In this power-packed episode of The Laptop Lifestyle Dad Show, Jeff Ross sits down with DJ Barton, a seasoned entrepreneur, digital business strategist, and social selling expert. DJ shares insider secrets on building passive income, mastering duplication in network marketing, and using AI to scale without losing the human touch. If you’re tired of chasing prospects, struggling with duplication, or curious about AI’s role in social selling, this episode is a must-listen!
✅ How Network Marketing Has Evolved: What’s changed & what remains timeless
✅ The Power of AI in Business: How to use AI to enhance, not replace, real relationships
✅ Attraction Marketing 101: How to draw prospects to you instead of chasing them
✅ The #1 Mistakes in Network Marketing: And how to fix them
✅ DJ’s 6-Month Plan to Build a Six-Figure Business from Scratch
💬 “Human first, marketer second. People do business with people, not companies.”
💬 “AI is a tool to amplify your voice, not replace it.”
💬 “Would you recruit you? If not, it’s time to level up.”
⏱️ 00:01 – Jeff’s Signature Show Opener: Why The Laptop Lifestyle Dad Show exists
⏱️ 01:14 – Introducing DJ Barton: His 28-year journey in network marketing & digital business
⏱️ 04:39 – What’s Changed in Network Marketing & Social Selling
⏱️ 08:57 – How to Cut Through the Noise & Build Authority Online
⏱️ 19:26 – The Biggest Mistakes Network Marketers Make (& how to fix them)
⏱️ 27:33 – The Role of AI & Automation in Business Growth
⏱️ 39:26 – DJ’s Exact Strategy for Building a 6-Figure Business in 12 Months
⏱️ 46:47 – Final Words & How to Connect with DJ Barton
⏱️ 47:31 – Jeff’s Dad Joke Close & Signature Wrap-Up
📲 Instagram: @TheRealDJBarton
📲 Facebook: DJ Barton
📲 LinkedIn: DJ Barton
▶️ YouTube: Laptop Lifestyle Dads Channel
🎵 Spotify: Laptop Lifestyle Dad show https://open.spotify.com/show/49KDYwyy1E2ofvyE61bg7A
🍏 Apple Podcasts: Catch it Here as well
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-laptop-lifestyle-dad-show/id1756485288
📡 LA Tribune Podcast Network: More Episodes Here https://www.latpn.com/jeff-ross
🚀 Join The Laptop Lifestyle Dad’s Academy for expert guidance on social selling, AI, attraction marketing, and personal branding. Get the exact roadmap to build influence, grow your business, and create true financial freedom.
👉 Learn more here: lld.shoply.com/partners
💬 What was YOUR biggest takeaway from DJ’s wisdom? Drop a 🚀 in the comments & tag a mate who needs to hear this!
📢 If you loved this episode, don’t keep it to yourself—share it with your team!
💥 Stay caffeinated. Stay legendary. See you in the next one! 🦘🔥
Jeff Ross (00:01) Well, good day legends and welcome back to another episode of the Laptop Lifestyle Dad Show. Hey, this one's proudly brought to you in partnership with the Los Angeles Tribune Network. My name's Jeff Ross. I'm your host, a proud father of three amazing energetic boys coming to you from the beautiful island of Tasmania, Australia. This show is where we help frustrated network marketers, affiliate marketers, and online entrepreneurs, so master AI,
social selling and attraction marketing, so you can go build a business that works for you instead of the other way around. So let me ask you this, are you tired of chasing prospects and hearing crickets in your DMs? Do you wanna grow a network marketing business without the burnout? Hey, I'm curious, are you using AI and automation to help you to scale faster? If this is how I piqued your interest, then stick around.
Let's buckle up because today's guest is about to drop some serious wisdom. He's an industry legend and I'm pumped to welcome DJ Barton to the house. Thank you very much for saying yes, DJ. Really appreciate you.
DJ (01:14)
Yeah, Jeff, thank you for having me. I've been watching you for a long time on social media. And one of the things I actually love best about social media is it brings the whole world so close together and you get to create a lot of memories and more importantly, relationships with people that you would have never met. And I've been able to be very fortunate to watch your journey over the years on what you're doing. So congratulations to you as well.
Jeff Ross (01:37)
Well, thank you very much, DJ. It really does help to make it a global community, right? So for those who don't know, DJ is a seasoned entrepreneur. He's a digital business strategist, a social selling expert in his own right, who's mastered the art of building passive income streams through digital products, automation and social media marketing. He's the co-founder of Lavadi Travel Club, a business that's changing the way people experience travel around the world.
He has decades of experience in online business, digital marketing, network marketing, and DJ has helped thousands of entrepreneurs simplify duplication, build teams faster, and create financial freedom. So in this episode, we're going to break down with DJ the biggest shifts in digital entrepreneurship and network marketing, how to leverage this new fab, know, fangled tool called AI and automation for passive income and duplication.
the most common mistakes online entrepreneurs make and how we can fix them or even avoid them altogether and how to build influence and authority through social media. So before we get started, this episode is brought to you by the Laptop Lifestyle Dads Academy. You know, we're all about helping network marketers, affiliate marketers scale their business even faster through the LLD community.
