Shawn Sundsvold is co-founder of Gold Bear Media, a digital marketing agency serving businesses from about half a million up to $10 million in revenue. The agency covers organic social media, website development, SEO, email marketing, paid ads, and podcast production. Shawn built it alongside his wife, starting in 2020 after he survived emergency back surgery in 2019 that left him paralyzed from the stomach down and, by his account, gave him roughly 72 hours to live.
The conversation covers the three client groups Gold Bear Media focuses on, direct-to-consumer businesses, coaches and consultants, and home services companies, and the specific tactics that work for each. Shawn explains the video-to-static ad ratio his team uses on Meta, why Google Local Service Ads are underused in the home services space, and how a LinkedIn outreach campaign generated over a hundred leads for their new podcast in two weeks without paid ads.
The more memorable half of the episode is personal. Shawn describes relearning to walk after spinal surgery, then a follow-up hip surgery, before he and his wife spent four and a half years building the company on their own before hiring their first employee. His operating philosophy, that tomorrow is not guaranteed and goals require daily action, runs through everything he says about both business and life.
Shawn Sundsvold co-founded Gold Bear Media with his wife in 2020, the year after emergency back surgery left him paralyzed and, by his account, within 72 hours of dying from a spinal abscess. The agency handles organic content, paid advertising, SEO, email marketing, and podcast production for businesses in the direct-to-consumer, coaching and consulting, and home services spaces. Shawn also has a radio background, which shapes how Gold Bear Media approaches podcast-driven lead generation.
Full transcript of the conversation, published verbatim. Speaker labels come from the recording itself, not from an automated guess.
Jordan:0:00
Welcome back to the [High Ticket AI Systems] podcast. Everyone, please welcome the winner, Mr. Sonsville. Sean, how you doing today, my friend? Fantastic, my man. We're happy to have you on. And before we dive into all the nitty gritty strategies I know you have, can you please give us a high level overview of exactly what you guys do and who you guys serve best?
Shawn Sundsvold:0:08
Great Jordan, how are you?
Thank you.
Shawn Sundsvold:0:21
Yeah, so our company is called Gold Bear Media. We're a marketing agency that really focuses on businesses anywhere from about half a million up to $10 million, helping them improve their visibility online, both organically and through ads. And we've also helped companies and businesses, individuals build podcasts, build class situations, or if they want to train people on things and help them build those strategies.
Jordan:0:47
That's really cool. Have you niched down even more between the revenue range?
Shawn Sundsvold:0:53
not yet, but really where we do focus on, we've got three areas that we focus on. So, direct to consumer businesses, coaches and consultants and home services companies are really the three people and the three groups that we serve the most.
Jordan:1:07
What's your favorite?
Shawn Sundsvold:1:11
They all have their own kind of favorites, right? And their own reasons I like them. You I worked in retail and growing up, you know, through a lot of my career. So the direct to consumer side of it and understanding like buyer behavior is, is fun for me. You know, home services is a really, I think an industry that needs a lot of marketing help. It's such a competitive space. And a lot of, you know, smaller companies are really starting to figure, trying to figure out how do I survive in a digital world when they don't have the skills? you know, and then coaches and consultants, you know, they're just kind of a fun group because they get to work with a lot of different people and, you know, but they need the help in this sense of I'm one, I'm a one person show a lot of times, or we're a small company. So how do we, you know, how do we make ourselves feel bigger? And so those, that's really the fun around the three.
Jordan:1:59
Absolutely. I worked retail growing up, you know, just to get a job. needed income, right? Got out of that space, eventually got into the, like, not going to say, not bartending, but like being a server, you know, like the food restaurant space, customer service, and then eventually branched off into, into sales. But nonetheless, I completely resonate when you say working with coaches and consultants. I, when I first started my agency over six years ago now,
Shawn Sundsvold:2:05
Yeah.
Shawn Sundsvold:2:14
Yeah.
Jordan:2:29
I chose solar as the niche. So home improvement, right? I realized that they know a lot about solar. They know a lot about home improvement. They know nothing about marketing. So as, as I got better, understood marketing lingo, got client results, I try to articulate certain things to these business owners and they just, was right over their head.
Shawn Sundsvold:2:33
Okay.
Shawn Sundsvold:2:40
Yep.
Shawn Sundsvold:2:51
Mm-hmm.
Jordan:2:52
That's frustrating. However, coaches and consultants that have like been in the game, they're a little more experienced. I can articulate myself and they pick up what I'm putting down. I'm like this, this, I love working with these guys. So I made that pivot to only work with coaches, consultants, SaaS companies, just because we can speak the same freaking language and nothing's going on in their head. You know what I mean?
Shawn Sundsvold:3:02
Mm-hmm.
Shawn Sundsvold:3:12
Yeah. Yeah.
Jordan:3:14
Thanks for your insights there. I know you help on both the organic and paid side. When you say organic, what exactly do you mean? And when you say paid, what exactly do you mean?
Shawn Sundsvold:3:24
Sure, great question. So when we started our business, really started around four core things, right? Organic social media, website development, SEO, email marketing, all those are what is called owned media, right? Those are things that you as a company can create. And so where it all kind of started out was, you know, my wife figured out a really good system for some of our clients early on about... you know, how do we start connecting you to the community? Right? Like what are tactics and ways that we can help you start building those connections with the group, the people that are just around you and that you follow and things like that. So, you know, that's where we started with the social media side of it. And then it just kind of kept growing and going to email marketing. You know, she, she's done a lot of that. and then it just continued on like, Hey, we want to do websites and SEO and piece by piece. just kind of started building. from there. And so that's all the organic side of it. It's the stuff that the company owns. Right. Well, then you've got the advertising side of it, which is, you know, they're getting, they're spending money to get people's eyeballs and attention. Right. So that could be, you know, Google ads, that could be Facebook and Meta ads, you know, which we've done pretty well at, you know, and then even if it's like we have a company, couple of companies that are looking at Google local service ads. And so, you know, working with them on building that for themselves as well.
