Superbrand Audience Accelerator: Gary MacDermid’s Game-Changing Tool For Entrepreneurs And Author

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Welcome to Promote Profit Publish. I'm your host, Juliet Clark and today's guest actually created an AI program that myself and a number of other bigger platforms are using for marketing. So stay tuned for that. I'll introduce Gary in a minute. Don't Forget the June, July 11th we have our monthly event. You can sign up for it@bamag training.com and this month's guest is book developer Chris Johnson. And she's going to be talking about the pregame show getting ready to write your masterpiece. So if you're someone who's thinking about writing a book or has been thinking about writing a book, this might be a way to get yourself organized and know everything that you have to do.

So.

Today's guest is Gary McDermid and Gary is a highly sought after motivational speaker, private investor, serial entrepreneur, professional engineer and retired naval officer whose journey from humble beginnings to international success is inspiring audiences around the world. You may recognize Gary from his powerful episode Set yout Goals or Someone Else Will on season three at Amazon prime video series Speak up tv. His message, reclaiming your life through intentional goals and financial independence has resonated deeply with aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those rising from underrepresented communities. In March 2025, Gary released his debut book, Set yout Own Goals or Someone Else Will. A definitive playbook for breaking through mental barriers, engineering the life you truly want, not the one that others expect you to live. The book dives deep into how to overcome self limiting beliefs and get things done, serving as a blueprint for personal transformation and bold action. So stay tuned as Gary and I talk about his new AI creation. Gary, welcome to the show.

Thank you Juliet. Great to be here.

I know, I'm really excited to talk to you today because we've been working on some really stuff, incredible stuff that you've been building on AI that I think will help authors. So before we get started on all of that, tell me a little bit about how'd you get here? Where, where have you been?

Well, that's a, that's, that's a hard question to answer. I've been quite all over the place both, you know, with AI without AI an entrepreneur. I was in the, I'm a retired, retired naval officer, joined the Navy out of high school, went in the nuclear field, somehow got selected for a scholarship ROTC or Seaman Admiral program. Got my commission, was an electrical engineer, served in the surface warfare arena of the nuclear field. A lot of time in the engineering plant, a lot of time reactor plant. So consequently after the Navy did Consulting for nuclear power plants as an engineer, and somehow decided or got worried that if something ever happened to me, how would I provide for myself? So that was kind of where I learned to basically become an entrepreneur. Went through real estate investing and replaced my active income as an engineer with passive income. Fast forward through a couple more years after replacing a salary. Then I became a full time investor, but yearned for something more challenging in the nuclear field or as an engineer. We solve a lot of complex problems. So when I solved the problem of salary and having passive income, I wanted something challenging just to satisfy that itch. And that's when I went into angel investing. So as an angel investor is a lot more risk complicated. You got to learn a new business, you got to learn maybe even a new industry, understand all of these different, you know, how does operations, how does marketing, sales, administration and finance all interrelate to be able to generate high revenue with profitability. And that was a certain skill that was complex enough. And when I started doing that, then I realized that just as buying real estate and having passive income, you could do the same thing with businesses. So then I went from becoming an angel investor to becoming more of a business consultant in mergers and acquisitions to kind of round it off. So right now essentially I acquire assets, business assets and real property to just solve problems and increase cash flow. And in doing all that, AI has actually been able to make a lot of the things that used to take me weeks boil down into sometimes hours. And so really it's just a matter of, just like in engineering, we're always looking at new technology to solve problems easier, better, quicker, faster. The same exact thing happens with business.

Yes. And wow, that was quite a journey, wasn't it? So it's interesting you learned all of that about the inside of business in a couple years. And when I look back, it was like going from position to position and picking up those skills. So you, you were really fast tracked when you did it. But overall I, I got to the place I'm at today and I looked back and I, I could see the path that every job took me on that. So how did you learn that so quickly?

