David Newman Interview by Joe Apfelbaum - Market Eminence

Welcome to another episode of Joe Interviews Interesting People on LinkedIn. For those of you that have never tuned in, I am constantly connecting with people and bringing them onto my LinkedIn Live to learn more about them, especially if they're authors, speakers, entrepreneurs, people that are making a difference in the world. And today, I have my dear LinkedIn connection who was interviewed— introduced to me by Dov Gordon. Um, his name is David Newman. David, welcome to the program.

Thank you, Joe. I am honored to be among the interesting people. Thank you.

So, uh, I don't know if you know this, but I have over 30,000 connections on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has been one of the most transformative platforms for me. And I love getting to know people. When somebody asks you to tell them a little bit about yourself, what do you typically tell them?

Uh, in a business context, I tell them that I started this business 23 years ago. I made every mistake in the book. Uh, I was terrible at marketing, terrible at sales, and I, I refocused my business to help people like me 20 years ago.

Wow.

That's, that's the short version of the story.

So tell, tell me what problem you solved.

It's the old entrepreneurial, Solve your own problem story.

So tell me what problem you solve for people right now.

So right now there are all kinds of amazing sales professionals, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and founders whose work far exceeds their reputation. So I call that the obscurity gap, right? Because you're doing awesome, amazing, fantastic work up here. Marketplace doesn't know your name, doesn't know you from Adam or Eve. They come across you, they treat you like a vendor, they treat you like everybody else. Um, and unfortunately, externally, you might look like, sound like, and feel like everyone else, and you are hiding your unique genius and your true differentiator and what makes you special and unique in the world. Market Eminence is all about removing that junk, being more authentic, more transparent, more contrarian, uh, and, uh, being more of who you are to grow your personal brand and then grow your company.

Awesome. Awesome. And so, what made you decide to write the book? This is not your first book, right? You wrote a couple books in the past.

It's not my first book, Joe. Absolutely. So, I've written 3 previous books, Do It Marketing, Do It Speaking, and Do It Selling. In those books, we talk a little bit about marketing, positioning, differentiation, separating yourself from everyone who looks like you do. But I never gave the blocking and tackling of the exactly how to— what are the strategies? What are the things you need to ask yourself? What are the things you need to ask your team? What are the things that you need to do differently and say differently and exactly what to say and exactly what to do? And so this book is that playbook for positioning and differentiation. and setting yourself totally apart as a category of one. So it was a little bit of the previous 3 books, kind of the, the greatest hits, the best of wrapped in what does it take to be successful in 2026, to be listened to, to be heard, to be respected, and to rise above the noise.

And when people rise above the noise, what are the results that they get from it?

Oh my gosh. Well, first of all, people come on sales calls, prospects come on sales calls already pre-sold. And rather than a so what do you do? How can you help me conversation? It's much more of a hey, how do we get started? When do we get started? So it totally changes the polarity of most of your sales conversations. They literally hope that they'll be accepted. So you become like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, right? No one applies to Harvard University and goes, so what do you guys do here? Is this some kind of college? Is this some kind of education thing or? What is this? They pray, they hope, they, they beg, they network. They go, who do you know that went to Harvard? Who do you know that can write a letter? Who do you know that can put a good word in for me so I can pay this company known as Harvard University $110,000 a year for the next 4 years? Who do you know that can help me spend $440,000? So that's number one. But the second thing is think about all the stakeholders around a business. So, this is not only about attracting the best-fit prospects and clients, it's also about attracting best-fit talent, best-fit partners, best-fit investors, best-fit media, possibly even best-fit acquirers if you want your company someday to be acquired. And now, you become an in-demand brand instead of a no-name commodity.

I love that. And being a name brand instead of a commodity is the way that you can do value-based pricing versus being transactional with people. What's your philosophy when it comes to networking and relationship building?

