Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
David Barwin: Thinking Big
211 Plays2 years ago
In this episode of the Uncommonwealth podcast, host Phillip Ramsey welcomes the multifaceted David Barwin for a deep-dive into his unique journey and the roles that shape his life. As a guiding figure in the world of business education and an active facilitator for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, David sheds light on the intricate dance of teaching, coaching, and fatherhood.
David walks us through his transition from athletics to coaching, and eventually to academia, where he found a profound joy in helping others realize their potential. His experiences growing up with an entrepreneurial father offered formative lessons that he now passes forward, both as a business professor and through the Goldman Sachs program. Furthermore, David opens up about his approach to parenting, teaching, and the delicate balancing act required.
- David's unique approach to education, blending coaching methodologies with business teachings.
- Insights into the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, its mission, and impact on communities.
- The importance of fostering growth-mindedness and ambition among entrepreneurs in the Midwest.
- Personal anecdotes about parenting and instilling values of self-made success, reminiscent of the lessons from his father.
- Reflective insights on how to support and inspire students and business owners towards achieving their full potential.
Key Takeaways:
- David Barwin illustrates the rewarding experience of transitioning from an athlete to a coach and then to a business educator.
- He emphasizes the value of entrepreneurship education and its ability to empower students and local communities.
- David is a key facilitator for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, advocating the program's benefits for small business growth.
- He shares a conscious approach to parenting, highlighting the importance of intentionality and supportive encouragement.
- The episode explores the idea of striving for success that aligns with one's passions and the positive ripple effect
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to The Uncommon Wealth Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Everyone dreams of living an uncommon life and the best asset you have to achieve your dreams is you Welcome to the uncommon wealth podcast We're going to introduce you the people who are living uncommonly We're also going to give you some tools and strategies for building wealth and for pursuing an uncommon path That is uniquely right for you
00:00:26
Speaker
Hello and welcome everybody to another episode of The Uncommon Wealth Project where I'm your host, Philip Ramsey.
Guest Introduction: David Barwin
00:00:31
Speaker
Super excited. I have a guest, the one and only David Barwin on the phone and on Zoom. So we get to look at each other. You guys probably can't see us, but can't wait to dive into his uncommon. I known him for probably about 11 weeks right now. Ask me how I know.
00:00:47
Speaker
because I'm going through a program that he facilitates. It's called Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses. Many other entrepreneurs know
Balancing Multiple Roles
00:00:55
Speaker
this program, but he has a whole other life too that I kind of want to unpack. He is also like all things business at Iowa Central Community College.
00:01:04
Speaker
the one and only, like professor extraordinaire, doesn't do any of the bad classes, only the good stuff, entrepreneurship,
From Athlete to Coach
00:01:11
Speaker
all this stuff, the things that I think our listeners are gonna be excited to hear, and also a father of three children. So he's got a lot to juggle, but welcome to the show, David, I'm so grateful you're here.
00:01:24
Speaker
Phil, thanks for having me. Very excited to be a guest. I was honored that you asked and yeah, a lot going on and proud to talk about it and just loving life.
00:01:34
Speaker
Yeah, good. And so for those listeners that are just jumping on to hear David, we do have a podcast, it's called the Uncommon Wealth Podcast, where we try to interview people that are doing uncommon things. And we define that in many different ways, but one of them is like, they love their life. You can tell David, you enjoy your life. And so that's one thing I wanna unpack is when you were first like getting into, you know, the whole teaching or not teaching, but just school, they always ask you like, well, what do you wanna be when you grow up?
00:02:04
Speaker
What did you say? I would love to know this answer. Professional baseball player, right? Yes, OK. You know, when I was growing up, you know, I mean, sports in the neighborhood was everything. I was good at baseball. So yeah, I mean, wanted to pursue that. Ended up being a track athlete out of high school, and then that that led me into coaching.
00:02:28
Speaker
which led
Influence of Upbringing and Coaching Career
00:02:29
Speaker
me into teaching and it just opened up a lot of doors. So I can say starting out in athletics. But what really is when I got into coaching, I really found a joy in helping others. That's good. And a lot of the excitement came from like, wow, I get to help this person find joy, success, you know, excitement and what they're after. And it really just just fueled me. I just loved being a part of that.
00:02:58
Speaker
That's cool. Where did you grow up? I want to just kind of preface that. It was Pennsylvania, right? Pennsylvania, yeah. Started out in a small town, Johnsonburg, Pennsylvania. That's where my family originated from. My father then, he was a business owner and then he had a
00:03:17
Speaker
government and political career. He worked for the Auditor General Pennsylvania's office for a majority of his career. So that led us to Erie, Pennsylvania, right on Lake Erie. So I really was beneficial. I got to grow up in a small town.
