[Top Agency Series] Overcoming Setbacks and Finding Purpose With Dr. Dave Jones

Dr. Dave Jones is the Founder of M is Good, one of the world’s largest Christian marketing agencies, and creator of the R7 Process for vision-centered communication. A former pro hockey player turned sport and performance psychology consultant, he has coached elite NHL and NFL athletes for over 20 years while leading an agency that has served hundreds of clients worldwide. Author of Vision Wins: 7 Strategies for Mental Toughness in Life and Sports, Dr. Jones is passionate about faith-driven leadership, peak performance, and helping others turn setbacks into vision-fueled success.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [5:03] Dr. Dave Jones shares how a simple prayer sparked a multimillion-dollar agency
• [7:52] How vulnerability and setbacks became the foundation for lasting growth
• [9:37] Why relentless persistence is essential for entrepreneurial survival
• [13:34] The secret to evolving agency services for long-term success
• [16:09] Why most church marketing fails to attract and engage new members
• [20:02] How fear, lust, anger, and pride sabotage peak performance
• [25:50] The R7 Process for creating vision-driven wins in life and business
• [31:50] Mental toughness tools for thriving under high stress

In this episode…

Setbacks in business and sports can stall momentum and erode confidence, while hidden barriers such as fear, lust, anger, and pride can quietly sabotage progress. Vision blurs, emotions take over, and resilience fades. But can mental toughness tools and clear vision turn valleys into stepping stones — and help leaders, athletes, and entrepreneurs thrive under pressure?

Dr. Dave Jones shares how setbacks in business and hockey shaped his approach to vision-centered communication and mental resilience. He introduces his R7 Process for clarifying vision and strategy, addresses the “FLAP” factors — fear, lust, anger, and pride — that sabotage success, and offers practical tools, like the “reload” technique and affirmations. Drawing parallels between sports and business, he highlights the importance of self-awareness, coachability, and preparation for inevitable challenges.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, host Dr. Jeremy Weisz talks with Dr. Dave Jones about unlocking peak performance and resilience in life and business. Dr. Jones shares his R7 framework and mental toughness tools used by elite athletes to manage stress, reframe setbacks, and stay goal-focused. They also explore mentorship, emotional intelligence, and putting others first — offering mindset shifts for leaders, athletes, and entrepreneurs alike.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Dr. Dave Jones on LinkedIn
• M Is Good
• The R7 Process
• Vision Wins: Seven Strategies for Mental Toughness In Life and Sports by Dr. David Jones
• Spend Less, Reach More: A Pastor’s Guide to Reaching the Most People for the Least Amount of Money by Dr. David Jones
• The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
• Flow in Sports: The keys to optimal experiences and performances by Susan Jackson and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Special Mentions:

• iBrand Visual
• Aaron Donald on Instagram
• Bryson DeChambeau on LinkedIn
• Scottie Scheffler on Instagram
• Rory Mcilroy
• Joe Schmidt

Related episodes:

• “[Top Agency Series] Recap Episode of Growth Through Acquisitions With Jason Swenk” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Agency Series] Most Valuable Advice When Selling Your Agency With Todd Taskey of Potomac Business Capital” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Agency Series] Navigating a Merger and Becoming an End-to-End Digital Partner With Kevin Hourigan of Spinutech” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Championships, Challenges, and Comedy in Wrestling With Kurt Angle” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Happiness, Health, and Love to All The World with the Ice Man Wim Hof of wimhofmethod.com and innerfire.nl” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Direct Response Series] Crafting Compelling Sales Copy with Paul Bigham Founder of Bigham Agency” on Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable moments:

• “You don’t rise to the level of your expectation; you fall to the level of your training.”
• “No was a delayed yes — that’s the way I looked at it. I just had to keep going.”
• “You have to be vision-oriented, not emotionally oriented, for when things don’t go your way.”
• “Everybody has something holding them back — we can’t see it, or we choose to ignore it.”
• “Who you are is not what you do. That’s where the identity comes in.”

Action steps:

1. Address your blind spots: Seek honest feedback from mentors to uncover habits holding you back.
2. Clarify your vision: Define a clear, value-rooted vision to guide actions and reduce stress.
3. Practice the reload: Use breathing and refocusing between setbacks to reset and stay sharp.
4. Manage your emotions: Recognize feelings driving decisions to respond with emotional intelligence.
5. Stay coachable: Invite mentors who give constructive feedback to keep you humble and growing.