I think everything is based on relationships. This was not how I started out. I thought I could be the lone wolf. Don't need anybody. Don't need help. Don't need networking. Don't need connections. That's for losers. That's for schmucks. That's for real estate agents. That's for the gift basket lady down at the chamber. And I will tell you, Joe, if I could reverse the hands of time and go back 23 years, if I had gotten into the connections business and the relationships business like you are in, I shudder to think— I'm literally afraid to look at the financial impact, the tremendous financial impact that, that would have on my business today, 23 years later. So I think a lot of people don't understand what networking really is, and they think it's shoving your business card, paper or digital, into as many hands as possible and hoping that someone someday will remember you. What they've really done is they've totally forgotten everything about you because you came into that relationship building With totally selfish intent, no intent to give, no intent to connect, no intent to share, no intent to highlight and spotlight other people. Again, like you're brilliant at demonstrating right now. So this is not a getting game. This is a giving game. And again, I learned this from the school of hard knocks, all the battle scars, all the mistakes, all the dead ends. I wish I had known that sooner.

And knowing that now, what are you doing differently in the way that you're showing up on platforms like LinkedIn? What's your strategy right now for networking?

So, my strategy right now for networking is an acronym. And I usually hate acronyms, but this one's kind of fun. And I wrote a blog post probably 10 years ago when I first started connecting the dots on this. The blog post is Why Your Business Needs to Flop.

Flop.

F-L-O-P. Feature and leverage other people.

Wow.

That's it. Feature and leverage other people.

Flopping away.

So, of course, like you, I, I have a podcast. I invite all kinds of cool, fun guests. I promote other people's books. I promote other people's programs. I'm very active on both sides of various joint ventures and co-promotions, and many of those are revenue neutral, by the way. So I'm not one of these affiliate marketers that says, oh, you should buy Joe's program, you should buy Sandy's program, you should buy Barry's program because I get paid when you do. It's here's an awesome person that does this amazing work because you're my follower. You should know about them. You should follow them. You should connect with them. And so that genuine giving with no commercial intent other than truly Featuring and leveraging other people, pointing out other cool resources, people, services, programs that has gotten me incredible payback.

What would you say is the number one thing that people are missing right now that's stopping them from generating revenue from your perspective?

I think it is the desire and/or urgency to generate revenue is keeping most people from generating revenue. They're after the dollars first. They're not after the impact first. They're not after the giving first. So, you know, and this sounds completely ridiculous. If you're listening to this and your business is on the skids or you're not where you want to be financially, you're thinking, got to make revenue, got to make revenue, got to feed the team, got to pay the salaries. That is completely the wrong way to do this. You need to start asking questions like, who can I help today? Who can I serve today? Who can I promote today? Who can I give generously today? Even when you feel you can't afford to, even when you feel that this was a total waste of time, it's not going to build your bank account. It's not going to bring you the next prospect or the next sales call. Energetically, the, the chasing the money is what's keeping you from the money.

Wow. Very, very cool. Trying to get it is what's keeping you from getting it. Is this kind of like the law of attraction? You're supposed to— you're supposed to feel like you already have it versus— versus trying to go get it. Is that the idea?

So, so I have— so I have a lot of problems with the law of attraction and the way most people talk about the law of attraction, because simply because the law of attraction means sit on your ass, visualize, hope, dream, and you will make it real. I have never seen that work for anybody, whether they're making $100,000 a year or $10 million a year or anywhere in between. It's all about action. It's all about action. It's all about getting into more conversations, getting into more collaborations, though getting into action and giving first, being radically generous and radically helpful, that's what starts the flywheel going. That's what starts to put you out in the marketplace as a person of value. And that's what's going to start to generate more leads, better conversations. And when those conversations lead to a, hey, I think we can use your help with this, premium fees, etc., etc. But getting into motion, not just sitting on your ass and visualizing success, but getting into action, getting into more conversations and more connections. That's the key.

More conversations, more connections. What's your strategy for when you're having a conversation with someone? Let's say you're a LinkedIn connection. You get on the phone with them, you're having a conversation with them. What's your strategy there?

