Episode 207 – Unstoppable Financial Services CEO with Shawn Smith

Our guest this week, Shawn Smith, is a 20-year veteran in the financial services industry. In 2015 he founded and still is the chairman and CEO of Dedicated Financial GBC. As he will tell us, he founded the company on a new and innovative model that is designed to do a much better job of connecting with those who are in financial trouble. While many people say they have a new and different widget or model, Shawn proves his worth and will show all of us his successes and he gladly discusses his leadership strategies.

Shawn never went to college and took a career path somewhat different than that of his parents and grandparents. However, as you will see, he made life and career choices that built him and his life philosophy to where he is today.

I found my time with Shawn not only informative, but I found his philosophy and thoughts worth listening to more than once. I hope you will agree.

About the Guest:

Shawn Smith is chairman and CEO of Dedicated Financial GBC. When Shawn founded the company in 2015, his vision was to create a new kind of commercial loan portfolio management company, combining both a new model of connecting on a personal level with those in financial trouble and a new corporate philanthropy model.

Shawn created a model of philanthropy that leverages the resources of Dedicated Financial GBC to improve communities around the world, donating both money and time to help nonprofits achieve their missions. Shawn and his wife, Stephanie, have focused their personal philanthropy on children’s health and well-being, education, hunger, and other social issues.

Shawn believes that businesses have the greatest opportunity to change the world and Dedicated is taking steps to prove that. He has embraced a multi-stakeholder approach to leadership, serving all stakeholders including clients, team members, business partners, and communities-to make the world a better place. Shawn also inspires fellow business leaders to do the same by sponsoring client service trips to underdeveloped countries and ensuring that, at Dedicated Financial GBC, men and women are paid equally for comparable work.

Shawn is a 20-year veteran of the financial services industry. Prior to launching Dedicated Financial GBC, he worked at various companies where team members were devalued and unappreciated, thus fueling his passion for justice and equality in business as well as in life.

Ways to connect with Shawn:
www.DedicatedGBC.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-r-smith-a2439241/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/6383546/admin/feed/posts/
https://www.facebook.com/dedicatedgbc
www.Twitter/DedicatedGBC.com

About the Host:
Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.

Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children’s Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association’s 2012 Hero Dog Awards.

https://michaelhingson.com
https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/
https://twitter.com/mhingson
https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/

accessiBe Links
https://accessibe.com/
https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe
https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/

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Transcription Notes:

**Michael Hingson ** 00:00
Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I’m Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that’s a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit
www.accessibe.com
to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we’re happy to meet you and to have you here with us.

**Michael Hingson ** 01:21
You are listening to unstoppable mindset, the podcast where inclusion diversity and the unexpected me love to say that Anyway, welcome to another episode today we get to chat with Shawn Smith. Shawn is the Co well is the founder of financial dedicated financial GBC. He’s the CEO and he founded it back in 2015 going to be interested to hear about that and get thoughts about how the world has changed in the last eight years with finances and all that money is still money though. But anyway. We’ll we’ll worry about that right now. But Shawn, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. And I really appreciate you being here.

**Shawn Smith ** 02:05
Thank you, Mike, I appreciate you having me on the podcast. Well,

**Michael Hingson ** 02:10
I hope it will be fun. And I think we’ll we’ll see what we can accomplish and what we can learn. Tell me a little bit about you kind of the early Shawn’s you know, back when you when you started as a person and all that sort of stuff.

**Shawn Smith ** 02:24
Yeah, I would have what I think the world would typically consider be the exact opposite of your typical track to, you know, running a successful small business. So I grew up in the welfare system and high school educated, pretty rough upbringing. And really, it wasn’t till I was 22 when I was able to get some good mentors in my life and kind of turn things in a more positive direction. And even that now has been basically a 20 year, you know, process of learning and growing from that. So I was raised, born and raised in Minnesota spent a little time in Southern California and Oregon, but mostly all in Minnesota, and currently married with four children. And yeah.

**Michael Hingson ** 03:21
So Minnesota you like the snow.

**Shawn Smith ** 03:24
I love the winter. I don’t love how long it is in Minnesota. But I’m blessed to have to travel for business pretty regularly. So, you know, I get out enough to where it doesn’t bug me so much.

**Michael Hingson ** 03:36
Yeah, I hear you. We live in Victorville California. So we get a lot of a call. We’re up at about 20 150 feet above sea level. So it gets cold in the winter. It’s the high desert, but below all the mountains where the ski resorts are and so on. So we get all the cold but we don’t get the snow. So I’m not sure where the fun is that and this past year with all the snow that everyone had here in California and in the wonderful skiing that it was. We had two inches of snow one Saturday afternoon so the kids didn’t even get a snow day from school.

**Shawn Smith ** 04:13
Yeah, I actually got trapped out in in a snowstorm in Park City, this last year in Park City, Utah, and spent three days trapped that Park City and snowboarding and waist deep powder. It was one of the most epic times I’ve ever if that was the most epic time I’ve ever read writing my snowboard and 30 years of riding a snowboard. So it was it was pretty amazing. It was it started right as I was driving over the past to get into Park City. And it literally stopped snowing right as we were driving to the airport. So it was a pretty incredible time.

**Michael Hingson ** 04:47
Wow. So they did it just for you.

**Shawn Smith ** 04:52
I’ll take an hour right get it but it was it was truly amazing. It was one that me and my friends will never forget that’s for sure.

**Michael Hingson ** 04:59
So Did you go off to college along the way,

**Shawn Smith ** 05:03
did not graduated high school from St. Louis Park High School and really was trying to find I was supposed to go to college either to be a mechanic or I was supposed to go into the Marines, that was kind of the two options that were in front of me out of high school. And my dad is a marine, my uncle is a Marine, and several family member members were Marines or army. And at the time, I just didn’t feel led to do that. And I was really into cars. So I was gonna go to UTI to be an auto mechanic. And after interviewing auto mechanics, and understanding their lifestyle, what they did for work and how much they enjoyed it, or lack thereof, I decided I wanted to keep that as a hobby in my life versus, you know, career, which I thought was great advice to go interview people before you go in a direction, and make sure that their life has kind of bearing the fruit that you want to have. And so I ended up kind of trying a different jobs. And so I landed in some sales roles, because I had friends that were making more money doing that figured out, I was okay at that. And then at 22, I started really focusing on my own small business and built between 22 and 32, I built two separate marketing companies, both into the black. And then for various reasons, I ended up walking away from that went back into corporate America, into the financial services community, and ultimately found that to be toxic as well. And really think corporate America has broken here, at least in the United States, because I can only speak from that experience, I haven’t worked in, you know, Europe, or Asia or anything like that. But kind of hit me across the head that the only way I was going to be able to do this was to do it differently was to be an owner. And so I’ve been asking this, you know, had people for the last five years asked me to start dedicated. And so if I said, All right, I’m open to it. And then one thing led to another and next thing, you know, dedicated was born.