You know, this is your one stop shop to mastering social selling and AI, attraction marketing and personal branding. And to give you the fundamentals, foundational skill sets to become that person of influence, to learn how to master storytelling, to learn how to really leverage social selling through applying AI to help you to shorten that learning curve. Hey, we don't just teach you how to grow your network marketing business.
we give you the exact roadmap and tools to help you make it happen. And if you would like to learn more about the Laptop Lifestyle Dad's Academy to see if it's a good fit for you, just reach out and have a chat with us. You'll see the link in the show notes below, but let's get started with today's episode. And DJ, first question I've got for you, mate, is you've been an entrepreneur for decades now. You've been in the online business space, the network marketing space, you've seen it evolve.
DJ (03:41)
you
Yeah.
Thanks.
Jeff Ross (04:00)
massively over the last couple of decades. What are the biggest changes that you've seen in how people build and grow their businesses? And what are the core principles that still hold true in today's world?
DJ (04:14)
Yeah, no, what a great question, man. The first thing that comes to my mind is human first market or second. know, nobody loves to be sold, but everybody does like to buy. And we know that in a really big way. And authenticity is everything today in the society that we live in today. Social media is the double edged sword, right? It's a good thing and a bad thing.
Jeff Ross (04:17)
Cough
Mmm.
DJ (04:39)
One, and everybody continues to show what we would call their highlight reel versus their reality reel. And the difference maker from, you know, with leveraging social media today per se, is that the more authentic you can be, the more real you can be and let people into your heart, into your mind, into your soul and on your day to day of what you do. That's the difference maker. A lot of people...
in our space, the affiliate or the network marketing model. It's evolved. I just started doing this 28 years ago, Jeff, just when I turned 18 years old. And let me just put it in perspective without going too deep. But I remember when I first got started, we circled an ad in what's called a newspaper. I know some people don't even know what that is in today's world. And it was in the sales and marketing section. And we answered a little ad and we went down to an office and sat in a group presentation.
got pitched this idea of being self-employed and living life on your terms, traveling the world and having financial freedom. And you got to remember I was 18. I didn't go to college. I barely graduated high school. All the job offers I got without a degree was blue collar labor work, painting, carpenter work, laying carpet, tile, things like that. And so when I went down to my first meeting and saw light at the end of the tunnel going, wow, an everyday person like me has the.
the ability to become financially free as long as I'm coachable, teachable, follow a system, find a mentor, find a leader and go to work. And, know, we used to run ads and newspapers. We didn't have social media. We didn't have the Internet. I remember faxing orders in back in the day. And, you know, we would have to go to malls and be, you know, pretend shoppers because we couldn't afford to buy anything and compliment people in the mall on their shoes, their car, their watch.
start conversations with the bartenders and servers, know, true old school networking groups, all the things. And now today, Jeff, you you and I met through the worldwide web, through social media. mean, you're, you have connect, you're connected with a click away to billions and billions of people around the world. And if you can learn how to be a professional conversation starter and find a need and fill it,
You're going to break down people's walls. They're going to you could build the know, like and trust. You can find out if they're open if not them somebody else and you can truly build a global brand no matter what business you're in, whether it's affiliate marketing, network marketing, direct sales, traditional businesses. We've we've grown many traditional businesses and you know online type businesses with the same philosophies, the same principles, the same mindset. And so as long as you're
willing to be a sponge and learn things that you've never done to get the lifestyle you've never had. That's where it's at today.
Jeff Ross (07:37)
Yeah, so just recapping there and I'm hearing some sort of core things that haven't changed. So like straight away you said get a mentor, be teachable, know, get a system, right? That doesn't change. It's just the thing that has changed is the delivery of the message, the tools that we use. You know, 28 years ago you said you're using the newspaper. You know, look, okay, social media, if we just go pitch, pitch, pitch, you know, we're going to turn people off. So, you know, in a
DJ (07:48)
Yep.
That's right.
Jeff Ross (08:05)
very noisy world where everybody's got their phone now, everybody's got a social media account, what would you say is the way to cut through the noise and stand above the crowd to go and get that same impact to start a conversation? I'm talking about traction marketing. How do you bring people to you to be able to get that conversation started?
DJ (08:28)
Yeah, so there's a man there's so many ways on lead generation from attraction marketing and curiosity posts and different things like that. But the number one thing is this. You have to figure out how to stop people from scrolling past your information and that you get to your point, Jeff. You can't be an infomercial and constantly pitch, pitch, pitch, pitch, right? Like, yeah, in your stories you can pitch two, three, four times a week because within an hour it disappears, right?
Jeff Ross (08:43)
Mmm.
DJ (08:57)
But the biggest thing is you want to come off as an expert in your field, whatever that may be, whether it's entrepreneurship mindset, whether it's, you know, travel in some people's areas, branding, AI specialist, whatever your niche or niche is, right? You want to become an expert. You want to deliver value. And the more value you deliver, the more you raise your credibility to your audience.
And then when you do reach out to them to start a conversation and create a connection, so potentially you can do business together, that you already have what I would call that authority figure out of the gate. you add, you deliver a tremendous amount of value, you find a need and fill it, right? And then you're the person that can, you know, better help those individuals benefit from filling the need that they're looking for.
Jeff Ross (09:52)
Yeah, essentially what you're talking about there as authority figures is leadership, leadership 101. And I remember my friend, she always said to me, is that be the leader that you wish that you had. You know, so my encouragement here to our listeners is, is don't go seeking for your upline or even your cross line or even your corporate team to be that leader. Like part of the conversation here in the network marketing game is people come into it for the money.