Jordan:4:41
Those freaking crush right now. If you're a local business owner, you can get your G B P Google business profile up and running. Get that bad boy verified. So a freaking receptionist on there. All she does is answer that one freaking phone line like that will crush.
Shawn Sundsvold:4:43
Yeah.
Shawn Sundsvold:4:56
Yeah, it's been really good for the clients that we've put it on. You know, the process for getting set up, especially in the home services world, can take a little time. You know, it takes about a week for all the business verification things to get done and all that. But once it's there and once you've got it going, you know, it's a great way for people to see your name without spending money. Right. Because until they click on that, you know, to call and connect with you, they're seeing your name a lot. And, you know, for the people we're doing this for in the counties they're serving.
You know, they're showing up in the top three 98 % of the time, right? So people are seeing their name. It's driving traffic to the websites, you know, and getting some extra phone calls. And even though they're not clicking necessarily from Google, you know, the amount of form fills that they've gotten on their website and the number of people that are looking at their website has definitely increased from that.
Jordan:5:47
That's amazing. love it. Onto the organic side, you said building communities. Are you literally referring to like, I'm a business owner, you're my agency. Are you suggesting I go out there into the community and start networking? Or did you mean more so like the website side, posting organically, things like that?
Shawn Sundsvold:5:53
Yeah.
Shawn Sundsvold:6:07
Great question. And I would say on some level, it's both, right? You know, as a business owner, especially if you're local, right? Like you need to have your community on your side. You know, you need to start knowing who are the people that can refer you, you know, clients, you know, if you're a plumber, right? You want to be able to know like who's a homeowner, right? Or maybe somebody owns an apartment complex, right? Or a property management company. Then you can become that person that they call on a regular basis, right? So there's that side of it for the networking. So I think that is very important.
But in the social media world, right? Where, you know, it's really easy to tag somebody in a post because they're the business next door, right? Maybe they've never met you, but they start, you guys start posting for each other and it starts, you able to start showing like, you know, the person who is right next door to the plumbing company, you know, maybe it's a tile company or something else like that. You're starting to cross refer those people and build community. It's like if, you know, so if the, like a tile store, for example, They have their people that follow them and everything. And if they start showing content or connecting content to a plumber or something else, right, people are going to see that audience grow. And so there's just those opportunities all around for every single local business, right? And so many of them don't take advantage of it.
Jordan:7:21
No, you're absolutely right. They definitely do not take advantage of it. If you have the ability to sponsor an event, have your banner up there, shake some hands, greet, greet new faces. Definitely take advantage of that. Second thing is, is people believe their own backyard or their community over what they read online. I'm not saying you shouldn't post online. I'm definitely not saying don't run ads. I'm just saying generally speaking, if I were to ask you, know, Sean, who do you use for XYZ? I'm probably going to take your word for it because you already use them. done business with them and I like you you know we're here face to face etc you know so
Shawn Sundsvold:7:55
Exactly, exactly. People buy from who they trust, right? And it's a very, you know, it's a statement you've heard a thousand times, but it's really true, right? Like, you know, if I'm gonna spend 10, 15, $20,000 on something, I kinda wanna trust the person I'm buying it from, right? Or at least have some level of knowledge and understanding that I'm not trying to get scammed.
Jordan:8:16
Right, no absolutely. On that note, let's see here. When it comes to paid, you said you're crushing the game with meta and Instagram ads. Do you utilize both static and video ads for clients or can you walk me through what that looks like?
Shawn Sundsvold:8:23
Mm-hmm.
Shawn Sundsvold:8:28
Mm-hmm.
Shawn Sundsvold:8:35
Yeah, so we're about, I would say probably around a 70-30. We try to do more video ads than static ads, but you know, we have one client that it's a static ad for soap, right? And it crushes. It really does. You know, it's one of the better performing ads that they've had, you know, with a return on ad spend of something like seven to one. It's crazy.
Jordan:8:59
That's really good. Gotcha. Do you think this is just from my experience with meta ads and advertising in general. If the audience knows what you are selling, can be, you can simplify. So a static ad looks great. It can be a 10 second video ad, but we can keep it really simple. Why? Because the audience knows a freaking soap bar. It knows what the hell it does. However, if you are
Shawn Sundsvold:9:22
Yeah.
Jordan:9:25
selling a more advanced offer, like a biz op, a business opportunity, then I feel like you have to articulate yourself a bit more than what a static ad can do. And I think that is the difference that most companies don't really think about, right? It's like,
Shawn Sundsvold:9:33
Mm-hmm.
Jordan:9:41
Let we can take a home improvement roofing company as an example. Like if you were to have a static ad and just slap the offer on the static app, like, Hey, a thousand dollars off your roof for this month only. Like most, most people know, okay, I'm getting a new roof with a thousand dollars off. Okay, cool. does that kind of make sense at all?
Shawn Sundsvold:9:55
Yeah.
Shawn Sundsvold:10:00
It does. I think you're right on that there's, depending on the complexity of it, right? There's gotta be some education that has to happen. so, and that's one where if you're only running one ad versus running like a set of three, four, five different ads that people can see different sides of it, they can see different parts of the complexity or different parts of the conversation. It gives you an opportunity to...
