He Turned a Broken Business Model Into Millions

0:00I turned my resignation in and three days later the CEO came to me off from me $7 million. $7 million. $7 million and I said no. Oh. Because I promised a guy that I was starting the business with and I regretted that from 2013 to about 2017. Whoa. That's a longer grant. Yeah. But as that kind of took hold, the business grew by giving people the opportunity to for themselves to grow. Through that process, we started out with success but the success of the business was all on the back of everybody having success. Dave Barrett is a driven self-made insurance executive in entrepreneur, serving as president of Team RTP at CRC specialty. He began his career in 2008 at SW Risk, rising from an entry level role to becoming a top producer through his strong work ethic. I realized I built them the pretty cool. I was really valuable. There you go. Made it so valuable was the growth of the business from people from outside the industry. Other people had it replicated and the reason I replicated it because my business was failing without doing it, right? It will come work for me. That was the initial big failure led to figuring out a system that led to the final massive success.

1:02It spans the globe like a super high school. Internet Elvis. Ready? Fire. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the ball. It's not over until I win. Welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. I'm your host again, Jay Slangen. We're down here at the sunny Miami Beach, the new studios. We have the privilege to have a conversation with some of the best entrepreneurs, the disruptors, experts in so many different fields here. I love my job when I get to do these things. We got a special guest here from Texas.

2:03Introduce yourself. What's your name? Dave. Dave. Nice to have you on the show, man. I have several businesses. My first main business to add success was an insurance business wholesale specialty insurance. I was called Risk Transfer Partners. Then since then, I had an accident. I sold that business. Nice. It was a good day. I still actually worked there on the president of the Dallas Operations of the company, the botanese called CRC Group. On the side, I've started several other businesses underneath the scaled up ventures platform. That's the parent company that I fold all my businesses under. Right now, we have the ones we have operation under that platform right now. It was called Heat Wave Luxury Light Therapy. It's a retail red light sauna studio. Gotcha. We're developing a proprietary red light booth for that. It's kind of there. There's some name brand locally there in Frisco, Texas. Nine. And then once I get that booth done, it should be a scalable business. We have a business called Creative Group.

3:04It's kind of a marketing company. It's a tie a lot of the entities together. I'm giving them a social presence. All right. And then I also have Arbada Wellness Leasing, which leases, you know, high dollar aesthetic equipment to the meds by industry. Yeah. You know, so boom in this boom. Yeah. Well, yeah. And that's the thing. It's a fragmented industry, right? No, not a lot of centralized capital. I mean, there's, and it's a very large. And you know, that's a 1.6 trillion dollar industry worldwide. No doubt on that, man. Tell me this. Tell me, do you tell me a wellness brand? Like what kind of wellness you talk about? So tell me wellness. Tell me, uh, tell me an aesthetic brand. A, a laser away. My wife is a, she's always going to laser away, right? Yeah. And shout out yesterday. We had the, the perfect, the perfect dose, right? It's another, right? But I, I'm sitting here, you know, my wife's kind of into that stuff. I also get to interview a few of people that have it, right? But if it was just me, like, I'm going to be like, you know, I'm going to be like,

4:04you know, I think that business, that industry, I think there's a lot opportunity in it, Right? Yeah. You know, selling beauty, right? Everybody wants that. No one's taking that Starbucks kind of name brand, right? They roll to it. Yeah. And that's a heavy roll. It's all it is. It is. And it's just a lot of, you know, independent people that were nearest practitioners and then kind of moved into the whole, uh, aesthetics industry. Right? And so you got, I guess two kind of, um, two kind of directions they go with it. Well, one is kind of like injectable specialists, right? And then another is kind of like lasers and I don't know, like all kinds of different machines. Well, hey, I'm the ass, the thing is so on the lasers, the machines, they aesthetics. Yeah. And as you said, a nurse practitioner that wants to start her own business, those machines can cost you $200, $300,000 in some of the best. And a lot of the traditional lending won't come through and chase or a bank of America's gonna look at how long you've been in business.