**Michael Hingson ** 07:13
Tell me a little bit more about your thoughts regarding the the corporate America system being broken? I think that’s true. I don’t know whether it’s for the same reasons as you but what do you mean bias broken, meaning think about?

**Shawn Smith ** 07:27
Well, the two big points I typically touch on that from from a high macro level is one, I think that corporations, you know, really do treat people as a number, and they put profit before people, and they put their own success before being significant to others. And what happens in that, then is that you have a jaded management structure, with maybe a couple of good eggs in there who are fighting a losing battle of doing the right thing over the bottom line and making money. And when the shareholders and the owners profit become more, more important, then people being able to do well, not just financially, but between benefits and flexibility and the way they’re treated and etc. So there’s a whole equation there that’s kind of broken. And so I think, you know, that’s been my focus is the chase, change what I’m chasing focus on being significant to my team, here and then to my clients into into local and global community and then putting people before profit, which means you’re dedicated any business has to be profitable to remain in business, right? By the system of greed, here, at least again, in the United States. And you see this play out in so many things like the Wells Fargo stuff, where they’re coming up with fake things, or, you know, you’ve got I my last company I worked for, I was a senior manager. And I remember being told I had to cut people’s bonus checks, you know, three days before the end of the month in their commission positions. And meanwhile, they got the owner walking around in the new vehicles, he’s driving to the new this, I’ll study by this stuff, and it’s like that people are so fried on that. That environment, and you know, it’s leading to such a lack of purpose and purpose, a purpose driven life and our culture today, and I think that’s leading to a lot of mental health issues and relationship issues and health issues. And when you spend this much time at work, you know, if it’s not healthy, it’s toxic. And I I believe that so that’s, that’s kind of my thoughts on that.

**Michael Hingson ** 09:59
Well, and that’s kind of really what I’m thinking as well. So it turns out, we align a lot. I had a chance some time ago to talk with someone, he was the owner of a company. And we were talking about compensation, and specifically, what salespeople at the company made, as opposed to what the president of the company may. And I made the observation that when really good salespeople who outperform, if you will, may very well make more than the president of a company on any given year. And that should be okay. And he absolutely disagreed with that he could not see how anyone should make more money than the president of the company. And I, it wasn’t a large company, but I was, was amazed at that. Because you would want your salespeople to be incented. To sell. And if they happen to make more than you Why should that be a problem. But nevertheless, that was the attitude that he portrayed. Yeah,

**Shawn Smith ** 11:05
you know, I definitely know individuals that would share his perspective. And again, I feel like those people are the same folks that are complaining how hard it is to recruit new members to their team to retain people have HR issues, and things like that. And, you know, I, every single one of our commission folks, and we have several different platforms within our verticals within dedicated that there’s commissionable team members, and every one of those is uncapped. I’ve had team members make multiple six figures on our team that are high school educated, but they’re hard working and doing a great job. And so I absolutely aligned with what you’re saying. You know, I, and trust me that that has been discussed that on the on the director level and above. You know, when we get into compensation and someone feels well, how’s that person making more than me? Well, you, you wanted to be in management, you wanted to serve others, but for our size company and where we’re at and how well they’re doing. I’m not going to rob from Peter to pay Paul, you’re you’re in a market range for your salary. I just happen to choose to do no cap commissions on these people. So when they knock it out of the park, right, they get paid for doing that. And so yeah, I’m aligned with you on that.

**Michael Hingson ** 12:39
Well, the other side of that is that, when you have that kind of a situation where you’d have an uncapped commission, and somebody really just blows everything away. In the long run, it’s going to be a lot better for the company overall. And I would think in the long run people in management, while they may not necessarily make as much on any given year, in the long run, they’re going to be viewed as performing better because they help their teams perform better. And I think that’s the other part about the the whole team approach. What we also often don’t do is recognize team performance nearly as well as we should. I know, there have been companies where when a team really succeeded at doing something who gets the recognition, the head of the team, even though the work may very well have mostly been done by other people on the team. And the the person who was the director of the team really wasn’t the one that brought the team together, but they’re still the director and they get a lot of recognition. It’s just we do things in a very backward way sometimes. Yeah,

**Shawn Smith ** 13:53
I was 100% agree with you that that is consistently off, I think, again, through all of corporate America, and hence why our youth, right, that sub 40 Group especially, is just flat out tired of it and getting jaded towards corporations Corporation’s. So you know, they’re not wanting to put in the extra time or extra effort or lift an extra finger to help their neighbor or anything like that, because why when the corporation is setting such a poor example of caring about them, right, why should they care? And then I hear all this dedicated as not having a recruitment issue. We in an industry, our industry averages of 50 to 100% turnover rate. It’s a very tough job. we’ve averaged 22% year over year now for eight years. Why? So we’re have less than half of the lower side average for our industry. So we’re not struggling with those things. Right. So you know, that’s that just becomes a competitive advantage. I believe just like purpose driven businesses against other businesses in your space. So let the people who don’t want to figure that out, continue to struggle, and hopefully more businesses will, will grow and continue to dominate the landscape that actually put their team members first.