DJ (09:58)
Yeah.
Jeff Ross (10:18)
They came into it for the products, but they stay because of the people they become, right? So the conversation you're having right now is about becoming that leader that you wish that you had, that the leader you need to be to be attractive and be that authority to others, right?
DJ (10:23)
That's 100 % true.
Yeah, there's two things that came to my mind when you were chatting as I always ask myself and I even train our team. This is number one. Would you recruit you like would and that's number one. Would you recruit you? Are you good enough to recruit yourself? And if the answer is no, then you gotta work on yourself internally to show up externally. The number the other question I always ask people and myself included is if my team did exactly what I did today.
Jeff Ross (10:46)
Mmm.
DJ (11:05)
would we have grown or would we have decreased our production? And then the last thing is, would you have hired yourself? Would you have gave yourself a promotion? Would you given yourself a raise or would you have fired yourself based upon your activity? Because you can lie to the public world, but you can't lie to yourself, right? And so if you don't have a positive answer to any of that, that's why your business isn't where you want it to be.
If you can't show up to your business, how can you expect anybody else to show up for their business?
Jeff Ross (11:33)
Yeah, so-
Brilliant, and I love that. And what comes to mind in this whole conversation is ownership, right? It's doing the, necessarily looking for the external, you know, tools, the systems, the tools, the strategies to go and make it work. Most of the top network marketers and owners that I've seen in this space, is there's one thing they've done is very clear, is they've done the internal work. They've done the deep work to help them to figure out.
DJ (12:05)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Ross (12:08)
how to be that people, how to be that person, how to be recruitable, how to go and support others to do the same thing, right?
DJ (12:15)
You know, it's brilliant what you just said. It just triggered this to me is yes, you have to 100 % work on yourself before you can work, help others work on themselves, right? And you, Jeff, have been successful in our profession for a very long time. You could go to any company, whether they've been around for 50 years or five days, and climb to the top 1 % of that company.
because leaders always find themselves back to the top of a company. I've been very blessed and fortunate to get to the top 1 % of every company I've been a part of. Now I own a company. And the reason why I share that with you is if you're not where you want to be in your business, you have got to work on yourself first, and then you will rise to the occasion of the successes that you desire in what you're doing, right?
Jeff Ross (13:09)
Yeah, brilliant. And I've shared this in a few stories and other guests. know, 10 years ago, I tried to kill myself and I was at the lowest of my lowest of my lowest. And I've just been in this last 10 years, just been in a development phase of spiritual health, physical health, emotional health, financial health, and just doing the deep internal work to become the person that I am today. But to sum it up, I've learned to love myself.
I learned to build my self identity around the things that, you know, call the universe, I call a God, you know, the way he sees me. And that in return has helped me to love other people and go and support and serve other people. And I see in the network marketing industry, you know, as I said, most people come into it for the opportunity. They mostly come into it for the products, but it's all about their need versus
DJ (13:44)
Sure, absolutely.
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Ross (14:05)
the other, you know, how they can be of service and how they can support their people and be that leader, right? What I'm, what I'm talking about is it's, it's, it's transactional mindset, but the successful people, the ones that I see and admire, the ones I aspire to be like, and the way I grow in my space is to be missional mindset. See transactional mindset is all about how can I win or let's create a win-win and how can we win together?
DJ (14:12)
Yeah.
Mmm.
Jeff Ross (14:35)
It's a transaction, right? There's a quick quote pro, but with a missional mindset, it's about how can I serve? How can I help you to win? How can we grow together? And it's long-term, you know, perfect story out of the Bible that I can reflect on is Paul from, you know, Solitarsis. You know, he had a mission, but yet he got shipwrecked after shipwreck after shipwreck. He got stoned. He got flogged. He got jailed. He got martyred.
DJ (14:37)
Correct.
Jeff Ross (15:03)
But that never stopped him from getting into the weeds and doing what he needed to do to achieve the mission. And I see every successful network marketer, they have that missional mindset.
DJ (15:10)
Mmm.
Yeah. A hundred percent. And I agree with you. A lot of people get in for the money. They get in because they want to lose weight or they start with the product and then they become a rep or vice versa, but they stay because of the friendships, the bonds, the relationships. If you've been around our profession for many years, you've heard that, you know, our industry is a personal development program with a compensation plan attached to it. Right.
And once you grow internally, your lifestyle externally is gonna grow 10X or beyond, right? Because we all have baggage, we all have limited beliefs and self doubts and insecurities and things that we bring with us through our childhood, through our young adult lives, to where we are today. And it's all about coping and dealing with past limited beliefs to get rid of them, to eliminate them so you can move forward. And of course, pay it forward and helping.
everybody else out to your quote, you know what Zig Ziglar said, when you help enough people in life, get what they want, you automatically get what you want. And that's really when your mission driven. mean, that's, know, the last company I was a part of to give you a real example is I was the number one producer in that company. And the owners made a lot of promises that the they had no intentions in keeping. In fact, they asked me, you know, at the time to sign an agreement like a NDA hush agreement.
and pay me a salary to stay as a builder and keep it between us and the company because they needed me to stay to be a pawn in their game. And naturally, we don't build that way. It was against our morals and beliefs. And that's why we took a different direction than we did. And that's where we're at today is because when you're mission driven, where you can build a company for the field, but from the field's perspective and you can be in a position to go help people win, you know, as
an owner, get offers all the time, some wild offers to do crazy things in this industry. And the reason why we're where we're at is one is relationships, too, is we have people that have created friendships and family ships and bonds with us. And when you start building for their families, that's when the magic happens. When you are doing three way calls and dooms and webinars and postings and.
all the daily activity, your DMO, daily method of operation with the intentions that you're not serving just you, you're serving your higher purpose, but you're also serving the team and the people that believed in you to get to this point. That's when your business is gonna flip and turn for the better.
