David Van Beekum's Blueprint for Personalized Advertising in the Digital Age

Have you ever sat in a restaurant and thought, "This TV could be showing me something I actually care about"? That spark of curiosity ignited a revolution for David Van Beekum, and on our latest Catalytic Leadership episode, he shares his journey from childhood tinkerer to the co-founder of Tweva. It's a story of innovation born from the everyday, where the melding of past passions and present technologies leads to groundbreaking solutions for small businesses and influencers alike.

Imagine walking into your favorite local shop and being greeted not just by familiar faces, but by a TV screen showcasing content tailored specifically to your interests. This episode explores the future of dynamic TV advertising and how it's set to transform customer engagement in small businesses. We examine the parallels between the evolution of tech marvels like automobiles and the stagnant world of TV ads, unveiling how Dave's Tweva is paving the way for personalized marketing experiences in communal spaces.

But it's not all tech talk; we also delve into the heart and hustle behind catalytic leadership. Dave opens up about the challenges of nurturing both a startup and a family, and the crucial role of mentorship and lifelong learning in navigating the entrepreneurial landscape. We wrap up with insights on personal growth and the principles that have guided my own coaching journey. Tune in for an episode that's as much about leadership and personal connection as it is about the technological wave set to hit small business marketing.

Connect with David Van Beekum
For more information, visit tweva.com, connect all social media platforms, or reach out directly via email at dave@tweva.com!

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Chapters

• 0:04 Revolutionizing Social TV Through Leadership
• 11:46 Two-Way TV Marketing for Small Businesses
• 20:12 Building Authority and Personal Connection
• 32:48 Mentors and Continuous Learning
• 44:00 Catalytic Leadership Principles & Coaching

Transcript

Dr. William Attaway: 0:04

I'm so excited today to have David Van Beekum on the podcast. Dave is a co-founder and creator of Tweva, the world's first social TV network for small businesses and influencers. A digital marketing guru, startup enthusiast and tech expert, dave is a man of many talents, startup enthusiast and tech expert. Dave's a man of many talents. Despite being more of an introvert, dave has been a driving force behind Tweva's success, working tirelessly on software development, databases, automation, 3d printing, robots and AI. But it wasn't until recently, when one of his co-founders passed away, that Dave realized it was time to step out of his comfort zone and share his wealth of knowledge with others.

Dr. William Attaway: 0:49

Balancing the challenges of running a startup with a family. Dave is currently focused on securing a $2.2 million investment for Tweva while simultaneously driving traction with local businesses on the platform. Simultaneously driving traction with local businesses on the platform. It's a tough balancing act, but Dave's passion for helping small businesses succeed is unwavering. When he's not revolutionizing the social TV space, dave enjoys spending time with his wife and kids in sunny Florida, and if you can't find him there, chances are he's locked himself in his air conditioned office dreaming up new ways to change the world of digital marketing. Dave, I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for being on the show.

David Van Beekum: 1:31

It's a lot of fun to come on and share my story and experience with anyone who loves to listen.

Dr. William Attaway: 1:37

And that's where I want to start.

Intro / Outro: 1:41

Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help leaders intentionally grow and thrive. Here is your host author and leadership and executive coach, dr William Attaway.

Dr. William Attaway: 1:58

I would love to start with your story, love to hear more about that, for you to share some of that with our listeners, particularly around your journey and your development as a leader. How did this whole thing get started?

David Van Beekum: 2:09

Oh man, I mean, if just the Tweva business. It started from a couple of us, all of our little business meeting and our partners talking about in a restaurant, like how could we change the TV world for small businesses? We were sitting around looking at the TV and I think it's kind of sparked the idea we saw, like a competing commercial for a big franchise like Pizza Hut or Domino's, and they were an Italian restaurant. So I was kind of like how dare they, how dare they advertise in your establishment that big company, don't they know who you are? It's like a funny thing. It kind of started there but it got us thinking, hey, could we create something that is for small businesses, where they could create their own content, they could share it on their TV? And it wasn't like the first idea wasn't necessarily citywide or nationwide, it was just this can I control what's on my TV? Because, yeah, no matter what kind of restaurant or business you are, you always have somebody competing on general television. Yeah, so me and my tech brain, I'm thinking like, well, I could create. You know, it could be a slideshow, we could create a basic slideshow and then, oh well, we want videos on there and uh well, that's not that much fun to look at. Maybe we'd have to add some weather, some social media and maybe other things. What about if somebody other could? Could other people post on there too?

