A bigger budget won't fix a bad plan. Knowing where the fish are, and why they bite, matters more than the size of the boat. David's father told him this early on.

Money is a tool. If you don't decide what it does, it ends up deciding what you do.

You don't beat a strong current by swimming straight at it. You stay calm, move sideways until you're free, then head for shore. David applies the same idea to going against the crowd.

Because the moment you think you know it all, you stop learning. In business that's when competitors start passing you.

Mistakes don't fix themselves. If nothing changes, the same mistake keeps repeating, and it never seems to run out of energy.

From 36+ years of building businesses and learning the hard way. A few were handed down by his father.

The fishing line about the bigger boat. His father also taught him the 90/10 rule for splitting a marketing budget.

In The Senior he said, "It took me a while to accept that the money was the harvest, not the seed." It ran in August 2026 in a piece on enjoying retirement.

"Blogs bring browsers. Buying guides bring buyers." He said it to eCommerce Manager about writing for people who are ready to spend.

"Cutting a wage is the final lever, not the first one." He told Small Biz Leader he'd go to suppliers about payment terms first.

Because great information is worth zero if nothing changes on Monday. Every talk is built so people leave with something to do that week.

Use AI to cut costs first, like subscriptions and outsourced work. Then spend those savings on AI that brings in more customers.

You don't need to beat the big corporations. You only need to market better than the business down the road that your customers compare you with.

"Do not ask what they know. Ask whether you would actually want to work next to them on a bad day." That was his answer to Dynamic Business.

Because a clear goal you miss still tells you exactly how far off you were. That's room for improvement, and it's far more useful than a vague goal you can't measure.

When a customer asks an AI for a recommendation, it names three or four businesses. If you're not one of them, you don't exist for that customer.

Marketing only gets people interested. Turning them into buyers depends on your sales process, and every process has holes. Plug them and the same marketing spend goes further.

"Enjoying it isn't reckless. It's the whole point." That was the pull quote in his interview with The Senior.

Yes. They turn up in his keynotes, workshops and consulting sessions. See the speaking page.

If it's on this page or in his published interviews, it's his. If you see a line attributed to him elsewhere and want to check, email info@davidcaruso.com.au.