5:05Yeah. They were, I gotta give you a long, well, I look at that, is that equipment? Well, it's also not $200, $300,000, you know? Like Chase, you're getting at max with good credit score, they'll give you like 60, you know, $60,000. And so that's what I do, I buy that equipment and I lease it to those startups or even several years in. For, because the other part of it is even, you know, established meds boss, that equipment changes out, you know, new generation has come out of, you know, three, four, five years. Yeah. So you don't want to be locked into an asset, you can lease it. No, yeah, yeah, that's the, I mean, I'm just getting that going, just putting my first equipment out of the market there. Right. And a huge three of this year, like, side it about it, though, I think it's a good concept, I should, you know, help some people, help some businesses grow. I can't believe those machines are like $200,000, $300,000. Yeah. Like, which ones are you talking about? Well, like, say, the one that's really good is the luminous Stella 22, that's their new, and you know, you can get those in their, their, you know, and what is that like, their red light therapy? Like, I guess there's like, I mean, there's all kinds of stuff. I can talk, I can talk for you. So the lasers are, they will do different, you know,

6:07those are the IPL facials, those are hair removals, they'll grow hair. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's all the stuff. Tattoo, these are pretty much exactly. So there's different like the Stella, the woman is Stella 22, it has, if you, what's called a fully loaded one, has four different laser tips, right? Okay. I don't actually do them myself, but they have a lot of different applications that that one machine can do. Yeah. And so yeah, it's an expensive machine, it's a quality machine. It's a kind of a dermatology level machine that I want a bit at least to some of those, and those and others to a Metz boss, right? Because once they Metz boss gets that equipment, they have the clientele, they can really provide a good service. And there's margin, I'm not equipment. Yeah, it's just one of those things that they let them are getting going. They don't have two or three on a grandline around. Yeah. And it's not like these things are going, being lugged around, right? They're in a nice, you know, studio room, right? And they sit there and maybe they get used a few times a day. Well, hopefully if you're more than a few times a day, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, if they're lucky, they're, they're, you know, bringing it in the customers, right?

7:08But then it's like, you know, let's say like, one of those companies, right? They could have, it's not like that machines being used every single time because they have, they should have several machines, right? Machine. And they have all the options. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and that machine can be something that brings people in the door. Correct. And so like what I'm trying to get to is that the life of that machine is going to be lasting, right? I don't think the maintenance is going to be crazy. If some of them come with where you have to like do new tips and you know, there's every procedure, every facial, you gotta have a, you know, a new tip put on and so some of them don't like the, the stellar does it. Yeah, yeah. That's, that's what I looked at it that it was a good business because, hey, any, any business that helps other businesses make money, right? If it's, if it's a truly does, it's usually a good business that'll make that business a lot of money. Yeah. That's kind of the way I always look at it. If I can find something in any business I did, including the insurance one that I sold,

8:09if I can find ways to help other people make money and I make money when they do, it's, it's all about incentive. Yeah, yeah. So then when everybody's incentivized properly, things tend to work out better that way, right? Were there other industries that you were looking into before you settled in on the aesthetics industry? Did you research in your like, man, this is also a boom in, right? And then you kind of just chose. Yeah, just sold my insurance company and I was in the process of starting a heat wave, red light, you know, a song studio, whether they're a piece on a studio for my now X Y to give a purpose, you know, what you wanted to do, so on and something. Those are also booing up all over the place. Exactly, exactly. And so in the probably, I've at least signed things to have it find out some things that were divorced now, right? Yeah. Now there's lease and this, you know, red light sauna studio with a sign on it, but she's, she doesn't want anything to do with it now. She's, you know, she's, she's split. So I go and start looking at the business. That's when I first kind of started really looking at, now I was doing it kind of as a pet project for her to begin