Jordan:10:06
Right.
Shawn Sundsvold:10:25
to show that across multiple fronts versus just one static ad of here's what we do and hoping that you get it right. You can communicate something a lot faster in 15 seconds of video than you can trying to read something for 15 seconds, right? Just by natural human thing of how we take in information.
Jordan:10:32
back.
Jordan:10:43
100 % and I get excited so I attempt jump in. when it comes to video, most humans nowadays would much rather prefer to watch a video opposed to reading content. this is actually, there's been a study on this where, and I'm not degrading anyone, I did not go to college and if I did, I definitely dropped out.
Shawn Sundsvold:11:04
You
Jordan:11:05
But the higher you go up on the education bracket, like masters or freaking PhD level, maybe even some levels of bachelor's, right? You tend to read more than you watch the videos, but really, really for the masters and the PhD graduates, right? Those people, because they had to read for a long period of time. Like there wasn't a lot of video out there to consume, so they hit the books. However, if it's below that threshold, you just want to watch the videos. And I think it's very, very interesting. So I'm saying this because know your audience.
Shawn Sundsvold:11:26
Yeah.
Jordan:11:35
Right. If you're targeting people that have master's degrees, like corporate executive level people, you can probably hit them with like a longer written form, longer written content, and it would still convert. Maybe not at a level like a video would, but it still would convert. And I'm saying all this. So know your audience, right? Know who's actually the recipients of this advertisement.
Shawn Sundsvold:11:35
Yeah.
Shawn Sundsvold:11:56
Yeah.
Jordan:12:00
One question that I want to propose to you, I know I go on tangents here, but you help businesses start podcasts for one brand awareness. And I was checking out on your website, Lee Generation, which I think is actually a pretty good idea and very unique. Have you implemented that to any of your businesses? And if yes, What niche?
Shawn Sundsvold:12:12
Mm-hmm.
Shawn Sundsvold:12:21
Yeah, so we have a leadership consultant that we are working with right now that we've done exactly that, right? As we've started building her campaign on LinkedIn for building a podcast and gaining some awareness, they've also been able to lock down, I think it's five new clients this year from the outreach that we've done. So it's been a really good, it's a great way to do it too because it can be a twofold system.
Right? the sense of number one, you get to get your name out there and as a business, you know, you get to show how much you understand the place that you're consulting. Right? So for her, for in this case, for her, it's leadership. Right? She's been a leadership consultant for 20, almost 30 years. Right? She's very good at what she does. And what we've kind of found out with them is they're doing a lot. but there's so much in their own backyard within two hours of them that they just weren't getting and connecting with, right? So we built them a lead gen campaign through LinkedIn that helped just connect and build connections. And we started a podcast for her that she's, you know, started out by talking just to clients, right? Of what was the experience like, you know, and being able to build that understanding and that professionalism and that understanding of their service through those conversations to where now, you know, as, as we reach out, it's the conversations changing to where we're getting people that they never, you know, they haven't heard of the organization that we're doing this for. And they're starting to get really intrigued because as they're having these high level conversations on a podcast, they're starting to see where the gaps are in their own leadership and finding opportunities to where they can engage our clients.
Jordan:14:03
That's amazing, Congratulations on that. Out of curiosity, do you guys utilize that internally?
Shawn Sundsvold:14:10
yeah, that's actually how we figured it out. it was something, you know, we were starting to do some Legion for ourselves on LinkedIn and I have a radio background and so I just, I've always loved radio and I love talking to people. And so we actually decided we were going to start a podcast. Sort of it's been on our list for a couple of years and we just decided we're going to finally pull the trigger on it. So we started doing a campaign to reach out and within two weeks.
Jordan:14:12
Hahaha!
Shawn Sundsvold:14:36
we had over a hundred leads for people wanting to do a podcast and to be on our podcast. And so, you know, as we're doing this, we've just, you know, we talk to people and in the process we get to have great conversations that create, you know, a friend basically, right? Like, you know, they've, they've got to do something really cool and be on your podcast. And so you've got that relationship there. And then on the backside of it, because we're sending out all the marketing materials for them, as far as like, social media content, we're advertising our podcast, they're now in our email system, right? So they're starting to get our marketing materials on the backside of being on the podcast, and we picked up about three or four clients from that as well. So it's really cool. Like it's just to watch those relationships build and you never know who's gonna refer you somebody because they know what you do and maybe they didn't need it, but they have a friend who does. And so it's really just...
Jordan:15:16
That's amazing,
Shawn Sundsvold:15:30
because of that relationship and that conversation, it helps to build out what that network looks like.
Jordan:15:35
Absolutely. And kind of circling back to what you said about local service businesses building that community in their own backyard as online business owners like you and I, don't really have like an equivalent of that. You know I mean? But podcasting in my, from my experience, accelerates relationships or accelerates networking. Right? I conduct a few of these a week and I'm still in contact with basically everyone that's, that's been a guest in one way or another.
Shawn Sundsvold:15:48
Yeah.
Shawn Sundsvold:16:01
Mm-hmm.
Jordan:16:02
We're talking on LinkedIn, they've received past podcasts we've conducted, a bunch of cool stuff. And I feel like you can't really do that when you're an online service-based business. It's a bit difficult to find your community. So I'm glad you guys have went that route and it's actually worked out for you. On that note, I had a question, Sean. Give me a second here.
Jordan:16:29
On that note, when you are inviting or accepting guests, are they, assume, your ICP or do they just have to do some cool shit, cool stuff in the world? Okay.