Jeff Ross (17:54)
Yeah, well, yeah, something I've come that I've really profound the last couple of years and I've been building around is where's my attachment at? Is my attachment serving my needs or is it serving the legacy impact? And so we've got to be attached to something, right? And we've got to build from something, but where am I attached? And if I'm attached to my mission, then I will go through the grind, I'll go through the hard, I'll do what it takes to get where I need to be. But if I'm attached to the results,
DJ (18:03)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Jeff Ross (18:23)
If the result doesn't come, I get deflated and get disheartened. So where I'm leading to this conversation is our industry is a great industry. love it. Live it, breathe it. And so do you. But you know, the stats prove that in the first three years, that majority of people only earn about $300 a year in the network marketing industry. the top earners of the company, they've gone through some major shifts themselves. They've built
DJ (18:27)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Ross (18:51)
that what the skillset that built the personal character that they need to be to where they need to get. But I want to talk to the frustrated, you know, the affiliate network marketer here is who's been in the game three to five years, they're still at that stuck point. You know, what's some words of wisdom that you could speak into that to help them to get unstuck, to help them to get traction and get moving forward so that they can start to get that life changing income, they can start to get the results.
And I know it's a lot of this is around mindset and personal development, but how can you speak into that?
DJ (19:26)
Yeah.
So if I go back to my first three to five years, because, let me just preface it by saying that it's a double edged sword because we live in a world of instant gratification. You know, we've got the microwave and if it's, know, within three seconds of finishing, I'm popping it open because I can't wait that three seconds. Right. And we all go through that, but we all live in a world where like with Amazon, if I need a new
Jeff Ross (19:39)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
DJ (19:52)
You know, everybody can be here tomorrow, right? I don't have to wait and order and all the things. And so we just live in a different world today. What I do my best to remember is, you know, that you're going to go through a transformation. remember when you were one or two or three years of age compared to where you are now, it takes time to become the person you want to be. And you have to embrace the journey.
As I'm saying this to you, I'm saying it to me as well, because entrepreneurs are not patient. Where we want things happening yesterday, finish never is, right? The finish never is. I learned that from another owner in our industry. And you can't get complacent and you can't focus on today. You're always 90 days away from your paycheck. That's why a lot of the builders start building in August, September, October for the new year.
Jeff Ross (20:22)
Yeah.
Yeah.
DJ (20:47)
versus wait till January and start, because then they don't see the results till April. But remember why you started the business. You got into it to make some extra money, have some fun, meet some great people, create memories and experiences that last a lifetime, get out of debt, retire your parents. Rome wasn't built in a day, although we wish it could have been, right? And so you just have to learn how to embrace the journey is number one.
Jeff Ross (20:47)
Mm-hmm.
DJ (21:15)
but embrace your growth as well because you're gonna become the best version of yourself and you can't compare somebody else's chapter 50 to your chapter one. And what I mean by that is you might have somebody that joins your company and hit some of the top ranks in your company in record breaking time. It's because they've been working on themselves for five or 10 or even 15 plus years prior to them getting into your opportunity.
So you can't have what's compared to, you know, can't have compareitis syndrome as we say, you got to focus on your journey and your venture and why you're doing what you're doing, but enjoy every moment of it. Because if it was easy, number one, I couldn't relate to everybody else. You know, I rode the struggle bus for three years in my business. And after three years of like what you said, Jeff, the average networker makes 300 bucks a year. Thank God I didn't.
Jeff Ross (21:43)
My story's on.
Mm-hmm.
DJ (22:12)
I made more than that in my years. However, I didn't make the big bucks until year five, six, seven and beyond within our industry. And most network marketers don't. And so just run your own race. The other thing I'll tell you is you have to be consistent. So many people, the analogy that I like to use, Jeff, is microwave popcorn. We all have it all over the world, right? You got microwave popcorn. takes about three and a half minutes.
Jeff Ross (22:37)
Yeah.
DJ (22:41)
If you read the directions on high consistent heat, the word consistent heat in there, you can't have it on for 10 seconds one day, 30 seconds the next, 20 seconds the next, 40 seconds the next, and over a week or a month, you know, have it pop for three and a half minutes and your popcorn's gonna be fresh. You're gonna eat the kernels and probably break your teeth because they didn't pop because you have to have it on high heat for three and a half minutes. And believe it or not, after the three minute mark,
is when it's popping like the 4th of July in the first place, nothing happens the first three minutes, but that last half second, it all goes bananas in that bag. And that's just like your business. You have to figure out the path that's best for you. You're not building your business for your upline. You're not building it for the owners of the company or other leaders. You're building it for you. So I challenge each and every person to join our profession is figure out what the result you want it to be.
know that it could take three to five years to get there. Pick a certain amount of time on the daily that you're willing to invest in yourself, invest in your business and invest in your team and know that it's a five to seven year plan. And if you prepare it that way, you know, three, four, five years when you start hitting your stride, you're gonna be pleasantly surprised. But one of the worst things a lot of people do, Jeff, in our profession is over promise, under deliver. They oversell, underperform.
all the different things. This is not a get rich quick deal. This is a get rich eventually deal versus potentially never with what some people are currently doing. And so embrace that. If you got to 500 to a thousand dollars a month in your first 60 to 90 days, and that was goal number one, and then to double that in the next six months and then double it the next six months after, if you play the long game and you set the right expectations, not only for you, but everybody you're working with, you're going to have longevity.