David Van Beekum: 3:36

And it kind of built out this idea of a tv network for small businesses, built by small businesses, owned owned by small businesses, but it's a TV channel kind of for the city at the same time. Yeah, so it was definitely a growing like. It started small, but you build on it, and if you have that imaginary brain to just think what am I doing? How can I build this? What exists out there? Oh, nothing exists. Okay, well, then we can just start from something and start building it out. So that's really how the idea got started, but it was a growth period in technology and the idea. So it was quite the journey, though.

Dr. William Attaway: 4:23

I love that and I love how you are leveraging your strengths to meet that need. That. You see, you know, patrick Lencioni, in his book the Six Types of Working Genius, talks about the first one, which is wonder, and that is seeing something that nobody else can see, that has never existed, and you see what could be. And when you're telling that story, that's what I'm thinking of. I'm thinking, man, you're just, you're all about the wonder and moving into the ideation phase of like, okay, now, how do we make that happen? What does that look like? And you're leveraging your tech skills. All of this comes from your background. There's no such thing as a wasted experience, and all of your past experience came together to put you in the right place at the right time, and you stepped into that.

David Van Beekum: 5:05

Yes, that's the weird part is I didn't always think of it as a wasted. No, I did think of it as wasted experiences. I thought that a lot of the things that I had done in my past were, oh well, I never used that piece. And I never used that piece Like take. For instance, when I was a kid, my dad had taken home audio equipment the older audio equipment from church, right. So we had a mixer board over here, we had a reel-to-reel tape recorder over there, an old record player, vcrs, and I had taken all these pieces and played with them when I was a kid and I, oh you know an RCA cable over here and a coaxial cable for RF from the VCR. Well, that doesn't go well with an RCA cable, so we need a converter. Oh, do we have a converter somewhere in a box? Oh, that one's burnt. Okay, find another one and okay. So all these little pieces. But what I found was, once you get to an experience later on in your life, you don't see and you don't necessarily understand this is happening. But those past experiences that you've lived through and you can see how they work, you don't see a block. So when other people might think like, oh I have to build something for TV, they might think, well, it wouldn't work with any TV. Oh, I have to build something for TV? They might think, well, it wouldn't work with any TV. How does it work with all the other TVs?

David Van Beekum: 6:26

When my previous experiences, which I thought were maybe a loss or a waste of time, I can see through that issue, which I don't even see as an issue, right, I just think, oh, you just have to do this, this, this, this and this, and it works, and it's the same for all pieces. Though, and this is why I think some CEOs in leadership, they don't see the issues the same way as maybe we would call it an inexperienced person, maybe somebody with less experience in a specific industry or genre or whatever, but the people that I talk to, that's so, that's so incredible, it's so complicated. I'm like, no, it's not, no, no, it's not, it's no. I just connect this, this, this, this, and because it's not even a block for me, it doesn't think like it's a problem. I think, oh, yeah, well, I understand those pieces and those pieces after all that, and you start talking to individuals like yourself, and it does make sense to me now, but it doesn't. I don't think it makes sense to everyone. I don't think everybody views problems the same way, and I think, from what you we were speaking about previously is about leadership.

David Van Beekum: 7:39

I think that is a piece in that leadership role of you. May see it as a problem or not even see it as a problem. You just think, oh yeah, we can do this. Meanwhile, people that you're trying to lead might say, oh, my goodness, look at that, it's such an issue and you're going like what issue? Step back and say, okay, what's the issue here? Because I don't see what it is. And so there couldn't be a disconnect between leadership role and who you're leading, because you can't see what that issue is. So good, and I haven't noticed that until later. But that seems to be a block, that disconnect feeling when you're, oh, look at that leader, he's so amazing. It means that we're not doing a good job explaining the path and the connection between bypassing or fixing that issue and leading them to get there if that makes sense, absolutely.

Dr. William Attaway: 8:36

John Maxwell says that leaders see more than others see and they see before others see. That's a gift, right. But if you can't communicate what you see, if you can't lead and bring them with you, you're not leading, you're just a guy out there hanging out somewhere else With an idea.