Shawn Sundsvold:16:41
You know, we've had both, right? Because just some of the people we've had the chance to talk to, like one of the guys we've talked to, he's like a legend in the customer experience world. I mean, he had, he worked with Chick-fil-A for a while, like Truett Cathy, who was the, yeah. So Truett Cathy was on his speed dial, right? Like he had Truett Cathy call him up one day and said, hey, I got a question.
Jordan:17:04
Hahaha
Shawn Sundsvold:17:04
You know, and so, I mean, we've talked to people like that, right? That just some of the stories they have of who they worked with and what they've done have just been really cool. Like you just can't pass up those opportunities to hear those stories right into interview somebody like that. You know, and then we've talked to a lot of people who are just like us, you know, they're building a business. They're, they're less than 10 years old. They're still figuring it out, you know, and those are interesting too, because the stories that they have and the hardships they go through, I think it resonates with every single entrepreneur, right? That, you know, we've all gone through hard stuff. We've all got the hard stories. We've all got the clients that we just, you know, that are challenging, right? Or, you know, when it's whatever it might be, right? Like, so you just hearing the hardships that other people go through gives you that space where you can be like, I'm not alone in doing this, right? Other people have been through it. So, and they've gotten to the other side, which means I can too. Right? that, and half the time, that's the conversation that we have. You know, it's like, what are some challenges? How are you getting through them? What have you learned from it? You know, and so it makes for really interesting conversations.
Jordan:18:01
Absolutely.
Jordan:18:13
Absolutely. Yeah, entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. It's a very lonely path. You give up working 40 hours a week to work 60 plus hours for yourself.
Shawn Sundsvold:18:17
No, yeah, for sure.
Shawn Sundsvold:18:23
Yup. And then not have anybody to talk to, right? Because, you know, you've got clients and you love your clients, right? But you're not going to tell them about stuff that's going on in your business, right? Exactly. Exactly. You know, and so that's why, you know, I highly encourage, like, if you can find a group of people, you know, that are
Jordan:18:33
They're not your prayer fist.
Shawn Sundsvold:18:43
in business, maybe it's not your same line of business, that in business, they can kind of help you work through things and mastermind groups and things like that are fantastic. Coaches love that aspect of being a business owner that if I want to improve, there's a million ways for me to do it. And I just have to go find the person that I think can help me do it the best.
Jordan:19:04
No, absolutely. And it kind of goes back to that mindset. You said mastermind, but really like the mindset that people have when they are an entrepreneur. Like I'll, you know, talk with my siblings just about life. I'm late twenties, they're mid twenties. And it's like night, night, night and day, like how we think about life, how we think about success, like our future, like they're just coasting. Of course I love them. They're my siblings, but they don't really think about shit. You know what I mean? I'm like, what happens when?
Shawn Sundsvold:19:17
Okay.
Shawn Sundsvold:19:26
Yeah.
Jordan:19:31
Like not what happens if like what happens when, you know what I mean? And I don't know I can think about that shit. It's really, really funny to me. That's what I was going to say about the question. So two things. One, which outbound channel did you utilize to have 100 potential podcast guests? That's question one. Question two is with, um, AI SEO and geo in the. Frickin domain authority YouTube has has, have you seen in a bet with your podcast?
Shawn Sundsvold:19:34
Yeah.
Jordan:20:00
Excuse me. Have you seen an effect with your own SEO because of the podcast that you currently have? So two questions in one there.
Shawn Sundsvold:20:07
Two questions in one. So to answer the first question, LinkedIn was where we started first, right? We've done some email outbound through it, but LinkedIn has really been the tool that does it. And if you're like me, you get five of these a day. was like these cold email outreaches on LinkedIn, right? And they're offering different services or whatever. But this one's a little bit different because you're telling people, we'll give you a chance to tell your story.
Jordan:20:12
Gotcha.
Shawn Sundsvold:20:37
And everybody wants to talk about themselves, right? Like just what we do, right, as humans. The YouTube side of it has been interesting. Just being really forthright on it, we probably have not, and I will say I probably have not spent as much time in the nitty gritty of the SEO side of YouTube as I should. Because there's a, the amount of...
Jordan:20:42
We're humans, exactly.
Shawn Sundsvold:21:05
cool things that SEO can do if you really put your effort behind it, it's amazing. And you just have to understand the search terms that people are searching for. And if you can figure out the way people search, good things are going to happen. So we've seen an uplift from it. Yes. Could it be more? I am absolutely sure it could.
I just haven't had the time to put into it. We've had such an amazing start of the year so far. It's been hair on fire as we've added multiple new clients and building out this new podcasting service and things like that. So it's been a really hectic year for us. And so one of my goals over the summer is to spend a little bit more time on the SEO side of it and YouTube to really help promote our own podcast.
Jordan:21:52
For sure. thank you for the insights there. On that note, how are, cause we do like to talk about AI on the podcast as well. guys utilizing AI at all? Any workflows, agents workflows? Yeah. Lay it on us.
Shawn Sundsvold:21:59
Mm-hmm.
Shawn Sundsvold:22:03
We've got quite a few. We've got quite a few. We've even gone as far as when we've got, for different clients, especially if we're having to do a lot of writing for them, or website creation. We've created specific LLMs inside of ChatGPT or things inside of ChatGPT with source material that can help us in creating things for our clients.
We utilize a ton of AI and as far as just workflow items for emails, and even things like Zapier for integration between different programs. So we're pretty well into it.
Jordan:22:43
Awesome. Have you explored cloud code at all?
Shawn Sundsvold:22:46
I've not done Claude code. I have a developer client of ours, like he swears by Claude. And basically the way he says it is like for developers, it's better, much better at staying on task than some of the other ones, which is really, which is great. but as, as a non-developer, I haven't really gone too far into the code side of it.