9:10with. And then I just said, way, this is a really good industry, starting with the red light, you know, most people don't realize there's a difference between infrared and red light. Yeah. Right? So they, they'll go into a wellness facility, a red light, a song of a city, and they'll go get, an infrared sauna, or they'll sit, they'll say, or in the, one of the big infrared sauna boxes, and we'll have a little panel red light down there, right? Yeah. You're not getting red light therapy with that. Mm-hmm. You know, because it's like any light it dissipates the farther it gets from the source. Gotcha. And so infrared is heat. Red light is the actual therapeutic, you know, modality that can I, when the women use the base mask? Yeah. Antirinkle what it's doing is regenerating their cells. And that's why it is in its random face. Yeah. So not, is not, is all red light create an equal, you know? Well, no, it's not. Yeah. But it's, because we got one of those face masks, you know, the best. Yeah, okay. Because that red light is right there on you. Red light in itself is nothing. It works on freaking me out, because I've been, when they put that mask and then the red light goes on,

10:11and then it's like, they turn the corner, it's like, oh, shit. Yeah. Okay, that's how we, yeah. But it really does work, but I'll get into the science of it. Red light is a great therapy. So imagine if you do have a red light bed that has true FDA level red light therapy over your whole body, it's the same, it's the same philosophy. It'll actually get. Well, I think some of those like, we just have a, like I lived in Vegas for two years, and then we went to one of the gyms. And then on the side, there was a studio with kind of, it looks like those tandem machines, but it's like red light, you know? Yeah. But you kind of are creating a new version of that. Yes. So even those, some of those tanning machine looking beds, the red light, when it comes from the light source, maybe within the right dosage, because it's actually dosage for red light. Got you. Then they have a quarter inch thick plastic there, and it's eight inches away. By the time the red light hits your skin, the point of inflection, the irradiance is not of a dosage that will give you any true therapy. Right. And so that's what was the things I found out when I got into that business.

11:13There is one bed on the market, it's called the body balance system, and that has FDA level red light. I have some in heatwave right now. You lay in it, it comes down like a benenine. So that way that really just like flows all over your body, right? Okay. It really works. I do it at almost every morning, every morning. And for this go, it really works, but it doesn't give you, it doesn't get you hot. Right. Because infrared is what gets you hot. Red light is what gives you the cellular regeneration. Gotcha. And there's not any that combined both, that, you know, that I'm aware of it. Maybe there is that I don't know about. And so that's what I'm, there is then they're kind of dumb because they're not, you're doing research. You're on Google, you're on AI. And if it's not popping up when someone does research and it's like, do you really exist? Yeah. Yeah. And the, a lot of them will say they do, you know, you know, infrared sauna with red light. But when you look at it, it's, it's an infrared sauna. And there's like one little red light panel way up here, right? Gotcha. That's not going to, that's not going to do. It's, it really what it is is infrared sauna with a red light vibe.

12:13So I'm developing one that will actually have true, controllable infrared heat. So you go super hot sauna level hot or a little bit, you know, whatever temperature you like. And then the therapeutic chamber will actually have high level red light dosage. If you've ever truly done, therapeutic chamber. That sounds, yeah. That sounds like when Darth Vader is going into his little chamber and it lowers down. He was really going into the therapeutic chamber. That's what it was. Exactly. You didn't know it. You didn't even know it at the doctor. Yeah. So it was getting his spot treatment. It's in there. Yeah, exactly. Next he's going to get a facial laser patient. Exactly. That's how I got long story how I got in the business. And so then you know, start, I just looked for opportunities for certain things and businesses but you know, recurring revenues stream. Yeah. Either MMR. So on unlucky XY for you, you didn't even know half of what you were trying to give her. Right. So then you would look at you're like, let me look at this thing. If I was driving it, oh, yeah, yeah, that's it.