Brilliant question. Thank you for asking. I believe that first conversation should be a 100% helping call. And if they're not, if they don't jump proactively into helping me, which sometimes they do and it's amazing, I jump proactively into helping them. And we're about 25 minutes into this and I say, well, we have about 5 minutes left. I hope that was helpful. I ask them 2 closing questions. I say, what, what was the most helpful thing that we talked about today that you're gonna take away and implement? And then they answer that. And I'll say, number 2, are, are there any questions that you have for me? And they say, well, David, we didn't talk at all about you or your business. And again, sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. Usually I, I engineer it so that mainly the focus is on them. And I say, well, you know, thank you. I really appreciate that. And I do have some questions. And I would love your insights on some things. Would it be okay with you if I booked it? You know, if we booked a second time to chat later this week, early next week, whatever. 99% of people say, oh my God, I'd love that. Great. Then in the second call, I come with an agenda, right? I say, well, you know, here's some people I'd love to meet. Here's what I'm working on. Here's where I am with the new book. Here's where I am with the podcast. Here's where I am with my new program. I would love your advice, insights, and recommendations. And when I say I would love your advice, insights, and recommendations, this opens people up. I never ask for a referral because I really don't think that, you know, hey, who do you know? Who do you know? Puts the shields up. You know, give me 3 names. Puts the shields up. When you say, I'd love— hey, Joe, I'd love your advice, insights, and recommendations. That puts the shields down. And now you go into creative problem-solving mode. And yes, you'll give me some referrals. Yes, you'll give me some places that I should speak. Yes, you'll give me some podcasts that you've been on that I should probably be on. Yes, you'll give me some bulk book sale ideas if I say, well, you know, I'm looking for companies that sell into this kind of market because they might want to buy my book in bulk. So I'm going to activate your creative juices and stimulate you helping me because I am wide open. I'm wide open to anything and everything. As far as, you know, resources, connections, ideas, introductions, all of those things. And that's how I have that second call. By the end of that second call, I've learned a lot about them. I've already somewhat helped them. They've learned about me. They've already somewhat helped me. I always like to quote the last line of Casablanca. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. And then I work really hard not to just drop that relationship. But to nurture it, keep that person updated, book a follow-up call maybe every 6 to 8 weeks and keep them in my world so that I get to stay in their world.

Yeah. Yeah. And what's that way? What's the way to getting people to stay? Okay. So, you figured out exactly educating them on the best way for them. You're almost like planting seeds on the best way for them to support you. And after you plant seeds, you're doing the top of mind. So, I want to talk to you more about those seeds. and the methodology of planting those seeds and what those seeds are. But before we get to the seeds, I wanna talk about the way that you stay top of mind, because I think that that's something that a lot of people are like lacking. They are lacking the ability to stay top of mind with other people.

Yes.

And you obviously are doing a great job at staying top of mind because I messaged this LinkedIn Live to a bunch of people as we were talking. And a bunch of people was like, oh, I know David Newman. He's a great partner. He's a great guy. David is such a giver and blah, blah, blah. So all the things you're saying, people are confirming in the background. But I'm curious to know, what do you do to stay top of mind?

So I will— I will— when I'm in my inbox, for example, I subscribe to a whole bunch of newsletters and marketing. I'm sure you do too. Not just as because I'm interested, but because professionally, right, that's my sort of virtual swipe file. I will get something that's really, really good and I will think, who are the 2 or 3 people that also need to see this? So for example, just yesterday I saw someone in my network posted a really great LinkedIn update. Hey, here's my 2025 summary. Here's what I'm focused on on 2026. Here's the kind of client, here's the kind of project, etc. I sent this to 3 of my past clients. They're not even current clients anymore. 3 of my past clients saying, hey Debbie, hey Annie, hey Fred, Happy New Year. Think about doing a post like this. I think this is really great. And then Annie, one of them, replied back early this morning going, David, thank you so much. I did the post. Here's the link. And it's like her 2025 in review, the kind of projects, the kind of clients, the kind of work that she wants to do in 2026. And so I will always look at my world as who can I share this with? This resource, this link, this book recommendation, this strategy, this, insight, this resource, this piece of software, right? Who else needs to know about Evy AI, for example? Everybody. Everybody needs to know about Evy AI. So literally going into your morning, going into your day as what resources am I tapped into that I should be sharing with others? And so another example, I just came across a couple of really great websites. I have a current client who is wrestling with what should the hero text be on the top of my website? And I said, you know what? I just came across these couple of examples and have a look at these because I think it's more than just the, you know, 4 to 5 words on the top of your hero image. It's what's that first paragraph or that first couple of lines above the fold? I said, do it that way. Don't worry about the 4 or 5 words. Let's talk about 4 or 5 sentences. And now I'm thinking, as you and I are talking right now, There's probably 2 or 3 other people that could use those website examples because they're wrestling with what should my homepage say, et cetera, et cetera. So I always think, who should I send this to? Who else would benefit? Who can I tap on the shoulder and give a little gift to?