Why, it's hard to say whether it was so quickly or it was just understanding the way things are put together and systematically making sure that I hit every piece, understood every piece along the way. And so I don't necessarily think it was quick, I WISH it was 10 or 15 years quicker. But understanding systems and the engineering side, like how something's built, if you know how the engine's built and you know, how it's made up, then it's easier to have a way to learn each piece. You know, the intake, the exhaust, like, or, or, or all the components with, with each, without, throughout that cycle, to basically study each and then have a path to learn the whole thing. Whereas some folks, it's like, you know, you buy a course or you read something, you learn a little bit. But if you don't really know how something's put together and the right level of detail that you need to know for each piece, then it could be infinitely like, it could take a lot longer to get to where you're at, and it's a little bit more trial and error than it is, you know, following a path. Not to say that it's a straight line path, but that's just sort of the way that the engineering brain in me has thought. And then the systems part of being in the military has enabled me to put both together to, to maybe give the appearance that it was easier or faster.

That's funny. And you know what's great about that too though, is that when you come in to build these companies, I mean, I've experienced when I've come in to build something in a company, if that foundation is not fixed, you can't build on it. So I'm sure that's the same for you where you come in and you look and you say, okay, we can't build the part I'm here for until we get all of this fixed do. Which I think is very good because then you're not building good things on top of bad things.

So 100% nobody wants a house of cards.

Yes, there we go. There we go. So you've also written a book, and that's actually how we met is. And I would imagine a lot of that goal setting in your book came from your experience in the military. Would that be accurate?

Yeah, exactly. The military was a great portion of my time. I did 20 years total in the military. So writing a book, you know, that naturally encompasses a lot. So in the book you get the. A mix of military, you get a mix of entertainment, you get a mix of corporate.

Yeah. So tell us a little bit about the book, because you're going to be building workshops on top of that too. And you guys, this is, this is one I know a lot of you say, okay, I did the book and now I'm going to do the workshop. People are begging for this workshop. So I don't think that happens very often either.

So it's just you know, the book was a little bit in terms and it wasn't something that I had ever thought I was going to do. I was invited to speak and do. There's an Amazon prime show that had several seasons very similar to a TED Talk I was invited to do a talk on and I did the talk. The topic was set your own goals or someone else will. And the reason I chose that is because having essentially being forced to join the Navy after high school because there was no money for college, you get put on this trajectory where most folks are familiar with the military in that you follow orders. And so when you start at the bottom, the lower ranks, that's pretty much what you do. So throughout life you're kind of put on this trajectory where even after the military, how do you get a job? And there's headhunters that target military professionals because they know that military folks are good at following orders and being in systems. And so once you get good at following orders in the Navy and maybe the lifestyle is a little challenging and you want to transition to something more civilian oriented, the same thing happens where you get now you get moved from one place of following orders to another place of following orders, just with different uniforms. It's suit and ties instead of military brass. And that whole mindset of just, you know, people pleasing following a system, following orders prevents you a little bit from, you know, there's some self loming beliefs that maybe come with that. And for a while I didn't know that I could do anything. I've always thought about, you know, it was always cool to see business owners and you know, be your own boss kind of thing. I've always kind of wanted to do that. Hard to say why, but never thought I could. And for in this trajectory, in this process, I determined and found out that I could as a person set my own goals. If I was able to set goals or accomplish strong goals for other people and be successful in other environments with lofty goals, couldn't I do the same thing for myself? And so that kind of power and that kind of thought process enabled me to just do it for myself. And after doing that, now I get asked, well, how did you go from this to that and how did you hit that? So, so that's basically what the book is about is, is you know, I could give a system. I, I have a system for how I set goals for other people, which is the same system for how I set goals for myself. So that system has worked for me. And what I realized is that if I Were to have given myself that system 10 or 15 years ago, I wouldn't have been able to execute it because of the mindset shifts that I had to make to be able to believe in myself and then execute the system. So the book basically takes what I did in that talk and then fleshes it out so that now somebody else, even my former self, 10 or 15 years ago, could understand these mindset shifts, make the mindset shifts and then have the system so that I or anyone else would be able to set a lofty goal that they never thought they could do, overcome the self limiting beliefs and then achieve the goal and consistently achieve other stretch goals just like that. Wow.

That, that's amazing. So tell me along the way, there had to be points along the way that you, even though you're really good at goal setting, that you kind of doubted your ability. Can you share one of those? Because you're very confident today. But I know there must have been some challenges that really along the way kind of the mindset happened, but it got challenged.