Jordan:23:06
No worries. You bring up Zapier and basically Claude code can eliminate that entire fricking process for you. So I of course, use Zapier and I swapped over to N8n, which is a little more advanced than Zapier in my opinion. And I got so sick and tired of like connecting all the nodes, matching on the fricking custom fields. I'm like, don't get me wrong. Like you do what you have to do, right? But I wish it was fricking simpler because I'm not a coder. I fricking hate that shit. That's not how my mind works. And then Claude code came around.
Shawn Sundsvold:23:28
Yeah.
Shawn Sundsvold:23:34
Mm-hmm
Jordan:23:36
And like at first I didn't really adapt it or adopt it, but all the people who I follow on YouTube were like, dude, you gotta check out Claude code. You gotta check out Claude code. It can do X, Y, Z. I'm like, well, X, Y, Z kind of seems nice. Like, let me, I want X, Z, you know? So then I tried it and my fricking gosh, dude, literally try Claude code tonight. It will take you so much time. It is insane.
Shawn Sundsvold:23:48
Yeah.
Shawn Sundsvold:23:57
All right, done, done, I will check it out.
Jordan:24:02
Got you, got you, okay cool. When it comes to other acquisition channels or systems rather, is the podcast a primary source or do you utilize any other ones like Google Ads for yourself or Meta Ads for yourself?
Shawn Sundsvold:24:16
So our biggest one, we still get a lot from referrals. Referrals is still, I would say, our biggest lead source. The podcast, would say, now is our second. Just because the burn is little slower on that one. We've seen from start to finish when we interview somebody to where they may become a client, it's about three to four months. you know, by the time we get it published and we start building that relationship and doing some things. you know, I may look for ways to increase the speed of that, but right now, just because we are a small company, like the pace at which we're growing fits us right now. You know, in a year or so, I would love to have it be faster. you know and have the opportunity for taking on more at a faster rate but where we're at right now like it's very comfortable where we're at and I'm you I like the pace we're at.
Jordan:25:14
For sure. Two things I want to say, one's a question, one's a statement. I'll say the statement first. You never want to outpace or outgrow operations. That's just a nightmare waiting to happen. Right? If you take on 10 clients, but realistically you can only handle like three more, those seven clients, remaining seven are like, zuck or zuck. I mean, then refunds, chargebacks, negative reviews. It's a nightmare. I learned from experience. The question I propose is,
Shawn Sundsvold:25:30
Exactly. Exactly.
Shawn Sundsvold:25:39
Yeah.
Jordan:25:40
Three to four months between podcasts, interview, and like a potential engagement. What's the workflow? If you don't mind me asking.
Shawn Sundsvold:25:48
So once they've done the podcast with us, they start getting on our newsletter and then we send them updates as far as like what's coming with the podcast. So they're starting to get what's happening in our business as part of that workflow. And so within a couple of months, we're starting to send them, we send them the social media clips so they can start doing their own promotion. over that three to four months, they're just seeing a lot of different things from us about the capability that we have. Maybe they become listeners of the podcast and they start seeing what we talk about when we tell stories of what we've done for clients.
I don't know if I haven't necessarily a perfected workflow on it yet. I just know all the things that they're getting and I know the results we're seeing.
Jordan:26:39
No, that's okay. That's okay. I was just curious because two to four months, mean, man, you got to be patient. It's a long sales cycle. I assume what you're doing is you're delivering on the said promise. like, Hey, join our podcast. You'll get these deliverables. Of course you've got the long form. And then after they've received the deliverables is a potential ask you might make. Is that kind of how it works?
Shawn Sundsvold:27:02
Yeah, I don't if it's a potential ask, but it'll become an awareness of like, here's all the things we can do. You've seen what we've done for just the podcast, right? You've seen the quality of deliverability. What else could we do for you?
Right? you know, email marketing is a big one from that, right? There's so many companies, they have thousands of email addresses that they're just sitting on, they don't know what to do with. They haven't segmented them, they haven't figured out how do we utilize this information, right? Other than a monthly newsletter or whatever they might do, right? So they're seeing us put together different things for different workflows, for different groups. You know, now once they're in there, if they're in a particular industry, they'll get it, you know, they get some emails from us as well.
So they're starting to see all the different ways that we're staying connected with our audience. And so from there, it really does lean into the opportunity for them to see how they could connect with their audience in different ways.
Jordan:27:56
Gotcha. Okay. How you thought about accelerating that process at all? Like just asking sooner?
Shawn Sundsvold:28:06
Probably I could, right? know, it's, you when that relationship is there, the ask is easier, right? It's sort of the, what is it, the Ben Franklin thing of ask a small favor, right? You know, so we probably could just again with where we're at right now. I just, haven't been able to focus on it.
Jordan:28:25
Okay, okay. Well, I guess I want to propose the next question. Are the thoughts of hiring help? the picture with you in the other profile. Yeah.
Shawn Sundsvold:28:34
Definitely, definitely. We hired an executive assistant. My wife and I run the company together. We started it in 2020. Sort of the backend story there, I had to have emergency back surgery in 2019. yeah, was, and so when I went into surgery, the story started of, you make it through this, wasn't a question of when, it was if. I had an abscess in my spine, the infection had gone systemic. I probably had 72 hours left to live. had I not gone into surgery. I was paralyzed from about the stomach down, you know, and so went into surgery with that as the framework in 2019. And so, you know, got done with surgery, had to relearn to walk and do some other things again. Later in the year had to have a hip surgery because the infection didn't clear all the way. So that was 2019. And so 2020 comes around and my wife decides she's just going to pick up some freelance work.
