How to Create REAL Residual Income With David Carlin

David Carlin (@meethecarlins) is an entrepreneur, investor, and thought leader who have dominated the payment processing industry for two decades. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his business Residual Payments, how he cultivated his passion for business, the best advice he's ever received, how you can jumpstart your own business, the power of relationships, tips on working with a partner or significant other and more.

Find out more about Patricia and David Carlin: https://residualpayments.com/

I think the best part about someone who is successful in business is that they do it from a place of necessity. You have found a need and ran with it.

“Some things that you do you won’t like. Sometimes those things that you love won’t make you money. That was why we built Residual Payments. Everyone goes to college or high school to learn about entrepreneurship, but no one talks about credit card processing. That was where we started Residual Payments to teach people about credit card processing.”

It’s something that I feel a lot of people think just takes care of itself.

“Yeah, my wife and I are very fortunate. Before I came along I was on the other side of the fence, I had a bike company that sold online and offline. About 10 years ago someone came to set up my credit card processing and I’m like yeah sure. I didn’t care about credit card processing, I just cared about making money. Now my wife and I have been in this business for 23 years, 30 years combined, it was all about the marketing, promotions and x,y and z. There was a lot of money you could shave off by investing in something that no one really wants to talk about. A lot of these people who have the online products, they get their accounts shut down because they are in the wrong places. If they get this right, nothing else matters.”

Taking this back, where did your journey begin?

“I’m a different mindset. As a kid, I would get involved with anything. I didn’t really work for anybody. I was very fortunate to have a loving family who supported me. So I never aspired to work for anybody or have it about the money, it was more about the thrill of the chase. It’s about how crazy of an idea I can have, and will this work? That is what entrepreneurship is all about. Even when the idea comes out of your head and you start the company, that is not the battle. It is then growing it and the competition, which is a thrill. As a kid, I would always look at pictures in a different way. If I am up against 20 people, I would think well how could I create something that the 20 people want.”

In building your business, what do you think are the 1 or 2 key things that have helped step your business up?

“The biggest thing is that there is no overnight success. We have been in credit card processing for a long time, we have seen everything. I have seen all the numbers and how long it takes for someone to build their business. If you believe you can get rich by doing a minute a day, you need help. When we were training people, we need to make it easier for them to learn. Then I started to realize that people’s brains were so messed up that we had to restart, because online it teaches you that you can get immediate results. If you are willing to set realistic goals, let’s say you want to be like Chris Van Vliet, set yourself a real long term goal and reassess it regularly.”

Everybody is looking for that quick fix. 

“The other thing is that even today, I’m on Chris’ podcast, it’s massive so I don’t need to go on anymore. Wrong! This may be the worst podcast ever or the best, it still isn’t enough, because it is not reaching enough people. You can’t rely on anyone else to help you get to where you need. Someone says they are going to connect you to that big person, you wait and you wait, and it never happens and you have wasted 6 months. I think everyone gets it wrong where they think that someone is going to save them.”

Your business partner is your wife, which I think is terrifying for some people! What do you say to people who are thinking of going into business with their partner or perhaps a best friend? 

“My whole thing in life is that I don’t really think, I do something and it will work or it won’t. I met my wife, moved in after 3 weeks and got married in a year. Only up until about a month ago was the first night I spent apart from my wife in 10 years. I’m in my house, this is where we work and we travel together. It’s a perfect marriage in openness, if we get in a fight, you need to squash it right away. When that big fight explodes but you know that you have a conference call, you are all screwed up. Whoever is wrong, we do a great job of apologising and talk it out really quick. 30 minutes later, there might be another fight but we will squash it quickly. If it rolls on and I had a fight before this, I would be so distracted. The other thing is splitting up tasks. We know what we are doing, stay in our lanes and trust each other.”

You play to your strengths too. The things you work on each day you are better at than your wife and vice versa.

“She has fear of being included and I have the fear of missing out. That is where we are ying and yang with all of that. We call each other out and you can be opposite in the ideas of each other. But when it comes to money, you have to talk it out.”

What is the best advice you have gotten in your career?

“I will pick 2. Firstly, my dad taught me that if you don’t have the cash for something, you can’t afford it. Just because you are making money then you shouldn’t be spending money. The second is there is nothing worse on missing out on a business opportunity because you took that vacation or bought that car.”

When a business comes to you and wants to grow, what does that look like?

“Well I ask them. So everyone wants to sell, they look someone up online and they want to sell. I take hours out of my way and talk about your podcast, but actually you want to start up an ice cream shop. When I am on calls, I naturally have a red face, but I don’t care. I will ask them 1) After we help with your accounts, do you have interest in doubling your sales? 2) Do you have the capacity to double your sales? Are you ready? They will say ‘We will figure it out.’ I’m like no, that’s a lot of charge backs, do you have things in place? Also, a lot of people need help with marketing, so we ask what is the directive? How much money do you have for this and what is the directive? When we talk to business owners, it is just a casual conversation. It’s all about asking the simple questions and talking to them like normal people.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“The ability to change people’s lives, my parents and my wife.”