00:03:33
Speaker
wrapped around you know everybody knew yeah and and you know you had that but then uh middle school i got to experience city life um and it really just opened me up and i'm just grateful because it gave me a different perspective on yeah on what's out there um and my father was always big on us traveling each summer and he they had a motorhome and he would take us around really to make sure that we got to see a lot um and so yeah pennsylvania and then
00:04:00
Speaker
I was coaching at Penn State Baron. They're the engineering school of Penn State. They're a D3. And I was coaching track and field there. My high school coach recommended me. I got the assistant job. And I loved it. And I'm like, okay, I'm into college ranks. And my goal was, you know, I'll be an athletic director one day, right? Okay. But
00:04:23
Speaker
I wasn't being allowed to recruit or get the experience of recruiting. And if anybody on here knows college athletics, it's 90% recruiting, 10% coaching. I always say nobody ever won the Kentucky Derby with a mule.
00:04:41
Speaker
So you got to be out and get so Iowa Central in Fort Dodge, they were starting to cross
Coaching Philosophy and Teaching Style
00:04:48
Speaker
country and track and field. And so I thought, hey, I'll go to a junior college, I'll get twice as much recruiting experience, I'll be on the ground level of how to build a program up, that will fit into the experience that I want for my goals, you know, as an athletic department, you know, or director.
00:05:05
Speaker
being able to run the department and know what goes on. So I made the jump out here and never turn back. Wow. That's, that's a great synopsis of where you are kind of currently. I want to know, cause the transition from being an athlete to a coach is one that I don't know a lot of people unpack. And for me, like I've coached a couple of things and I'm like, just give me the ball. Like give me the ball. I'll do it.
00:05:31
Speaker
Kind of thing. So tell me about that for you. Was that easy for you? Was it hard? Like, was there times you wanted to be like, I'll just run it for you, man. Like, you know, that's interesting. Cause it's, it was a challenge to, you know, it got to a point where my athletic career was over.
00:05:48
Speaker
And I didn't want to let it go. And so what do you do, right? Hey, I'm going to go coach, right? Because I still need to be a part of it and I still need to feel it. And so it was challenging. I remember the first few years, like I would still run and I could beat some of the kids, you know, like, hey, you know, coach still has it. And some of the kids that I coached
00:06:10
Speaker
that they had known about my career. They were freshmen when I was a senior, and now I'm coaching some of them. And so that was kind of invigorating, like, whoa, you know, like, they know what I can do. But I very quickly fell into the joy of I can't do it anymore. So all my energy is going to go into getting them to do it.
00:06:32
Speaker
and collectively together. And so that's, you know, again, it sparked a lot of energy for me in that I got a lot of excitement, a lot of, you know, just great vibes and a kick out of like watching these kids like set their goals high and then reach them when they think maybe they couldn't have. And there was just no turning back.
00:06:55
Speaker
It's good because I make fun of myself but at some point there was a transition for me as well of like actually it's more rewarding to watch somebody else achieve their goals and be able to be a part of their story somehow like there is something very rewarding about that because you can't do it like a true leader just needs people around them and also needs to inspire them to become
Parenting and Influences
00:07:19
Speaker
greater
00:07:20
Speaker
see potential in them and prove it to them that I'm going to show you how to get there. There is something really rewarding about that. And so it totally makes sense that you would fall into, you know, Iowa Central teaching, professing and start trying to figure out like, how do I empower others not only in their like physical shape, but also in their business and aspirations for their life? Because at some point you kind of realize as an athlete, like, oh, I guess I can't be a professional baseball player, you know?
00:07:49
Speaker
And although it's funny, everybody, I should say, a lot of people have that mentality at first. I got to talk to my fifth grade class, my son's fifth grade class. And I can't tell you how many of the boys want to be professional, like football players, as we were talking about careers or professional baseball players. And I said, like, my best advice for you guys, for whoever want to enter into the field, go get a mentor that is where you want to go.
00:08:17
Speaker
And for you, you know, professional athletes, the harder it is for you to get a mentor, the harder it is to actually achieve that goal. So it was kind of like this, like wheels returning. Like, how do I get Patrick Mahomes to be my mentor? Like, I don't know. Like, but if you can figure it out, like you got a better shot to get it there, but okay. So you're jumping into Iowa central now. They ask you to be a business. Uh, I would say professor of all different things. And did you feel the same excitement in pouring into these students as you did?