David Van Beekum: 8:55

Right, that's never going to happen With a great idea, and I noticed that too. First time I went out and talked to small businesses, it was wait, what is this? Because at the first iteration you can't explain the dream, the build, the idea, yes, and so you have to kind of go back and say, okay, well, for an older person running a restaurant or a business, is it really a social network? No, he's not part of a social network. So how do I talk to, how do I communicate what this product is to that? And in the marketing world we call it a persona. Yeah, right, so this persona does not understand these specific pieces.

David Van Beekum: 9:38

So we may he may have to change the language, change the words, the graphics, all of those pieces that are in essentially your marketing arm have to be changed to allow that person to understand what this product is. That's good, and it's still part of being the leader, because you can say you know, you can come up with oh, it's a tv social platform, doesn't matter what is it, it's a tv channel. It's a tv channel for him, right, growing up he had 13 channels, right, and you clicked them with the old tvs. You know, I had one push on, push off, that's what it is to them, because everything else is doing the business the way that it has to be done. So, from a leadership role, you need to be able to look at that and say, okay, how large of a percentage of the marketing arm is touching those individuals that understand it in this specific way?

David Van Beekum: 10:36

Do we need to change our marketing? Do we need to add a word or remove a word? Is it too complicated? Because essentially, your marketing firm, they'll just run with whatever you tell them and that could be a good thing or a bad thing. I mean, people think, oh, yeah, we just have to. Yeah, but who are we talking to? Why are we talking to them is very, very important in the long run.

Dr. William Attaway: 11:02

That's so good. I love how you're describing building a bridge to somebody where they actually are, instead of where you think they should be or where you assume they are. I see too many people making a lot of assumptions. Well, of course they're going to know what this is.

David Van Beekum: 11:18

Of course they're going to understand this.

Dr. William Attaway: 11:19

Of course they're going to. Yeah, Good luck with that. You can't make those type of assumptions. You have to realize and understand where they actually is, not something that I hear a lot. That's not a channel. Most people are thinking and you're changing that. What are some of the benefits of this? Some people who are listening are thinking, yeah, but would that work for me? Is there really a lot of benefit? Can you get traction really through this sort of a thing? What would you say to that?

David Van Beekum: 13:34

Well, it's different, and most small businesses this is not a talking point. You don't sit down a small business and say, hey, how's your ad running on TV? Right, right, it is a little bit, it's changing. So you have your social media marketing. You have your digital marketing, which, again your social media marketing. You have your digital marketing which, again, even in a small business, they're struggling with this.

David Van Beekum: 14:00

Yeah, we looked at it as in an efficiency, at least, at least when we were talking about things that have gone through the cycle of innovation. So you look at the car right, the car has gone from I mean, I guess the first car you could say was electric. And then you've gone to gas and it was very bad gas mileage in the very beginning, but through refinement it became a very efficient machine, so much that it lasted for almost 100 years before the electric car came back and said, well, we're still not that efficient. And then you have your light bulb, right, your light bulb went from incandescent lights and then you went to I don't know how many a hundred years till you had a fluorescent, which was a gas that has been ignited with thousands of volts versus 110 volts right, thousands of volts which needs a ballast which is very dangerous, incredibly efficient. And then someone said well, I can create that in a small curly cube, you know a socket. So we did this in the 90s and 2000s until the LED came out and the LED. So anyway, you have these innovation cycles that are happening over and over again.

David Van Beekum: 15:10

But we looked at the TV because we were in, let's say, a restaurant. So we, okay, we'll look at the cash register. The cash register that's gone through a few. We've gone from cash right, and then we had the. We click the buttons and it calculates for us, it spits out the drawer which is locked. And then we got the credit cards and we'd have to stamp them. And then we went to digital over the phone. So we've had these cycle innovations, but that TV man. Yeah.

David Van Beekum: 15:36

Where is it? Because ultimately that's what we're trying to solve a problem. So I'm going like, well, okay, it's gone. Digital Digital is good, but I said it's only one way. It's literally one way. You are going to watch what I'm going to tell you to watch. That's it, that's right. Oh well, I'm going to tell you to watch. That's it, that's true. Oh well, I can choose what I want to watch. Yeah, but not really. Like there's 200 channels that you are programmed to watch. You can't create for it.

