After tinkering with artificial intelligence for quite some time, motivational speaker, serial entrepreneur, and professional engineer Gary MacDermid has finally created a software for boosting your marketing efforts. He joins Juliet Clark to present his new AI tool, the Superbrand Audience Accelerator, which allows entrepreneurs and authors to identify their ideal audience and develop effective strategies around it. He explains how his invention can help in developing better business pitches and gain a better alignment with your target market. Gary also shares how his experiences as a naval officer taught him to overcome limiting beliefs, set the right boundaries, and appreciate the impact of clear communication.
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Superbrand Audience Accelerator: Gary MacDermid’s Game-Changing Tool For Entrepreneurs And Authors
Welcome to Promote, Profit, Publish. I’m your host, Juliet Clark. Our guest created an AI program that both I and a number of other bigger platforms are using for marketing. Stay tuned for that. Don’t forget that on July 11th, we have our monthly event. You can sign up for it at BAMagTraining.com. This month’s guest is book developer, Kris Johnson. She’s going to be talking about The Pre-Game Show: Getting Ready to Write Your Masterpiece. If you’re someone who’s thinking about writing a book or has been thinking about writing a book, this might be a way to get yourself organized and know everything that you have to do.
Our guest is Gary MacDermid. Gary is a highly sought-after motivational speaker, private investor, serial entrepreneur, professional engineer, and retired Naval officer whose journey from humble beginnings to international success is inspiring audiences around the world. You may recognize Gary from his powerful episode, Set Your Goals or Someone Else Will on season three of the Amazon Prime video series, Speak UP TV.
His message reclaiming your life through intentional goals and financial independence has resonated deeply with aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those rising from underrepresented communities. In March 2025, Gary released his debut book, Set Your Own Goals Or Someone Else Will, a definitive playbook for breaking through mental barriers, engineering the life you truly want, not the one that others expect you to live. The book dives deep into how to overcome self-limiting beliefs and get things done, serving as a blueprint for personal transformation and bold action. Stay tuned as Gary and I talk about his new AI creation.
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Gary, welcome to the show.
Thank you, Juliet. It’s great to be here.
From Navy to Entrepreneurial Investor
I’m excited to talk to you because we’ve been working on some incredible stuff that you’ve been building on AI that will help authors. Before we get started on all of that, tell me a little bit about how you’d get here. Where have you been?
That’s a hard question to answer. I’ve been all over the place, both with AI and without AI. I’m an entrepreneur. I’m a retired Naval officer. I joined the Navy out of high school. I went into the nuclear field. I somehow got selected for a scholarship, ROTC, or Seaman Admiral Program. I got my commission. I was an electrical engineer and served in the surface warfare arena of the nuclear field, a lot of time in the engineering plant, and a lot of time in the reactor plant.
Consequently, after the Navy, I did consulting for nuclear power plants as an engineer, and somehow got worried that if something ever happened to me, how would I provide for myself? That was where I learned to become an entrepreneur. I went through real estate investing and replaced my active income as an engineer with passive income. Fast forward through a couple more years after replacing the salary, and I became a full-time investor but yearned for something more challenging.
There will always be challenges. Always set yourself up for success. Share on XIn the nuclear field or as an engineer, we saw a lot of complex problems. When I solved the problem of salary and having passive income, I wanted something challenging just to satisfy that itch. That’s when I went into Angel investing. As an Angel investor, there’s a lot more risk. It is complicated. You’ve got to learn a new business, maybe even a new industry, and understand how operations, marketing, sales, administration, and finance all interrelate to be able to generate high revenue with profitability. That was a certain skill that was complex enough, and when I started doing that, I realized that, just as buying real estate and having passive income, you could do the same thing with businesses.
I went from becoming an Angel investor to becoming more of a business consultant in mergers and acquisitions, to round it off. Essentially, I acquire business assets and real property to solve problems and increase cashflow. In doing all of that, AI has been able to make a lot of the things that used to take me weeks boil down into sometimes hours. Just like in engineering, we’re always looking at new technology to solve problems easier, better, quicker, and faster. The same thing happens with business.
Engineering Approach to Learning
That was quite a journey. It’s interesting. You learned all of that about the inside of business in a couple of years. When I look back, it was going from position to position and picking up those skills. You were fast-tracked when you did it. Overall, I got to the place I’m at, I look back, and I can see the path that every job took me on. How did you learn that so quickly?