13:14Yes. I could go on it all about the story. Really that really. Let's dig into it. Yeah. Yeah, you want to get a couch out and have me lay me down and can really get to do a deep dive. I'm playing with you. I'm playing with you. But so yeah, serial entrepreneur, right? So I asked everyone on the show like what I mean, you've already told me a lot of things that you got cooking. But what else are you most excited about? Most excited about it. You know, right now my main focus is my insurance career, right? The insurance business. It's a really cool business. You know, brought a lot of people along the way and we sold that to that business. I says called risk transfer partners and I sold that in March of 2025 to CRC group. Okay. And they're the third largest, especially wholesale in the country. I'm not shy about to say it. It's a big heavy lip. But I want to try to be a part of some of that brings into number one. And so that was my name. My main focus right now is building systems and structures within that business that can help advance that objective, right? That's because that's really what you're talking about. Expand in the franchising, putting in the systems and structures so that you can just kind

14:16of copy paste it everywhere and people can just follow the blueprint, right? Yeah, well, with the insurance business is a little bit different than that as far as a, you know, it's all like a franchiseable thing where you open a new locations. That is more about giving people the opportunity and putting systems in place where they can produce and make a bunch of revenue. And I got into that business, I identified a, what I considered a broken incentive structure. The way that that industry had been set up and still is, if you'd have one person at the head of the brokerage team, when I got in 2008, it was usually a guy, right? And he, all the revenue and all this team underneath, there would be guys and gals called inside brokers or account managers underneath. I am all the revenue they would come in would get booked to that person. And they would discretionarily bonus out that their team beneath that. Okay. And so when I started, you know, my, my business, I left the broker does that. I started my business in 2013. I thought all my friends were going to come work with me. I'm going to start a business and cool broker, it'll be great.

15:17It didn't happen. You know, then the right away was like, Dave, you got five markets. You know, I'm going to reach out and share my choir. No one came with them. No one came with me. Right. So I realized I got a higher and trained people from outside the industry, which I did, like a group of four to begin with. And then I said, well, this is cool. I was going to five guys and around, buying in some deals. Cool. It's not a business thing. Like, how do I scale this? And that's when over trial and error failure and fixes, I came up with a kind of a system that would incentivize the people I've trained financially incentivize them to train people underneath them. And instead of the old way of, hey, let me hire you and you work on my stuff and you're going to stay there. Yeah. And I don't want you to go out and produce your own revenue. Because if you do, I, the senior, I lose one of my support staff. And I have no incentive. It's a net negative for me to teach you how to go make your own money. Right. And for that, that junior broker, there, there's no positive for them picking up the phone and making that sales call and flying out to meet new clients because any revenue they book, they're booking up to the top person.

16:19Yeah. There was no incentive structure for either side to grow and develop more producers. And that's why I like, well, that's just not made. Plus, it does not fare, right? If you, you know, everybody should have the opportunity to go, if they're willing to go grind, make calls, you know, work and build, they should get the rewards of that, right? And so we created. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. It's just common sense of you incentivize human behavior, you know, what you're going to get where if somebody's sitting there knows they go make those sales calls, they bind a deal of 10,000 commission, that is going under their name and that person that they're just mentoring them, the senior, if they're going to get a piece of that instead of wanting to keep them inside, they're going to want to push them out and help them go get that and tell it it, you know, and so it took a while to figure out the right way to do it. But over time, it kind of like took hold and, you know, I started in 2013 and honestly regretted it. I thought, my goodness, I messed that up. I do it. I left a big, a big salary, a big job. I turned down a big offer.

