Entrepreneurs from across the country recently attended the annual 2026 DOMINATE Entrepreneurial Summit, hosted in Clearwater, Florida just a few weeks ago.
The mission was straightforward: Give business owners the information, resources, and connections they need to thrive in today’s challenging economic environment. And to achieve that mission, the event’s founder, Jeremy Knauff, brought some of America’s most successful and well known entrepreneurs together to share their insight across a variety of topics.
The event included expert panels on marketing, artificial intelligence, mindset, and finance, followed by the PowerTrack session, where recognized authorities in several industries gave a series of powerful 3-minute presentations, each sharing one powerful piece of wisdom, advice, or insight.
“Entrepreneurs are struggling. Most are facing declining revenue and rising costs, increased competition, and a rapidly changing tech landscape, so I wanted to create something that would help them overcome these challenges and thrive in their businesses,” Knauff says.
So he rallied his network of business leaders, including Derek Carlson, who built a brokerage that generated over $2 billion in transaction volume with over 1,300 agents, nationally recognized business credit expert Ari Page, who built a consulting firm generating 8-figures by helping entrepreneurs get funding, and David Bell, who walked into a struggling workplace safety company and transformed it into a national, industry dominating powerhouse.
He explained, “Entrepreneurs have to figure everything out while adapting on the fly, and they often carry their burdens alone because they have to be the leaders their teams can rely on. That can get heavy. I’ve seen a lot of smart, hardworking people struggle because they didn’t have the information that would help them scale faster, operate more efficiently, and develop a competitive advantage, so I wanted to create an event to give them that.
Knauff is no stranger to the challenges faced by entrepreneurs. He previously ran a successful digital marketing agency until he was blindsided by a health crisis that destroyed his business and nearly killed him. He spent two years on his death bed before relaunching his business, but since he had been away for so long, he had essentially become a nobody.
“I had no clients, no case studies, and no social proof. I was basically starting over from zero,” he explained.
That was when he leaned heavily into public relations to put himself back on the map. He began getting cited in and writing for some of the top media outlets in the world, like Entrepreneur, Forbes, and Fox Business. Then he began speaking on stages at some of the most prominent business events. And finally, he began collaborating with the most authoritative entrepreneurs throughout America. Shortly after that, he pivoted in his agency, Spartan Media, to focus entirely on public relations.
At the time, he didn’t realize it, but this would eventually become the foundation for the DOMINATE Entrepreneurial Summit.
As the idea percolated in his head, he started talking to the titans in his network. The entrepreneurs who know exactly what works and what doesn’t. The entrepreneurs who can warn others of the dangerous, costly, and time consuming mistakes that sit like landmines in their path. The entrepreneurs who spent their lives in the entrepreneurial trenches, starting from nothing and building vast empires that served millions of clients and employed thousands of people.
Ari Page was one of those entrepreneurs.
Page comes from a family of immigrants who came to America in search of the American Dream. He got his start in real estate investing and quickly amassed a substantial portfolio. Then while searching for alternative funding options to continue scaling, he stumbled upon business credit card stacking. For a while, he used this strategy to fund his own real estate deals, but before long, he saw an even bigger opportunity.
“Everytime I talked to entrepreneurs, the same problem kept popping up. While they were great at what they were doing and truly went above and beyond to serve their clients, most would eventually run headfirst into a funding roadblock. They were doing amazing work and their clients loved them, but without a substantial influx of capital, they were stuck at slow, incremental growth. Often, this even meant they had to turn down larger projects because their cashflow simply didn’t support what was needed to take on the work, Page explains.
This was when he pivoted. He put his real estate business on the back burner and launched Fund&Grow, a consulting firm that helps entrepreneurs leverage business credit card stacking.
Page was selected to share his insight on the financial panel at this year’s summit as one of the top authorities on business credit in America.