00:08:47
Speaker
Coaching or is it a little bit different? No, it's it is it is the same and and I say this to me if if you're good at sports The mentor will find you You know, that's true. And so because I teach a lot of athletes now and and I talked to him about
00:09:05
Speaker
Where do you want to go? Like, what do you want to do when you get out of here? And a lot of them are here to build their stock up and go to a university. And so we talk about what things need to come and play, who's recruiting you. And so I said, look, if they're not finding you, you know, you got to find something to do. And I would say this too, you know,
00:09:24
Speaker
Sometimes I think students that where they get shut out of something that they're passionate about, they give it up, instead of looking for other ways to pursue it. And I try to use myself as an example for them of like, hey, I loved competing, I loved athletics, I didn't want to let it go. So rather than going and getting a
00:09:44
Speaker
40-hour-a-week career job or something that just pays the bills. I wanted to stay in athletics and still be as close to my passion as I could. My first year, they said, you're doing all these jobs around campus, tutoring and RA and coaching and stuff. And they said, business, you teach some business classes. And so I really just took
00:10:11
Speaker
who I am and what I'm doing for the students that I'm coaching. And I put that right into the classroom. I really felt like I have to be authentic or they're not going to believe me. They're not going to learn from me. And I'm not really going to have an impact on them.
00:10:27
Speaker
And so still to this day, I have students that say, like, you're more
Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program
00:10:33
Speaker
like a coach than you are a professor, you know? Amen. Amen. I love it. Yeah. And I'm like, hey, great. And I do a lot of different assessments in the classroom and I have things called competition learning.
00:10:45
Speaker
and you know that they like it it's a fun day but again it goes back to that setting them up with a challenge see if you can overcome it feel good about doing it while you learn on the learn on the way so the president that was here Dr. Paxton he was my mentor
00:11:01
Speaker
He discovered that I had the talent to be in the classroom, and I was passionate about it, and I was connecting with students, and I was working really hard, too, to make sure that I was understanding what they were supposed to be learning. So I was almost doing two things at once. I was trying to be impactful in the classroom and coach them up, but also making sure that I was staying ahead of the game on what I needed to teach them. And I loved business. I grew up with business, and so it just meshed. It was just the perfect fit.
00:11:29
Speaker
So yeah, it was really cool to get in there and to do that and to impact their lives.
00:11:35
Speaker
Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that because I was going to bring that up and then I'm going to have a follow up question. But the fact that you got to witness your father being an entrepreneur, like, you know, the best things are kind of like witnessed instead of like being taught. And so you've learned a lot just watching your father and just being a little guy observing that. So I hope my kids are getting something good out of what I'm doing. But who knows? Probably we'll see. But how do you think that's impacted you today? I want to just quick
00:12:05
Speaker
Quick answer. What do you think? He's had a tremendous impact on my life. Knowing his story, he went to college on his own. He bought the business on his own, went to night school. He created his career on his own. That's something that I just always remember him talking about and sharing examples of. To me, that was the only way to do it.
00:12:30
Speaker
You got to go out and now he's 100% supportive of me and I know he's always there for me, but there's a certain pride of like, no, dad, I'm doing it like you're doing it. I took my own path. I took my own route. And so it was a huge influence. And then just listening to his stories. As a matter of fact, I know you said short, but I'm proud of this. Yeah, get it. Let's go. I make it a point to call him or text him anytime I experienced something from one of his teachings.
00:12:58
Speaker
And so I'll say, Dad, I remember back when you were going through negotiations in the Auditor General's office, and I just experienced that. And I'm so glad that you told me that because I was able to do A, B, and C. And he asked me one day, just a couple of years ago, he's like, why do you do this so regular? And I said, well, you need to know.
00:13:19
Speaker
you know that you know that like we were saying we hope that they listen and I hope my kids yeah right but I think the biggest gift I can give back to him is like dad I took what you showed me and taught me heck yeah and I'm using it in my growth and I want you to know that before you know maybe yeah no it's good and every like this is a saying I heard I didn't
00:13:41
Speaker
Create this, but every time somebody passes away a library burns down and what you're telling him is like, listen, I got your books that you've written, you know, like that's a cool thing. I love that you do that. How do you feel like your fathering and parenting?
00:13:55
Speaker
has, how do you be that intentional? Like obviously you coach and you teach, but how do you instill that in your children? This is a personal question. So for all of your listeners, like, how does this end up in business? This is just for me. So back off. I could tell you that my early days of coaching, you know, basketball and track, I had to tone it down when I got home. Um,
00:14:18
Speaker
I'm overly competitive. Matter of fact, I really didn't coach my kids in their early years. It wasn't a good fit for me. I can coach the older kids. I'm not really great with the younger ones. I want kids that are looking at you like, tell me how to be great, right? That's right.
00:14:35
Speaker
And so, you know, I didn't get to coach him, but I did have to balance. Okay. They're not going to respond to coach every day with such intensity. I've got to learn how to be dad. I got to learn how to be coach and give it to him. And so it still goes on now. I see some of the eye rolls like, Oh boy, here, you know, here goes an hour with dad.