**Michael Hingson ** 15:16
How do we get corporate America to change some of those things? I guess maybe another way to put it would be, in your view, what? What are the key things that one needs to have for success? In whatever they do when? How do we then also want you to answer that deal with getting corporate America to address it? In the context

**Shawn Smith ** 15:40
of that question, I think I would kind of go in a couple of different directions. But the first thing I’d say is, your question reminds me of there was a there’s a story about a gentleman who went out and sat and decided I’m gonna change the world. So when I’m trying to change the world and got disenfranchised, because he couldn’t change anything. So he said, Well, I’m going to change my country, and try to change his country to go and change. Okay, well, I’m going to change my state, try to change his state couldn’t change anything, since I would change my city can change things, okay, I’m gonna change my family, at least couldn’t change his family. So then he finally decided to change work on changing himself. And when he could change himself, then all sudden, he started to be able to influence his family for the better. And once he could influence his family, he learned how to influence the city and state and his country, eventually he changed the world. But so that starts with is changing yourself. People I think, especially in a corporation, a large corporation, stronger with leading from within is what am I going to be able to do here? And the question isn’t what you can do there? It’s a question is Who can you become there, because the better leader you become the more compassionate leader, the more effective leader, the more lovingly and they’re more graceful leader, the more patient leader, the better servant leader you can become, the more your ability to influence John Maxwell says, leadership is influence nothing more, nothing less. So if you want to influence corporations, if you want to influence corporate, corporate America, your first focus, focus on yourself, and how that’s played on and dedicated as I spent 20 years of doing things in my industry, radically different and personal growth, and leading with love and servant leadership. And what that’s led to now is, literally two days ago, I got back from the Dominican taking a week to serve the poor down there. And one of the people on the team that I brought down there was actually the CEO of one of my competitors, who now donates on metric giving to Feed My Starving Children and has joined me down in some of the impoverished areas of around the capital of the Dominican to serve the poor down there. Well, how did that happen? It didn’t start by me going to him first, it started in me and working on me. And my approach to changing corporate America is I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing. And I’m going to keep donating, I’m gonna keep doing metric giving, I’m going to keep increasing team member benefits, I’m going to keep shining that light. And I still believe that business is a competitive sport, right? So it has become our competitive advantage. Because when, when you’re doing things in the right way, you’re going to not only retain clients or retain team members, but you’re going to attract the right clients, you’re going to attract the right business, you’re going to retain it much longer. So you’re spending less of your time trying to refill that funnel, you’re just adding to and that’s why I dedicated on average has grown by over 50% year over year with some years in the 100 to 200% growth range. And that so that became a competitive advantage. So I think the first part of changing America’s foes focuses on the leaders changing themselves to the point where they can start influencing those around them, because people see something in them and the way they lead in their team and, and what they do in their work product that they can respect and admire and want to duplicate. I that’s that’s my thoughts. Yeah.

**Michael Hingson ** 19:22
I know that when I hired salespeople, and I learned this a little bit over time, but what I learned was that when I hired salespeople, the best thing that I could tell them is, I hired you, I hired you because I believe that you could do the job you sold me on the fact that you could do the job. So my job isn’t to boss you around. Rather, you and I need to learn to work together to see how I can add value to you to make you more successful. In other words, how do we build a team together? In the end, the reality is, it was different with every single person based on what their talents were and what they A new and what they could do and what they wanted it when some people really got it, and we meld it well together in the synergy was wonderful. But the people who didn’t get it and who weren’t really willing to look beyond themselves to grow, didn’t get it didn’t succeed.

**Shawn Smith ** 20:22
And the people that care more about the title over the ability to help others, I really, I think we have too much positional leadership and not enough servant leadership. And that’s really deteriorating the teams within our corporations. That’s when people aren’t being taught that the stuff that I’ve been taught by Dementors I mean, I tell people all the time, the, the cornerstones of my success are God’s plan in my life, great mentors, and a great work ethic and the ability to work on myself and become better, right? So, but we’re not taught that we’re not teaching them. We’re not teaching them to be a servant leader, or to have mentorship that helps you with your blind spots, or significant work ethic or overcoming challenges, things like that, right? We’re so you, unless you have a great mentor or family member or friend, you know, you start to listen to what the world tells you, which is, get a better title, get more pay, or whatever, and you’ll be successful. And then people find themselves miserable in that position, and then thus make those around them miserable as well.

**Michael Hingson ** 21:39
So you mentioned him, Where does God fit into all this? I mean,

**Shawn Smith ** 21:43
that’s the cornerstone of everything for me. I mean, I was someone who was very much a non believer my entire life, I really, quite frankly, to stained people of any form of religion, in particular, disdained Christians. So, I was definitely saw on the road to Damascus moment when I became one at 22. And, you know, someone who comes from that position of really feeling like they’re such a loving God, why would he allow so much bad stuff to happen to me and those I love and things like that, to all sudden running a faith based company and having that be the cornerstone of my family and everything that I do. There’s a lot of seeking, and I think finding comes to the seeker if, if your mind isn’t open, and you’re not willing to seek answers, you’ll never find them. And if you’re going into the information, with with a bias of looking for what you want to hear, to just affirm what you want to believe, you’ll stay stuck in that way of thinking forever. And, you know, there was there was, it’s a process, but ultimately, the foundational verse for my life is Ephesians 320, which I translate that versus it says, purpose, it’s his plan, it says power working with me, and I’m gonna give him the credit for all of it and anything that I do. And in doing that, I’ve been able to make business decisions, I’ve been able to treat people with love, and grace, I’ve been able to give in a way that is very uncommon. And I think the world needs more uncommon men in leadership and uncommon women to to stand up and really serve and love others. In an in an uncommon way, in a world that’s really challenging. So it’s, he kind of fits into everything for me, there’s nothing he doesn’t fit in into for me, and there’s anyone that knows me knows that I’m going to talk about, I’m gonna talk about him, and I’m gonna talk about helping those who are hurting. In every conversation I have no matter whether it’s a barista at Starbucks, or the CEO at a conference or podcasts with you, Mike, I’m gonna be talking about the same time repeat the same drum everywhere I go.

**Michael Hingson ** 24:01
And I absolutely endorse it. And I, I believe that, that doesn’t really matter what religion and since because it’s the same God. And we all if we go back and look at a lot of bases and basics from different religions, we see the same basic teachings. And again, it gets back to one of those things that we try to take ownership of something that we shouldn’t.

