Collaboration over Competition with Dave Burlin

Join Dave as we discuss the importance of strategic partnerships, events beyond nonprofits, and finding a mission after military life.

Full Transcript

(0:28)

Hey, welcome. This is Travis Johnson, the Nonprofit Architect, helping you build stronger nonprofits. I’m here with my good friend, Dave Burlin. And I’m just going to let you go, Dave. Tell us what you do and what’s going on.

(0:44)

Well I appreciate you having me here. Just a little background for me, I’ve always had a passion for helping people. Sometimes that’s crossed over into the nonprofit space, sometimes into the profit space but ultimately, I just want to make my own little dent in the universe.

After I got out of the Marine Corps, I worked for a nonprofit organization in Oklahoma, At Risk Youth. I was basically a drill instructor for kids that were high school dropouts. That led to changing the lives of about 3,000 kids and just really learning a lot about growth and helping kids through that process. I was there for about six and a half years, got into business, and started helping grow companies all over the place. Through that I got connected to more and more veterans that were crushing it in their transition.

For the last several years, probably five or six years, I’ve had a huge passion for helping connect the dots for veterans as they return, pointing them in the right direction. Some of it’s education, some of it’s employment, some of it’s entrepreneurship, but somewhere through that, we’ve helped a ton of different veteran service organizations, nonprofits, and things like that. Ultimately, just trying to figure out where things fit where things don’t, and pointing people in the right direction and making something happen.

(2:05)

That’s really cool. I love how I talk to more and more veterans all the time. They get into the nonprofit and business world and really bring that discipline and organization to both of those worlds. How would you say the Marine Corps specifically helps you in this capacity?

(2:21)

I was grateful to, when I really started to become self aware of transition and things like that, to do a TEDx talk. And one of the things that I talked about in the TEDx talk was veteran transition.

What’s interesting about being in the Marine Corps specifically is if you took away all of our resources, if you took away all of our weapons, if you took away all the tanks, if you took away our resources with the Navy, and we weren’t a military war fighting organization, we would still be a bundle of people made up with a common goal, very well branded. And if you look at the organizational structure of it, it is a large company, right? It’s a large company, an organization. So at the root of everything, that was a big takeaway going into the world of business. Even though I didn’t work for GE or Amazon, I still have worked for a large organization that has a global mission.

So anytime you’re part of an organization like that, you bring a certain level of situational awareness, or even emotional intelligence to the table for any organization that may not have had that kind of global vision before. That’s probably one of the most basic, fundamental things that my service has brought. Then you take all the different leadership and the different scenarios and things like that.

First off, I’m not a combat veteran, we were deployed when 9/11 happened, but a lot of politics and stuff were really happening at that point. For me, I was just really coming out of that last circle of command before everything got pretty hairy going into 2003-2004 and beyond. So really just the organizational structure, I would say it’d be the biggest thing that I took away from the military.

(4:14)

Yeah, absolutely. If you strip away all of the fighting and all those sorts of things, it’s really structured like a Fortune 500 company. You have a structure, you have training, you have annual requirements, you have to put on a good face for your brand, you go out there, you look sharp, you do the things that need to be done.

And you know, something I’ve learned the last few months, the Marine Corps is not all killing, they do a lot of humanitarian aid, humanitarian evacuation operations. Really, the Marine Corps has been involved in a lot more giving and helping and caring than they have been in fighting over the past decade or so, which is surprising to a lot of people who find out about that. You’re not just a one trick pony, you’re not just a business guy. You help build events and then give the proceeds to nonprofits. Did I hear that right? Tell me about Reps for Vets.

(5:03)

That was actually one of the first big fundraising things that we ever took on. I feel like I need to jump in on this because one of the things that I’ve seen, especially in the world of connecting with veterans and things like that. One of the biggest things that I see because you know, people come to me, they’re like “I’ve got an idea for a business.” And I’m like, “I love hearing great ideas.” It’s like a blessing and a curse, right? But a lot of times, especially when working with veterans that are coming from the veteran space, they all have great ideas, and they have great ideas around veteran centric things.

