The Road That Changed My Mind
- 17 hours ago
- 5 min read
The Road That Changed My Mind
A story about freedom, faith, technology, and why the little guy still has a shot.
By Dave Suppnick
Founder
GMG
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THE DECISION
In 2020, my wife and I made a decision that a lot of people thought was crazy.
We packed up our lives, loaded our two boys into a 42-foot Jayco North Point fifth wheel, hooked it to our Dodge Cummins dually, and took off across the United States.
At the time, our boys were at that perfect age. Young enough to still be full of wonder, but old enough to remember the adventure.
We wanted to give them experiences instead of routines.
Campfires instead of schedules.Mountains instead of screens.
The beautiful part was that my business allowed it.
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THE BUSINESS THAT CREATED FREEDOM
I had spent years building relationships in the payment processing industry.
Back in 2011, we started moving merchants into zero-fee credit card processing. At the time, it was controversial. There were regulations, compliance issues, and a lot of skepticism around cash discounting and surcharging.
But we stayed relationship-focused.
We treated people fairly. We retained clients. Small businesses trusted us because we understood what it felt like to run one.
That business gave my family freedom.
Then COVID hit.
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WATCHING SMALL BUSINESSES STRUGGLE
In some ways, being on the road during that season was a blessing. We were able to move around the country and avoid a lot of the heaviness that many families experienced during lockdowns.
But professionally, it was difficult.
I watched small businesses struggle in real time.
Restaurants, retail stores, service businesses, and family-owned operations. Some were forced to close. Others were buried under restrictions and uncertainty.
That affected me deeply because I knew those people.
They were not corporations on a news channel. They were hardworking business owners trying to keep their livelihoods alive.
For the first time in my career, I started seriously thinking about how fragile systems can become when outside forces suddenly tighten their grip.
That fear pushed me into research mode.
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FROM SILVER TO CRYPTO
At first, I started buying physical silver while we were traveling through the Southwest. I even had silver shipped to a friend’s house in Scottsdale.
But eventually I realized hauling large amounts of physical metal around the country in an RV was not exactly practical.
That was when I started studying cryptocurrency.
The company that first caught my attention was Ripple.
What interested me was not hype or overnight wealth.
It was utility.
I understood friction in payments because I dealt with it every day. Merchant fees. Settlement delays. Interchange costs. Networks taking percentages from small businesses that were already stretched thin.
When I started reading about cross-border payments and on-demand liquidity, something clicked for me.
I realized this technology was trying to solve real-world problems I had already experienced firsthand.
So I leaned in.
I started investing in projects like XRP, HBAR, SOL, XLM, NFTs, meme coins, and a handful of others over the years. Some worked. Some didn’t.
Like most people in crypto, I learned a lot through experience.
But alongside the excitement, I also wrestled with something deeper.
As a Christian, I wanted to know whether this kind of technology aligned with what I believed.
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WHEN AI ENTERED THE CONVERSATION
Then AI entered the conversation too.
At first, I was cautious. Honestly, probably more than cautious.
Like many people, I wondered where all this was heading. I saw fear everywhere. People talking about AI taking over jobs, replacing humanity, destroying industries.
But over time, my perspective changed.
I stopped looking at technology as inherently good or evil.
I started looking at it as a tool.
A hammer can build a home or become a weapon. The internet can educate people or deceive people. Money can bless families or destroy lives.
The issue has always been the human heart.
Even the cross itself was a brutal instrument used for suffering and death, yet God used it for the greatest act of redemption in history.
That realization changed the way I viewed technology.
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FAITH OVER FEAR
We have a sovereign God.
He is not surprised by innovation. He is not pacing nervously in heaven because humanity discovered artificial intelligence.
The same God who created the stars, mathematics, creativity, and human intelligence already knew this moment would come.
That does not mean we move blindly without wisdom or discernment.
It means we stop living in fear.
Today, I do not believe AI is simply going to “take everyone’s jobs.”
I believe people who learn how to responsibly use these tools will outperform people who refuse to adapt.
Just like the internet.
Just like computers.
Just like mobile phones.
History repeats itself.
And honestly, that realization is what pushed me deeper into marketing and systems.
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ROOTING FOR THE UNDERDOG
I have always rooted for the underdog.
The small business owner. The guy trying to build something meaningful with limited resources.
Maybe that comes from my faith. Maybe it comes from my upbringing. Probably both.
One of my first businesses as a teenager was deck staining and power washing.
We built that business through pure guerrilla marketing. Hard work, conversations, flyers, creativity, referrals, showing up, and learning how to connect with people.
That mentality never left me.
Over the years, I watched marketing become more centralized, more expensive, and more dependent on giant platforms.
Businesses were taught to believe success only came through buying more ads.
But I never fully bought into that idea.
I believe businesses grow when they learn how to communicate clearly, tell real stories, build community, and create trust.
That belief eventually led to the creation of the C.A.S.H. Report.
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WHY THE C.A.S.H. REPORT EXISTS
The goal was never to overwhelm businesses with more dashboards or vanity metrics.
The goal was clarity.
Content.Audience.Sales.Hold.
What is working?
What is not?
Where are businesses wasting time?
Where are they missing opportunity?
How can small businesses compete smarter without burning money?
That mission matters to me because I know what it feels like to build something from the ground up.
I know what it feels like to worry about the future.
I know what it feels like to adapt when the world changes around you.
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THE BIGGER LESSON
And maybe that is the bigger lesson in all of this.
Technology is going to continue moving forward whether we like it or not.
The real question is whether we are willing to learn, adapt, stay grounded in our values, and use these tools to serve people well.
I still believe in boldness.
I still believe in curiosity.
I still believe in small businesses.
I still believe in freedom.
And I still believe the little guy has a shot.
Sometimes you just have to be willing to go guerrilla.