00:15:01
Speaker
telling me this or sharing that or like, hey, I want you to know this is how it developed. But it was a conscious effort of making sure
Facilitation Approach and Participant Growth
00:15:11
Speaker
that they always knew that, hey, I'm dad first, you know, and I love you and I support you. And, you know, I want to hear from you. And if I am being too coach, you got to let me know. And my one daughter, Emma,
00:15:24
Speaker
it had no problem pointed to that. I think she liked to, hey, you're being too much coach right now. And I was like, Oh, you know, gotcha. Yeah. It's actually refreshing to hear that. Cause I feel like I want to try to be intentional with my kids. And sometimes it's like, this is not working. This is not working. Yeah. It's some of it too. Um, it's, it's just, instead of me telling, I asked more questions.
00:15:48
Speaker
You know, that's a tool that I've used to make sure that I don't just, you know, bark at them or talk at them, that if I wanted to know something, let me get engaged with them and ask them some questions first and get them talking. And then ironically, Phil, this is funny, my son, he's 13, he does this to me now.
00:16:09
Speaker
And so he'll want to, he'll want to tell me something or, or maybe ask me for something and he'll start out with a dad, you know, Hey, how was your day? Or how did, you know, how'd it go with 10 K when you got back? And I'm like, dude, you're using all the stuff. Yeah. Easy. Now I know your tactics. I know your tactics. It's funny. I, um, I've been working on this. It was my children were competing and, and,
00:16:35
Speaker
They're playing lacrosse, which I don't know anything about lacrosse. So 90% of the time I'm like asking people like, can you do that? That's how knowledgeable I am. And so afterwards I've been a little bit more mindful of asking the kids, how do you, how do you think you did? Like, how are, like, how are you doing?
00:16:51
Speaker
Instead of like, hey, I'm so proud of you, like asking them, like, how are you, how do you think you did? And then kind of mirroring whatever they say, like, oh, I did great. Like, oh, you did so good. It was fun to watch it, you know? Or if it's like, oh, I'm frustrated. Our team didn't do well. Like, how can I help? You know, like, is there anything? So to like let them go through the emotions instead of, I think in the past of like, hey, I'm so proud of you. Like these are the four things I thought she did well. Here's two things that you can maybe not, let's just pull back.
00:17:17
Speaker
How do you think you did, you know, it's that's the great way to handle it. I've gotten my kids to talk more because of that approach of saying, hey, you know, well done.
00:17:27
Speaker
How do you think it went? Because as soon as you start getting out your agenda, they're not going to talk to you after that, because they're like, no, I'm done. And I'm not trying to highlight, too, that, hey, here's what I saw that you did well. And I'm the same with soccer. I didn't grow up playing soccer. My son plays soccer.
00:17:52
Speaker
they got a good squad and I'm like, hey, I saw this and this. Was that the right thing that you were doing? Right. Or like, hey, would coach Sadie in that moment yet? Or what were you trying to accomplish by that? The other thing too is I never try to say after a contest, I love you.
00:18:10
Speaker
Huh. That's good. I'll say, Hey, I'm proud of you. Like that was, I loved your, your performance, your effort, your, but I always save love for outside. I don't ever want my son or the girls to connect my love of them of their performance ability. Right. Right. And I think that's where, cause I mean, how, how devastating, you know, my boy and I are very close. And if he doesn't have a good game and I'm not going to sugar coat it,
00:18:38
Speaker
I'm going to tell him like you didn't have a good game. And if he connects that with my approval of love, I'm creating a mess for him later down the road. So very rarely does he hear after a game, Oh man, I'm proud and I love you. I'm proud of you, but I'm going to tell you later that I love you.
00:18:55
Speaker
Yeah, that's good. Okay. So now we get to talk about 10,000. So Goldman Sachs has 10,000 small businesses. This is a foundation that I believe Goldman Sachs has. And in that, their, I guess, mission is to try to pour into small businesses, help them be more efficient, help them kind of work through, help them work on the business, not in the business, because it's far too easy to do. And you are the facilitator for the Iowa area. So that's the reason why you and I know each other.
00:19:24
Speaker
And so you've got to kind of coach slash facilitate me. So I'm sure all the listeners are like, how in the hell was that?
00:19:33
Speaker
But it's been a joy to be able to kind of get to know you and the people that you surround yourself with, because many people, I don't know many people, but people describe it as getting a master's in your own business. And so there's modules, it's a 12-week program. I'm not taking away your thunder, but I'm trying to kind of set the stage here. And each module, each week, you go through something different. So the first one is like, what could be your opportunity growth? The second week is kind of like, okay, who are you dealing with? What is your business?