Jeff Ross (24:13)
Yeah.
Yeah.
DJ (24:38)
in your business, one of the worst things that's the biggest pet peeve in my mind is the people that act like used car salesmen. And if you're a used car salesman, don't take it personally. It's just a phrase that we use around the world. But we're not looking for those slick Rick salespeople. We're looking for the people that are held one, you know, that have the mission behind the madness, right, Jeff? That's really what I would tell people when they're brand new is don't listen to the hype.
Jeff Ross (25:00)
Mm-hmm.
DJ (25:05)
Don't listen to the people that say, stand in that corner and we'll start watering. You'll start squirting out hundreds like a tree. It's not gonna happen that way. But if you focus on a five to seven year plan and the compound effect and reinvest 10 % of your earnings and other passive investments, not businesses, but investments and start using all the financial success tools that are out there and the technologies, you're gonna have success eventually.
Jeff Ross (25:32)
Brilliant. Masterclass in about five minutes and just how to be so raw, real, transparent, upfront, to the point. And I love it. Thank you very much. like, there was at least 10, I have to go back and listen to that, but there's at least 10 points that I could really highlight. But the top three was, you know, for our listeners is getting clear on your why. Now it's not even the why you got started. It's not even why it serves your family, but it's that,
DJ (25:35)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Ross (26:00)
deeper why, what's that why you're going to be doing this in 20, 30, 40, 50 years like that why, you know, the, core crux of it that's going to drive you to, go through the suck, you know, cause there is going to be that initial stage where you got to embrace the suck. And, and what I like to remind people is how did we learn to walk, right? We learned how to not to fall over. Yeah. How do we learn how to ride a bike? Well, we learned how not to fall off the bike. You know, learning is chaotic. Learning is messy.
It sucks. And there's a reason why most people quit because it's hard. And what we need though to do it is we need community that helps us to feel seen, heard, known, and ultimately loved. And when we can find that community and we can find mentors that will guide us, and everybody can be a guide, doesn't matter where you are on that journey, you're somebody's guide. And you can help people get out of Sucksville and get them to Awesome Town.
DJ (26:59)
Yeah, you nailed it, man. That's what it's all about. know, when you can focus on your why and what your purpose is and your why, like you said, man, it's going to change all the time. You know, when I got started in network marketing at 18, my why was bottle service, fancy cars, vacations, going out at night clubbing. Now it's about how many people can I serve and impact and put as much money in my bank account as do it. Yeah, it's just it's a different animal. And once you learn that and grow up,
Jeff Ross (27:02)
Love it.
greater good.
DJ (27:28)
You know, the whole concept is when the student's ready, the teacher will appear, right?
Jeff Ross (27:33)
Yes, 100%. All right, let's shift gears. I want to talk about this AI space. So AI and automation is transforming the way we build businesses and create products and scale passive income streams. I know it has helped me. How can you see online entrepreneurs and network marketers, what do you see them, how you can see them leveraging AI to simplify their processes, to help with duplication, automate the systems.
not replace them. You know, I see at the moment that it's the pendulum swing, right? We've got this extreme sort of scenario of people trying to figure this out and it's messy. It's a bit chaotic. And I've seen people use tools to replace things, which I sort of stand against. at the moment there's this bot that's running around and it's commenting on all people's posts. And it makes it look human interaction. But I'm calling it engagement spam, right?
DJ (28:05)
Uh-uh.
Jeff Ross (28:31)
see it serving us because in a world where it's very noisy, in a world where there are lot of online schemes, know, trust is at an all time low, And so we need to look for ways to develop trust, to build trust, to connect with people on that heart to heart level. So how do you see AI serving in that space?
DJ (28:43)
Mm-hmm.
So I'm a lot like you, Jeff. So I've bucked a lot of the AI. I embraced it at the same time. And here's what I mean by that. AI will not replace the human touch or the human interaction. There's no easy button. There's no shortcut. I do not use AI to respond to my messages. I do not use AI to comment on other people's posts.
Jeff Ross (29:11)
No
DJ (29:24)
what I do use AI for is to clean up my messaging, as far as my punctuation, my English, my, you know, my spelling, my, my verbiage to, help me, speak more intelligently and emails and texts and messages to my team posts, come up with curiosity posts, referral posts, ideas. It's basically my virtual assistant to help me come up with better material and better tools and systems for what I'm doing now.
Jeff Ross (29:48)
Mm-hmm.
