it's like a freaking story building of all the floors and stuff but it's It's almost sometimes better that they are gone. It grows more without you in there micromanaging people.

And that's I mean, dude, that's where I want to get where it's like, oh, it's better like I have some of our clients that are like, will you send so and so? They're just better than you.

I know. That's why I hired them because they're better than me. That's why I send them. Like, I'm so happy you want them to do it because I don't want to do it. I'm trying to do bigger tasks. So, like, yep, they'll be there every week on Monday report for you. Like, not a problem.

Yeah. No, I I I couldn't agree more. And that's one thing I do like um collaboration there's so much we're in this world where there's so much ego and I tell you man like every time I see people with ego you only can go so far before it all comes crumbling down and I think we spoke about like the like the crap that's been happening with some of the leaders in era you know the and their team's falling apart and this thing and that thing man I I always reach out I'm like listen I'm willing to and I'm willing to not just like reach out and try and like scabbo people like I'm reaching out saying listen yeah I need you this thing from you can act on I'm you know how important is collaboration and networking working together

networking is everything like your only like your what was it your net worth is your network like I heard that and I was like oh does that really make sense and I sat down and thought about like yeah dude my network of people are so powerful like and I have people all the time like hey I need this dude call this guy he's my AC guy he'll take care of you just tell him you're with me oh your roof's bad ude call guy. Oh, that guy's busy. He can't get out soon enough. Call this guy. Like, I have a a roster of every bluecollar business that are the best in their industry first off. And that they would jump through hoops because they knew they would do it back for me. And I have it sometimes like whatever reason right now we've had a lot of people die. And it was like, "Hey dude, so and so's like brother just died." Cool. Reach out to them. I want to do the memorial video. Oh, well, you know, they're a little like struggling

with No, I don't I don't want money for it. like that network and keeping that network so close and just taking care of people will go so much farther in your business than paid ads or anything else. Um, and that's where people like if you have an ego, I just don't mess with you in the first place. It was like if you have a like if you have an ego and we see it, it's the hardest thing for me to hire videographers because they all have a e ego. They're all the best videographer. And I was like, well, I don't care if you're the best. I want it done this way. Well, well, I went to film school, a prestigious film school, and no, you want to do it like this. And I was like, well, my customer wants a social media video, and they don't want to pay $20,000 for a 30 second video, so do it not to your standard. Like, no, no, no. I I refuse to do that. Well, cool. Then you don't work for me. And And then we look back about some of the

overpriced people, and I was like, wait, so you did like $25,000 in work last year? Like, that's cute. I've done that in a month. and they're like, "Oh, aren't you cool?" I'm like, "No, I'm just saying like your ego stopping you from all of this." So, it's like it's super tricky in my industry to find badass employees that don't have an ego. And I have to get them to buy in on the culture. And that's so hard as a business owner. I think people miss that. Like, your culture needs to be strong enough where people want to come to work. They're happy to come to work.

And we talked a little bit, you know, off camerara about how I break it down. Like, I have my videographers and I have my editors. My editors love to stay at home and just edit. They're not people like they're not people people. They like to just sit at the computer and play on their keyboard all day. And then I have my super creative people that are like they need that interaction and they hate going and locking themselves in a box to edit. And I'm like why don't I split it? Like yeah it's expensive. I have to double my like payroll. Um but I was like you guys go be creative. Go out in the field and go make awesome content then upload it to the Google Drive and then this person's going to download it and edit it. M

and it was like now as a consumer like our turnaround time is amazing cuz it's like this person was so high energy they came out there they made us awesome videos. They went home that night uploaded it 3:00 a.m. our guy woke up click download 6 a.m. he woke back up and he's editing like noon all your videos are done. And you're like dude we finished less than 12 hours ago. Like I just got on the flight just got home and I open it. I was like click on the link all of our videos are done.