It’s hard to say whether it was so quickly or it was just understanding the way things are put together and systematically making sure that I hit and understood every piece along the way. I don’t necessarily think it was quick. I wish it were 10 or 15 years quicker. If you know how the engine is built and you know how it’s made up, then it’s easier to have a way to learn each piece, the intake, the exhaust, or all the components throughout that cycle, to study each and then have a path to learn the whole thing.
Whereas for some folks, you buy a course or you read something, you learn a little bit, but if you don’t know how something is put together and the right level of detail that you need to know for each piece, then it could take a lot longer to get to where you’re at. It’s a little bit more trial and error than it is following a path. Not to say that it’s a straight line path, but that’s just the way that the engineering brain in me has thought. The systems part of being in the military has enabled me to put both together to maybe give the appearance that it was easier or faster.
I’ve experienced that when I’ve come in to build something in a company, if that foundation is not fixed, you can’t build on it. I’m sure that’s the same for you where you come in, you look, and you say, “We can’t build the part I’m here for until we get all of this fixed, too,” which I think is very good because then you’re not building good things on top of bad things.
Everybody wants a house of cards.
Set Your Own Goals
You’ve also written a book, and that’s how we met. I would imagine a lot of that goal-setting in your book came from your experience in the military. Would that be accurate?
Yes, the military was a great portion of my time. I did twenty years total in the military. Writing a book naturally encompasses a lot. In the book, you get a mix of military, entertainment, and corporate.
Tell us a little bit about the book because you’re going to be building workshops on top of that, too. A lot of you say, “I did the book, and now, I’m going to do the workshop.” People are begging for this workshop. I don’t think that happens very often either.
The book wasn’t something that I had ever thought I was going to do. There’s an Amazon Prime show that has several seasons, which is very similar to a TED Talk. I was invited to do a talk, and I did the talk. The topic was Set Your Own Goals, or Someone Else Will. The reason I chose that is because having essentially been forced to join the Navy after high school, because there was no money for college, you get put on this trajectory where most folks are familiar with the military, and that you follow orders.
When you start at the bottom, the lower ranks, that’s pretty much what you do. Throughout life, you’re put on this trajectory where, even after the military, how do you get a job? There are headhunters that target military professionals because they know that military folks are good at following orders and being in systems. Once you get good at following orders in the Navy, maybe the lifestyle is a little challenging, and you want to transition to something more civilian-oriented, the same thing happens where you get moved from one place of following orders to another place of following orders, just with different uniforms. It’s suits and ties instead of military brass.
There are some self-limiting beliefs that may come with that. For a while, I didn’t know that I could do anything. It was always cool to see business owners and be your own boss kind of thing. I’ve always wanted to do that. It’s hard to say why, but I never thought I could. In this trajectory, in this process, I determined and found out that I could, as a person, set my own goals. If I were able to set goals or accomplish strong goals for other people and be successful in other environments with lofty goals, couldn’t I do the same thing for myself? That power and thought process enabled me to do it for myself.
After doing that, I get asked, “How did you go from this to that? How did you hit that?” That’s basically what the book is about. I have a system for how I set goals for other people, which is the same system for how I set goals for myself. That system has worked for me. What I realized is that if I were to have given myself that system 10 or 15 years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to execute it because of the mindset shifts that I had to make to be able to believe in myself and then execute the system.
The book takes what I did in that talk. It fleshes it out so that somebody else, even my former self, could understand these mindset shifts, make the mindset shifts, and then have the system so that I or anyone else would be able to set a lofty goal that they never thought they could do, overcome the self-loving beliefs, achieve the goal, and consistently achieve other stretch goals like that.
There had to be points along the way that, even though you’re good at goal setting, you doubted your ability. Can you share one of those? You’re very confident, but I know there must’ve been some challenges. Along the way, the mindset happened, but it got challenged.
It’s not so much that there were challenges. There are challenges, and there always and ever will be challenges. It’s a matter of setting yourself up for success. It happens once you’ve made the mindset shifts, you’re around other people who have made the same mindset shifts, and you’re with folks who understand. It is the basic rule of no negativity. Wherever you are, there’s always going to be naysayers. There are people who may not believe what you’re trying to do, or they may discourage you from doing it. A lot of times, it’s out of good intentions. They want to protect you from failure.