**Shawn Smith ** 24:28
Well, we also try to assert that we know for sure, something that none of us get to know until we get there. Right. And so, you know, I’m very passionate about what you’re saying. I don’t I have no idea whether there’s several paths or one path. I just know a path that has worked has been an amazingly positive thing in my life. That has been the greatest gift anyone has ever given me up. And if you have a free gift that you can give away, I’m at least open to discussing when someone else is open minded enough to discuss it. And, you know, to, I was just talking to Dr. And had this conversation I brought several about an atheist, I brought two other people that believe they’re agnostic. And I said, look at you look at Jesus, he let the murderer in heaven on the cross after living an entirely, you know a lot of his life in the wrong way. But he believed, scientists believe that we’re not going to know till we get there, but I would rather one put my hope in something positive that there is a there that there is a heaven. And if I’m wrong, well, I was there’s gonna be nothing anyway. So I’d rather live my life with hope one. And two, clearly, God has demonstrated that he is willing to expose you to the full truth, even if it’s at the end, and allow you to make that decision where you want to be. So whether you’re Buddhist or Muslim, or Christian or Jewish, I believe that when you when you get to a point when you’re transitioning the full truth, which I kind of believe, in some ways, like, everybody’s gonna kind of be wrong in some ways. And everybody’s kind of guilty, right? In some ways, you know, I mean, who knows, right? But you get full truth and in that you can choose where to go. And that’s where I choose to put my hope. And it really allows me to see the world in that way of which I have nothing but love for all people from any form of faith, or people don’t like fate, but it gives me hope. It makes me feel loved. I feel like I have a real relationship with God. I feel like I try to glorify God that loves me and blesses me and my family and those around me and allows me to go and be a blessing to the world where there’s some really challenging stuff. And that’s like what I just came from last week in the Dr. So definitely, definitely a proponent of supporting people in any form of faith that they want. And that will be a positive thing for them, provided it’s grounded in love and respect for others.

**Michael Hingson ** 27:03
Just a couple of days ago, someone asked me, having known that I worked in the World Trade Center on September 11, and escaped with my guide dog was ill. They said, Well, do you feel guilty at all that you survived and other people didn’t? Which goes back to the whole survivor’s guilt thing? And my response was, No, I don’t feel guilty. I don’t know what the plan was, I don’t know all the details of everyone who didn’t survive. Did they get told don’t go to the building that day? Did they not? Who knows? I know, for me, I never did feel that I got any message, not to go into work that day. We did have a thunderstorm that morning. And we usually have thunderstorms. That came right over our house at 1230 at night. And so I suppose one could say, well, that was an omen for you our message? Well, I didn’t get the impression that it was. And frankly, I looked for those kinds of things. But But the bottom line is that I only know that I did survive. And the issue was and is what do I do with them. And I think that’s the more important issue, which goes to what you’re saying. The fact of the matter is that we all have some things we can control and a lot of things that we can’t. And so I didn’t have a lot of control over what was happening on September 11, a wife could have decided not to evacuate as soon. But I felt this is the time to start down the stairs and did and made it out. But the other part of it is, okay, so I made some choices, and then did survive. But, you know, ultimately, most of that day, I didn’t have necessarily a lot of control over had no control over those airplanes sitting in the building, and any number of other things. And all I can do is worry about the things that I can worry about. And then I can actually have some control over. We spend so much time worrying about so many things that we don’t necessarily have control of right. And you know, people are always going well. And you you mentioned that meeting we talked about you with Why does God let so many bad things happen? Now you if you look back on what did you learn from all those bad things? Maybe they weren’t quite so bad, but also we maybe you’ll learn better to listen. And you won’t make those same kinds of judgments in the future. So it’s all a question of where you go and how you deal with

**Shawn Smith ** 29:48
it. I think. Yeah, maybe outside bias to how you look at stuff and that Yeah, sure. Mine is still crazy for me to have met another person who was there as my car Follow was there, as we discussed. So I think that’s one thing where I think it’d be very interested, if you two did one together on your podcast from the standpoint of the timeframe and the two different perspectives and where you were at, I think that’d be really interesting to see, you know, between the two of you, but he’s got to he has a wild story, just the same as you do. For that day, and, you know, just anyone in my age bracket remembers exactly where they were that day. And what’s crazy about it is, I made the decision to not go into the Marines. And because of that, I literally would, I graduated in. So when did change 2000? So right, so I graduated out of high school, in June of 2008, after boot had just come out of boot basically, better my, you know, first year and a half a service in the Marines. When that happened, and I went through a little bit of a form of guilt and not serving my country, I had several friends who did and you know, in that in that fashion, and I decided to believe that God had a plan for me. And we’ll go from there. Apologize if there’s any background noise, we were wherever big tournament the office, I think they just celebrated the, the winner of the tournament. So what’s,

**Michael Hingson ** 31:26
what’s the tournament?

**Shawn Smith ** 31:27
Let’s take a bags tournament, you’re throwing the bags in the hole. We did a whole bracket tournament through the whole day, once a year and do some prizes, and everything. So I was out in the second round. So I was happy maybe the second or last year I was out in the first round. So I was like, hey, all these I made for the

**Michael Hingson ** 31:50
second round, but improvement see next year, and next year will be better.

**Shawn Smith ** 31:55
Or third round? Yeah.

**Michael Hingson ** 31:58
I actually, maybe I missed it. But I didn’t hear anything. So I think we’re good. But, you know, I think that it all comes down to choices. So after September 11, and I’d love to meet your CFO, and it’d be fun to have a discussion. So if you want to set that up, I think it would be great for us to, to actually do something like that. But for me, I’ve always believed in it become clear since September 11. That, of course, we are the product of our choices, and I can trace my life back really far. And I can certainly trace how I got to the World Trade Center. And the things that that brought me there. And very frankly, I can say that I don’t regret any of the choices I’ve made, some were tough. But I learned from them and was able to move on. And all of them eventually brought me to the World Trade Center. And after September 11. The very next day, actually my wife Karen, said, You know, you want to call Guide Dogs for the Blind, the the organization are always getting a guide on spring. And I said, Okay, why do you think I should? And she pointed out that there had been people from the school out here in California, who had visited us in the World Trade Center, and they’re eventually going to remember that you were there. So I did call in among other people, I spoke with the director of public information. And Joanne Ritter, and she said, Gee, do you mind if I write a little story about you? And I wasn’t really thinking, so I said, Sure. Go ahead. And then she said, you know, I’ll bet it’s gonna be pretty visible. What TV show do you want to be on first, and I wasn’t anywhere near where she was in terms of this mindset. So I just, oh, Larry King Live. And two days later, on the 13th, I was invited to appear on Larry King Live the next day. And that led to a lot of visibility that led to a lot of people wanting to interview less about, it’ll be about the World Trade Center. But a lot of people that started calling and saying, We want you to come and talk to us and tell us what we should learn about September 11, and so on. And there I was confronted with a choice. And in reality, it ended up not being a hard choice, because the company wasn’t necessarily approaching what happened in the World Trade Center very well, they they were just taking the mindset and taking the position. You got to get back to selling you can’t, you can’t wait you got to get back to selling. People weren’t buying. They were attending five, six and seven funerals a day. But the pressure from management was you got to get back to selling and that just didn’t sit right. So as I tell people, I made the choice along the way to start selling life and philosophy rather than selling computer hardware. Because I also knew it would be a very rewarding thing to do. And then all the interviews with the media, as anybody in psychology will tell you, when you have an issue regarding yourself talking about it always helps answering all the questions that people have some of the most inane questions to the most sophisticated, thought provoking questions really helped me move on from September 11, which will spring move on, psychologically from you know what happened. I never did feel guilty. But still, you got to move on from something where your life was literally threatened,

