Episode description

Wade Myers grew up in the Badlands of western North Dakota in a Mennonite home with no electricity, no indoor plumbing, and no telephone. He was selling door to door at age nine. He went on to become an Army Ranger, served in the Gulf War, earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, and built a career as one of the most successful entrepreneurs and investors around.

In this episode of the Texas Titans podcast, Jason Wright and Wade talk about why he left corporate America, how a handshake deal with a mentor launched his career, what he looks for before writing a check, and how he ended up backing the faith-based hit I Can Only Imagine.

In this episode

• Growing up in the “land of extremes” and earning everything he wanted, including the store-bought clothes he paid for as a sixth-grade roofer’s assistant
• Why a Harvard study found entrepreneurs make less money than corporate executives but are far happier
• The investor lunch that tore apart Wade’s first pitch, and the mentor who backed him anyway on an 80/20 handshake deal
• Lessons from his first acquisitions: cash flow, losing the biggest customer in week two, and learning what HBS doesn’t teach
• Why Wade prefers to back serial entrepreneurs, and how the Dunning-Kruger “unconscious incompetence” stage trips up first-timers
• How founders respond to diligence, and why humility and teachability can make or break a deal
• The Ranger knife-fight lesson: go in knowing you will get cut
• Practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: cut fixed expenses, prepare your family, start on nights and weekends, and “go get one customer”
• Teaching kids gross margin with a whiteboard, a car-wash business, and a SaaS company
• Build vs. buy: seed-stage investing, bolt-on acquisitions, and public equities
• How backing the Erwin brothers led to Mom’s Night Out, Woodlawn, and I Can Only Imagine
• Wade’s daily routine: 4 a.m. prayer and planning, the gym at 5, and 10 to 15 Blinkist summaries a week

Notable quotes

• “Entrepreneurs are the only people who will work 90 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week for somebody else.” (Phil Burks, as quoted by Jason)
• “Go get one customer. Do that for me. Tell me what you learn. Now go get 10.” (Wade Myers)
• “Wisdom comes from experience, and experience comes from making mistakes.” (Wade Myers)

The Jason Wright Show — Jacob Baadsgaard: How to Become (and Hire) the Indispensable Marketer

On the day his new book The Indispensable Marketer launches, Jacob Baadsgaard joins Jason for something closer to a coaching session than an interview. Jacob is the founder and sole owner of Disruptive Advertising. Over 14 years the agency has served 2,000+ companies, managed more than $3 billion in ad spend, and generated a couple hundred million in revenue. Jacob explains why founders and their marketers so often end up pointing fingers at each other. He walks through the math every CEO owes their marketing team, and makes the case that AI is helping a lot of marketers do the wrong work faster. The conversation then gets personal: ambition as addiction, a lizard named Roger, and what happened when Jacob started treating his wife’s dreams the way she had always treated his.

In this episode:

• Why CEOs pick the winning ad headline only about 10% of the time, and what to do with your passion instead
• The 1-to-1-to-1 rule: one target customer, one message, one landing page
• “Green marketing numbers, red bank account”: the business math founders skip
• The 3% rule and the 7-stage customer journey, and why you should build it from the bottom up
• How Jacob nearly hired his seventh head of marketing, and how he and Chad turned it around instead
• Knowledge is commoditized. Experience is what makes your brand human.
• The difference between an addiction and a worthy goal

Chapters

• 00:00 Book launch day and a coaching-style conversation
• 01:13 Jacob’s origin: Omniture/Adobe analytics, then 14 years building Disruptive Advertising
• 04:34 Data vs. founder intuition: meet customers where they are
• 07:41 “It’s for everyone”: competition and the 1-to-1-to-1 rule
• 12:26 How to vet a marketer: business math, LTV, and setting the destination
• 18:12 Only 3% are ready to buy today: building the full funnel
• 22:40 Why he wrote The Indispensable Marketer (and the story of his sixth marketing leader)
• 28:00 AI slop, doing the wrong work faster, and why experience beats knowledge
• 32:50 The outlook: expensive debt, purpose-driven businesses, and “I’ll be happy when…”
• 36:40 Having enough, time with kids, and Roger the lizard
• 41:08 Jacob’s morning routine (and the hand pan)
• 44:46 Becoming your spouse’s biggest fan
• 50:56 Where to find Jacob and the book

Quotable

• “If you’re marketing to everyone, you’re marketing to no one.”
• “They’re doing the wrong work faster with AI.”
• “A worthy goal is something you’d sign up for even if the outcome wasn’t guaranteed.”

Connect with Jacob

• LinkedIn: Jacob Baadsgaard
• Agency: Disruptive Advertising — disruptiveadvertising.com
• Book: The Indispensable Marketer

What if one of the biggest obstacles to happiness isn’t what you’re missing—but what you’re expecting?

In this episode of The Jason Wright Show, Jason shares a simple mindset shift that has had a profound impact on his life: trading expectation for appreciation.

For years, Jason’s high expectations pushed him to achieve more—but they also made it difficult to appreciate the career, relationships, opportunities, and life he already had. At 51, he’s learning that ambition and gratitude don’t have to compete. You can still pursue bigger goals while becoming deeply appreciative of what’s already in front of you.

Jason explores how the fear of losing something can reveal just how valuable it really is—and how that realization can change the way we approach our careers, marriages, children, opportunities, and everyday lives.

In this episode:

• Why high expectations can quietly steal your happiness
• The difference between ambition and constant dissatisfaction
• How fear of loss can create greater appreciation
• Why imagining life without something can make you more grateful for it
• Applying appreciation to your career and difficult work relationships
• Being more present with your spouse, children, and family
• The biblical idea of “working out” your gratitude
• Why appreciation should outweigh expectation
• A simple exercise to discover just how much you already have

The takeaway: Keep your expectations high. Keep pursuing growth. But never allow your expectations for tomorrow to become greater than your appreciation for today.

If this episode resonates with you, subscribe to The Jason Wright Show and share it with someone who might need this reminder.

Mentioned in this episode:

Sponsor: Authentic Health