David Van Beekum: 16:08

So I said, what if we do something drastic? We change the idea. It's still the TV, but it's something that you can communicate with, so other people can come in and when they come in, they define what shows on the TV. So if you have your little cell phone on in your pocket and it says, hey, I really love tennis and I love off-roading in my little 4x4, well, when you walk in the building, it will change a little bit based upon your interests. And somebody else will walk in, it'll change based upon their interests, and this is more of a two-way communication, that you know. What do we end up doing in a sports bar? We end up putting on like 15 TV screens. Yep.

David Van Beekum: 16:52

And that's good, that's awesome. We're not looking to replace a specific sports bar, but in a smaller restaurant or a barbershop or something like that, you have one TV, two TVs and they're just playing that generic content. There's nothing about the city, which is really the most important right of inventing and building and changing the innovation behind what is it right? So if it's two way, we're changing the way. What would customers want to see? Do they want to see something national, you know, or do they wanna see something happening in their city? Is the best thing for the small business to give them? Small businesses non-competing around them, right?

David Van Beekum: 17:40

So if it's a barbershop, well, we can definitely talk about the pizza shop. We don't want to talk about any other barbershops, right. But if it's a, if it's a barbershop, we could talk about a pizza shop, a dentist, other small business owners out there, and that's really beneficial. So now you have your two-way connection. So you walk in the barbershop, you might see a little bit of tennis information because you like tennis, and then you also would see try this seven-layer chocolate cake. It's like right next door.

Dr. William Attaway: 18:16

While you're getting your haircut.

David Van Beekum: 18:17

Yes. Yes, yeah.

David Van Beekum: 18:19

Yeah, and so it's funny with, like, the chocolate cake is. We actually did a test when we first built out the beta version of Tweva and we talked to Cisco. We said, hey, cisco, send us some of that. You know you got some cheesecake. Send us, like, the distribute, the company that creates the cake, send us some sample clips". And like, yeah, if we find something like well, what are, what are you doing? Why do you need some low quality cake pictures? And like, oh, yeah, just do it.

David Van Beekum: 18:45

So he sent us this old video. It looked like 19,. Well, maybe 2001 or 2005 or something Low quality. So we stripped the audio out and we just took a couple of clips of this like fork cutting through the cake, and we didn't have a lot of content. So it was like, maybe our mistake, but it was funny. So we posted it up on a couple of restaurants and you know we asked him a couple of weeks later. He said, oh, how's that crappy low quality video of the cake doing? And I said, oh, my goodness, goodness, we had to order more cake. Three weeks in, people started buying it four times as much cake they sold like from that low quality. And we talked to one of the restaurant owners and he said you know, people eat with their eyeballs. And I'm going like I'm, you know, I'm coding, I'm like they eat with their eyeballs. What are you talking about, what? Oh, okay, I get it, I get it. Okay, that's good. So, through repetition, and so this let led us on to another.

David Van Beekum: 19:46

Uh, you know, epiphany, I guess, is small businesses don't have that ability to market on a billboard where it's a different kind of customer, right? So if you're looking up Italian food, you're going, oh, I'm hungry, I want Italian food. But when's the last time you saw a local pizza place or a local Italian on a billboard somewhere? That's like more passive advertising, right, totally so passive advertising. Is Rolex watches? Right, we have so much money that we could just say, hey, we are luxury watch. So whenever you think luxury watch, you think Rolex. I mean, how is that possible, right? I mean, if I search Rolex or if I search luxury watch, there might be five different ones, but they have some great branding. Do small businesses have that capability? They don't have the budget, they have the capability. But if we could help them get that kind of advertising so that when you think pizza, you don't think big franchise. You think, oh yeah, that pizza place, right, and so that's done through repetition. When you're getting your haircut, when you are out and about walking around, you see that, oh yeah, I like that. That's grandma's recipe. I know that is because I keep seeing it everywhere.

David Van Beekum: 21:03

But how do we bring the cost down? You know to where the small business can do that and that's part of the tweet, the network, where it's. You know we want to do it for 10 cents a commercial, you know, so it's not. Or 10 cents a commercial, so it's not a $10,000 to be on TV. Because, again, cycle of innovation, right, the car was very, very expensive and then it became less expensive. Same with the Tesla. The first ones were $100,000, $200,000. And then eventually they come down and they're talking about creating a $30, thousand dollar electric car.