You visualize. You’ve got to believe that you could do it. For some people, the adage is, “Do you have to see it before you believe it, or do you believe it before you see it?” The key concept here is that you have to believe it. You’ve got to visualize it. You’ve got to see yourself doing it. That’s the first step, then you seek counsel. Find somebody else who’s done what you’re trying to do and done it at a high level. Get real advice from somebody who’s done it, as opposed to maybe a friend that maybe is protective.
The entrepreneur is the first salesman. They may have a great idea, but articulating the right message or pitch to the right audience at the right time is the challenging part. Share on XIf you want to write a book and you ask your uncle or your best friend who’s never written any books, your answer might be different than if you ask Juliet who works with authors every day. You visualize it, you see you could do it, you seek proper counsel, and you work backwards. It’s simple project management skills. Work backwards, set some targets that align with the deadline, and then you commit to it. You write it down. You believe that you’re going to do it, and you commit to it so that when you look at your daily planner first thing in the morning, it has that goal. Before you go to bed, it has that goal.
You’re reminded of it every day, and then you find an accountability partner. Sometimes, it’s the person that you sought counsel from. Sometimes, it’s that mentor. Sometimes the mentor is not somebody that you could spend days or weeks with. Maybe you have to find an accountability partner who’s like-minded and has a strong mindset that you could call if you have a weak moment. They’ll remind you to get back on that horse or keep going. If you do all those and you have the right mindset shifts, that’s basically what’ll happen.
Embrace Entrepreneurial Challenges
Those challenges that you ask about will happen all the time. Your mindset will be tested. When I wanted to be an entrepreneur and I wanted to quit my job, it was tough because everybody around me was telling me it was the dumbest thing in the world. “Why wouldn’t you just keep the job? Don’t quit. It’s uncertain.” If I were to listen to that or have that fear of “maybe they’re right,” I would never have been able to do it. I’m more successful now, being able to have my own operation than I would be following somebody else’s.
Sometimes, when you’re following somebody else’s goals and capable of more than the goal that you’re being set, which has been a lot of the case in my trajectory, you’re never going to hit your real potential because somebody’s got to push you and know that you could do. You have the corporate ladder. You’ve got to wait for your time. You’ve got to wait until you get promoted, even though you might already be capable of doing the next level up. When you do it for yourself, the sky’s the limit.
One of the reasons I left corporate America was the constant politics and drama. I was like, “I’m here, I’m doing the work. I’m going above and beyond. Why are we doing this political thing?” That holds people back as well. My mom didn’t want me to go into this business. I was making good money in real estate, and she was like, “Why don’t you just keep doing that?” It was because it’s not challenging anymore. There you go. My own mother didn’t believe in me.
It’s the same trajectory, and it’s usually out of protection. We don’t want bad things to happen to people that we care about. The easiest way is to prevent something that you don’t know, especially if, like my mother or your mother, they are probably not entrepreneurs at the level that we are. It’s easy to say it’s risky.
Mastering AI for Future Growth
It was very risky, too. I do agree with that. The book is out, and you came to me because you wanted to do some book marketing. Instead, I got a partner in this wonderful thing that you created that I want to talk a little bit about. For how long have you been playing with AI? You’re cranking out some incredible work.
I’ve been playing around with AI for several years. A lot of technology has passed me by, or maybe it’s just not technology like AI, but there was crypto, the dot-com, domains, and a lot of these things that I didn’t quite take advantage of. With AI, it’s one of those things you learn, and you see how it compresses the time of a lot of the things that I used to do. There are things that we’re working on, like generating content, actual newsletters, copy, websites, or a lot of that stuff that you have to think about, and then you have to critique.
When you know what it looks like, you could get a draft produced fairly quickly and then make edits. It is just like writing a book, even coming up with that outline and coming up with a topic. You could have hundreds of topics that are all in line, and then you just refine. It’s just a matter of compressing the time. I realized that I made a decision to go all in and study it just the same way that I used to study thermodynamics, technology in a nuclear plant, or protection systems.
You’ve got to understand it at a high level of detail to be able to design or build around it. With something as powerful as AI, I didn’t treat it any differently. I went all in, and I studied it so that I could truly utilize it. As the technology changes or gets better, I could already have a good understanding of the base, so that it’s just refinements as the technology expands.