Episode Transcript

Intro 00:15

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here Founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Dr. Dave Jones and you can check him out at MisGood.com. And Dr. Dave, before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out. This is kind of I don’t know if it’s an athlete series. I’m an athlete series that I run and a series that I run. It’s kind of like a mush between the two of them. So some of the top agencies I’ve had on I had Jason Swenk. It’s a great episode. He talked about how he built his agency to eight figures and sold it, and then he started a group helping agency owners.

The group he wished he had. I had Todd Taskey. Todd Taskey has a Second Bite Podcast, but he helps pair agencies with private equity and helps sell agencies. And it’s second bite because sometimes when they sell the private equity they sell again, they get sometimes more on the second bite than they did on the first after selling. And then Kevin Hourigan was a good one of he’s had an agency since I think it was 1995. So it was interesting to hear the evolution of the internet business and the agency world through a couple decades.

And then on the athlete front, Kurt Angle. Kurt Angle, you’ll relate to him, Dr. Dave, because like, I know you’ve got smashed in the face with pucks. Being ex-professional hockey player, he broke his neck. He won the gold medal with a broken neck. Wow. And it was I can’t imagine winning anything gold with a stubbed toe, let alone a broken neck, but. Incredible story of recovery. He was in WWE after that. And there’s just so many more interesting you could look. Athlete entrepreneurs on Inspired Insider.

And this episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25, we help businesses give to and connect with their dream relationships and partnerships. We do this in a few ways. Number one, we’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do the strategy, accountability and execution production. Number two, we’re an easy button for companies gifting. So we make gifting and staying top of mind to clients, partners, prospects and even staff simple, easy and affordable. You just give us the list addresses and we’ll do everything else as your brand on it. And you know, Dr. Dave, I don’t like sending tchotchkes like mugs and pens. That’s that’s fine. I like getting food.

So that’s what we send to people. And so we kind of call ourselves the magic elves that run in the background to make it easy and stress free for companies to build amazing relationships, because that’s the number one thing in my life, and I’ve done that over the past decade by profiling people I admire in my podcast and send them sweet treats in the mail. If you have questions, go to Rise25.com or email [email protected] and shout out to iBrand Visual, who made this sign. I did pay them. They’re not paying me to say that, but they help build your brand with custom signage. Could be interior or exterior. They have customers like the Ritz, Virgin and many many more to startups as well. 

But I’m excited to introduce Dr. Dave Jones. He’s a former professional hockey player turned sport and performance psychology consultant, and he founded M is Good. It’s one of the world’s largest Christian marketing agencies. It’s built on his R7 Process for vision centered communication. We’ll talk about the R seven process and how that works. He’s a doctorate in sport and performance psychology. He spent over 20 years coaching elite athletes from the NHL, NFL and other professional sports through his mental toughness training MTT system, and he’s also the author of the book, Vision Wins: Seven Strategies for Mental Toughness In Life and Sports. Also on thin ice. And he’s. By the time you listen to this, he’ll probably have his third one, maybe fourth or fifth one, who knows. But Dr. Dave, thanks for joining me.

Dr. Dave Jones: 04:14

What an honor to be here. Thank you.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:17

You know I do. I want to get into we’re going to talk about how what gets in the way of peak performance. Right. You know, because I talk about my daughter who’s running across country and I’m like, you know, for all those people out there, whether it’s business or in sports or whatever it is, it’s mental, right? I mean, I’m trying to like, think of what mantras can she say?

And she thinks I’m crazy. Of course, you know, like any teenage daughter thinks that’s crazy. Probably. I don’t know, at least in my world. And so we will talk about those. But I do want to start off with M is Good because I think it’s kind of fascinating. Let’s start off with the name and talk about M is Good and what you do.

Dr. Dave Jones: 05:03

Yeah, sure. So, you know, I know there’s lots of times in people’s lives where they have vulnerable moments. And when I started what was originally called Marketing Ministries. So we rebranded in 2013 to be M is Good, but so I.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:22

Ministries and marketing. That’s right.

Dr. Dave Jones: 05:25

Well it could be so yeah. So there’s a story there. So so so I started marketing ministries and it was really out of a prayer. I had just finished up playing hockey in Europe, in Germany, and I was working sales at a, at a, at a TV station selling Major League Baseball and whatnot and calling on agencies. And I just didn’t really like going in at eight and, you know, taking a lunch and then, you know, leaving at 4:00. And, you know, it’s just kind of like in a cubicle life. And I not that I don’t like going early. I love going in early, but. And so I just prayed a prayer right there at my, my desk. And, you know, I didn’t hear an audible voice, but I heard, like, you know, the Lord tell me to start an agency.