David Van Beekum: 21:37

Where is the innovation with tv? It seems like every year the super bowl commercial goes up. What? Eight million dollars now? I think bud weiser said I'm not even paying that anymore for 30 seconds. Yeah, right. So where is the innovation in tv? That's what we created, that's what we did is the idea that you and me can walk over to the tv and do something. New. Old device, same concept, new innovation, same thing light produces. A light bulb produces light, right, but it's a new. The led light bulb is the same thing, but it's done differently with technology.

David Van Beekum: 22:14

So I know I'm spilling out a lot, mean, we're going a little bit off topic here, but it's part of the story of how we get from somewhere with that analytical brain and saying, well, where do we need to go? Why do we need to go there? And make sure you keep focused on those main things that help other things be successful, meaning the cycle of innovation, right? So you got to keep thinking towards what can I do differently? But with all of that, I call it the gap of knowledge. Right, there's a gap of knowledge between now you've been sitting here thinking about this for a year or two and now, how in the world can I bring this down to a level where other people can understand? And so, as we started the conversation is, we need, we can go there, but we need to bring down simple concepts to let everyone understand what's going on. And sometimes this is the hard part, you know, in just generally getting that, pulling that idea down generally getting that pulling that idea down.

Dr. William Attaway: 23:20

I love that. I think what you're describing is a way that any business can position themselves as an expert in their field. The branding that you enable you're positioning them in such a way that they have more credibility and more authority. That's what it sounds like to me. Is that right?

David Van Beekum: 23:39

That is absolutely right. That is absolutely right. If you think about I know, you probably have a lawyer in your city or around the city that keeps playing those repetitious ads, right? And so we have one here. And I went to a conference, a small business conference. I just put his picture up on the on a slideshow. He said does anybody know him? And it was like yeah, we all know him. Like really, you've talked to him so far, he's your friend. And you're like no, well, would you hire them? They all said yes. I said why would you hire a guy that you don't know, you haven't talked to and your friends don't know him? Bingo, point, proven right, yeah, so it's because you have seen him so many times, you just think that's the guy. And I know that's marketing in general. But when you are cooking and cleaning and dealing with people all day long, the last thing a small business is thinking is like, oh, oh, yeah, well, make sure my image is replicated throughout the city and everyone knows what I do.

Dr. William Attaway: 24:43

It's literally the last thing.

David Van Beekum: 24:45

But if you, but in your city, like I, have 50,000, 60,000 people in my city, if everybody knew me for what I did, if everybody I would be, I wouldn't even be on this podcast, right? I would not be anywhere because I would be so busy. So what really is the problem? Right, it is recognition, it is becoming that community expert.

Dr. William Attaway: 25:08

That is really solid. I'm extrapolating from this and I'm thinking like okay, if you're able to build this type of an authority, this type of credibility, and people begin to know, like and trust, even through this type of an impersonal thing, how do you capitalize on that and build that connection deeper? You know there's a lot of talk around AI right now. Right, this idea that you know AI is the wave and we're going to need less human interaction. But what you're describing is different. You're creating authority and credibility through the branding, but there's got to be a next step, and that next step feels like it needs to be personal. It feels like there needs to be a human connection there, would that?

David Van Beekum: 25:57

be, accurate.

David Van Beekum: 25:58

Yes, yeah, our slogan is for the locals, so I tend to stay on the lean. Lean in the in the direction of a human interaction is more important than any AI robot that can text you. Right? I'm on a live chat and I'm talking to a robot. You know you are Right. You know if you're talking to a real person. You kind of know oh, the spelling is a little bit off, or you know you can tell. But the AI pieces are helping you maybe create a little bit of content or they're helping maybe support.

David Van Beekum: 26:33

I like AI for things like accounting. You know, nobody wants to run 10 000 transactions and find something missing here or there. I don't necessarily suggest ai is the best to replace a salesperson. Yeah, oh yeah, I don't think we're not there yet. I think it would be scary if we get there. Um, I jokingly say ai is. Ai is going to be bad if people are going to be putting on their Apple glasses or something or their Google glasses and they'll be like. I can see that Dave is winking a little bit and he's coughing too much and his right arm is bouncing a little. He's full of crap, right is bouncing a little. He's full of crap, right, like some AI, will be able to check if a sales person is good or not right, because you're still gonna need salespeople, you're still gonna need human interaction. That's gonna be scary when we get there, but we still need human interaction.