00:20:01
Speaker
And then who is your in your business? What is your leadership
Challenges and Support for Entrepreneurs
00:20:04
Speaker
style? So all these are kind of modules. What is your finances? Like your balance sheet, your cash flow, your profit, loss sheet, like all these things that as business owners, you know, you need to do, but you just don't have time necessarily to do it. So there's 12 modules and you got to facilitate that. So in your own language, in your own definition, what would you say the 10,000 small businesses is?
00:20:24
Speaker
It's a program to teach you, as you mentioned, to work on your business rather than in your business, right? And you're seeing now from the schedule that we have, like we're building you out to block time for you when you leave the program to work on the business.
00:20:40
Speaker
If you can work on it and plan for growth, then you're going to be able to hire for growth. And that's, I think, where the big gold nugget is for the program is every business owner in Iowa that takes it, they can go back to their communities and they can create jobs.
00:20:58
Speaker
And so if they're growing it, they're going to hire for that growth, then that's going to impact their community greatly by growing their business, creating jobs in that community. You're going to empower people to do more. You're going to create other relationships and partnerships. And so that's the beauty behind it. It's a philanthropic wing of Goldman Sachs. It's a free program.
00:21:22
Speaker
They fund it, but it doesn't cost anything for the business owners. There's an extensive interview process to go through to get in. And Jackie Bolt, she's our director, and we've worked together for six years now since it's been implemented, and she's phenomenal. And she says the interview process is also to protect business owners that aren't quite ready.
00:21:44
Speaker
Yeah, and so we've had people apply and not get in but Jackie says here's the things that you need to work on get to that level because we want you to have that success of the program when when you're there so you got to meet that level and so that that's very important for us to to make sure that the right people are getting it at the right time right.
00:22:04
Speaker
But that's the reward that I get is because I think it's just so special that if people can impact their communities and give back in the terms of job creation, we're going to have stronger communities, better communities, and we're going to bring some more people together.
00:22:19
Speaker
Right, so I'm in the cohort 11. So the Goldman Sachs in Iowa has been around at least for 11 other times, but that hasn't been always, you haven't always facilitated it, right? You started in 2019? Yeah, so I was on the original team when they launched in Iowa. So it's a national program, but they started to bring it to the state level.
00:22:40
Speaker
And so it came to Iowa. And I was selected. They went to the community colleges and said, hey, we want community college instructors to deliver this content, this material, which Babson College created the content in partnership with Goldman Sachs. And they're the number one entrepreneur school in the country for the last decade, I would say even longer. And so their curriculum is phenomenal. And I really believe in the curriculum. It's very practical. It's not
00:23:08
Speaker
you know, case studies and go figure out how to apply it. It's you taking it and working on your business through the curriculum. So I really loved the model of it. But yeah, when I went there, I was just responsible for mine was it's the people, the leadership and the hiring.
00:23:26
Speaker
Which is now a mod 5 and so yeah, I got into it. I really loved it and I connected and I was Got good ratings and so forth and then the another guy had my role and and he stepped away and Jackie called and said hey like
00:23:43
Speaker
you want to do it. And I was like, yeah, let's go. That's been the goal. Like, let's get it done. And so I, you know, it's just I believe in the curriculum, I believe in the team that we have together, which is phenomenal. And so I work really hard to make sure that we stay high level with our delivery and the team has bought into that 100%. The people around us are great.
00:24:05
Speaker
And so we really care about the impact that we're making. And so it's been an easy transition for me to do it. I would say the only thing that I really adjusted, the first two
Program Success and Continuous Improvement
00:24:16
Speaker
modules, I was a mod faculty then from three to 11, I was lead faculty. The one thing that I really incorporated a little differently was the sense of togetherness and relying on each other as you go through the program because I want you to create relationships with partnerships and that network to be there for each other as you leave.
00:24:35
Speaker
And so that's working we see increased numbers every cohort in the alumni program as you all stay involved so yeah it's been great i love the path on how i got involved in what i was able to do. Yeah it's been it's been fun to be able to like from a facilitator to another facilitator you do a great job of keeping us on task.
00:24:57
Speaker
but i think a great facilitator are the people who know when to okay stop like there's something here and there are there's we're in our in person our first time all you
Personal Definition of Success and Advice
00:25:09
Speaker
know there's 32 of us in this kind of room talking and you know
00:25:13
Speaker
you have to stay on point here you have to stay on schedule and there was one specific conversation that we had and i remember gaining a lot of respect for you because you like. Hey like let's keep working on this let's kinda keep working through this immediately i was like that was the right place.
00:25:30
Speaker
because it was a fairly touchy, dicey, heavy topic that you didn't want to just be like, okay, well, we'll get to that later. Like parking lot that let's move on. And I thought, oh, and you did an amazing job. So I think you not only how you facilitated it, but how you read the room and how you continue to like to help your team and the people who you surround yourself with.