I was like well how do we do that? It's like because we build an agency. Like so you have to motivate people to do what they like and you have to know what they like. Like I stole this from Natalie Dawson like PPFs, personal, professional, and financial goals. If you don't know your employees goals and you're not helping them achieve those goals, like you're you're not the business for them. They'll leave you for money. So it's like, how do you motivate your employees where like they're untouchable and unrecruitable? Like there's always going to be a dollar amount or whatever, but like ideally there's not a dollar amount. You you pay them good. you've met all of their goals. They're hitting their life goals.

They're hitting their family goals. They're hitting their personal goals. Like, they're hitting everything they want to do with their life. Why would they leave the company? No, they're happy.

So, and that's where I think people go wrong is like you forget like your employees aren't like workh horses. Like, I have some workh horses, but it was like what are their goals at the end of the day and what motivates them? And then how do I help them motivate? Like one of my assistants right now is on vacation. I was like, I still sent her her paycheck and she's salary. So like or she's not salary, she's um like based off of the account she post for. So it's like I still sent her her check full and she's at Disneyland with her family and she's like, "Hey, I don't think you meant to send this to me." And be like, "No, I absolutely did.

You bust your ass while you're here. You took a week long break and I'm so happy for you that you get to go to Disneyland with your family, but like I know what I pay you is sort of like your play money and you guys are out playing right now. So like I want you to still have a good time with your family and kids." Yeah,

that's nice. So it's like go to her right now while she's on vacation be like, "Hey, come work for me. I'll pay you more."

Like, "Dude, my boss just paid me and I didn't do anything all week and sent me a text saying like, "Hey, good for you. Have fun with your children." Like,

dude, at the end of the day, people are people. Yeah. You know, I just like it so much because if you start treating people like people, I think that's that's where things start like working super well. And I think that's where we're talking about. I I'm not gonna name drop because I have no beef against other people that and the stuff that's been happening especially like in the Fountain Hills area. Go on. Know where we're going.

But my point is if you just um cuz people will if they buy into the idea is also if they see the vision but if their vision also aligns with their goals and by understanding their goals and I think that's one of the things I like the most and that's why I'm like listen I just sense something good about you. I'm like, I'm going to fly you out of Salt Lake and I I'm going to take notes like everyone else. As much as yes, they're going to be in my team. I'm going to recruit them. I need to know what the expectation is and I'm willing to learn as well because one of the things I liked a lot about Jason, he was in the trenches. He's selling. He's out there on the roofs and stuff like that. And like you always like in in about you involved. You you taking calls seeing how that studio is doing, how that studio, what what's the goals for this thing, KPIs, all the all these different stuff.

It's it's all a process and the minute you take your foot off the gas um and you stop becoming complacent, I think that's when everything falls apart. Complacency is also another dangerous like attribute as well. So, how do you continue to stay motivated yourself?

Being the smallest person in the room like I I refuse to be the biggest person in the room. Like, yeah, I it's just not going to help me grow. And I'm I'm very open-minded. Like as nice as possible why I lose a lot of money by trying marketing things like, "Oh, dude, so and so said they did this and it worked really good. Cool. Let's do it. Hook me up with their person." Oh, it didn't work for us. It was good. Great for blueco collar, not good for tech company. Well, I tried. But it was like once you're complacent and you're like, I'm not willing to grow. I'm not going to integrate AI in my company. Like your business is going up or down. Um, as soon as you stop willing to grow and like take notes and improve yourself, you're going down. M and that's where like I'm still my business is only 3 years old. We're thriving. We're like I feel like we're dominating. Like you go to a Facebook group for Arizona, they're

like I need a videographer. I have 60 comments. 30 of them are me. And they tag me personally and I've never even worked with them. But is like we've built that team and that culture where it's like no, these are the guys you want to use. Like are they going to be a little bit more expensive? Yeah. They're reasonable with their prices. They're not going to give you this crazy quote. Um, and that's why I hate giving people quotes because I'm like, "Well, what do you want?" "Oh, I just want you to record." "Well, do you want editing?"