David Van Beekum: 27:31

The AI world we use a little AI to manage. Okay, this person is walking in this building. He might have walked in first, before someone else. What are we showing on the screen? Has this person been here before? How long have they been there? Who gets priority right? So we're using a little bit of background. But we wanted, because of the tv screen and bringing communities together, we wanted it everybody's kind of watching and interacting. So we use AI in the background, but we don't really promote it in the foreground. What we wanted is people to get out of their phones. So instead of everybody staring at their phones at the bar, we wanted to play content that is something unique happening in the community. So let's say it's a parade went by and somebody got a clip of it with their phone. They submit it to the network and now it's showing on the local tvs. That might bring a little conversation right between people, or someone may have been to hawaii and they want to share a couple of hawaii photos.

David Van Beekum: 28:32

Oh, I was there 10 years ago. I was there on my honeymoon. Oh, and we starting this little connection between people. Yeah, and this happened from putting it in a bar in in my town and years ago. And, um, I was there like late 11 o'clock, 11 30 at night.

David Van Beekum: 28:49

Oh, does the box work? Is everything working? And she said, yeah, I'm just putting some. You know peanuts, um, snoopy, you know peanuts? Yeah, charlie brown, uh, memes on the TV.

David Van Beekum: 29:02

And so I was like, okay, like all right, well, really is that what we're doing with the box? Like I thought it'd be something cooler and so I didn't really understand at that point, because I'm the tech guy I'm developing right. So we were sitting there and she was uploading pictures and I just watched like 10 or 15 people wait for the TV screen to load these images, while they all laughed. When they came on, they were all like, oh, that's a funny one. And I saw this human interaction with multiple people going like, okay, so, yeah, they probably know the bar owner. Yeah, but still, they're all interacting instead of on their phones. So this is a collaborative thing that people will want to share with because it's on a big screen. So this is a collaborative thing that people will want to share with because it's on a big screen, so they get a little credibility even if it's not a business owner. They get a little bit of something from sharing, right, but on a bigger screen. Oh, it's me I'm presenting right now and I thought, oh my goodness, to give each person a little bit of light every once in a while is tremendous, especially with them and their friends, when they're relaxing and enjoying. They're not just taking information in but they're able to share information back out. So, really, that again changed a little bit of the okay, this is a very powerful tool.

David Van Beekum: 30:16

How can we give not only business owners, but what about creators? What about running a video podcast on? We can't do an hour, but five minute clips. And I look over at the TV screen. I'm like who's that guy? What's happening? I may not be interested in sports. My wife loves Super Bowl football. I'm the nerd. I don't really like it. I'm looking around like, okay, what's interesting for me? And I would absolutely look over and see who's those people talking over there. And it doesn't have to be a TV network. It could be me and you sharing what we create. Oh, let me scan this QR code real quick. Okay, now I'm a new follower, right? So things like that give the content creators the ability to do different things. Today. That's. That's really what tweva is now is this community of content creators and the tv network and small businesses like it morphs into something much bigger, so fascinating.

Dr. William Attaway: 31:34

You know tweva needs. So fascinating to develop those skills that you're going to need. How do you stay on top of your game and level up your leadership skills?

David Van Beekum: 31:45

Well, before meeting a ton of people in the leadership realm, I have to say that I did not even understand that we're different levels in the CEO role or the owner role or the founder role, because you are looking down. Even though you're imagining big things, you're still looking down and you're looking at your process. You're saying how can this happen, how can this be built? Oh, if we connect this API over here and then people will use this like this, then you hit a block and you realize, okay, I don't know something, but I think I know everything. Right, because everybody does, we all think that we know everything. And then when you have this epiphany, finally, when you talk to enough people in I would call it a different level and you start to think, okay, there is another level, okay, I'll get there, and you get to the next level. And then you're like wait, wait, let's start another level. And then you realize there are multiple levels and so I jokingly tell people, like that's why ceos get paid 20 million, 100 million dollars.