17:19The company I left, when I left, I turned my resignation in and three days later, the CEO came to me off from me $7 million. $7 million. $7 million and I said no. Oh. Because I promised a guy that I was starting the business with and I regretted that from 2013 to about 2017. Whoa. That's a longer grant. Yeah. But as that kind of took hold, then the business started scaling itself because the business grew by giving people the opportunity to for themselves to grow. Yeah. And so that was what was awesome is through that process. We started out with success, but the success of the business was all on the back of everybody having success. Everybody started making money. Everybody started growing, building careers, buying homes, starting families, all that cool stuff. And we got to a point in 2024 where there's some things in the industry, consolidation and mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry. Let me decide to put my business on the market. It was a little bit, but I first did it. I've been with you the way that works.

18:20You hire a banker, which is really a sales person or they sell, they're a broker who sells your business basically. And they came back and they put together what's called a sim, a confidential information memorandum, which is your pitch deck for your business. Yeah. I remember when they gave that to me. I looked at it and like, it was the first time I realized I built something pretty cool. I was really valuable. There you go. And it was based upon, made it so valuable was the growth of the business from people from outside the industry, other people on it replicated and the reason I replicated it because my business was failing without doing it, right? Because nobody able to come work for me. That was the initial big failure led to figuring out a system that led to the final massive success. And that's when I sold it. We had a web and offers on the business. Hey, Jesus. You know, I mean, we're decent size, but not, you know, not massive like the companies that were looking to buy us, but it was the revenue was good. The margins were good, but the system was unique. And that's when I said, you know, whatever we're going to try to, what can, you know, I try to do and what can my team try to do at CRC now is try to utilize that system and

19:26there CRC's way better than my, the CRC's a great company. And they're, they're pushing forward. I mean, in a lot of different ways, we can be a small part of that, that success, that growth by kind of sprinkling and a little bit different way of doing things. But we're kind of doing and then get them through the red light. Sonas and now that exactly, exactly. That's a, so how do people find you, man? My personal IG is at Dave Barrett scaled up. All my businesses that I'm, you know, operating are under scaled up ventures. That's a venture platform model that I started that is looking to find other unique ideas from people, you know, throughout the country that may need help connecting with the dots. And if it's the right idea, we kind of become partners on it. Sure. So you have a focus. Anything unique, you know, it can be, it can be a boring business, you know, but with a unique approach. That's what I looked for. I look for certain things in businesses that I think make it scalable.

20:26And again, we're doing revenue, MMR, AR, a low amount of non incentivized employees. I think if you have employees that you pay somebody $100,000, but if they don't have an option to make more or make a glass within six months, they're going to be working to the floor, right? You pay them $1 million and have the same outcome. And so I want to, so employees that are not incentivized, I don't mind having a lot of employees. I have a lot of insurance business, but I don't want them to have incentive to do that, right? And then those are some unique things. And then a business that can, you know, not just bring in income, but the kind of income that makes the business a high value asset. Gosh, I know because that's the thing is, you know, if you have a business that brings in a good amount of income, but only does it. If you're there every single day, you know, you really have a high paying job. Everybody wants to build something worth a lot of money and hopefully be able to sell it for. Well, most small companies are just kind of building their own jobs, you know, exactly.

21:29Exactly. And, you know, I'm fortunate. I don't need to build other jobs. We don't. But I would love to help people build generational wealth and value. That's kind of cool. I learned how to do that. I didn't go to school for it or that. I just kind of learned how to do it from, yeah, in the end, it's in the 19 to figure it out, making a lot of mistakes and go figure it out. Exactly. Never knew that that message from our parents would be, you know, so kind of true, right? It's so much is. Well, it's been a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you for joining us. We're about to hop into your session. We're going to get into the whole journey of it, all, man. Yeah, wait. Yeah. So beyond success. If you want to hear about, you know, serial entrepreneurs that have made exits and also, you know, they, they can't retire. To retire is to expire, right? And so that kind of a passion of entrepreneurship is still kind of fueling him, right? To grow, keep on going above and beyond, right? The website for the scaled up ventures. Scaled up ventures. Perfect. That's the website. All right.

22:30Well, let's get into it. And thank you guys for joining us here. And we'll see you next time, everyone. Cheers.