Yeah. And it's, and it's not so much that, you know, there were challenges, there are challenges, and there always and ever will be challenges. So it's a matter of setting yourself up for success. And really it's just once you've made the mindset shifts and you're around other people that have made the same mindset shifts, then as long as you're with folks that understand, you know, like basic rule of no negativity, you know, wherever, wherever you are, there's always going to be naysayers. There's people that may not want, may not believe what you're trying to do, or they may discourage you from doing it. And a lot of times it's out of good intention, like they want to protect you from maybe failure. But at the same time, if you know that, like if you, if you want to do something, you know, the basic five steps are you visualize. You gotta believe that you could, you could do it. Some people the adage is, do you have to see it before you believe it or do you believe it before you see it? And so the key concept here is that you gotta believe it, you gotta visualize it, you gotta see yourself doing it. That's the first step. Then you seek counsel, find somebody else that's done what you're trying to do and done it at a high level. Get real advice from somebody that's done it as opposed to maybe a friend that maybe it's protective. If you want to write a book and you ask, you know, your uncle or your best friend who's never written any books, your answer might be different than if you ask like Juliet, who works with authors every day. So now that you visualize it, you see you could do it. You seek proper counsel, you work backwards, and it's just simple project management skills. Work backwards, set some targets that you know, align with the deadline and then you commit to it. You know, you write it down, you believe that you're going to do it, and you commit to it. So that when you look at first thing in the morning, you look at your daily planner, it has that goal, and before you go to bed, it has that goal. So you're reminded of it every day. And then you find an accountability partner, somebody that, you know, sometimes it's the person that you sought counsel from, sometimes it's that mentor, sometimes the mentor is not somebody that you could spend, you know, days or weeks with. Maybe you have to find an accountability partner that's like minded, that's strong mindset that you could call, you know, if you have a weak moment, they'll remind you, get back on that horse or keep going. So if you do all those and you have the right mindset shifts, that's basically what'll happen. But those challenges that you ask that, that will happen all the time. Your mindset will be tested. When I wanted to be an entrepreneur and I wanted to quit my job, it was tough because everybody around me was basically telling me it was the dumbest thing in the world. Why wouldn't you just keep the job, like, don't quit, like it's uncertain. And with that, if I were to listen to that or you know, have that fear of like, maybe they're right, I would never have been able to do it. And I'm actually more successful now being able to be, have my own operation than I would be following somebody else's. Because sometimes when you're following somebody else's goals, if you're capable of more than the goal that you're being set, which has been a lot of the case in my trajectory, it's like you're never going to hit your real potential because somebody's got to push you and know that you could do. And then, you know, you have the corporate ladder, there's, you got to wait your time, you know, you got to wait till you get promoted, even though you might be already capable of doing the next level up. And so when you do it for yourself, the sky's the limit.

Yes. And one of the reasons I left corporate America was constant politics and drama. Like, I just, like, I'm here, I'm doing the work. I'm going above and beyond, like, why are we doing this political thing? So I think that really holds people back as well. And just FYI, guys, my mom actually didn't want me to go into this business. She. I was making really good money in real estate, and she was like, why don't you just keep doing that? And it was because it's not challenging anymore. So there you go. My own mother didn't believe in me.

And it's the same trajectory and it's. It's usually out of protection. You know, we want to. We don't want bad things to happen to people that we care about. And, and that's the easiest way is to prevent something that you don't know, especially if, you know, like my mother or your mother, probably not entrepreneurs at the level that we are. And so it's easy to just say, you know, it's risk. Yeah.

And it was very risky too. So I do agree with that. So the book is out, and you came to me because we wanted to do some book marketing, and instead I got a partner in this really wonderful thing that you created that I want to talk a little bit about. So you've been playing with AI for how long now? Because you're just cranking out some really incredible work.