"No, I just want like one 20 minute long video, very basic." I'm like, "Then I'm not going to quote you 10 grand. Like, it doesn't cost me 10 grand."

Um, and it's like we built that team where we can be reasonable with our prices. Um, we we do a ton of work. We have fast turnaround times and everyone's happy. So,

just keep growing. Like, as soon as you're complacent, it's over. Like, be a small person in the room. Be open-minded. take notes from the best and if you feel like you are the best then you either have an ego about you or you're just in the wrong rooms.

Love that. I know I know the reason I've been looking at the time I know you guys have to go somewhere right now and I I really respect and I appreciate the time that you've taken to jump on this podcast and we open up and discuss and so forth as well. I'm excited to come back here. By the way, you know, he's this is his studio right here. So the great hospitality that's been given here in Arizona, it's been amazing to be able to bring the guests all last minute and we end up managed to pull 12 out, you know, like. So it's another thing I have a passion for as well. Um, so now Dakota, in in your opinion, like I said, I've always asked all my guests this thing because it is the code to winning at the end of the day. What does the term winning mean for you?

Winning, I think, is that freedom where I can just leave. Like my dad's going to retire 10 years tops, but he's aiming for like seven years. I was like, I want to sell my business in seven years, the same time he retires, where it's like money's not an issue. Like, where do you want to go? What do you want to do? So, I was like, I'm racing my dad to retirement. Like, I won't retire. Like, ideally, I'll sell my business the same time he retires. We'll have plenty of fun money for a year or two to travel and do our thing. And then I'll probably start another business or do like I have too much ADHD. I have to do something. Um, but yeah. So like winning for me is being able to like achieve that like raise my dad to retirement and then when I retire just be able to like money not be an issue. Um or even if I don't sell in seven years being able to be like dude I'm going to go hang out with my

dad for the next six months. Like my board everything the company's going up or down without me. Like all the systems are in place. Everything is going to run smoothly. I'm going to come back. Let's say I left with a $5 million company and like I'm at least going to come back in six months and we're doing 5.5 million. like it it has to increase without me. And that's what's winning for me is is if you have a real business where you're not an overpaid employee, your business can thrive and honestly sometimes thrives better with you when you're not there. Like that's what winning is

powerful. If you could let our viewers know where they could get a hold of you um if they want to try and like you know jump rent a studio out in Arizona, videographer, all that different stuff. Can you let people know where they can get a hold of you?

Yeah, you're media guy. Any social media platform, you're media guy. That's what everyone sort of called me. So that's what we just went with and it was like, yeah, you're a media guy, any social media platform, send us a DM. Um, or if you just follow us, you're going to get a DM from us anyway. So that's how you do it.

Awesome stuff. The codewinning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Dakota, thank you very much, brother.

Yeah, no problem. Awesome stuff.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "LEAD GENERATION SECRETS EXPLAINED FOR YOUR BUSINESS || DAQUOTA AVILA || EPISODE 067"?

KG (Host), Dakota Avila (Guest), Jason (Guest), Tiffany (Guest), Natalie Dawson (Guest), Jim Rohn (Host).

What is "LEAD GENERATION SECRETS EXPLAINED FOR YOUR BUSINESS || DAQUOTA AVILA || EPISODE 067" about?

The discussion focuses on the intricacies of lead generation in business, emphasizing the importance of media, social media team development, and converting content into revenue. Dakota Avila, a seasoned expert in the field, shares insights on running a podcast studio and managing the diverse challenges that come with entrepreneurship, highlighting the need for adaptability and perseverance in…

What is mentioned in this Code To Winning episode?

37 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including lead generation, Yike Your Media Guy, subscription based model, the pecans in Arizona, pyramid scheme, camera. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "LEAD GENERATION SECRETS EXPLAINED FOR YOUR BUSINESS || DAQUOTA AVILA || EPISODE 067"?

The episode runs 38 min; the transcript is about 9,046 words in 85 timestamped sections.

More from Code To Winning

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated December 13, 2025.