DJ (29:53)
Uh, I love AI for interacting on my websites. I love that AI can actually help with customer support over time. It'll get better and better. It's a little sloppy right now. Right. Uh, what I don't like about AI like you, Jeff, is that I can tell 100 % of the time when somebody uses AI and they send me a DM, when they send me a method or comment on my post. Cause I do respond back kind of snarky.
and do hashtag AI, you know what I mean? And people do it and use it anyways. There's no authenticity, which is what I talked about at the very beginning of this, is human first, marketer second. And like you said, Jeff, there are a lot of scams and shysters in the world today. And I know AI can, like I watched commercials now and I can tell it's AI, right?
Jeff Ross (30:23)
So do I.
Yeah.
DJ (30:48)
I can tell when AI is calling me, there's just, can tell. And so here's, I believe in high tech, I believe in high touch. I believe in AI as a tool to help you build, to build a better version of you, but not to replace you. That's probably the best way I can say it. But I like the tool, you know, it comes up with great Facebook ads for our business. It can come up with creating great, you know, PowerPoints in a short period of time.
Jeff Ross (30:59)
Yes.
I'm in.
DJ (31:17)
It can come up with creating a podcast conversations if you were in the doing stuff like that, different bullet points. What I do like AI, like chat, GPT and all the others is I can come up with great. If I want to do a seven day or 11 day or 21 day challenge of live videos on a specific topic, I can come up with topics and put that topic in and have it give me a few bullet points. And then I can ad lib myself.
and be a DJ, but it gave me some topics if I got, you know, kind of brain stumped and I can't think of something to post for that day. Like there, I use it as a leveraging tool to help grow my business, but I don't let it replace me or my business. Does that make sense?
Jeff Ross (32:00)
You let it to,
yeah, definitely. You let it to amplify your voice. You let it to enhance you and to help you to up level. It's a partnership, right? And I know in my own journey and the way that I see people embracing AI in a way that's serving them and not, you know, holding them back is I look at my weaknesses, you know, as I like, I'm dyslexic, I can't spell, my grammar's atrocious.
DJ (32:05)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, 100%.
Jeff Ross (32:30)
I actually say, I say my marriage because I don't have to pester my wife to try and proofread everything for me anymore. But also, but also now, you know, I always helped me to become a better storyteller. It's helped me to become a better influencer because now I can dive into buying psychology, and frameworks and, and copywriting, know, like I'm not a copywriter, but with AI, I can, I can become like a pretty fast, awesome copywriter. So.
DJ (32:36)
Right?
That's it.
Yeah.
Jeff Ross (32:59)
It's looked at my weaker areas and then I've gone, right, well, these are the areas that I'm struggling with. How can I use AI as a tool to bring my message forward in an articulate way that cuts through the noise and speaks directly to people's hearts? Essentially, how can I influence people and win friends? AI, that partnership that I've had with it, that marriage that I've had with it, and it really is that partnership is
DJ (32:59)
Smart.
You nailed it.
Yeah.
Jeff Ross (33:29)
is exactly that conversation. How can I influence people and win friends?
DJ (33:34)
It's,
you nailed it, man. mean, if people use AI to replace their work ethic and become lazy or replace them with the human touch, you're, you're missing the boat. I mean, I can watch a TV show. I can watch a movie when they use AI versus not. And there's just a different human connection. I can't explain it when you know that the person's real on the other side. Like I use for prospecting.
Jeff Ross (33:42)
Mm-hmm.
DJ (34:01)
voice clip on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook. I say your name. I make it blatantly obvious that it's not AI. It's really DJ, all the things. you know, if you all I do is use it to better my business, help me feel and look smarter, come up with content, clean up my messaging. In fact, I'm a big fan of a guy named Michael Burnoff and he's really good at NLP and and I've literally
Jeff Ross (34:25)
Yes. Yep. Yep.
DJ (34:29)
For example, I'm in the travel space. So I would literally type into, I'm gonna give you a real example where I had to take Michael Burnoff's tonality, NLP, psychological concepts, and with a buddy of mine who owns a competitive company, because he had a great message, and I typed it and said, hey, create this message for my company with Michael Burnoff's sales and marketing psychology.
Jeff Ross (34:55)
Yeah.
DJ (34:56)
I hit a button and it came up. I said, great, rewrite it in my tone so it sounds like me. And then literally I have it and literally it gave me the scripts that I want to use. And it gave me the explanation of the scripts as to why the scripts say what they say to hit these points in your messaging. And then I took my own personality and use the voice clip without reading it word for word, but the same messaging and create messages. And I signed people up in my business.
Jeff Ross (35:01)
Yup.
I do exactly the same thing. say, right, I like Donald Miller style from story brand, you know, help me act like Donald Miller is the storyteller and, and here's my concept. Let's go and just bring it all together. It's that it's that part. It's a partnership, right? It's a marriage. I actually I did a masterclass at the end of last year. And was I was setting up for the new year, I got I showed people how to get Gary van der Chuck, zig, zig, la, and Brian Tracy and bring them to your board of directors.
DJ (35:37)
So true.
Jeff Ross (35:55)
bring them into your board and then get them to ask you questions to help you to bring out what you need, the information that needs to help you to create a business plan, create a marketing plan. So it's what I call conversational AI and with the voice prompting now, we can have those type of two-way conversations with experts and we can get them to bring that expert knowledge and wisdom to the table.
DJ (35:56)
Beautiful, beautiful.
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Ross (36:22)
And once again, that's just a beautiful story of that marriage, that partnership of how you can leverage AI to enhance you and amplify you.