I feel like for the most part, if anybody puts the word veteran in anything, there’s this assumption, or they feel like there’s this responsibility, that it has to be a nonprofit. I’ve had so many people come with so many great ideas, and one of the biggest things that I’ve seen as a challenge in the nonprofit space is, that’s a world where there is too much competition.

I think, originally, when I first talked to you, I was a little skeptical. I was like, “Hey, man, I want to make sure that we’re not spreading the message to go out and start more nonprofits.” I went to a nonprofit event last week, and I kind of got this whole little group rallied around me. I was like, “You know, what? If you never started another nonprofit, then America would start going in the right direction.” Then people were leaning in and I was like, “Oh, man,what am I getting into here?”

Basically, what it boils down to is there’s competition where there should be collaboration. Let’s take Reps for Vets for example. That was one of the first bits that I really threw together. It just started off as an idea with my fitness trainer, a guy named Mike Watkins, and he said, “You know, I really want to do this big thing for Fourth of July at my shop. You know, we can see the fireworks in South Tulsa, and I normally just have a fun thing that evening and have people come out, but I want to do something big. Let’s do something” I was like, “Cool. Well, let’s use that as a leap pad to let people know about the next event coming up. Let’s put something together.” So we hit the whiteboard and we came up with the idea of Reps for Vets. It just had a cool little ring to it. We put a hashtag in front of it because this has been probably four or five years ago, when hashtags were first getting really big, so it’s like hashtag Reps for Vets. And I can tell you how it would have went down if we would have had to go through and build a nonprofit and build a whole arm of his business that was a nonprofit thing.

We would have been tied up in paperwork for probably a year, and then had we gotten the 501 and all that stuff, essentially we would have had to start promoting that event. And in the nonprofit space, I feel like people vote with their time and their money. If they’re going to vote for us and give us their money and their time, they’re kind of taking that from somewhere else. Now, if it’s new people that don’t have a nonprofit they pledge allegiance to, then that’s great, but those people are really hard to find. Some of the best people already have their hearts in something.

People come to me all the time and ask me for donations. I see it at the grocery store all the time because I work for a nonprofit. Now, I kind of say all of my time and energy goes to this one nonprofit, but I’m more than happy to connect other people to things that they may get value out of. So for me, just us putting that event together, if we would have gone the full nonprofit route, it would have taken a lot longer and we would have had to start pulling resources from other people. People are always like, “Oh my gosh, that’d be great.” And everyone in every town has a connection to a connection to a connection to the big money pool, Right?

In Tulsa there’s a few really big organizations that you see their name on everything. You see stuff like Kwik Trip, and there’s a big family foundation and stuff like that. The illusion is I know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who can get us into that money. The reality of it is their money is already spent for the next two or three years because it’s already framed out in their budget. That’s it right there. Trying to pull that money from somewhere else may not be the best idea.

So what did I do? I mean, a lot of my allegiance went to the youth academy that I worked for, but it was kind of far away. It’s just like, “Well, all we’ve got to do is just pick a nonprofit here, locally, one that people get behind.” I was like, “Why don’t we just post the event, make a claim, and let them know that all of our proceeds go back to the nonprofit? And even better, we could contact the nonprofit.” They gave us a bunch of resources and stuff to give away, and they put it out on their email list because for them it was zero work. Zero. They didn’t have to have a representative there to talk about it or anything. They could have, we offered it, but you know it was a schedule conflict.

We did the event. We race. I don’t know if it was only like 1500 bucks or something, but we were just able to give them a little check. We didn’t give them a big “Happy Gilmore” check, you know what I mean? We were able to create, promote, execute an event, and give the proceeds away. Then it helped us tie into their organization, we basically bolted on to a project, to just say, “Hey, we’re working with those guys. It wasn’t like in an official capacity, it’s just we’re sending our stuff to them.”

Ultimately, it made it easier to host more events in the future. I think we ended up doing two or three of the reps better, and it got considerably bigger every time. So that’s just one of the examples where we took an idea and made it happen. But without all the red tape of trying to start our own nonprofit.

If you never started another nonprofit, then America would start going in the right direction.