**Shawn Smith ** 35:31
forced you to process it and work through it. Right.

**Michael Hingson ** 35:36
And so, again, it’s all choices. And God was was for me, certainly a part of

**Shawn Smith ** 35:44
that with you on that. Yeah, I felt so out of the back. And, you know, it felt like those steps were directed for sure. And at the time, they shouldn’t feel that way sometimes, but I am with you, I don’t, I don’t regret it. And actually, the pain that I’ve been through and the trauma that had been through my life has become, in my opinion, my superpower. And it drives my love for others, my empathy, my compassion, and my desire to help those who are in challenging circumstances like I was when I was younger, so that without that, I don’t know where I’d be without have that, right. So it’s interesting when you become older and wiser in a place where you literally start being thankful for your pain. Sure, doesn’t feel that way in the moment. But as you get past and high inside, you see the fruit that it ends up bearing in your life. That’s weird. I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. But I feel like I’d used it for the that which was meant to kill and destroy me use that for the good to help others. And sidenote, regret that little bit worse,

**Michael Hingson ** 36:53
what you need to do is to have a conversation with God to see if you can get around three minutes to

**Shawn Smith ** 36:59
get your own butt.

**Michael Hingson ** 37:00
Get you to round three next year in the tournament. Yeah, how am I gonna have the serious discussions here?

**Shawn Smith ** 37:07
I’m probably more likely to play him pray over my golf game getting better at me shaving off a few strokes than I am. begs tournament.

**Michael Hingson ** 37:15
Well, there you go. Yeah, you gotta gotta do what works? Well, you know. But I, but I do think that a lot of it is all about choice. And a lot of self analysis. And, you know, going back to corporate America, when we talked about the whole issue of profit, and making money, and so on, I wonder how many people who are just so fixated on the amount of money they earn in selling, that the company just has to be the end, all from a profit standpoint. I wonder how many of those people really take time every day and think about what they’re doing, think about their lives? Just go back then, to self examinations, and see what’s really going on with them. You know, people are always saying, I want to be happier, and I’m not happy when and you know, the question always comes back down to what’s happening, right. And I think that becomes an issue that we also don’t deal with very well, and understanding what happiness really is. But when we were talking about this making money, and so on, I wonder how much self analysis and real introspection a lot of people do.

**Shawn Smith ** 38:29
I think next to none, I think the world is teaching them to just continue to stay busy so that they’re actually thinking about those things. And that’s how I think time and prayer and meditation daily is in to really look at your life and what’s going on in it and reflect on it and is critical. And instead we fill it with as much noise as possible drowns out that inner voice, let alone the voice of God in your life. So that’s unfortunately with social media and, and just technology these days, especially it’s, it’s become really hard to get quiet and grow in that way. And that’s a lost art for sure. Yeah,

**Michael Hingson ** 39:15
we don’t listen to ourselves. We don’t listen to our heart. And that’s a serious problem, because we don’t learn that our instincts and our subconscious mind which is, which is really part of and talking with God can communicate so much to us. My favorite example of that is playing Trivial Pursuit. How often when you’re playing Trivial Pursuit, do you get a question? And an answer immediately pops into your head and you go, No, that can’t be the answer. And you think about it, and you give a different answer. But it turns out that the first initial thought it was the right answer. And it is just something we don’t we don’t listen to ourselves very well, not nearly as much collectively as we should do. Also making me realize I haven’t played trivial pursuits haven’t either. Expanded, grew up playing that game. And yeah, it’s a fun game. I still love Trivial Pursuit. And I love watching Jeopardy, it’s as close as I get to it. But still Trivial Pursuit is a fun game.

**Shawn Smith ** 40:20
I kept trying to get I kept trying to sign my father in law. He’s a very, very wise man and the key mentor in my life. And just the guy who knows every fun fact about everything. So I signed him up several times over the years trying to get him on Jeopardy, because I thought he crushed it. He never, never made it. But wicked smart guy is a professor at University of Minnesota for 40 years and had a law and finance degree from the EU and from Purdue. So that’s a prime example. I didn’t grow up with that, you know, my dad was a postal worker, and, and marine. And my stepmom was a postal worker, and my mother grew up on government assistance and child support. And so that was what I had mentored me on how to be successful in any area of my life, not just financially, but emotionally, mentally, spiritually relationally, right. And unfortunately, there was a big deficit in all those areas for the mentors I had growing up. So it really, really helpful and you change, who you’re listening to, and who you surround yourself with, when it comes to taking advice. You

**Michael Hingson ** 41:33
strike me as someone who values mentors and having mentors in your life very much, how do you find good mentors? And what kind of a difference to they make? Or do you think that they make them could make for other people in their lives? Outside