Well, I've been playing around with AI as soon as I first, definitely several years. It's one of those things that, like, you know, a lot of technology has passed me by, you know, or maybe it's just not technology like AI, but, you know, there was crypto, there was the dot com, there was, you know, domains like, like a lot of these things that, you know, I didn't quite take advantage of. But with AI, it's one of those, like when you, when you learn it and you. And you see how it compresses the time of a lot of the things that I used to do. I mean, there, there's things like, like the stuff that we're working on, like, like generating, you know, content, like actual newsletters or, or copy or websites or a lot of that stuff that, you know, you have to think and then you have to critique. You could get an. A draft produced when you, when you know what it looks like. You could get a draft produced fairly quickly and then make edits as opposed to having to do that first. Just like writing a book. Right. Even coming up with that outline, coming up with a topic, you could have Hundreds of topics that are all in line and then you just kind of refine. And so it's just a matter of compressing the time. So once you learn that or once you understand that it's capable and possible, then I just realized that I made a decision to go all in and study it just the same way that I used to study, you know, like thermo thermodynamics or you know, technology in a nuclear plant, you know, protection systems. And because you got to understand it at a high level of detail to be able to design or build around it and something as powerful as AI, when you start realizing that, then it's no different. I didn't treat it any differently. I went all in and I studied it so that I could truly utilize it as the technology changes or gets better. I could already have a good understanding of the base so that it's just refinements as, as the technology expands.

Yes, I love this. So for those of you who don't know, Gary created the Super Brand Audience accelerator and you guys can go see that as superbrandaudienceaccelerator.com let's talk a little bit about why this is so beneficial. Because I feel like what you created is a game changer. So you have seven questions that you ask people and from that they get their demographics, psychographics, they get a pitch, which I love. So a lot of people have trouble developing that one minute pitch. But you took, and I don't know how you had this knowledge, you took the, the content piece and broke it down into the different, what I guess what we call ad awareness phases. So can you talk a little bit about that? Because I think that's probably the most powerful part of this.

So, and just, and this has, you know, even aside from AI, this is just general business. I've, I've worked in so many different businesses and industries and I've worked with so many different entrepreneurs. And a lot of the challenges of entrepreneurship, you know, it's, it's having the great idea, you know, having the people having the tools and the systems, but ultimately the founder or the entrepreneur is the first salesman and it's their job to promote their company. And so a lot of the times when I've met with entrepreneurs, they might have the great idea, but a lot of times articulating the right message, the right pitch to the right audience at the right time, that's the part that is challenging. If somebody wants to raise money, a lot of people, because of the real estate, you know, I've had To raise capital. That was a primary thing that I had to do for. For all of my businesses. And so a lot of folks asked me, like, help me to raise capital for the business. And then this is where we. This is really where it boils down to that. This is why I focused on this as the starting point is because a lot of times if you're an entrepreneur and it's like, okay, well, give me the pitch for why I should buy your product or service. A lot of times if you ask somebody like that, which should be very fluent as an entrepreneur, it's. It's often not. And it's not always the consistent message. If I ask somebody, you know, today, in two weeks from now, sometimes the entrepreneur, it might be a different message. And so really, all I'm trying to do with this first product, if we're looking at something that's easy, that has the most bang for the buck, it's like, hit the basic stuff, help somebody to be able to have, you know, tell me in layman's terms, what do you do? And then let me just make sure that we're on the same page. Because if I could take what it is that you do and then spit it back out to you and you agree with it, now we're in alignment. And then once you have that message or that pitch, then it's just a matter of, okay, well, let's make sure that we send it to the right audience. So if we're sending it to the right audience, you know, tell me a little bit about the ideal client. And now we start making sure that we're in alignment on what the ideal client is. I mean, think back. What. What clients? If you look at everybody that you sold your product or service to, who pays the most consistently? So now we start building on it. And then when you get to that, now you have a little bit of the ideal client. But when you have the ideal client, you know, when you start looking at demographics, you know, maybe they're an age range, maybe they're a gender, maybe they have a certain hobby. But if you just take that for what it's worth, and you look at that audience as a whole and you start sending your message to that audience, now you have to look at that audience may not know that they need your product or service. So how do you take that demographic that you've just. Or the demographics and psychographics that you just decided were the ideal client? The people most likely able, willing, and qualified to buy your product or service and then take them through that journey of being not even knowing that they have a problem, understanding that they might have a problem that might need a solution that you could offer, being aware of the problem, starting to look for solutions, finding your solution and deciding that your solution is the right one. So that whole journey of everything that I just said is basically what we put in a simple tool to help any founder, any entrepreneur get the basics and then hit the ground running.