Dave Burlin Tweet

(10:51)

That’s really cool. I think that might speak to people right now that are considering starting a nonprofit. How they can get involved with their time, energy and resources, that they already have to put on an event for someone else? Or if you have something that’s close or similar to someone try partnering or maybe creating a division or project or an arm of an already existing organization rather than starting your own deal. It’s much easier. You have their resources, you have their email list, you have their vision already. And you’re starting a grassroots vision.

I think in our last conversation that we did, you encouraged people that didn’t yet have a nonprofit to go raise $5,000 before they file the paperwork. Just to see how that would go and see if they’re still on fire for their cause?

(11:42)

Yeah it’s funny that you mentioned that because I’ve actually had that conversation a couple of times. Here’s the great thing, I’m not crazy, right? Because it’s one thing for me to say “If we never started another nonprofit, we’d be going in the right direction” that can really piss some people off, right? But when people are leaning in and they’re shaking their head, I’m like, okay, well, here’s a weird pivot, I didn’t expect. I’m going to be against starting nonprofits.

I’ve even thought about it more and I’d love to be able to have money to say, “Here’s the deal, if you’re thinking of starting a nonprofit, see if there’s somebody doing anything remotely close to you. And if you don’t find somebody, I’ll give you $5,000.” It’s a loaded thing because if I find somebody and I find out that you didn’t really do the research, I’m probably going to beat you up physically and socially because I just really want people to have a concept of what you know and what responsibility they’re doing. But more importantly, what they may be taking away from another organization just because they didn’t take the time to start something up.

People start for profit businesses all the time, and it’s from idea, to implementation, to income but that’s a very competitive space. A lot of times people start with the intent of “I can do that better.” and they’re trying to pull that amount of clientele away or the dollars blowing in their pocket. For profit world 100% I get it, that’s the society we live in but in the nonprofit world, you’re taking people’s time, you’re taking people’s passion away to try and do something that could easily be bolted together.

So about the whole idea of raising $5,000. Unless somebody really went out and raised $5,000 for a similar cause or for something else, they may really want to reconsider what that means to start your own thing, because a nonprofit business and a for profit business at the root of it are businesses., and there’s some rules that apply on both sides. I thought more about our conversation, and one of the first rules is that if you just look at the world of for profit business, nine out of ten businesses fail in the first year.

In a competitive nonprofit space, I would assume that there’s also a ratio there. If there’s too many people out trying to do the same cause, somebody is going to get exhausted, and they’re going to end up shutting theirs down. And then now you’ve lost the vision, you’ve lost the momentum that you have. Then the other part of it is, this is just the fun rule of business, it’s going to take twice as long and cost twice as much as you thought. It’s going to cost more money, it’s going to take more time. Just do it in the safety of bolting on with somebody else first because If you had a nonprofit, and I had an idea for your nonprofit, I’m going to come to you. If you’re good at what you do, you’re going to have the normal answer. “Well, we’ve got to run it past the board.” What’s the board pass? Is it going to bring us new donors? Is it going to bring more people into our audience? Because the thing that nonprofits need is money and people. Is it going to bring us more money? Is it going to bring us more of a donor pool? And if the answer is yes, then it’s like, “Yeah, what do you need?” “Well, we need $5,000 to put the event together and for marketing”, and they’re like, “We have it. Yeah, let’s do it.” And that took 30 minutes, where it would take 30 months to build it from scratch and make sure we go through all the right channels. So I think it’s just a shortcut to building that momentum and getting it done.

(15:47)

I like that. Collaboration over competition. That’s not to take away someone that has just a phenomenal idea and phenomenal support. That’s not what we’re saying. If you just have a good idea, on a Saturday afternoon, you may take some time to vet that, take some time to find your real focus. Through that discovery, especially in your local area, chances are you’re going to run into someone doing something very, very similar. And then you can partner instead of doing the ground breaking, gut wrenching work and building this thing from the ground up. Because it’s hard. It’s not kind of hard, it’s really hard. It’s getting kicked in the face hard. It’s getting told no after no after no after no. That’s not going to help you reach your vision.

