Scaling Up Success Podcast

From Gym Owner to AI Entrepreneur: David Banco's Journey

• Ryan Van Ornum • Season 1 • Episode 11

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Ever felt stuck between focusing on your clients and answering every incoming call? David Banco knows the struggle well. As a former gym owner using his personal number for business, he constantly had to choose between being present or staying available. That challenge inspired him to create Calimation—an AI-driven solution that handles calls, messages, and inquiries just like you would, so you never miss a beat while staying fully engaged with the people in front of you. It’s not about replacing human connection; it’s about removing distractions so business owners can show up more meaningfully for their clients.

David’s journey has resonated with entrepreneurs across industries—from roofers and med spas to business coaches—who all want to deliver top-notch service without being tied to their phones. While some worry that AI might lose the “personal touch,” David flips the script: the first interaction most people have with a business isn’t with the owner anyway. With instant, thoughtful responses, AI actually enhances the customer experience and builds trust from the first touchpoint. And the future? Calimation is evolving into a smart outbound system that follows up with leads automatically—shaping not just how businesses communicate, but how they grow. Want to experience it firsthand? Call 720-573-0211 to see how Calimation could work for your business.

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Speaker 1:

What's up everybody? This Ryan Van Orden with another scaling up success podcast brought to you by Synergist. Today I have David Banco with Calimation David. How are you today, sir?

Speaker 2:

Doing well. I appreciate you having me on.

Speaker 1:

Oh, man, it's a pleasure to have you, man. So tell me a little bit about Calimation. What inspired you to start that and get into it?

Speaker 2:

It started from my past experience as a gym owner, so I wanted to create something that would have been very helpful and beneficial to me at the time. So what I do is essentially shore up follow-up systems for businesses, and I do that by using AI. So I use AI to handle all incoming calls and messages and inquiries into the business and plug the holes in the follow-up system to make sure they're all followed up and they're handled exactly how you want them to be handled when they come into the business. Man that's awesome that's.

Speaker 1:

That's actually a really fascinating, you know, piece of artificial intelligence. That is, you know, most people think of. Artificial intelligence is, like you know, terminator 2 Skylabs is taking over the world, that you're not going to be able to function without it type of, you know, like it's going to start functioning on its own and what you're doing is actually, you know, creating something that's an asset that has a very specific you know type of you know advantage to help business owners grow. That's really cool. Appreciate that, oh yeah. Help business owners grow. That's really cool. Appreciate that, oh yeah, very cool man. So, uh, tell me a little bit have you seen your business, you know, evolve since you started, since you launched it?

Speaker 2:

It's cool Cause we're still in the early stages, so, um, getting getting it up and running, but yeah, just, uh, just making a difference, being able to uh take business owners from feeling overwhelmed, right, being connected to their phone all the time, and so that's, that's really what we're trying to do and that's where it stemmed from. For me, uh, when I had the gym, you know, my number was was the business number. So being in those one-on-one sales meetings or giving a tour to a new person coming into the gym for the first time, or that personal training session, it was like, hey, you have my undivided attention, except if the phone rings, right. So I needed some way to be able to give the clients and people in front of me undivided attention while still not missing opportunities on the back end. So it's really that transformation from overwhelm and being able to focus and be more client facing that we're really trying to build.

Speaker 1:

Now that's really cool. What are you most proud of in this journey that you're already on?

Speaker 2:

I think it's the giving people their time back kind of time and control right, controlling their schedule and being able to work on the business and not so much in it and be a victim of the scheduling I guess. So, um, that's what I'm most proud of being giving people the opportunity to be proud of the businesses that they're growing and, uh, be proud of the service that they're able to provide their clients. So I think that's that's the best thing so far.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome, that's awesome. What um is there any has far? That's awesome, that's awesome. What um is there any has? When you've been having these conversations, I'm sure that there's been some unexpected opportunities or come up, tell us about, tell us a story or two that you've gotten from that unexpected opportunity.

Speaker 2:

Well, I think it's just been being able to work in multiple business industries, ones that I didn't necessarily think that I would from, you know, roofing companies to business coaches, to med spas, so it's kind of all over the map. So I'm being able to meet a lot of great and interesting people that are doing wonderful things. So, you know, as as entrepreneurs, as business owners, I think we have, we have opportunities and a big advantage to help more people. So just being able to meet diverse people and the opportunities to meet people in different verticals, different industries is has probably been the biggest thing for me.

Speaker 1:

I found. I found something very similar when we've when we started building this out, it's, it's. It's so funny when you, when you start into one type of like vertical and business like when I was in real estate, you know it was about, you know, finding the next person that wanted to buy a home in a certain region. You know, building a virtual assistant company it's been a national brand that we've already started to and then being able to make connections, you know, with just even like this podcast of meeting people from around the country, just amazing people. I've had a cancer survivor that has climbed Mount Everest and takes people on journeys up to Kilimanjaro. He ran seven marathons in seven days on seven continents in one week. Unbelievable guy.