DJ (36:26)
Yeah.
And now on the flip side, if we go technical, like AI can help you actually write code for different things, right? And so there's AI where you can use it on the analytical side of a business as a techie to write different codes or, know, I'm not very good at outline of PowerPoints and there's softwares to help create your PowerPoint presentations. Then you go in and change the colors and just fine tune the messaging a little bit and
Jeff Ross (36:36)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Mm-hmm.
DJ (36:57)
You know, when you're writing different things that you need to write email campaigns and I mean, there's a there's a there's a right place and a right time for everything. Just don't get complacent. Don't get lazy. And don't forget, people do business with people they know, like and trust being a human first market or second. I've said it three times in this interview because it's so important. People forget that. You know, people don't do business with a company.
Jeff Ross (37:03)
Yeah!
Yeah.
Yes. Yes.
DJ (37:25)
They do a business with the individual in that company.
Jeff Ross (37:28)
And that's why I'm so big on personal branding, right? Because people buy you first. And look, I come from a digital marketer's background. Like before COVID, had a full service digital marketing agency. I built websites, I did funnels, I did Facebook ads for massage centers, cryopractors, gyms, all of that, right? And I've transitioned that skill set into the network marketing industry. And what you're saying there about writing code for PowerPoints now, my guy Dave and I, we're basically building funnels out for clients.
And we can build what used to take me like a week or two weeks to build a funnel. I'm doing like an hour to two hours and just, just with AI code. Yeah. It just helps you to get faster. Yeah. Love it. But it's like, it's like, it is a tool though. I to really just wrap this part of the conversation up. And what I love to say is, if, think of it as a hammer, you know, if I put a hammer in a three year old's hand, I may get a nail hit into a piece of wood.
DJ (38:04)
Yeah. It condenses time. Yeah. Yeah, it's brilliant, man. Brilliant.
You
Jeff Ross (38:28)
But if I put that same hammer into a master craftsman's hand, and one who knows how to use it to build a masterpiece, I could get a cathedral. You know, I could get a grand piano, whatever, right? But it is exactly what it is. AI is just a tool. It's a very powerful tool. And the old Spider-Man quote, what is it? With great power comes great responsibility. I like to flip it. With great responsibility comes great power.
DJ (38:37)
Yeah.
Yeah, I like that. Yeah, very true, my friend, very true.
Jeff Ross (38:58)
So.
So DJ, love to just quickly wrap up. So if you had to start all over again, knowing what you know today, no audience, no network, but all the knowledge that you've acquired over your decades in this industry, what is the exact step-by-step strategy you would build to get started and build a six figure online business in the next 12 months?
DJ (39:26)
First of all, would identify what my true passion is. And I would not join a company because of a trend or a fad because trends and fads don't last forever. I'd find a product, a service, an idea, an opportunity that you know will be here the test of time. That's number one. Yeah. I appreciate it. No, thank you. And that's number one. So many people get on these trend buses and these fad trains.
Jeff Ross (39:44)
Thank you for saying that. Thank you.
Mm-hmm.
DJ (39:53)
And if you become a hopper and I'll answer the question in a minute, but if you become a hopper in your profession, every time you hop from company or opportunity to company hopping, you lose credibility. People lose belief. You lose, you get that people are going to doubt you. And by the third or fourth hop, you're not going to have a following. And so I just want to set the stage with that is find something you can be passionate about. Forget everybody else that's going to wake you up and drive you every single day.
I found that Jeff has found that other individuals, top leaders have found that. And so that's the first thing I would identify. The second thing I would do is I would focus on branding myself because like you, Jeff, you've done it many businesses in your past. I was with a company from 2015 to 2021 out of my control. The company went out of business mismanaged funds. COVID hit timing just came and it disrupted it. If I would have branded that
company that everybody would have known DJ was out of business. So because I brand myself, if my company goes out of business tomorrow, hypothetically, I can pick up a new opportunity tomorrow or in a day or two and continue my social retailing or social selling. And I don't miss a beat. So number one is I would learn knowing what I know now is I would brand the heck out of myself. All right. Just like Pepsi and Coca-Cola and all the biggest companies in the world.
Jeff Ross (41:18)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
DJ (41:22)
I would find a product opportunity or service that I can be passionate about that will outlast me so you can truly have that legacy wealth to leave for your kids and Jeff's case, his three kids. And I would do that. then I would go, know, success loves speed and I would go fast. I would not look left. I would not look right. I would not worry about seven days of the week. It's 24, seven, 365 till you hit your goal.
Jeff Ross (41:45)
tunnel focused.
DJ (41:51)
I was listening to an individual two weeks ago, a very popular trainer in our industry, and he said it should not take you six years to be successful. The problem is it takes people six years to make a decision to act on what they want in the first place. you can figure it out in six months. You can change your life, Jeff, in six months. From right now.