Now I interviewed Sha Sparks just a couple of days ago and we talked about her vision for her foundation that she’s got planned. And I had already had my first conversation with Dave, of course, because I love having that pre interview. It’s not for everybody, but I definitely enjoy it and it always goes longer than I had planned. Based on our conversation. I was like, “Well, hey, is there someone already kind of doing what you’re interested in?” And she’s like, “Well, as a matter of fact, yeah, there is” I was like, “Would it be easier and would it be faster, to partner with them to get that done?” And she was like, “Absolutely”. So then we talked about a couple of those steps and I think she’s much closer today to getting to that vision than she wouldn’t be if she was starting from scratch on her own

That’s the real goal, the real goal isn’t to have a nonprofit with your name on it, right? it’s not to go “Look at what I have built.” That’s not how people in the nonprofit world think or feel. They want to help, whatever their cause is, it has nothing to do with them. So sometimes we have to swallow our pride, partner, and maybe lend a helping hand. We can build so much more together.

(17:51)

Yeah, and again, some of the rules apply in business the same as they do in the nonprofit space. It’s called synergy. It would be the same as an acquisition. So think of an acquisition, you’ve got companies that do a similar thing. A lot of times they see value in the momentum that one company already has and they pitch, “Hey, let’s buy you out.”

Now, it’s funny because this conversation has really just come up in the last couple of weeks where I’ve been very loud about it, and like I said, as more people draw in it’s like, “Okay, well, maybe we got something here.” But whenever I think about the idea of collaboration, like I said, it’s not just for a project, in some cases, it could create a whole position. I think a lot of times when people want to start a nonprofit, it’s because they can put themselves at the helm. A lot of the fundraising, the initial capital and stuff that they raise for it will give them a safe operating salary that they can live off of and really just focus all their effort full time.

I think that’s really good, but it’s very similar to bolting on for a project. You know, a lot of times if it’s a project that goes really well, then they take it back to the board. We try it one more time, and it’s like, “Okay, it wasn’t just beginner’s luck. This really is a major project. What would it take to bring this person on full time to where this amplifies a whole arm of what we already do?” That’s a great conversation.

Collaboration Over Competition

Dave Burlin Tweet

(19:19)

So as I understand it, I saw some sweet new headshots. You had like a little impromptu photoshoot on your last visit to bunker labs. What’s that all about?

(19:31)

Bunker Labs is literally one of the greatest conversations around everything that I’ve been working on for years on a few fronts. I’ve been working on this keynote called Why networking, and it’s really about building relationships. Obviously now as we have this discussion, that’s a conversation that makes sense, not only in the for profit world, but also in the nonprofit world, it’s all about relationships.

The story of Bunker Labs is there’s a ton of veteran service organizations out there. Bunker Labs is primarily geared towards the veteran entrepreneur, so it’s all about veterans and their spouses to help start and grow businesses. They’ve got 25, 30 chapters all over the country and I recently have become one of the city leaders for Las Vegas. We’re launching in February of 2020, such a phenomenal organization, and I’ll kind of tell you about the why networking piece.

I actually talked to Bunker Labs back in 2016 when I was still in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I had just come off the wave of doing the TED Talk and I’d been hosting a few different satellite programs to help nonprofits. Whenever I learned about Bunker Labs, I was like, “Holy crap, I want to be the dude in Tulsa.” We had the director of expansion at the time come out to do a talk with the Oklahoma State University, they have a really big veteran entrepreneurship program. And this is one of those deals where I got really radical. I found out he was coming, His name was Derek, I found that he was coming to Tulsa, and we had one event that was really scheduled for him. And it was that Wednesday night.

What I wanted to do was, I talked to some of the other local organizations, there’s one called 1 Million Cups, and it’s for entrepreneurs and they had that that morning. So I got really radical and I just helped the mayor of Tulsa get elected, not really officially on his campaign. But whenever he was looking to talk to local veterans in the community, we got connected and I pulled some events together for him. So anyways, I used the momentum off of that and what Derek was coming for was one event, or maybe two, and I basically proclaimed that whole week as Freedom Week and I set up a series of events.