And I was like, okay, what do I call it? And the words marketing ministries immediately came to my mind and I was like, marketing ministries. That’s got to be the dumbest name. You know, like marketing, like two very common names put together marketing ministries. So I didn’t know what I was doing. I got a lawyer and sure enough, it was available. And so from 2001 to about 2012, we really worked with churches, still work with churches today, but our focus was churches and ministries. And, you know, just really the vertical of glorifying the Lord with your talents and your abilities, you know, of, you know, just a Christian focus. And then in 2013, we rebranded. 

And what I was trying to do when I rebranded was really follow this juxtaposed line in a name like, you know, what’s a Verizon? Nobody knows what a Verizon is. What’s a BlackBerry or a BlackBerry phones? Apple computer. What’s an apple? It’s a fruit. No, it’s a pretty large computer company. And so GEICO, you know, most most people don’t know this, but GEICO stands for Government Employee Insurance Company, which is a GEICO. They use a gecko to say Geico or a pig, you know, kind of. And so I was looking for like a juxtaposed name. And so at the time, my VP says, what about M is Good?

I was like, aren’t we great? Why are we good? And somebody said, well, God, that’s a good point. Right, right. So so God is good. God is good all the time. So we’re like, okay, I’m as good. And so and so we just kind of left it alone of what the m. I love the halo on the logo and just kind of left it alone. Let em be whatever you want it to be. So it could be marketing, it could be ministries, it could be money, it could be whatever, whatever you want it to be. So just kind of leave it there. That was good.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:52

Yeah, I love it. And you weren’t always religious. Okay. No, there was a point, actually. I’ll let you talk about it a little bit. Your brother influenced you?

Dr. Dave Jones: 08:03

That’s right. Yeah. So I came home, I was 16, we had just won the state championship. I got drunk on a screwdriver, vodka and orange juice. Me and a buddy went underneath this bridge and just drank. And I it was a bad night. And. And my uncle had to come save me. And I was just. It was a mess. So the next day, it just so happened my brother came home from Moody Bible School and said, hey man, do you want to live a life like this? And I was just completely hung over. Headache. And I’m like, no, man, he.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:34

Hit you at a good time.

Dr. Dave Jones: 08:35

He hit me a great time. Was definitely.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:37

It was under the bridge. You may have said something different, like in the. But afterwards you’re like, oh no, this is terrible.

Dr. Dave Jones: 08:44

Yeah. So I just confess there and that’s, you know, that I want Jesus and Jesus in my heart and it really didn’t. That seed really didn’t take a hold until it was about 2021 years old. So that’s where I was kind of like challenging what the heck I was doing. And that really came when I when I got a slap shot in the face, it shattered my nose in three different directions.

Directions. Deviated septum cut the nerves and my teeth in my mouth. I’ve been vulnerable in my life. And. And that was in Wings Stadium. Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo, Michigan. That’s really. I just really like that. That was bad.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 09:26

So talk about the beginning of the agency because those are it’s it’s a humble beginnings too. Right. And and maybe the evolution of the agency itself.

Dr. Dave Jones: 09:37

Yeah. So I, I when I, when I prayed that prayer of like what do I need to do in marketing ministries, I found myself looking at a count list of 30 different Christians on the TV station at the time. And so So I did my market research. I went to those 30 clients. I said, hey, I’m going to start a Christian agency. You know, I’m going to call it marketing ministries. And they’re all like, yeah, that’s a great idea. We’re with you, man. Like, let’s go. And I’m like, all right, this is gonna be easy, you know? 

And so that was like in November. And then I eventually left my job in January. And the next day I went back to those 30 clients and I said, hey, I started it. Let’s go. This was in January, February 2020, 2002. And they’re like, what? What are you doing again? No, we’re not with you, man. And so out of those 30, I think three who are still with me today, who follow me. So that first year we invoiced about $15,000 a year, making 15% agency commission. So I was crushing it. And then the second year, I think it went to 30,000. So so year two now, thankfully we didn’t have any kids. 

My wife was had a good job at Duke and so I just kept on grinding. I don’t know Honestly, Dr. Jeremy, I, I don’t know, looking back on that time, like what I was thinking, I just know I was grinding and I knew there was a path. I didn’t know I was total faith man. Like, I just kept on going. No. Was a delayed. Yes. That’s the way I looked at it. No. You know, I just need to talk to the right person. Right people. Right. Organization. Third year I think we did 35,000. Fourth year was like 205th year it got to 800. And it was like okay. So it took took some time and I wasn’t working something else. I didn’t have another job, part time gig. I was working, you know, I was I was grinding.

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