**Shawn Smith ** 41:47
of God, I honestly believe that mentorship and who you surround yourself will be the number one reason for being successful in anything. I actually started a story recently where it was a couple of talking, and they were deciding whether they’re going to get married. And they said say we get in a fight and you want and you want to invent the suit the man male asking the female, what you know, who are your three friends, you would call, she listed three friends. So who are you three friends and he listed three friends. He said, here’s the difference. Your three friends, two of them are divorce one is single and living going to the club lifestyle. And that’s where you’re going to call for advice when your marriage isn’t going right. All three of of the people I said I would call our people are, we’ve been married for over 15 years and show fruit in the tree when it comes to their marriage. And so, you know, what do you think is more likely to give you advice because in that situation, my friends are actually going to defend you to whereas in your friends are going to defend you and pay me to be the bad guy, right? So I think it’s that way with mentorship is that you have to find the right mentors. And that takes a lot of work over a long period of time. Now I said that the most wealthiest man in the world was with Solomon and not because he had money and riches handed to me because he had wisdom, right. And someone who’s in their 50s or 60s or 70s, who has fruit on the tree fruitful marriage relationships, fruitful career, fruitful finances is going to be able to give you much better advice and be a much more positive sounding board for your ideas than your friend who is not in any shape form way in the position of life you want to be at. And so you know how I my mentors are so key mentors, my father in law, that was lucky before that I had other business mentors that I went to, I had to seek them out a to see their time. Mentors are not going to chase you down for mentors chasing you down. That’s probably because they have something to gain by working with you they have some angle right? But a true mentor does not. There’s there’s no benefit for them whether you succeed or fail, and they have fruit on the tree in the area in which you’re asking advice for them or sounding your ideas to them. And another mentor minds a spiritual mentor is a grandmother who I went on my first trip to Haiti to serve the poor there a decade ago. And over the last 10 years I’ve cultivated a relationship where she’s become like a bond to the introduction, one of the first people in this room have ever felt unconditional love. And that took years to cultivate that relationship. You know, I’m really big on therapy, dedicated pays for all co pays, any mental health co pays so that there’s zero barrier to entry. So not only covers 75% of our medical dental vision, but we cover any codebase and we’re trying To move the company to 100%, Mental, medical, dental and vision here, either this next cycle or the one after No, I think that would put a kink in that as we’re doubling the size of the office again, so we got to factor that in as well. But yeah, so you know, hit that’s like my head coach. Right. So now I’ve got a woman who is spiritually and relationally, with her husband. As an amazing coach there. I’ve got a great business coach, my father has also been married to my wife’s mother for a long time, and it’s a great coach there. I’ve got business coaching, I’ve got financial coaches, right. And so those were all called to be over the years, and I had to pursue those relationships, not think they’re gonna come to me, and I never took them for granted, I held them with great respect. And I’ve never the other thing I see is when people get great mentorship, at some point, they reach a certain level of success, they also start to think they’ve made it. And that was easy. For me with my background, I think it’s a little harder for some people, is to realize that I always put myself at last, I always put myself to realize I can always grow and become better than that. Man, I’m okay. I’m like a couple of things. The rest of it, I got a lot of work to do. And to think that my temporal worldly success is all on me is absolutely lunacy to me. Yeah, so surround yourself with great people, great friends. And I would go as far as to say is great family. You know, I attack toxic parts of my family that are not part of my life, and I love my family. And if that can ever change, I’m very open to mending that. But I I’m very, very cautious with who I allow in my inner circle and with my time, and are the people who are building me up and or tearing tearing me down? And are the people who are bearing the fruit in this world in their life that I’m looking for are the people who are doing the exact opposite.

**Michael Hingson ** 47:13
Tell me a little about your company, how it got named the way it did and exactly what you all do.

**Shawn Smith ** 47:22
So dedicated service, dedicated commercial recovery. So it was basically a commercial loan portfolio management company so that we would do collections repossessions, remarking we do that as a faith based company with a focus on treating people well both internally on our team and then externally, at some point, we decided to change the name to better reflect both an expanded scope of services in the in the commercial world, really commercial, any formal commercial, that commercial portfolio management, things like that, but also that we changed to being a general benefit corporation and the state of Minnesota that basically, that your mission statement on down in every charter within your organization is set up for the benefit of others, in essence, putting others before the corporation’s success. And so we changed suggested dedicated financial GVC really to signify that we have an expanded offering as far as services go. So we do commercial loan portfolio management of working capital, FinTech, a lot of FinTech in the route in the commercial realm of, of revenue based finance. And we literally handle all the customer service and internal workout challenges. And then we transition that into a third party, commercial Collection model and then repossession remarketing nationwide legal services, and then we can prep portfolios for debt sale. So kind of cradle to grave servicing of that back end, again, with a focus on having an amazing culture within our team where people are put first and taken care of, and then really protecting our clients brand. And we’ve been able to do what no no one in our industry in the world has ever done. And I can say that with complete authority. We have over 1000 Extra over 11 105 Star Google reviews that are all from small business that we serve, that have given us a five star rating and we hold a five star rating overall average as well. And all of those are organic. All of those are ones that we’ve asked for from small business and serving them in such a way that they felt compelled enough to give us a five star review. And what the reward that is bad is that we continue to see larger and larger clients who care a lot more than anything about protecting their brand and the small businesses they’ve served that they’re being treated right and no one out In our industry, they’re all talking about how they’re the hammer, they’re going to do this, or they’re going to do that and their work, you know, we work in a very dark industry. So we’re really trying to bring some light to that and prove to the world that it can be done in a very positive way.

**Michael Hingson ** 50:15
Do you get attacked and picked on from some of the other folks in the industry?

**Shawn Smith ** 50:23
You know, I definitely think there’s times when people try to slide some, some fake things in about us that get get deleted off the internet, because they’re absolutely not true. And I think that, because we’re a faith based company that that and we’re not pushing that on anyone, you know, we have everyone under the sun, we’re gonna dedicate it cannot be more proud of the folks on our team that are from the LGBTQ community, that are Muslim that are atheists, they are everyone has a seat at the table dedicated their love their care about their important, they’re highly valued. And I would never tolerate anything less than that. But I would say that the other angle that people take are dedicated is that we’re too soft on small businesses that have borrowed funds that are having a problem repaying back. Because a lot of the funding sources in the world and the people running that take it as a personal frontman, someone doesn’t pay them back. And they want to crush that person, that business owner or something like that. I just had this conversation about three weeks ago with an owner of a funding company, I said, Hey, do you want to be rich? Or do you want to be right? Because yes, the person took out the money. Yes, they do owe you, but they’re in a challenging circumstance, they’re willing to work with us and do the right thing. Simply going and moving it to legal and suing them is only make you feel better. And the likelihood of you making any additional money is lower. In fact, you’re gonna have to give me more money for doing that. Right. So I think sometimes that’s another shot that you all were there a faith based company, there are two soft on people, we’re going to be the hammer, we’re going to be aggressive. And anyone in my industry that’s holding that they’re aggressive. First of all, those days are long gone. Second of all, you should care much more about being effective than aggressive because effective gets your money back and treats people and a human in a good humane way. Aggressive, just makes you a jerk makes people block your number and not deal with you anyways. So you know, it’s an outdated, antiquated practice. So, you know, we take a little bit of heat for different things, but the proof is in the pudding. We’re the we’re the largest in our space. And we’ve done that. And in eight years, we have a 41 year old owner, with with, you know, I mean, with no college education, but a heart for helping people in Hartford doing business the right way. And I look at God’s bless the business that way. You know, and I have competitors that we’ve flown past because of that, right? So clearly, we’re doing something right. And we’re doing it in a way that feels good about the way we’ve succeeded. So yeah, it’s that how that answers that question. It does.