At one of the local co-working spaces there was a veteran who was a painter. You know, he had PTSD and he found his healing through oil painting. He’s a phenomenal artist and actually, we did a big grand opening for his art exhibit. We basically just turned it into an art gallery. Proceeds from any of the paintings and any of that stuff went back to a nonprofit. I connected with one of the veterans that I actually served with, he’s a Tulsa police officer, and he had an initiative to help homeless veterans. We basically tied up all these events together, and I just proclaimed it Freedom Week. I just said “Let’s get the ball rolling”

(22:35)

And, again, I didn’t start any nonprofits, I just bolted on to some that were already existing, and we basically gave this guy a tour of the whole Tulsa entrepreneurial ecosystem. They absolutely loved it. They loved it. The challenge was that at the time, the program was set up a lot differently than it is now. It was a lot of fundraising and it was before they had really big national partnerships. It was basically like “Yeah, we’d love for you to do it” but I was going to have to raise a quarter of a million dollars or something like that. Even then there was no guarantee, it was really just kind of a big gamble. Even though I was passionate about it, just where I was at my business, I couldn’t make that pivot without a little bit more security than that. So it was no hard feelings.

They loved it, in fact. The funny thing was, Derek said, “Hey man. The way that you put this whole sort of tour together, can you break that down into an SOP of some of the elements of the community that you introduced me to? Because I want to give that to other cities as a checklist before I show up.” And I was like, “Oh, I mean, we’re setting you on?” So we did that and I worked with the girl over at OSU. Shameless plug for OSU, Oklahoma State University, they’ve got a phenomenal veteran entrepreneurship program. So we work together. And we gave him a basic format, and it helped. But more than that, I’m always about connecting. As I was preparing for this whole meeting for him coming, I was trying to find what resources I could, and the Big Family Foundation that I was telling you about in Oklahoma, I talked to the lady who’s the director of that. It’s the Lobeck Taylor foundation.

Kathy Taylor used to be the mayor in Tulsa, random connection of how I knew her from back whenever I worked with another company, but I reached out, she took the meeting, and I told her about my plan for this guy coming. She said, “Regardless, you need to connect them to Matt Steiner” She gave me his card and Matt was on her security detail. He’s a Marine and he was on her executive leadership team when she was the mayor. At that point in 2016, he was actually working at a role in the White House. Super small world, but that’s the power of networking as veterans, and she gave me his card.

Whenever Derek left, I was like, “Hey, man, no hard feelings. In fact, here’s a contact that you guys might want to connect with.” So the funniest part of the whole story is after they came for this whole week and all this stuff, and it was like “we love you, but no” And later that year, the CEO of Bunker labs and the Director of Expansion, they actually got a sit down roundtable discussion at the White House and I didn’t realize how big of a catapult that was for them going into 2017. Fast forward three years later, and I just recently moved to Las Vegas. One of the first people that I connected with was somebody who had worked for a big veteran nonprofit here. I guess he was a huge component in getting bunker labs to have the conversation to come to Las Vegas and it was a no-brainer, like, “Hey, we want Dave on the team.”

So here I am, I became a city leader for a program that I was passionate about three years ago. And here’s the funniest part, I didn’t forget, but I kind of forgot about the White House because it never came to Tulsa. It just wasn’t like top of mind, tip of tongue. But last month, they brought us on because we opened up in February, their big annual summit was at the Starbucks headquarters in Seattle. So Starbucks is one of our partnerships for military sponsorship but it was at the Starbucks headquarters as I was going down in the elevator, the first person I ran into was Todd Connor, the CEO. And I was like, “Hey, Todd” he’s like, “Yeah, Dave, from Vegas, right? I’ve read about you.” And I was like, “Yeah, here’s a funny story.” You may not know this, I told him about the connection back to Matt Signer. But here I am three years later, and now that that’s completely full circle. Now here I am flying the Bunker Labs logo and flag very high.

Bunker Labs is primarily geared towards the veteran entrepreneur, so it's all about veterans and their spouses to help start and grow businesses.