00:25:50
Speaker
provide high content for people that are going through it because a lot of times you know you're the business owners are deer in the headlights like i gotta do what on top of what like it's just a lot and so kudos to you and i remember that and and you know i'm i'm kinda i get poked out by the team and the scholars about being a stickler for time.
00:26:11
Speaker
You know, because we're going to start, we're going to finish, you know, but that's the value of everybody's time. And I remember we were up against a break and I'm like, Hey, this is too good. Like everybody is into this. And what's coming out of it is, is, is special. And, uh, yeah, I remember talking about, okay, I'm sorry that you might've had calls planned, but that was too good to pass up. So we had to do it. Yeah. It's good. It's reading the room.
00:26:37
Speaker
What's your favorite module to still go through is it that leadership and your people part. You know it is hard for me i like them all because.
00:26:51
Speaker
each time you guys go through one, like seeing the new discoveries and the confidence, especially like financials, you know, that's one that's a little scary for everybody. And then when you're done with it, you know, there's really an empowerment. Sure. But I got to say my favorite one to really be a part of an experience is mod seven process and operations. Yeah, that was a good one. That because there's
00:27:15
Speaker
there's so much of the program that you just did that drives you to that. And now you're starting to show people how to put it all together. And it's just something that, you know, a lot of light bulbs go off a lot of aha moments, a lot of takeaways, and people tie it back to the different things that they gained. That's the one I still get like, Oh, I can't wait for this. Let's go. You know, that's good. That's good. So tell me, um,
00:27:43
Speaker
What has been like your favorite aha moment that other people have gotten through the 10,000 small businesses thing that you've been able to facilitate? That's a tough question everyone and this is like coming off the left side. So watching David likes wheels turning kind of fun for me. Yeah, that's a challenging one because each week provides
00:28:04
Speaker
you know, joyful points for me and the team to see, you know, some things we know are coming. Some things come out that like, okay, you know, maybe we didn't think it was going to come out of that stage of your business. And it did. I think for me, probably I would have to say business owners that
00:28:31
Speaker
didn't think that they had a strong enough business to create more growth. And so when they got into the program, you know, I'm thinking of one business owner, just a couple of cohorts ago was just adamant about, I don't really want to grow my business. I'm just here to make sure how I do it more effectively and efficiently. And I just had to work very strategically with that person to say, Hey, I get it, but
00:28:58
Speaker
open up to this opportunity. And by the end of it, this business owner had ended up
00:29:08
Speaker
creating a patent and creating an environmentally friendly product that was sustainable for confidentiality, but sustainable for animals, if you will. And it was just something like great person, awesome person, and was really stubborn in what he was looking to do. But he opened up, and then when he gave his pitch at the end of the closing, everybody was blown away.
00:29:37
Speaker
Oh wow. I love it. I did not see that coming from him. He nailed it. It was a great idea. He got the patent. He found a company to make it for him. It's sustainable and his profit margins were huge. Through the roof. Yeah, that was really exciting.
00:29:57
Speaker
It's interesting because like if you think about coaching track like you're working on people in all different like aspects you could be doing high jump long jump pole vault sprints relays like there's a lot of everything and I feel like that's a little bit like.
00:30:13
Speaker
probably facilitate this 10,000 businesses. Like you could have somebody doing a patent for a company and doing a sustainable thing for an animal. Then you also have like popcorn over here, you know, like, so it's like, what's happening? Or there's just a lot of different things, but I think the principles still apply very well. And then I would say you might not, maybe you observed this, but I feel like one thing that I have observed in just our own cohort, again, I've done this with
00:30:39
Speaker
Uh, just once. So I feel like as Midwesterners, or maybe this is generally what happens. I don't know, but I'm just in Midwest. So here we are is like, we don't push ourselves to have a big lofty like vision. Like, I feel like we had to be all pushed to be like, it's too small. Like, yeah, it probably is. I don't know. Yeah. Do you see that too? Or am I crazy? Absolutely. I mean, that, that is a major point that as a team, so.
00:31:06
Speaker
we focus on that having that attention early on. So even before you get to mod two of opportunity and growth to really think outer space, blue sky, all right, I'm dropping hints to you from day one to start thinking about it. And that's where Julie comes in at the end of the closing and does a little intro to mod two really to get that flowing because we run into that.
00:31:32
Speaker
you know, that it's hard sometimes to push people to, hey, get out of your comfort zone, think big, you know, don't just think of that. And the other strong point too, is the business advisors, Kerry, Jackie, and I, the mod factory, we're all on the same page of encouraging that growth of opportunity. And so when you talk about managing all the different aspects,
00:31:54
Speaker
from high jump to pole vault to long jump. Our business advisors are excellent because they spend a lot of time with you guys and they're the ones that have the skill set to deal with the popcorn owner, to the farmer, to the financial advisor. I'm trying to keep it on the track and keep us going forward, but they're the ones that are supporting that. But the beauty of it Phil, I think what happens is somebody in your group,
00:32:23
Speaker
goes and does it, and I think that's what opens it up to, okay, I heard it, I got pushed, but now I'm seeing somebody that I connected with really do it.