**Michael Hingson ** 53:21
I, a lot of thoughts come when I’m listening to your talks about all this. I remember years ago, I had a business that we were going through a really tough time. And we had put a lot of things in credit card bills in one day, I get a call from this guy at a bank. And he said, you know, you’re way past due, I called you last week, and I said, we’re working on it, we’re gonna get it, but we’re working on it. And then he comes out with this thing. He said, You know, you really ought to be sensitive to those handicap people who really have a problem and you need our services, rather than just being a guy that sits down there. And it’s just talking your money and not paying us back when you can. And I just laughed at him. And I said, Why don’t you come down here and sit with me and my guide dog? And then tell me that same story. You know, it’s just crazy. People.

**Shawn Smith ** 54:10
Crazy. And I think the industry needs to be regulated more. I think it’s absolutely atrocious. I actually would go as far to say that it’s evil, the way I mean, it’s just using a small business owner as an example. This really extends that role. But I want you and you know this when when you’re in a small business, and you’re struggling financially, that bleeds into every other aspect of your life. Yep. into your marriage. It bleeds into your interaction with your kids your energy level, maybe how much you’re giving to your church or to nonprofits or except for right and bleeds into every Sunday. And you’re down and you’re struggling and you’re fighting to call somebody up and basically start kicking them while they’re down threatening them being overly aggressive. is evil to me. Thank you You would never do that if you came across someone on a side issue or just tripped and fell and broken their arm, hopefully be the Good Samaritan that would help them out to help them get to the ambulance or get help or call 911. Right. And yet, we have an entire industry that is allowed to just call people up and berate them and talk down to them and treat them as they are somehow less than us because they’re going through a tough patch. I absolutely despise the way the industry is allowed to treat people. People often say, you know, we pay for Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University for anyone on our team that would like it was a stepping stone when I was younger. I’m a big advocate, but Dave Ramsey hates any form of collector talks very doubt about the industry do it. Well, how have you do that and why this guy vehemently hates everything that you do. So now he didn’t really hates my industry, and what they do not need, because if he knew, and he knew the way to do it, he would he would hold us up as someone who’s the industry shining alive. And I’ve actually I’ve messaged him several times on their show trying to get on their show to kind of be a contrarian for our industry, and also be willing to completely agree with them. So yeah, it’s it’s unfortunate, and it’s sad. The beautiful thing, and that Michael is that AI is going to change everything you’re gonna watch. Over the next five years, I wouldn’t even say 10, I was over the next five years 80% of consumer collections is gone and done by AI. And over the next 10 years, it’ll be all but gone except for, you know, your handfuls of specialty reps for a very specialized situation. But it’s on the horizon. And that will, that will eliminate a lot of that over aggressive, unfortunate human behavior. And it will be part of it will be technology a part of the vehicle, the industry will be reading what it’s selling for the last 50 years, 60 years, seven years. So that’s,

**Michael Hingson ** 57:06
I do hope it will make make for improvements. That certainly is part of what needs to happen. How do you mix God with business in a way that you can still deal with people who may have different beliefs than you?

**Shawn Smith ** 57:21
So I love that. I love that question. Because I believe that is being done so poorly in the world today. And you see the Chick Fil A’s and hobby lobbies and these companies that hear that God has blessed them with a big business. And then you hear like the founder of Hobby Lobby saying that the number one thing that he learned is to never compromise. And like we live in a world with an extremely diverse way of thinking and believing a while I don’t believe in compromising on my values. I know that 100% of my team, not one of us are going to agree on every single issue. So how can I? How can I run a business where there isn’t a seat at the table for everyone? Right? And that everyone that the firt and here’s why I’ll just speak for a Christian standpoint is the hardest part about being a Christian, quite frankly, is other Christians in my opinion. Here you have it, and God grew up massive group of people that follow of faith as a system of faith in which when their Savior was asked what is the most important thing, he said, to love God with all your heart and to love others, you know, really simple message. And yet, I would go out on a limb and say eight out of 10 Christians that I know when I look at their life and I look at their interactions, I look at the way they do business or look at the way they go corporate America, whatever. And I would look for that being one of the most evident things in their life. I can’t tell you that’s what I would see. Right? I may see a hard worker, I may see someone who cares about being a good dad, they see someone as you know, very respectable career are nice things are great travel. But when people know me and around me, I want them to know that first and foremost, I love God with every square inch of me and I love them the same. And that’s and that’s when you have a foundation of that, that kind of love. And that’s the most important thing not pushing a religion on anyone not pushing a belief system on anyone. Because not everyone can get down with, you know, God or Jesus or Mohammed or whatever it is right. But every face that kind of your point earlier in our conversation, it has a strong rooting in love for others. And when you create a corporation where that and you truly equip People before profit, then everyone’s welcome at the table, then a diverse group. When you talk about these things we talk about all the time I talk to my team all the time, we do a monthly Scrum. And I just say, Listen, we all know we don’t agree on everything. Right? But the one thing we can all agree is that we want to feel like we’re loved. We’re cared about were important. We’re respected. We’re treated with respect. So that’s the foundation of dedicated the foundation isn’t Christianity, the foundation is the actual doing of Christianity without having to stuff the actual title down folks through us. Right. And it just it works. I mean, I’m, is it perfect? No, you’re from a Christian perspective, we’re all broken in some way, right? People are people, we all come in with our baggage and our challenges, and, and we all have to go through this human experiences, then. And often they’re extremely hard. That’s why as a corporation, I love to lean into those things that truly put people first and you I think that it’s more about less talking and more doing of what you profess to do your faith. And living that out in a in a in a corporate way, by actually exemplifying the values that you allegedly hold so dear in the book that you read? Yeah,

**Michael Hingson ** 1:01:31
the proof is really in the pudding of what you do, not what you say. I think it was Tolstoy who once said that the biggest problem with Christianity is that most people don’t practice it. Most Christians don’t practice it, which is so very true.