David Van Beekum: 32:48

There is so many variables to every situation going on that it is a constant learning, um levels of learning, and I think a lot of people, including myself, think we can do a lot alone. But there is a certain block to that because before you didn't know, and, like you said, a couple of years ago, when you're in your design phase, you think, oh, this is a great idea. Well, there was 10 things that we were doing wrong that having any type of mentor, any type of startup world mentor, leadership, mentor, would have made drastic changes. But they come at a price, right, you have to let go of something to take that piece, and it's sad that the only way is education.

David Van Beekum: 33:40

There's no course on how to get there, because every business is so different. It's like, oh, my persona is, the older person doesn't understand what this is, and so other people's businesses are completely different. But you come to a realization that you need mentors and leaders to really help you see that next five years, because you have something in your mind and then you go home you got to spend time with the wife, the kids, this. You got to exercise. You know, oh, I got to make food. You're not thinking about that. And it is so incredibly important to, even if you start your business, to start with a mentor, because it can make that next five years completely different than what it was.

Dr. William Attaway: 34:25

It's so true, it's so hard to see the whole picture. When you're in the frame, you just can't see what you can't see. You're in it, you're in the weeds To have somebody on the outside who's going to help you to see, who's going to ask you the questions that maybe nobody else in your world will ask you and help you to begin to see and become aware of things that you simply wouldn't have been aware of. Or if you did eventually become aware of them, it would be because you hit the ditches over and over again as you were driving down the road. What if there's a better way, what if?

Dr. William Attaway: 34:54

there's a way to shorten the process so that you can go farther in a shorter time frame. So that you can go farther in a shorter timeframe yeah, I think that is the beauty and the value of what you're describing Seeking those mentors, seeking those coaches who are going to help you, to see those things, so that you can shorten your learning curve right and avoid so many of the ditches that we watch people driving into.

David Van Beekum: 35:17

I love that. Yeah, that is incredibly important, like if there was any kind of things that I would have done differently or things that we would have done differently. That would be. It is finding five or 10 people and sorting them out and figuring out which one is best. And even if you didn't have five or 10, just a few, would make a difference in the long term, because I think we get hooked on oh, I'll do this, and if I can do this for six months, when I'm done doing that for six months, well, I'll be at a different level and then I can get to this for the next six months, though we don't really think like that. We don't think five years out. We just think, oh, this is temporary. When somebody else might say, hey, that's only has to be done for 30 days, not six months, and then you have to start focusing on something else. Yeah, that would definitely make a difference. That's really good.

Dr. William Attaway: 36:10

You're a continual learner and that's obvious to anybody who spends more than five minutes with you. Like you, are constantly learning and growing and developing, and I would imagine there are inputs in your life that are making a big difference, that are helping you learn and grow. Is there a book that has made a big difference in your journey or a podcast that you're listening to these days that you're like man? These are moving the needle for me in my development.

David Van Beekum: 36:35

There's not a specific. I remember reading the Magic of Thinking Big back when I started programming, and I loved that book. I really loved it. That was several years ago.

David Van Beekum: 36:45

What I tend to focus on now is not a particular book or a particular leader, it's just if I hear things that I don't know, I listen. That's literally the way it works. I do have an addiction to that, though, and it can lead you down the wrong road sometimes, because you start thinking about things. It's part of a creative effort. I would think you know most painters their paintings are not the best. Same with me, right. Everything that I create is not a hundred percent perfect, sure, but when I'm listening, I just listen for things I don't know, and I kind of like my brain. It stimulates my brain, I think in the way sports. Does you know if I talk, oh, do you know so? And so he broke his arm and now he can't throw this far, he can't run this far. Can you believe that I'm like, uh, no, I don't. I don't really know about that, but does anyone know if you patent uh, you know a patent language for this or that, and you know, glaze, glaze over, you know, but it's just, I don't know. It's something I don't know, so it's fun. So what I tend to do is, if I don't know something, I'm either watching a video on youtube about something or technological upgrade, or you know some of the big thought leaders, how they think about things, yes, why they do what they do and some of the macro views of things.