Wow. Wow. That's really, really smart. And thinking about, thinking about top of mind, that's a really great way to stay top of mind with people. But you also have to educate people on how to stay top of mind. One of the things I do for all my clients is I give them something called a business networking one sheet. It's one of the deliverables that we provide with Evvii AI, because I believe that it's my responsibility to train people to understand who they can refer people to me and how they can refer people to me. So I think we're very aligned in that world. Yeah. But my question to you is, If, if you were going to seed somebody into understanding the best way that they can add value to you, you mentioned a couple of seeds, book sales, this, that, but in terms of like sending business, what would you tell them? What type of business owner or consultant or type of client that you need to receive? And also what type of center influence that you need?

Yes. So as far as what type of client, and sometimes I do this informally, just You know, in a conversation. Sometimes if it's a referral partner where we have sort of a formal referral relationship, I will create a one-pager that says how to refer David or how to refer Evvy AI clients as an example to David Newman or to Do It Marketing. And so there I say, here's the who, right? It's going to be the mid-market CEO, founder, or independent expert. who is doing great work, has had some modicum of success, but is struggling with getting the word out about what they do. So I describe the problem. I talk about the obscurity gap. I talk about their reputation and their, their actual work is at this level, but their reach and reputation is not there yet and how to close that gap, etc., etc. And we do that with a combination of messaging and differentiation and positioning. And then we use amplification strategies like publishing and podcasting and speaking. Once that's dialed in, their differentiation and all of their special, unique magic mojo, then we amplify that with a speaking strategy, a podcast guesting strategy, and a publishing strategy initially on LinkedIn or their blog, perhaps ultimately leading to a column in a Forbes or a Fast Company, maybe even a book at some point. in the future. And I will lay all of this out in that one-pager and saying, when you hear— and then there's a section, there's a section, Joe, of this one-pager that literally says things to listen for when they're complaining about this, when they're, when they're not happy with that metric, when they say things like, why are we such a best-kept secret? Ding, ding, ding. When they say things like, our clients love us, but strangers, we always start at square zero. We're like, who are you? What do you do? You're a vendor? Yeah. How much is it? Right. The first phone call is, hi, how much is it? And it's enough because that, that's, of course, the horrible position to be in. You want that to stop? Then I'm the guy to call. And I put that into the one-pager or the sales conversation with the partner.

Can you give us an example of a specific person that you did this with and what the result was?

Sure. So I had a client named Deb. She's very big in the equipment finance world. And she does— she does digital transformation, the people side of digital transformation. And so her big complaint was they hire all of these gurus, they hire these big consulting firms, these big technology vendors. Those projects, 80% of them fail. I come in because I, you know, she's very well networked in that equipment finance world. So people have her on speed dial when a problem comes up. Someone says, oh, you should call Deb. Her question to me was, how do I get them to call me first? How do I get them not to go to the big guys, not to go to the obvious answer, but call me first because they've already wasted half a million to $2 million on this big botched implementation. How do they get to call me first? So we talked about partnership with media companies in her space. We talked about doing webinars, hosting councils. We talked about speaking at industry events. We talked about publishing a book. And her book is coming out later this month, as a matter of fact. So building those market eminence assets and then activating the messaging around why you want to call me first before You waste half a million to $2 million on the other guys. That has been a huge transformation. When she first— and she's just a company of one, she has a couple of subcontractors. Her revenue before working with me was about $100,000. Her revenue in 2025, which just ended as we're recording this, $1.2 million.

Wow.

And she'll probably have a $2 million business this year.