Dave Burlin Tweet

(27:08)

That’s an amazing story, and when I boil it down in its elements, you had passion and a vision and you gave. You weren’t expecting something in return, you were hoping to maybe make a connection, but really not too much beyond that. Now here you are out in Vegas, and the CEO of Bunker Labs knows who you are. It’s amazing how that stuff works and how we build relationships and if these podcasts never get published, or you know, my five fans, just keep this thing rolling for however long, just the conversations I’ve had, the relationships I’m building from doing this are just flat out amazing. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

So let me ask you, Dave, where do you see your vision going in five years?

(28:05)

There’s so much alignment where everything is at right now. I guess, to really answer that question it’s two answers, right? “Where do I see myself in the profit space” and “where do I see myself in the nonprofit space?” because for the profit space, this whole time I’ve been building my own consulting practice. And while it has been very independent, as I’ve gotten connected to more and more veterans, I’m locking arms with some really great organizations out there that do have a for profit side and a nonprofit side. So really looking at locking arms with more veteran consultants, you know? I really think the experience that we have, coming from a large global organization, like the military, and coming into an organization, we can really help shape some things up. So for me, I want to help companies build their culture, I want to help them sell more stuff, and I want to help them scale just the same way.

You know, if you told me that I need to set up shop here and that we’ve got 10,000 Marines or something coming through in the next 30 days, then we would have to take over this whole little area and build it. So I want to continue to build a network of that and essentially, have an affirm of veteran consultants all of very different skill sets that can really step in and help organizations all over the country.

On the nonprofit side, because of the long story and the history with Bunker Labs, I really do see myself helping be a catalyst for their growth. That’s one area that I really want to focus on. I’m just now learning the whole infrastructure of everything that they’ve got going. Like I said, they’ve got 25-30 chapters, I think we’re going to be like the 30th city to open up. But if five years from now, even though my term as a city leader is only two years, I would love to be somewhere on the national expansion team for that, and I mean, if it were up to me, I’d be driving around in a Mercedes Sprinter with some DJ equipment in the back and some podcast stuff and everything I need to run a mobile office. I would just be doing pop ups all over the country, educating people about veteran entrepreneurship and connecting them to the right resources. But meanwhile, just building my brand and building an army of consultants just getting it done. That’s where I’d really love to be in five years, that’s where I’d like to go.

(30:40)

That’s a phenomenal vision, and again, your vision doesn’t really have anything to do with you. That’s what makes it so wonderful.

How can we help you? How can our network of people help you? What do you need?

(31:00)

For anybody that is looking at, or considering any kind of veteran service organizations or things like that, or you just want to connect the dots for people in your community, there will be a whole resource page for that. So davemeansbusiness.com. There’ll be a portal for some of the different VSOs that I’ve worked with and if there’s anything that I can do to help to connect the dots through Las Vegas, it is a global platform for me to touch so many different parts of the country and connect the dots for people. So if there’s anything that people are doing in or around or through Las Vegas I’m more than happy to connect.

I guess the biggest thing for me is that if you get the opportunity to see any of the projects, or if people connect with me on LinkedIn, or anything like that, but the really interesting thing in the veteran space, is if you see something that looks like it’s doing a good thing, just hit the share button. It goes a really long way. That’s because it’s falling on eyes that it wouldn’t otherwise when you do that, it may not be something that you actively have to promote, but just by tagging one person or sharing something, and not even just my content, but any any of that stuff out there, that’s the way that I believe we’re saving lives. Because sometimes it’s just one thing that pops up or one thing that a person gets connected to, that can change the course or the direction of their life. So if you see something in that space that’s the biggest thing that I think people can do. It doesn’t doesn’t cost anything to hit the share button. That’s one big ask that I always ask anytime I do a post about something.

When I was in LA, on LinkedIn, I said, “Hey, here’s a challenge, connect me with one veteran in Los Angeles.” I think a few people tagged random people, people I’ve never met or been connected to, and then it has the capacity to turn into a phenomenal conversation or relationship like this. In fact, I think we got connected through a group on Facebook or something like that.

(33:20)

Use social media to be social. Who knew?