David Van Beekum: 38:04

Like, um, steve Jobs said he thinks of things in seasons. So this is a very interesting like you, you remember when he took out the floppy drive of his computer, yeah, and everybody went wild and he said, oh, that was in the fall. Yeah, you know it's about to die. So I'm like, again, he might understand cyclical analysis. He brought it down all of that. You know, looking at a chart and a graph, he just said, oh, there's only four parts to it, just look at it like in seasons. And so this is what he did really well, he might have been incredibly smart, but he knew how to bring that down so that not only his team could understand it but the investors, and that's where he could get the capital to build out the products. So, when you're in any business that you're at, look for thought-provoking ideas and concepts that may be very interesting to you and then try to simplify them down and, and that's really what creates that pull, because people understand the concept, they don't know how to explain it, so it gets thrown away. So now, if I can say, oh, it's in seasons, well, he can say, okay, well, um, why did they pull their dvd drive? Well, it's probably in the fall. Now, I know that anything that they do now I can say, oh, it probably is in the fall or the winter, because it's about to die and it's over. There's four parts to it. And what did they go into?

David Van Beekum: 39:28

Well, would you say that vr and spatial computing. They changed the word from vr, which everybody uses. They said, oh, we'll make our own called spatial computing. Why is vr in summer? See, yeah, right is, is it? So do they say, oh, no, we'll, we'll create our own, but we'll make it this spring, absolutely now they have a little bit more time and they can kill this, essentially, kill vr. Or is vr more people think? Think VR is a headset connected to a computer with a graphics card. We don't know, but we do know the way that they think and how they think about things. So, um, I, I would say those pieces I tend to look at and I look for things that I don't know and then try to not get too deep into the weeds of explaining it. But I love the deep weeds because you know coding and building and I love that stuff. My wife says, yeah, you lost me like 10 minutes ago.

Dr. William Attaway: 40:35

I think your gift, though, is being able to absorb and understand at that level and then be able to communicate it in a way that people can understand it, like you were describing. I think that's a gift you have, and I think that's why Tweva is seeing the success already that it is seeing and I think the best is yet to come because you can make it accessible. You can take these concepts that are maybe out of reach for some people. They just don't think in that way, but you can make it understandable, accessible. You're putting the cookies on a shelf everybody can reach so to speak.

David Van Beekum: 41:10

Absolutely. I mean not to bring him up again, but Steve Jobs said something with the best technology looks like magic. Yes, exactly, right, exactly. Everybody had buttons like the whole keyboard on their phone and he was like, well, where's my populace, where's my persona, where's my customer? Yes, and he said, well, I think he thought about the baby boomer generation. I seriously think he said for my investors, who has the most capital, who has the most processing power, to be able to do what they need to do? Okay, put one button on the phone for them. Yes, I think that they.

David Van Beekum: 41:48

He must've been looking at it like that and every, because it was so crazy to do right, one button on your phone. But he would looked at it like that. So that that's things that we need to do also in our business, in our world is who's your persona? If they are different generation, you can give them an xbox controller with 26 buttons on it, right, because the first nintendo had six. Now it's got 16 or 20, right, but it's a different persona, it's a different group. So all these things make a difference and you know that's part of where you need to go with the CEO.

Dr. William Attaway: 42:29

Dave, this has been brilliant. I've so enjoyed this conversation and I'm confident our listeners have as well. I know they're going to want to continue learning from you and learning more about Tweva. What is the best way for them to connect with?

David Van Beekum: 42:39

you. Well, you can go to our main website of tweva. com, or you can hit us up on any social media platforms we're on all of them or you can just email me at dave@ twevacom.

Dr. William Attaway: 42:54

I thank you so much for the generosity you've shown today, dave, and sharing from your journey so far about what you have learned, and that is for our benefit and I'm so grateful for that.

David Van Beekum: 43:06

Well, thanks for letting me on your podcast and, you know, talk to your listeners. I'm always I love to share the story, I love to talk about the journey and the experience and you know it's just a lot of fun for me. So, thanks for letting me share experience and you know it's just a lot of fun for me.

Dr. William Attaway: 43:23

So thanks for letting me share. Thanks for joining me for this episode today. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, if you don't have a copy of my newest book, catalytic Leadership, I'd love to put a copy in your hands. If you go to catalyticleadershipbookcom, you can get a copy for free. Just pay the shipping so I can get it to you and we'll get one right out.

Dr. William Attaway: 44:00

My goal is to put this into the hands of as many leaders as possible. This book captures principles that I've learned in 20 plus years of coaching leaders in the entrepreneurial space, in business, government, nonprofits, education and the local church. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. And if you're ready to take a next step with a coach to help you intentionally grow and thrive as a leader, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to catalyticleadershipnet to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, leaders choose to be catalytic.