Clarifying Entrepreneurial Pitches
For those of you who don’t know, Gary created the Superbrand Audience Accelerator. You can go see that at SuperbrandAudienceAccelerator.com. Let’s talk a little bit about why this is so beneficial, because I feel like what you created is a game-changer. You have seven questions that you ask people, and from that, they get their demographics, psychographics, and a pitch, which I love. A lot of people have trouble developing that one-minute pitch. I don’t know how you had this knowledge. You took the content piece and broke it down into the different ad awareness phases. Can you talk a little bit about that? That’s probably the most powerful part of this.
Even aside from AI, this is just general business. I’ve worked in so many different businesses and industries. I’ve worked with so many different entrepreneurs. A lot of the challenges of entrepreneurship are having the great idea, having the people, and having the tools and the systems, but ultimately, the founder or the entrepreneur is the first salesman. It’s their job to promote their company. A lot of the time, when I’ve met with entrepreneurs, they might have a great idea, but articulating the right message or the right pitch to the right audience at the right time is the challenging part. I’ve had to raise capital. That was a primary thing that I had to do for all of my businesses.
A lot of folks ask me, “Help me raise capital for the business.” This is where it boils down to. This is why I focused on this as the starting point. A lot of times, if you ask an entrepreneur, who should be very fluent, “Give me the pitch for why I should buy your product or service,” it’s not always a consistent message. If I ask an entrepreneur today and two weeks from now, it might be a different message. All I’m trying to do with this first product is that if we’re looking at something easy and has the most bang for the buck, hit the basic stuff. Tell me in layman’s terms. What do you do? Let me just make sure that we’re on the same page, because if I could take what it is that you do, spit it back out to you, and you agree with it, we’re now in alignment.
Once you have that message or that pitch, then it’s just a matter of, “Let’s make sure that we send it to the right audience.” If we’re sending it to the right audience, “Tell me a little bit about the ideal client.” We start making sure that we’re in alignment on what the ideal client is. If you look at everybody that you sold your product or service to, who pays the most consistently? We start building on it. When you get to that, you now have a little bit of the ideal client. When you have the ideal client, you start looking at demographics. Maybe there’s an age range, a gender, or a certain hobby.
If you just take that for what it’s worth, you look at that audience as a whole, and you start sending your message to that audience, that audience may not know that they need your product or service. How do you take the demographics and psychographics that you just decided were the ideal client, the people most likely able, willing, and qualified to buy your product or service?
How do you then take them through that journey of not even knowing that they have a problem, understanding that they might have a problem that might need a solution that you could offer, being aware of the problem, starting to look for solutions, finding your solution, and deciding that your solution is the right one? That whole journey of everything that I said is basically what we put in a simple tool to help any founder and any entrepreneur get the basics and then hit the ground running.
Don’t take this the wrong way, audience. You all come into this and think you have an instant audience. There are different phases. People are not aware of you. Where do you appear then? What do you write for them? What is the content? I’m following Gary’s as if no one’s aware I’m alive because I want to see this through. I got on my first article, probably the most I’ve ever gotten. I would have never thought to write an article about that particular part of the book world. That’s amazing that you are practical about it. Nobody knows you’re alive, let’s start here, then build on that, and build on the product as well. It’s unique.
Effective Business and Marketing Steps
Here’s the one thing I find, and I’m going to give you advice on how to use this.The first person we did it for, Gary, came back and said, “It’s so big. I don’t know where to start.” It’s obvious where to start. It’s broken down by different places. If you take that first bite and forget about the rest for now, you’re going to be able to dive in, do this well, and not be overwhelmed. What do you think about that?
Align the buyer with your message and your solution to their problem. Share on XThat’s the journey of a thousand miles, or how do you eat the elephant? One step at a time, one bite at a time. It’s a lot if this is the first time that you’ve ever looked at a business that way or marketing that way. At the same time, there are plenty of folks like Juliet or me who could also do a little bit more guidance. We have the tool. It’s one size fits most, but as with anything, it’s pretty easy to get on a call or have some of that done with you as opposed to doing it yourself. There are plenty of options out there. The key is that this is the right starting point for any business. Whether it takes a little bit more learning or motivation to get that knowledge, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do, but this is the right logical step. We build on that foundation.