And what did she have to invest to work with you in order to achieve that? What's your range of people spending with you in order to be able to—

Yeah. So, so, you know, a one-time, a one-time consult might be like $500 for an hour, that kind of thing. With Deb, we've been working together for 5 years at about $40K per year. Wow.

So she got a massive $200K to get to $1.2 million. Amazing. Amazing. A really great investment. And then you have that business forever. You could sell it and make many, many more millions. After that, what would you say is your biggest strength? What— how do— how do people get the most value out of you?

What are your—

what is your biggest strength?

I think it's seeing the differentiation and the specialness of what they do where they can't see it because they're so close to it. So I'll give you an example. I worked with the CEO of a large healthcare research company, and he retired from that. It was his company, but he still retired from that. And he wanted to go out and just be a consultant and a speaker. And so, our first month working together, we do some initial intake and some strategy, and we do a VIP kickoff day. And he says to me, David, there's really nothing special about me whatsoever. I got nothing, dude. I mean, I love you. I appreciate the question, but I got nothing. And I challenge him on that. We poke, we prod. We're about 20 minutes into this conversation, and I say, give me the highlights of your 20-plus-year career leading the medical research company. And he says, well, every year I personally interviewed about 100 healthcare CEOs and dot dot dot. And I said, hang on, ho ho ho, stop right there. Over the last 20 years, for each of the last 20 years, you personally interviewed over 100 healthcare CEOs for this deep dive database research project? He goes, yeah. I go, I think that's your secret sauce. And his face totally transformed. He's like, I can't believe I'm such an idiot. But it was right there, Joe. It was right there. But because it was his day-to-day life for 20 years, he didn't see it. Find another healthcare consultant who works with hospitals and healthcare systems that has personally interviewed, what, 2,000? 20 times 100? 2,000 healthcare CEOs, has all the data, has all the trends, where the industry has been, where the industry is today, where the industry is going. What are all the pains, problems, heartaches, headaches, financial people problems, operational problems, medical compliance, insurance? This guy was a walking encyclopedia because he interviewed 100 healthcare CEOs a year for the last 20 years. And he didn't see that as secret sauce. I saw that as secret sauce.

Wow. So you can see where the sauce is.

Yes. I'm the sauce finder. I'm the sauce whisperer.

You're the sauce finder, the sauce whisperer. You're the person that makes the sauce happen. Well, this is amazing. Unbelievable. As we're wrapping up, I want to ask you, if somebody wanted to make a proactive introduction to you, who would be a good center of influence? Maybe someone who's not ready to do business with you, but somebody who would be a really, really good person for you to work with. For example, I want to meet People that are event organizers, podcast hosts, sales trainers, people that work with sales teams, other business consultants. Those are the people that I want to meet. Who do you want to meet?

Yes, very same demographic. And we are totally aligned on that. So certainly business consultants, certainly, um, executives in small to mid-market companies, VPs of sales, CEOs, et cetera, founders of companies that want to build a personal brand. And the personal brand is not really there yet. But they want that. So people who know people in that demographic and obviously salespeople, sales trainers, business consultants, they come across all kinds of challenges and they might not be thinking that, you know, this person really needs the secret sauce. They really need that positioning and differentiation and uniqueness in the marketplace that would simply elevate them head and shoulders above the crowd. And if there's people out there that work with people like that, those are my people as far as centers of influence.

Amazing. Thank you for sharing about your experience, your knowledge, the way you help people, your book. If somebody wants to buy your book, where do they get it from?

Marketeminence.com is the best place to go. That's where you can buy the book on all the different platforms— audio, paper, Kindle, whatever you want to do. And there's also a whole bunch of free downloads, resources, and training. at marketeminence.com.

Amazing. If somebody wants to reach out to you, they can go to marketeminence.com to learn more about you and your book and your business and hiring you. Thank you very much for being here. Really appreciate you. And we'll see you on the next show. Boom.

Thank you, Joe.

If you guys are watching this right now, give it a like, leave a comment, and hit that repost button so more people can see it, whether you're on YouTube, on Facebook, on X, or even on LinkedIn. Go ahead and share it with the world. Let people know that this person, David, can change their life. David, thanks for being here. You, the viewer, thanks for watching.