00:32:33
Speaker
I need to do it. And I think that it's, I don't want to say it's pure pressure, but it pure expert experience. And I think that's the beauty of it. As we get everybody connect, then you're excited about, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to break away from the chains here and go do something big. That's true. And like, I don't know if I have a lot of different places where I can go and hang out with other people that own their own business. There is something about that.
00:32:59
Speaker
That's just life giving that there's other people out there in this vast ocean that are still kind of working through the same stuff that i am an. Entrepreneurship is lonely like there is just lonely so big things for me is just getting around other like minded people that are creating something.
00:33:15
Speaker
that also are like, but I also have to make income off of this thing because like I got to feed the family. Like for me, that was super encouraging. So to see some of these people have their aha moments, I would agree with you. Yeah, peer pressure or whatever. But it just pushes you to try to be better. Like you want to be a part of that. Yeah. And I do see like there's level of engagement as all groups will have when you have 32 different people. But I do see that this cohort, in my opinion, again, I've only done one.
00:33:43
Speaker
really jelled well together and we all are like here to i'm not here to condemn but be honest and be uplifting and encouraging to each other which. You know just thrives with enthusiasm and growth and how can we get better so that to me the atmosphere is exactly what i believe that you wanted to build so it's fun to see that.
00:34:05
Speaker
And I think that the vulnerability that everybody fits into going forward, okay, if I open up and I'm honest, then I can really get a lot of feedback and I can give to others. And you guys have all done that really well. And that is a successful point of it. But like you see on Fridays, you know, we celebrate, you know, entrepreneurships alone, we celebrate business owners are like, I just got a new vendor, and it's going to save me this much compared to the person that's like, I just signed this huge contract.
00:34:30
Speaker
Yeah, you know, and so it's awesome to me that the degrees of successful moments that we're celebrating while we're together are all celebrated at their highest level. And as an entrepreneur, you don't always get to have that not everybody's going to be excited for you that you hired a new person to take orders. But for you, that's the biggest thing in your world right now. And it's awesome. And so to be collective around is that special to watch as well.
00:34:55
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that you guys do a good job of talking behind our backs. Here's what I mean, because that sounds kind of scary, but it's the business owners. You get like a business associate or business admin. What do you call them BA business? Business advisors. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So you get one assigned to you as you go through this 12 weeks and.
00:35:15
Speaker
as you're communicating with it like you don't really know like you just this is what's going on and i remember one time in that hey let's go out you're like phillip you have something going on i was like i did have something going on which meant that like there is communication between you and the other bs and like the administrator to like hey what's going on in the people that you're pouring into i really kind of felt like i appreciate that like i wouldn't have normally done that because i'm like let other people talk
00:35:41
Speaker
but it was nice to be able to have people speaking on your behalf and truly caring about you and talking about without you being in the room there's something about that that's like life giving in my opinion it's a neat thing and i will say this we respect confidentiality at its highest level because we are dealing with you know i don't have access to your financials i don't have access to your to your life plan
00:36:07
Speaker
So we do meet as a team, and we talk about the progress of the cohort. And what's really special about it is everybody on a team, and I say this wholeheartedly, and Carrie included, you know, I mean, you know, I love Carrie, she's the program manager. Yeah, she's great. But we all, goal number one is you have a great experience.
00:36:31
Speaker
And if you have a great experience, then you're going to have an action plan. You're going to connect with everybody. You know, the fruits of the labor are going to pay off. And so we do chat and make sure like, hey, how is everybody doing? Right. You know, and it's not just, does anybody need help or support? It's, hey, these people are doing some great things. And again, to go back to that peer experience,
00:36:53
Speaker
if you're shy and you wanna let somebody else talk about it, well, I need you to get it out because that's, you know, somebody showing up to hear from you, you don't know it. And that's a good example. And so, yeah, we do talk, we manage the program as it goes forward to make sure that everybody's getting the most out of it that they can. And that's just the level of quality that we all bought into.
00:37:15
Speaker
Yeah. I kind of call it intentional leadership, right? Like that to me is intentional leadership, which is always kind of, yeah, it's nice. You're going to be a good leader. You got to know your people. You do. Absolutely. Hard, hard to not. So, okay. You have to get nominated to be part of this 10,000 small businesses. So if you are a business owner that's listening to this, uh, and want to be nominated or want to learn more about the program, where would they go, David?