Speaker 1:

I've met NFL players. I've met hockey players. I've met baseball players. I've met, you know, successful uh authors and business coaches. It's it's just kind of been, honestly, it's, it's been one of these things that has reaffirmed my, my passion for helping others. Uh is what we do, and I'm sure you're, you're having those same type of things happen when you're having those conversations. Absolutely Very cool, Very cool. How um with with what you're doing, like, how do you maintain that work life balance? Cause, like when you're starting this thing up, I mean it takes a lot to get it going, even if you're just built. Then I'm not trying to say just building an ai, but like there's so much behind it. You know, how do you, how do you maintain that?

Speaker 2:

it's difficult, for sure that that's one thing that I've certainly struggled with. So it is finding finding that balance, but having a lot of systems set up in place and so, you know, bringing on a new client, it's having their goals, the scope of the work, and you know a lot of those systems. Just having the, the work that I'm going to do, and setting expectations with the, with the client, and timeline, that's not, um, going to put me back and have my backup against the wall where I need to get everything done in the next, you know, 12 or 24 hours. So, uh, giving appropriate time to make sure that the work is getting done, uh, appropriately, and still giving time to, to breathe in and do things that I enjoy with the family, my dogs. So, very cool man.

Speaker 1:

Very cool, so I'm sure you're hearing it. You know like what unique challenges are you hearing from business owners and in the adoption phase of what you do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think it's the biggest thing is understanding how it can work for the business.

Speaker 2:

And then, am I going to lose the personal touch? You know, having an AI which is not the case, because a lot of times on that piece that's brought up a lot is the first interaction that we have with companies or businesses usually isn't with the owner or the person that we ended up doing business with anyway. So you're not losing that personal touch. You're actually um Giving better customer service because people are getting an immediate answer and in response, and so they're feeling heard, they're feeling taken care of right away. So, as far as the adoption phase, the two biggest challenges I see is just understanding how AI and the systems can work for you and your business and then not wanting to lose the personal touch, which you're not losing either. You're going to have the meeting, the one-on-one appointments with your clients and then eventually do the work and service that you provide. So it's just a way to enhance what you're already doing without losing the personal touch. But those are usually the two biggest things that come up in the beginning.

Speaker 1:

That's fantastic man. That's really great news. Uh, what advice would you give somebody when starting their entrepreneurial journey? I mean, there's so many different routes that people are going on, but like what with, with what you got going on, and what advice would you give somebody?

Speaker 2:

It's going to be difficult, but also rewarding. Um, it's, uh, it truly is a roller coaster some very high days, some very low days, uh, but consistency is always going to win in the end. So, um, show up, show up to those bad days, just like you show up to the good days. And uh, no, no, no, the better days are ahead. And and truly know and understand that the people are are out there that want to help you and see you succeed. So don't try and do it yourself. Um, the more people that you can meet and talk to, the the better off you're going to be, because I found people business owners or in entrepreneurship uh, they truly just want to help and see others succeed. It's not so much a competition. We're all just trying to pull each other up. So, look for help. You're not competing. There's people out there that want to help and support you.

Speaker 1:

Love that man, love seeing you grow. Dude, it's awesome what's next? Because, like with what you have on the tech and artificial intelligence, I mean it's it's growing at such a rapid rate. You know how do you see that? You know what's. What's the next step, what's the next evolution?

Speaker 2:

It's evolving so quickly. So next step with the phone calls is you know where I see it going is when companies get leads. So I'm looking at the paid advertising side, so a lot of paid advertising. We're trying to acquire leads and get contact information and this it's almost going to become your outbound source. So you get the lead, you get permission to call and then the AI almost going to become your, your outbound source.

Speaker 2:

So you get the lead, you have permission to call and then the, the ai is going to call and it's going to be a trained, trained associate for your team. So you're not going to have to have, uh, you know, get the, get the notification, oh, I have to go make this call real quick, like that's already going to be handled. So the IPs are just going to make it a lot more efficient and speed deleting we talked about. So that's going to drop drastically as we're able to implement that, and so really, it's just going to become. It's going to free up more time and I go back to it again enhance what you're already doing. So it's going to make your team open up to more possibilities and growth opportunities for your business, while AI is handling a lot of the daily repetitive tasks. So that's where I see it kind of going next, and who knows what the future capabilities are going to be available. It's hard to say that because it's been evolving so quickly.

Speaker 1:

I love that, man. That's very cool. So, man, I could talk all day long with you about where AI is taking stuff, man. But you know, appreciate everything that you've, you know the insight that you've given our listeners and everything. How can people get a hold of you? You know share all your socials and you know like contact info. Man, how can people get a hold of you, bro?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, so I can be found at Calumation C-A-L-O-M-A-T-I-O-N On Facebook, instagram. I'm on LinkedIn as well, so my pages are there. If you want to call and test out the AI and see what it sounds like, call it 720-573-0211. It'll role play a scenario for you and your business, which is very cool, so you can go through the process and kind of see how it's set up and handled. And, yeah, that's where you can find me.

Speaker 1:

That is so cool, dude. I'm I'm really excited to see where this is taking you, man, Really vested to see how you know I love seeing the growth in the artificial intelligence side of stuff. So best of luck in implementing everything and taking it to a whole nother level, my friend. Thank you. I appreciate that, Ryan, Absolutely, man. Once again, this is Ryan Van Ornam with the Scaling Up Success podcast, powered by Synergist, and David Banco with Calimation. Enjoy your day, everyone. Take care.

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