Aligning Buyers with Your Solution
Here’s another thing I loved. I took your report that you did for me and used it on a very similar company. It was amazing when I started asking. You and I did the agreement right away. “Is this your client? What are their obstacles? What do they feel?” I used this on a similar company to mine. They had no idea what the actual problems of their ideal client were or even who it was. It blew me away, but it also gave me insight into how much people are struggling with this and spending money that is going to waste because they’re not hitting the right people the first time. They don’t understand the problem.
This occurs in almost any industry or any business. Even with the raising capital, you want to find somebody who’s able, willing, and qualified. You’re trying to spend all your effort on somebody who never even had the money to invest or wasn’t the right investor. Maybe you want to raise money for a video game company, and you’re asking your neighbor who only invests in books or publishing. It is about the audience and understanding who would likely buy or need your product or service. What problem do you solve or what need do you serve? Align the buyer with your message and your solution to that problem. That’s the key.
Unexpected Wisdom: A Show’s Insight
I wish I’d had this when I first started. As a lot of you guys who read regularly know, I had this huge Google+ group of what I thought “authors” were my target audience. I found out that all these fiction people don’t have any money and they weren’t ever going to buy anything. They’re all about the writing and not about the platform and book marketing. That’s why this report is so important, because if I’d had it, I would have known exactly who those people were and not wasted probably two years on people who were never going to spend the money. It’s an important thing that you’ve done. He’s creating other stuff, so I’m sure he’ll be back soon. Gary, where can we find you if we want to find out more?
It is a lot of different places. Gary MacDermid is my social. I’m pretty much everywhere and on GaryMacDermid.com. If you’re interested in the book that I wrote, which may be able to help with mindset shifts, overcoming self-limiting beliefs, and setting goals, that would be SetYourGoalsBook.com.
I’ll have his Amazon link for it as well. Don’t forget to check out the Superbrand Audience Accelerator. You can find it at SuperbrandAudienceaAccelerator.com. It’s very modestly priced. It should be a no-brainer for anybody starting out, or if you’re not hitting your messaging. If you feel like you’re spinning your wheels, this is the place to go. We’ve done quite a few of them already. The feedback we’ve gotten is, “I never would have thought of doing it this way.” I love it. Gary, thank you for being on the show.
Thank you for having me.
Important Links
- BA Mag Training
- Gary MacDermid
- Gary MacDermid on LinkedIn
- Set Your Own Goals Or Someone Else Will
- Set Your Own Goals Or Someone Else Will on Amazon
- Superbrand Audience Accelerator
About Gary MacDermid
Gary MacDermid is a highly sought-after motivational speaker, private investor, serial entrepreneur, professional engineer, and retired Naval Officer whose journey from humble beginnings to international success is inspiring audiences around the world. You may recognize Gary from his powerful episode “Set Your Goals, or Someone Else Will” on Season 3 of the Amazon Prime Video series SpeakUp TV. His message of reclaiming your life through intentional goals and financial independence has resonated deeply with aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those rising from underrepresented communities.
In March 2025, Gary released his debut book “Set Your Own Goals or Someone Else Will”—a definitive playbook for breaking through mental barriers and engineering the life you truly want—not the one others expect you to live. The book dives deep into how to overcome self-limiting beliefs and get things done, serving as a blueprint for personal transformation and bold action.
Gary’s career began when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy after high school. A simple but powerful piece of advice from a Master Chief—to buy a home at every duty station—opened his eyes to the power of passive income. From there, he began acquiring properties across the U.S. and internationally. After earning a scholarship and completing a degree in electrical engineering, Gary was commissioned as a Naval Officer. He went on to lead design and analysis projects for nuclear power plants in the U.S. proving his talent for solving high-stakes, complex problems.
Eventually, Gary transitioned full-time into entrepreneurship, building a multi-state real estate portfolio and investing in private companies around the globe. He founded USA Private Equities, a company that acquires and manages real estate and businesses. He is also the co-founder of ProGrowth Solutions, a financial services firm offering accounting, tax strategy, and business advisory services tailored for entrepreneurs. Today, Gary is known as “The Cash Flow Engineer”—teaching others how to create wealth through systems thinking, disciplined investing, and intentional goal setting. Whether on stage or in strategy sessions, Gary is focused on helping people from seasoned business owners to first-time founders build lasting wealth and freedom.
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