00:37:41
Speaker
Yeah, go to 10K, Iowa, 10,000 Small Businesses, Iowa. Punch that into your search engine to Google. It'll come up. They'll have the links on there, the contact information. You can get nominated. That's where we get a majority of the business owners that come in is that they're nominated by others. But we also have a lot of sessions that Sveta
00:38:05
Speaker
and Jackie and Carrie go around and they meet at community events and they get the word out about the program. And so we have people apply through that as well. All right. And so yeah, all that information, you can get it off DMACC's website too. They're the host college for it. So it is statewide through all the community college programs, but 10,000 small businesses, Iowa into the search engine and you can see, and the website is really clean. It gives you the details. It gives you what you need to know.
00:38:33
Speaker
but it encourages you to reach out and then our team takes over from there yeah it's pretty smooth process so all right david thank you for just unpacking all of your uncommon with myself at least and the seven listeners that are listening i'm just kidding but i do want to tell you like just be encouraged i feel like you know
00:38:52
Speaker
success could have been endless for you. And yet you found a place to be able to pour into not only your family, but the students that you get access to and the business owners that you get to pour into. And I believe you're making an impact. And I think that's one of the characteristics I see as an uncommon person is not person that holds it to themselves, but pours out to others to make them better, bigger and better. And I feel like the ripple effect that's happening because of your you like you can see the ripple effect where I feel like if you would have pushed your career
00:39:21
Speaker
in other areas. And I'm sure you've had peers of like, Hey, where are you at? Like Fort Dodge, what's happening? But I feel like you can see the ripples and you get to enjoy the ripples. Sounds so dumb, but now hands versus like going to, let's say you go to California and like you're making a huge impact. Sometimes you just don't see the impact you get a, you would like you to witness the impact you're making. And so I feel like you're in a great spot. I feel like that makes you uncommon. Uh, I don't know. What was your thoughts on that?
00:39:48
Speaker
First of all, thank you. I really appreciate it. To not sound cocky or arrogant, I think I'm extremely successful. I wake up every day. I love what I do. I support my family. I support my lifestyle that I'm after. I do have friends on the East Coast. What are you doing out there, man?
00:40:10
Speaker
You're a young guy, you're earning power and I'm like, look, I'm making an impact and I love it out here. You're going to want this job when you're done working 80 hours a week. It's what I'm most proud of is I have a lot of time to be with my family. Students come to community college not always knowing
00:40:38
Speaker
what they're capable of doing and what career options are available. And so for me to be a part of, hey, here's some careers that you could go after and they find that motivation.
00:40:51
Speaker
or they came out and they're like, gosh, I don't know if college is right for me. And so for me to see that from start to finish and they have that, there's no better reward. And it fuels me going on. And I was so fortunate then to have the 10K program come along because I got to be a business person again.
00:41:12
Speaker
right? And so, you know, to have the best of both worlds, I got time with the family, I'm impacting young people's lives, getting confidence, go out and pursue their dreams. And I'm also working with business owners to recognize their growth and dreams and impact their communities. And so, at the sake of patting myself on the back, I don't know what else I could possibly do to find more joy.
00:41:36
Speaker
That's good, man. That's uncommon right there. I'll tell you what. So here's a follow up for this. I would just so I get I reached out to probably seven or eight cohorts to have them on the podcast. What do you think the one or two questions that I have to ask them in the podcast? Oh, one or two questions. How strict is David about time? I think you'll get you'll get a lot of answers about that.
00:42:07
Speaker
I think the uncommon question, Phil, was what was their greatest takeaway now being removed from the program? They're alumni. They still get to have the benefits of the alumni. The program is ongoing. But I'd be really curious to hear, hey, now that you went through it and you utilized it, where are you now? What was your biggest takeaway looking back? Because you know this, too. We don't always recognize,
00:42:35
Speaker
what we have or what we're into it while we're in it. And so to take some time back to reflect, that would be something I would really like to hear them say, you know, where are they now with it? How'd they use it? What was that special gold nugget? That's good. I'll do it. All right, David, dude, you're a winner. You're uncommon. I appreciate your time. And if any of our listeners want to reach out to you, how would be the best way to connect with you?
00:43:01
Speaker
uh barwin at iowacentral.edu is my email and david barwin on facebook um i do have social media but facebook is the one that you know call me an old head if you want yeah that's right yeah yeah i didn't sign up for tiktok so you know but yeah reach out to me even if you want to google david barwin or call the college and say hey i need to talk to the bald business guy
00:43:25
Speaker
Um, you know that that works out well, but yeah borrow an iowa central.com or facebook and happy to field any questions if anybody feels that Need to reach out. Love to connect. That's great. Well, hey, you've been listening to the uncommon wealth podcast i've been your host philip ramsey until next time go be in common
00:43:40
Speaker
That's all for this episode brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.