And so that's where our company started is just the two of us. And so in 2024, no 2025, we'd gotten to a point we needed to hire an executive assistant. We had done it all ourselves for basically four and a half years, right? It started with her doing it by herself the first couple of years part-time. And then she went full-time in August of 22. And then I went full-time with her in October of 22.
And then, you know, we built it for a couple of years, about three years, just her and I. And so now we started, you know, we brought our executive assistant on and now we're starting to see the benefits of that as far as like more time, more availability, more opportunity to start really working on the business in some ways than we had been. And so that is my goal. The next, I would say 18 months really is really figuring out what the different roles are going to look like and who do we start putting people, you know, in to help with that aspect.
Jordan:30:30
Thank you for opening up, man.
You didn't have to, but thank you for doing that. I have a couple of questions regarding the EA that you hired on, but I'm going to save that for later. I want to talk about mental resiliency or mental resilience for a second. How has like going through what you went through in 2019 had an impact on like, I'm going to live for me now. Like, I don't care what's going to happen. I can literally freaking die tomorrow. I'm going to take the risks that I need to. And then secondly, like going through rehab, because that's not easy. I went through rehab.
Shawn Sundsvold:30:34
Yeah.
Jordan:31:01
not at the scale that you went through, how has that had an effect on just your day-to-day life and again, that's what we're saying.
Shawn Sundsvold:31:09
Yeah, I used to make a joke all the time when I was younger. I would say, I'll sleep when I'm dead. Right? Like, I just, I'm a go person. I have an on button and an off button and there's not much difference. But, when I, going through a situation where I almost died... really changed my perspective, right? I try to take care of myself a little more. I rest a little more than I used to. You know, I'm not out to burn myself out. I realize that there, that I run out of gas eventually. But what it did teach me was tomorrow is not guaranteed, right? We all kind of expect that. And so anything, you know, once that happened, anything that was on a bucket list for me, I started figuring out how to make it happen.
You know, I'd had skydiving on my list since I was 18, 19 years old, and I'd just never done it. So after surgery and once I was able to walk again, one of the first things I scheduled was going skydiving. And it was fun as my daughter, who was 18 at the time, she had just graduated from high school, wanted to go with me. So she and I went skydiving together. So it's changed me a lot, right? And I wouldn't...
Jordan:32:09
That's awesome.
Shawn Sundsvold:32:27
I wouldn't wish anybody to go through it, but I think in some sense of our life, we all have those moments, right? We all have those moments of what I call hitting rock bottom, right? And you just like, okay, am I going to change my life or am I going to let this continue? Right? And so you start making changes to do something different because you see that you can. And, you know, so, I mean, for people who are listening, like if you want to start a business, if you've had the idea of doing it, Do it, like don't wait. Don't wait till three years from now when your life is struggling or whatever. That's not the time to start a business, right? The time to start a business is when you're in a good place and you have the ability to a couple hours, three hours, 10 hours a week building something for yourself, right? Because the resilient side of it, there's a choice you make every day. You can get up and you can go keep pushing forward or you can just lay there and do nothing.
And so that's just where I land every day is I'm just going to get up and keep pushing forward. And there are days that are super awesome and there are days that really suck. But kind of the mantra goes, this too shall pass, right? So doesn't matter if it's the high mountain, this too shall pass. If it's the world's worst thing you could ever want to go through, this too shall pass. And you just kind of keep moving forward, knowing the goals that you have in mind.
Jordan:33:51
God damn it, Sean, I freaking love that, man. I freaking love that so freaking much, dude. Thank you so much for joining the podcast and saying that shit right there, because not everybody has the courage to say what you just said. Outside of you going through what you went through, entrepreneurship, even life in general, like you said, is going to have ups and downs, ebbs and flows.
You know, you can, definitely have a choice in those moments of like, am I going to let this define me? Am I going to give up here? Even though I have so many people counting on me or am I going to, I don't know, pick up my pants and keep on going? No matter how hard it's going to be. I actually battled through that personally in my late teens, early twenties. I played baseball for a long time, but I was going to get drafted like everyone does. I legit thought I was going to get drafted and injured myself.
Shawn Sundsvold:34:37
Mm-hmm.
Jordan:34:42
had a major, major ego death. Like you devote 15 plus years to this one thing. And it's like, no, I don't do this one thing. What the hell do I do? Right. So I eventually fell into sure. An addiction for about three and a half years, like strong, like it was horrible.
Shawn Sundsvold:34:50
Yeah.
Jordan:34:59
And eventually I hit rock bottom and I was like, I don't want to live like this anymore, man. Like I can't even like look my parents in the eyes. I'm hanging around with these f**king bums basically. You know what I mean? Like I don't even recognize myself anymore. And from that point, you know, went to a good old rehab. I've actually went through physical rehab as well for my injury baseball. I went to this other rehab as well and eventually got my fr**king s**t together. And yeah, man, it was not easy going through that process 100%.
Shawn Sundsvold:35:19
Yeah.
Shawn Sundsvold:35:28
Yeah. I'm curious when, you know, you, you mentioned kind of, know, you had your own rock bottom moment and you decided I'm going to make a change. How soon after that was that tested for you? Like you decided I'm going to make a change in life. Cause I know for me, like I decided I'm to make a change in life. you know, a month or two months later, like that same thing that I was trying to make a change. I was, it was challenged like directly in my face of like, you know, this here it is right here, you can make this choice over here. And so for anybody who tells me that I'm curious, like was there a moment where that choice was tested for you?