(33:20)

Exactly. And what’s funny about that is that group was recommended to me by another veteran city leader from Bunker Labs up in the Bay Area. Had I never got connected to that group, I never would have got connected to you. Just those little tags really do follow something. So I don’t ask for people to follow me for the sake of having followers, but if you connect with me on social media or anything like that, if I post something about veterans, if it’s something that matters, hit the like button, hit the share button. The algorithms do have our back sometimes, and sometimes it falls right into the place of where it’s supposed to and gets in front of the right people.

(34:02)

I’m going to share all your links in the show notes. Best place, best social media platform to get a hold of you?

(34:10)

I’ve been shifting a lot of stuff to LinkedIn, so LinkedIn has been a real primary focus for me. It cuts through some of the noise of Facebook and things like that. There’s a lot of people right now they’re like, “Oh, yeah, add me on Instagram” I found out but it’s really challenging, because it’s all usernames. And it’s not necessarily first and last names so it’s a little bit harder to connect people there. But if you connect with me on LinkedIn, shoot a note as to how you heard about me, and then just the same as I did for you, I’m really quick to send my calendar. I don’t chase everything that’s a great idea. If I did, I would go crazy, like I did three or four years ago. But a lot of times I’ll set up a calendar invite and it might take a week or two before I’m able to catch a call, but then in every phone call or connection, I try to connect the dots for somebody that can help or if you’re trying to get something to someone I’ll get it to someone that it will help and just happy to learn more about what everybody’s doing.

(35:07)

That’s awesome. Dave, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to connect with our audience here on the nonprofit architect. And thank you listening out there, if you know anyone that would make a great interviewer send him my name. Let’s get the word out. Let’s get good, solid guests like Dave on. Like, Share, Subscribe, all that fun stuff and you have a great day.

Dave Burlin Bio

Dave Burlin is a Certified Professional Sales and Leadership Coach. He specializes in teaching ethical sales techniques and strategies that individuals and teams can use to immediately grow their sales.

Dave is a Professional Sales and Leadership Coach, Facilitator of “Why Discovery” Golden Circles – Simon Sinek Inc., United States Marine Corps Veteran, Operation Enduring Freedom, Top producer for America’s largest privately held Wedding/Corporate Entertainment Company, DJ Connection, Development of operational programs, including hiring, training, and KPI’s to effectively scale DJ Connection into more than 4 cities in 2 years, Developed and trained sales team and non-sales team members to execute consecutive tradeshows across the Midwest

Spoke at TEDxTulsa, “Discharge to Incharge: Bringing Battlefield Leadership to the Boardroom and Beyond”

Recruited, trained, developed, and coached for more than 3,000 at-risk youth, as well as more than 45 staff members at Thunderbird Youth Academy (National Guard Youth Challenge program)

Member of High-Speed Elite, Veteran Entrepreneur Mastermind Group with Entrepreneur on Fire Founder John Lee Dumas

Dave Burlin is a Professional Sales and Leadership Coach at Southwestern Consulting.

He is a Marine Corps Veteran, and he believes that influence is the core foundation for growth. His passion is to help people maximize their influence potential so that they can create innovative organizations that bring positive change and impact on the world. He does this by helping them communicate their vision, and invest in their greatest resource; their people. With growth comes more opportunity for leaders to emerge, and the cycle of leadership and influence continues.

Since his military service, he spent 6 years working with Oklahoma’s “at-risk” youth. Later he began a career in sales and marketing while working as a wedding DJ/MC for one of America’s largest privately held companies, DJ Connection. He helped grow DJ Connection into other markets and it was in that pursuit that he developed a deeper passion and admiration for company culture, marketing, and leadership development. This led to the launch of Discharge to Incharge, an organization to help connect veterans to resources vital for their transition. This included coaching veterans into the paths of education, employment, and entrepreneurship.

In 2014, he had the honor of speaking at TEDxTulsa about veteran transition, and this has led to a number of speaking opportunities. He has continued to take his passion helping Veterans into the business world by helping coach some of the most elite teams and organizations on the planet.

He currently resides in Las Vegas and he serves clients around the globe.