He said, “I know what it’s like to have everything else lined up but not be able to execute just because you don’t have enough capital to scale properly, so it was an honor to share my expertise. And since I’ve run start ups all the way up to the 8-figure company I run today, I was also able to offer advice on a range of other financial topics as well. No one was around to share this kind of knowledge early in my career, so I saw it as a way to give younger entrepreneurs an advantage I never got.”
Derek Carlson spoke on the mindset panel and shared one of the most powerful stories of overcoming adversity that I’ve ever heard.
A few years ago, he was on top of the world by all measures. He was regarded as one of the most authoritative and successful real estate brokers in the country and his brokerage had recently hit $1 billion in transaction volume, then shortly after that, it hit $2 billion.
Then his world came crashing down.
All at once, he was blindsided by a series of three separate heart attacks and three NAR class action lawsuits that crushed numerous brokerages, including his own.
“Entrepreneurs often focus on strategy, marketing, and sales. Those are essential, but many do not prepare for the emotional weight of entrepreneurship until they are already facing a crisis. The mindset I developed throughout my career helped me continue moving forward through one of the most difficult periods of my life,” Carlson explains. “I have seen major setbacks overwhelm talented entrepreneurs. If sharing what I learned helps one person face adversity, regain perspective, and keep going, I will consider that a win.”
He went on to take the role of President with Realty One Group MVP, and in just nine months, grew it to over 1,000 agents.
That mindset is outlined in Carlson’s bestselling book, Unlock Your MVP, which explains his clearly documented framework to master your mindset, expand your vision, and live your purpose, and is based on his own journey through intense adversity.
I had an opportunity to read his book before the event, and while it stood out as far more substantive and engaging than most on the topic, hearing Derek explain the principles in person added even more depth and context to his already powerful advice.
David Bell, a returning speaker from last year’s event, also brought tremendous impact to the event.
He built his first business, a printing firm, to just over $800,000 in revenue, then sold it to accept the role of Director of Sales & Marketing with one of his clients, USA Mobile Drug Testing. Then all hell broke loose. Nineteen franchisees abandoned the company and internally, things became so toxic there was virtually no path forward except for the CEO to step down, which meant Bell was now forced to step into that role.
The problem was that not only had he never run a franchise location, he also had no experience in the industry. As a result, he had no authority. They didn’t trust his expertise or his decisions, which made leading the company infinitely more difficult. Between that, the exodus of franchisees, and their online attacks on the company’s reputation, annual revenue plummeted from millions to just under $300,000.
This was a textbook case of a business crisis. But where most would throw in the towel and give up, Bell doubled down.
He took over the locations franchisees had abandoned and began running them himself. He started networking like his life depended on it. And he leaned all in on marketing to drive even more leads for remaining franchisees. Before long, the locations he was running started outperforming those run by franchisees, he was appointed to several board positions with industry associations and took an active role in legislation that affected the industry, and even the franchisees who did no marketing on their own had more leads than they could handle.
To say he proved himself would be an understatement, and the end result was that USAMDT had climbed to over $8 million in annual revenue in just a few years.
His brutal transparency was a lesson in what entrepreneurs can accomplish when they’re completely committed to the mission.
These were just a few of the highlights that stood out to me.
The marketing panel, which included Jeremy Knauff, Jessika Sutor, and Remso Martinez was a masterclass in building a powerful brand that attracts an engaged and monetized audience—something that is essential in today’s hyper-competitive environment, while the artificial intelligence panel taught attendees how to use AI effectively to create a competitive advantage that gives entrepreneurs tremendous leverage over their competitors.
And of course, I was honored to have an opportunity to share my thoughts during the PowerTrack session, where spoke on I Mastering Your Availability To Maximize Your Impact, a topic I’m passionate about both because of its impact for entrepreneurs and because I know that I, like many others, am guilty of saying yes to far too many people and things.
At the end of the event, I walked away with tons of profound advice, an action list that looks like a CVS receipt, and numerous new contacts I can collaborate with in a variety of ways.
I look forward to next year’s event, and I highly encourage you to attend either in person or virtually, because I believe it’s an absolute gamechanger for any entrepreneur who implements what they will learn there.