Jordan:36:06
my gosh, yes. The amount of times I told myself I was going to get sober is like dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of times. And then me relapsing again. Like, yes, I was challenged damn near every day in the first year, right? Because you have so many habitual behaviors you've built up. You have a thought you want to go use, like what was drinking or whatever other substance that you want to use. Or for me, early on, it was FOMO, like, it's Friday night. I know my bros are at the bar.
What am I doing by myself? And I would go out and go out there and use it. Legit took me moving away from everyone, going back home with, um, going back home in San Francisco with my younger brother and living with him where I knew no one except my younger brother to finally figure some shit out. And even then I was tempted bro. Cause I'm like, I'm by myself. I don't fricking know anyone. Like I want to use, you know, long story short, from that moment of I have to get my shit together.
Shawn Sundsvold:36:37
Yeah.
Shawn Sundsvold:36:56
Yeah.
Jordan:37:04
to actually getting sober, like legit sober, was like a two year process. Like, it was a long time. It was pretty crazy. Anyways. Yeah. Yeah, man. It was like, I don't know. Obviously I'm thankful I did, but it taught me so much. It taught me so much, especially in business, because when I tell myself, right, here's the challenge.
Shawn Sundsvold:37:08
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah.
Jordan:37:31
Right. I know if I do X, I'm going to achieve Y result, right? If I hang out with these friends, I'm going to use, or if I don't hit the gym, right? So I had to replace the habit, right? This is actually what worked for me is opposed to doing X when Friday night hits. had to do Y when Friday night hits. And because I swapped the habitual behavior physically and mentally, I was okay. Like the cravings, one might say really, really subsides.
Shawn Sundsvold:37:43
Yeah.
Shawn Sundsvold:38:01
You change the reward, right? Yeah.
Jordan:38:01
And now I have, I changed my word, exactly.
Now I have these non-negotiables that I have to do every day, like legit non-negotiables. If I don't do it, I can't sleep. And that has helped me tremendously with like self-confidence, self-respect, self-love, you know? Cause like, I know a lot, like that word gets tossed around a lot and it's like some people, it's like really cringy, but like legit, you are with yourself 24 seven, dude. Like if you don't like yourself as a human being, you have some issues.
Shawn Sundsvold:38:29
You are.
Yeah. And as a, know, and again, being, being that we are next to ourself every single day, right? Like how you talk to yourself had to change, I bet. You know, like things like you used to beat yourself up and call yourself stupid and do all these things. You can't do that. Like, you know, I hate saying it, but your body listens to you, right? Like it, listens to what you say to yourself. It listens to what you say to other people. And it, it,
Jordan:38:44
Yes, yes, it's fine.
Shawn Sundsvold:38:59
Like I'm a little bit into the metaphysical and all of that, but I truly think man, like, you know, what you say to yourself matters more than anything else.
Jordan:39:02
Me too!
Jordan:39:08
It changes your fricking vibration. Like literally, like you said, our body, our nervous system picks up on thoughts. Like if you, if you would repeat yourself a positive affirmation, it may not work on the first time, but like a 10th, 15th, 100th time, your body, your vibration will literally be different than how you started. Or on the flip side, if you were to repeat negative things to yourself, maybe a hundred times, your body will then for shrink. It will be compressed. It will become negative based on words. Like
Shawn Sundsvold:39:14
Yeah.
Jordan:39:36
Before agreements is one of the books that I have back here and it's just words are f**king so powerful, dude. Like not to bring this up, he illustrates this perfect story. Obviously, Hitler was a f**king douchebag, but he literally changed and motivated an entire country just with his words. Right? Obviously, if you look at great public speakers, like Obama was a great one, you know, you can look at Trump, whatever. I'm not a political guy, but there's great, great public speakers out there in the world.
Shawn Sundsvold:39:36
Mm-hmm. Love that book.
Shawn Sundsvold:39:42
Yeah.
Shawn Sundsvold:39:54
Mm-hmm.
Jordan:40:06
that you will feel amped up, you will feel motivated, you will want to do something. Tony Robbins, because of their words. It's so interesting. So if this external source, Tony Robbins as an example, can motivate you, motherfucker, you can motivate you too, right? Talk to yourself kindly.
Shawn Sundsvold:40:11
Love Tony Robbins. Yeah. Yeah.
Shawn Sundsvold:40:22
Yeah. Yeah. And it's learning about goals, right? Like what are, like learning that you can have goals, you can achieve them, you know, but it requires something that not everybody wants to do, which is, you know, changing your priorities sometimes, right? And as, and I think that's been one of the biggest things as a business owner that I've walked through as I've gone through this process is my goals are achievable.
Right? Like it didn't start out as like, I just want to run a business one day. Okay. Well, yeah, I'm running a business. Well, what do want my business to look like? Well, you know, maybe I want my business to be 300 or $400,000 a share. Right? Well, how am I going to get there? Well, maybe I can, I can take action steps. Like I can go network more. I can reach out more. I can ask for referrals. I can start sending emails. I can post more on LinkedIn. You know, there's so many things that you can start doing to take action for yourself to make changes.
But you gotta take the first step and actually take the action towards it. And that's where I think a lot of people miss, right? They just don't realize or connect that by doing those things, it can change their life.
Jordan:41:27
I do completely agree, right? You will always prioritize what you truly prioritize in life. And you can say you prioritize this over here, but your actions will definitely speak louder. I have a question if you don't mind diving into, know, being a father, being a husband, how do you prioritize like certain things within the business and family time and being a good husband? Because I'm a single guy with no kids. I have no idea how that world looks.