**Shawn Smith ** 1:01:46
Yeah, I mean, I was I was watching a debate between two well known media figures, and they were talking about how when this person had created a converted for Christianity being a Muslim and how, when they went to a Muslim country, they actually felt God and they felt a presence there. Where is it? When they’re in America, they did and the other person? Well, I don’t think America is really a Christian nation anymore. And I hate to say it, but when you look at who’s running the country, and you look at what the media is propping up and who Hollywood’s propping up and who we’re being told you to make role models for our kids these days. It sure makes a strong case. And that’s why again, it comes back to if we’re going to change your world. It starts with us. It starts with less talking and more daily and loving others, especially when you disagree with them, especially when you know and I’ll say one other thing in regards to your question is that I tell people look, is what you’re doing bearing fruit in your life because anyone can profess that their way of doing things is great. Or this way you should be doing or this is the way it should be great. Show me the fruit. Surely strong relationships show me hope and faith show me joy show me peace. Contentment, right, show me strong finances right? If it’s not bearing fruit, then I would challenge that maybe you got a little bit of insanity go on where we’re doing the same thing over and over again expecting someday it’s going to provide a different result. Right? And maybe you should check the fruit. A lot of wisdom that’s not taught these days.

**Michael Hingson ** 1:03:31
Definitely. So what are your plans for the future? That’s an interesting question.

**Shawn Smith ** 1:03:36
Because we all want to make plans right? We all want to have goals and things we want to accomplish and I find so much that we’re always to be tackle What’s your five year plan? You know, and what are the what are the next five moves you’re gonna do? And there’s like a million Instagram, Facebook, they know all this stuff out there. And meanwhile, it’s such again, coming back to as a Christian, you know, be told don’t worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will have its own troubles Don’t worry about yesterday, because yesterday is already gone, right? My plans for the future are really to continue to stay focused on what God wants you to do in my life. Right now. What I’m trying to do is hone in my focus on dedicated and both the company that we’re building, the AI that we’re building, the team that we’re building, and the amount of giving that we’re doing, and simplify my life. I heard the best quote just out on this trip was down the Dr. Were in every person that you interact with. Make it a goal imagine that they have written on their forehead. Make me feel important. And I don’t know what you’ve met like, I love it when someone makes me feel like I’m actually important to them like a matter. Sure. And what a life to live where you can live in a way where every person you came in contact with. You made them feel loved and important. Then like they mattered. And that’s my plans for the future is Continue to weave that into business, continue to weave that into actually building an AI that takes all the data from dedicated, and how we interact with people and how we treat people and puts it into a computer that actually leads with empathy and sympathy for people who are going through challenges. And watch my kids go off to coach baseball games and see, you know, gymnastic meets, then we’ll go to golf matches, and to go and serve locally, you know, and nationally, and globally to those that are hurting, those are in need. And just to live to shine my light, and whatever I do, and whatever God chooses to deal with that, I’m gonna let him figure that out, you know, I am honored, they asked me to be on the podcast, I didn’t see the salad I did, you know, and it’s just like, I’m on the board of a college even though a D two college, even though I’ve never went to college, it at the end of my four year term will be honored with being given an honorary degree, right, I didn’t seek any of it out, that came to me. Not because I want that, or that was a goal. I mean, it wasn’t even on my radar to be a goal or something I want, you know, right. So, you know, I want to create the best for my kids, I want to create the best for my team and dedicated and I want to glorify God doing it, but I, you know, I feel led to move in this direction, and allow God to kind of fill in what happens next, and to be thankful to have joy in the sun and to have joy in the rain. And that’s, that’s really brought me a lot of peace, being focused on being internally joyful, and peaceful, peaceful, rather than just trying to fight failed temporary happiness, and then to get to the next thing to get to the next thing to get to the next thing. So that would be my focus, and you never know where things will lead from there. But I know if I’m going to be able to change the world, it’s going to start with me. So that’s why I’m gonna stay focused is on me.

**Michael Hingson ** 1:07:12
And Let life be an adventure. And there’s nothing wrong.

**Shawn Smith ** 1:07:15
I love the adventure. I see this with so many business owners where they’re so far their destination disease, right? When I get there, that I’m going to be happy. When I get there, I’m gonna give back to others. When I get there, I’m gonna spend more time with my wife and kids. And man, I just try my hardest to say, you got to put yourself in a position to enjoy the journey. Enjoy the adventure. And if you’re not, you need to change what you’re chasing, start chasing being significant others start chasing, putting people first and watch that joy bucket, just Fill and Fill and Fill. And you’ll experience a totally different level of peace and contentment, that the world and it’s things and your next goal and your next notoriety or war will never satisfied. Like that level of joy, peace, you know, when you can do something for someone else, that they can never repay you for a level of joy that comes from that trumps anything you’ll ever do in business or any any award or anything. So, Amanda, that

**Michael Hingson ** 1:08:24
I’m with you. I want to really thank you for all your time with being here today. If people want to reach out and maybe meet you or get to know you better, or seek out any of the services from the company, how do they do?

**Shawn Smith ** 1:08:36
You can email me at Shawn at dedicated GBC.com You can go on our website, dedicatedgbc.com. And you can follow me I’m very active on LinkedIn especially, again, my calling my passion. I believe business has the greatest opportunity to change the world we’re taking steps to prove it. That’s actually the mission statement of the company. And so I do public speaking events. I’m I do mentorship. I don’t necessarily charge for and then if I can serve anyone in any way, as long as I’m being led to do that, I’m happy to do that. So I’m sure you put a link in the description below. You can check us out on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, website, or reach out to me directly or look up dedicated financial GBC check out our website reach out. Me and my team are happy to serve you in any way we can.

**Michael Hingson ** 1:08:36
And that’s as good as it ever can get. I certainly appreciate your time and your wisdom today and I hope that the people who are listening to us do as well. So I want to thank you and thank you all for listening. Love to hear your thoughts about our podcast today. And pump out all of our podcasts feel free to email me at Michael m i c h a e l h i at accessiBe A c c e s s i b e .com, or go to our website www dot Michael hingson Hingson is h i n g s o n.com/podcast. But wherever you’re listening, I would really appreciate it. If you give us a five star review, we value that. But I do want to hear from you. We value your thoughts and your opinions and your comments. And for all of you and Shawn, of course, you if you know anyone else who you think ought to be a guest, I’d love to meet your CFO. Please let us know we’re always looking for people who want to come on unstoppable mindset and show us all that we couldn’t be more unstoppable than we thought. So just once again, Shawn, I want to thank you for being here and thanking you for spending the time with us today.

**Shawn Smith ** 1:10:45
Thank you, Mike honored that you asked me to and I look forward to connecting with Scott and thank you and God blesses you as well.

**Michael Hingson ** 1:11:00
You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you’ll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you’re on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you’re there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit
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. AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.