Yes. And what I love about that is don't take this the wrong way, audience, but y' all come into this and think you have instant audience. There are different phases. The unaware people are not aware of you. Where do you appear, then what do you write for them? What is the content? I'm actually following Gary's as if no one's aware I'm alive. And because I want to see this through. And I got on my first article, probably the most I've ever gotten, and I would have never thought to write an article about that particular part of book, the book world. So, yeah, I think that's really amazing that you actually are practical about it, like nobody knows you're alive. Let's start here then building on that and building on the product as well. So I think it's really unique. Now, here's the one thing I find, and I'm going to give you guys advice how to use this. The first person we did it for, Gary, came back and said, it's so big, I don't know where to start. It's obvious where to start. It's broken down by different places. So I think if you just take that first bite and forget about the rest for now, you're going to really be able to dive in and do this well and not be overwhelmed. What do you think about that?

Well, I think that that's, you know, the journey of a thousand miles or how do you eat the elephant? Right. One step at a time, one bite at a time. And it's a lot if this is the first time that you've ever looked at a business that way or marketing that way. But at the same time, there's plenty of folks like Juliet or myself that could also do a little bit more guidance. I mean, we have the tool. It's sort of one size fits most, but just like with anything, it's pretty easy to just get on a call or. Or have some of that done for you as opposed to. Or done with you as opposed to just do it yourself. There's plenty of options out there that the key is, is that this is the right starting point for any business. And whether it takes a little bit more learning or motivation to get that knowledge, we got to do what we got to do. But this is, this is the right logical step and we build on that foundation.

Yeah, here's another thing I really loved. I actually took your report that you did for me and used it on a very similar company. And it was amazing when I started asking because you and I, the agreement, you know, we got on and we did the agreement right away. Is this your client? What are their obstacles? What do they feel? I use this on a very similar company to mine. They had no idea what the actual problems of their ideal client were or even who it was. It kind of blew me away. But it also gave me insight into how much people are really struggling with this and spending money that is going to waste because they're not hitting the right people the first time. They don't really understand the problem.

And it's, it's a, it, this occurs in almost any industry, any business. And it's, it's like even with the raising capital, right? Like you want to find somebody that's able, willing and qualified. And if you're trying to spend all your effort on somebody that never even had the money to invest or didn't, wasn't the right investor, maybe, you know, you want to raise money for a video game company and you're, you're asking your neighbor that only invests in maybe books or publishing, right? Like so. So the audience and understanding who would likely buy or need your product or service a business is really, you know, what problem do you solve or what need do you serve? So align the buyer with your message and your problem or your solution, your solution to that problem. And that's the key.

Yeah, I wish I'd had this when I first started because as a lot of you guys who listen regularly know, I actually had this huge Google group of what I thought authors. I'm going to put that in quotes. Authors were my target audience. I found out that all these fiction people don't have any money and they weren't ever going to buy anything. They're really all about the writing and not about the platform and book marketing. So that's why this report is so important. Because if I'd had it, I would have known exactly who those people were and not wasted, I would say probably two years on, you know, people that didn't were never going to spend the money. So I think it's a really important thing that you've done. And he's creating other stuff. So I'm sure he'll be back soon. Gary, where can we find you if we want to find out more?

So a lot of different places. You know, Gary McDermott M A C D E R M I D. That's my social I'm pretty much everywhere. And Gary mcdermott.com and if you're interested in the book that I wrote that may be able to help with mindset shifts, overcoming self limiting beliefs and setting goals, that would be setyourgoalsbook.com great.

And I actually in the show notes, I have his Amazon link for it as well. So. And then don't forget to check out the Super Brand Audience accelerator. You can find it@superbrandaudienceaccelerator.com it's very modestly priced so you know, it should be a no brainer for anybody starting out or if you're just not hitting your messaging. You know, if you feel like you're spinning your wheels, this is the place to go. And we've done quite a few of them already and I know the feedback we've gotten is I never would have thought of doing it this way. So I love it. Gary, thank you for being on the show.

Thank you for having me.