Jeff Ross (42:11)
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
DJ (42:20)
When you make the commitment, you make the decision and you get consistent on what it is you're looking for in six months, you could go from living on food stamps to a multiple six figure income, no exaggeration, no BS. And so that's the one thing you need to find. Join a company that has the compensation plan that is truly rewarding, not just to the top, but to the middle and the new people. You need to find a product.
that, you know, that people want and need and desire. You need to find the right culture, the right community, the right leadership and the right systems. You have to find a company that has all that. So then you don't have to create it. That's what we did. I know Jeff, that's what you do. And then I would, I would block out the noise and I would literally go to work for six months as hard as I possibly can. Because when you put things in a, in a small condensed, combustional situation, that's where you create.
explosion. And there's a lot of distractions, Jeff, in the world today. You and I see it every day on social media, digital marketing. I get pitched every day in my DMs for opportunity. I consider myself like a rhino. I've got some thick skin. I can handle the pressure, but 99 % of the people cannot handle the pressure. So you have to avoid what I would call shiny object syndrome. Don't worry about what everybody else is doing.
Jeff Ross (43:23)
Yep.
DJ (43:45)
Keep your eye on the prize. Every time you move an ad, like I have people in my company that were in the top five for six months straight, and they haven't been since those first six months, because they're promoting multiple things. Well, you lost credit, you're distracted, you lost credibility. We believe in multiple streams of revenue, but you got to get your first one to a full-time income, and it can sustain it when you walk away from it. Then you start another one, and then another one, and then another one, and so on.
Jeff Ross (43:58)
They're distracted. Yep.
DJ (44:12)
You can't start seven at the same time because you're not gonna get anywhere. You can't chase seven squirrels at the same time. Go catch one, go do another one. Those are the things that I would share with you knowing what I know now, going back and talking to my old self. And last thing is I would lock arms with a mentor that is actually working in the trenches right now, even though they made the big bucks. You when I got started, my mentor, they're building.
Jeff Ross (44:33)
Mmm. Yup. They're building.
DJ (44:39)
My mentor, Mark, was a top five money earner, made millions of dollars. But when I met him, he was still in the trenches because the more money you make, the more money you make. so find somebody that's already made it and they're coming back down the hill to come bring you up with them. That is a key component. Don't sign up with somebody that's made it and they're just sitting at home on their yacht or we're traveling the world, not spending time with you. You know, we're in the trenches building even though we've made it.
Right? And so I just challenge you to find somebody that's building already has the success that you want, not just financial, spiritual, marriage, relationship, family life, friend life, the whole package and tie it into a product service opportunity with the right systems, tools, leadership support, support and culture and go to work and don't look up for six months.
Jeff Ross (45:34)
I love speaking with people of your caliber DJ like it's straight away, like in half an hour, we've just gone through a masterclass here on how to become a network marketing professional. And, and this is one of those episodes that I know I'm personally going to go back to and listen over and over and over and over again. And I appreciate you just sharing your, your gift, your, your wisdom and your love. Like really I received that and that's the thing, right? I feel like.
When we feel seen, heard, known and loved, we can go conquer the world together. And yeah, this been an absolutely beautiful episode. So thank you very much. Are there any final words that you'd like to close this out on?
DJ (46:09)
Absolutely.
First of all, thank you, Jeff, for having me on your platform. Your platform gives our community, our leaders, a voice to reach out and touch one person. if our message can touch one person somewhere around the world to change their life forever and have the ripple effect, that's what this industry is all about. The message I would tell you is that is go focus on helping as many people impact their life and your life will be taken care of.
Find your passion and purpose and go bring it to life.
Jeff Ross (46:47)
Beautiful.
Yeah, go get missional focus. I love it. Thank you very much. Before we go, where can we connect with you, learn more about your work, you for our listeners, if they want to choose to connect with you, how can they get access to DJ?
DJ (47:03)
Yeah, they choose to connect with me, Jeff. They can go to Instagram and type in the real DJ Barton. I'll pop up there on Facebook. Same thing. DJ Barton, LinkedIn as well. Those are the three major platforms that I'm personally on and they can connect with me and I love to connect with people. I coach people. I love helping people. It doesn't matter if you work with me or not. If we can touch you and inspire you in a way that's going to help you have success, it's a win for all of us.
Jeff Ross (47:31)
really appreciate you DJ. But this is I'm known as the laptop lifestyle dad. And part of my brand is dad jokes. So I always like to close out an episode with a dad joke. And so so the latest one I heard the other day was, so my wife asked me to pass her the lipstick, and I accidentally passed her the glue stick. Now I haven't heard from her all day.
DJ (47:42)
Love it.
I love it. my God. I'm gonna steal that tonight. I've got a networking event. I'm gonna have some fun with that one. So that's good.
Jeff Ross (48:02)
Thank you, appreciate
you. Alright legends, well this has been a powerful episode. Hey, if you've got value from this, don't keep it to yourself. Share it out with the world. But more importantly, let us know in the comments, like what was that light bulb value bomb to you? Share it with us. But don't just share it with us, go and apply it to your life. Because it's better to see ignorance on fire versus knowledge on ice, yeah?
So go share it with someone who needs to hear it and take the knowledge yourself and go and apply it. Get it out of your head, get it into your heart and make it a part of you. Hey, make sure that you subscribe to all of our channels. We're on YouTube, we're on Spotify, we're on Apple Podcasts, we're also hosted on the LA Tribune Podcast Network. So make sure you subscribe, stay in touch so you don't miss another episode. And hey, let us know.
how we can help you. Who would you like to listen to? What do you need from this podcast? And how can we serve you? All right, guys, that's all we have for today. Stay caffeinated, stay legendary, and we'll see you on the next one.
DJ (49:13)
Thank you.