Dave Burnett is a serial entrepreneur, former hockey enforcer, and AI-driven marketing strategist who has built and rebuilt businesses through extreme disruption. From taking punches on the ice to navigating a $70K-per-month business loss, and later recovering from a traumatic brain injury that erased nearly two years of memory, Dave’s journey reveals what resilience really looks like when the pressure is real. His work today focuses on helping companies gain visibility in an AI-dominated search landscape — a frontier every entrepreneur must now understand.

What You’ll Learn

• How early experiences in high-performance sports shape entrepreneurial discipline • The hard decisions required when a business suddenly drops to zero revenue • Why resilience is built through structure, not motivation • Lessons from recovering after a traumatic brain injury • How entrepreneurs can reclaim time as their most valuable asset

About Dave Burnett

Dave Burnett is the founder of AOK Marketing and PromotionalProducts.com. He began his career as a hockey enforcer in Canada before transitioning into entrepreneurship, building multiple companies including an early digital rewards platform later acquired for over $100M. After surviving a traumatic brain injury, Dave re-engineered how he works, structures time, and builds businesses. Today, he helps organizations adapt to AI-powered discovery, reputation management, and digital visibility.

Sponsors & Partners

• Imagine you’re a business owner relying on a dozen different software programs to run your company — each one more complicated than the last. Odoo solves that by bringing CRM, accounting, HR, marketing, inventory, and more into a single, simple, scalable platform. Streamline everything with Odoo at odoo.com.
• Shopify gives entrepreneurs everything they need to start and grow a business — online and in person. With beautiful templates, built-in AI tools, and integrated marketing features, Shopify makes launching and scaling simple. Start your business with a $1 per month trial at shopify.com/tony.

• For sponsorship opportunities, email [email protected].

Resources & Links Mentioned

1. 🔗 Connect with Dave Burnett: www.aokmarketing.com
2. 🎧 Listen on Apple: https://tonydurso.com/apple
3. 🎵 Tony’s Music: https://tonydurso.com/music
4. 📧 Join the Newsletter: https://tonydurso.com/news
5. 🎥 Watch the Video: https://tonydurso.com/videos

Tony’s Closing Words

Use this and let’s help you Move on YOUR Journey to Success! Just Take Action. – Success awaits those who persevere and remain steadfast despite the odds. Sow good seeds, do good deeds and join me on the next episode.

#EntrepreneurMindset #BusinessResilience #LeadershipDevelopment #AIinBusiness #DigitalTransformation #FounderJourney #TimeManagement #StartupLessons #BusinessRecovery #FutureOfWork

resilient leadership, recovering from business failure, traumatic brain injury recovery story, entrepreneur time mastery, AI search visibility strategy, entity authority marketing, business pivot during recession, high performance habits, leadership under pressure, rebuilding after loss, future of digital marketing, entrepreneur discipline systems, AI reputation management, scaling through adversity, infinite game of business, founder survival strategies, marketing in AI era, high-stakes decision making, entrepreneur recovery mindset, modern leadership lessons

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Tony D'Urso Host of The Tony DUrso Show

One of the top podcasts in the world, Tony DUrso interviews those who made it to the top of their category (calling them “Elite Entrepreneurs”) and who share their wisdom and advice with the audience.

The Tony DUrso Show is the #1 show on VoiceAmerica & Chartable (Jun 2022).

Breaking the Sound Barrier at 38,000,000 all-time Listens and Downloads, he helps millions of entrepreneurs learn from the success of others and teaches the Vision Map™, the testament to his success.