Shawn Sundsvold:41:36
Mm-hmm.
Shawn Sundsvold:41:53
Yeah, you know, it's funny. We've talked to a number in doing our podcasts. We've talked to a number of husband wife teams, right? Some have been married five years. Some have been married three. Some have been married 15 or 20. Right. And so when my wife and I started our business, we had been married 18 years. I think it was, I'm just trying to, I know I'm close in that number.
And we had to have good communication because that really is what matters. then you got to figure out, well, how do I have a business conversation? How do I have a personal conversation? How do we have a logistics conversations about kids when it's all intertwined? Right? Because it's like, and we have times, I'll tell you what, like there's times like I'll have a business thing on my mind and it's nine o'clock at night. And my wife's like, no, she says no.
Jordan:42:33
You're right.
Shawn Sundsvold:42:45
And like, and that's what I know. It's like, okay, this is not the time to talk about this. Right. I mean, and we've set up some guardrails, right? Like we try not to talk about work after about eight 30 at night, but sometimes it's going to happen. Right. you know, we go on vacation and our business is still there while we're on vacation. Right. So there's still things we have to do on vacation sometimes. It's just the nature of it. I think it's what you, have to learn the balance. of it, you know, and I'm not a huge person on work-life balance. I think it's sort of a fallacy, right? I really more believe in work-life integration. It's like, how do you, this is the life I want. How do I integrate all these things into it? Right? So yes, I have a business, but my business is not as much of a priority as my kids or my spouse or me. Right? Like I have, that's the priority list. So you really got to understand like what your priorities are and understand which of those are non-negotiable, right? Like, Because if I know that if things aren't great at home, like with my wife and my spouse, like things could really suck in my business, right? Because that's gonna bleed through to clients and things like that. you know, it really is important to know and understand what your priorities are and then live that, you know? And it doesn't mean that there may be times that my business may have to take the high priority because I have deadlines due, deliverables and all that.
But then I can look at it go, well, I've got a vacation planned for like the first week of September, you know, and I want to make sure that I can put my work down for most of that vacation. And so I make sure to prioritize my time, maybe the couple of weeks before to make sure I can have a good time away and it's not going to be eaten up by work. You know, so again, it goes back to just how are you, how are you, you know, lining up your priorities and are you sticking to those things or do your actions say something different?
And so, and that's where for my wife and I both, you that's how we balance it. You know, we were lucky enough that we have a very similar priority list, you know, and how we do things together. So.
Jordan:44:48
Great insights, great, great insights, my friend. I would love, I remember running out on time here, but I want to say this statement. I would love for my future wife, you, to like be integrated into the business. Like, I don't know why, since I was a kid, I've always loved to have a family business. My siblings, they're not joining me at all. I don't care if I pay them like way more than they make out, they're still not joining me. But hopefully my wife is on board for that. You know what I mean? I think that'd be super cool.
Shawn Sundsvold:45:15
Yeah, yeah, it's funny. We know a couple of other couples that they both own their own businesses, right? One's a realtor, the other one is a, he runs a small home improvement company, right? But they're married, they kind of do all their planning together with their separate businesses and the real estate business also kind of helps out with. his side of the home, the remodeling side of it, because if they're flipping a house or doing something like that, they get the opportunity to work together too. So it just really is, you know, a conversation of how do we, you know, not only how do we work together as, you know, a couple, right? But how can we work together in a, a bigger aspect? And I think the more, the more the two of you can be, you know, on the same page and have the same goal list, it just goes exponentially faster.
Jordan:46:05
Absolutely. Well, two more questions for you. First one is, what is the single best piece of advice you ever received?
Shawn Sundsvold:46:26
I said it earlier, but it's really become a mantra I live by, is that this too shall pass. Right? Like, doesn't matter how bad things are, this too shall pass. Like this is temporary. You know, what my goals are, those are permanent. You know, those are the things I get up and do every day. And those are the things that motivate me. I've had some hard things happen, right?
And at the end of the day, you just kind of go, okay, that sucked. Um, and this too shall pass and tomorrow's a new day. And you just pick up and keep going. Um, I've got a, it all stemmed from my surgery, but when I'm, I don't have any tattoos, right? So one of my, one of my things this year is I'm going to get my first tattoo and it's, and the, the, it's going to be just a phrase. says die while I'm living, right? It's from a Jimmy Buffett song, right? The, the, the line goes, I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead.
Jordan:47:13
Hey!
Shawn Sundsvold:47:23
And that's all something that stemmed from everything with my back surgery and realizing that tomorrow's not guaranteed. And so between those two things, it's just kind of like that's my life mantra at this point in time.
Jordan:47:36
No, I love it. no BS. I got the chills when you said that lyric or that phrase. I was like, that hits deep. That really hits deep. And then Sean, where can they find you if they wanted to explore your business further or just connect with you off camera here?
Shawn Sundsvold:47:43
Yeah.
Shawn Sundsvold:47:49
Yeah, so easiest way to do it, goldbeard.media is the website and there's a contact form on there to get to us. You can also email me directly. It's Sean, S-H-A-W-N at goldbeard.media. And then I'm on LinkedIn as well. I think my last name only shows up with about a couple other people and a couple of them I'm related to. you know, easy last name to find if you start looking for it. So.
Jordan:48:14
Awesome. Sean, thank you so much for hopping on the podcast, man. Thanks for opening up. I feel like we went on some personal stories, which I'm very grateful we did. Nonetheless, thanks for hopping on, my friend. Yes, sir. Audience, talk later.
Shawn Sundsvold:48:25
Thanks, Jordan.
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