Today we’d like to introduce you to Charles & Linda Musselwhite.
Hi Charles & Linda, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We both worked in corporate America for over 20 years before making our entrepreneurial leap. On paper, life was “good,” but deep down we wanted something more—freedom, impact, and the chance to build something of our own. In 2009, we took the leap and launched Musselwhite Marketing out of Temecula, California.
Like most new entrepreneurs, we hustled, learned, and adapted quickly. But one experience early on truly defined our path. A contractor named Jerry reached out to us in crisis. He was over $400,000 in debt, facing the possibility of laying off his employees, selling all his equipment, and giving up his dream of running his own business. He was literally on the edge of walking away.
After a brief analysis, we saw opportunity. We’ll save you the two-hour version (lol), but in less than 60 days we brought Jerry $1 million worth of bid work—not money in his pocket yet, but pledged jobs he could complete. That moment saved his dream and kept his entire team off the unemployment line. It felt incredible.
Fast forward five years, and one Saturday night Jerry got a call from a simple Google search that turned into a $6 million project. He was thrilled, but Jerry preferred working in the field over the office, so we encouraged him to hire a general manager. He did—and almost immediately, that GM let us go. We went through all seven levels of emotions over that decision, but then it hit us: we had already accomplished what we set out to do. We helped save Jerry’s dream. To this day, Jerry is still in business, still growing, and still our friend.
That experience inspired us to create what became our signature framework: the **7 Pillars of Digital Marketing—website, content, email, ads, video, social media, and reputation management.** Everything we did to pull Jerry out of the fire became a system we could apply to other businesses. We even wrote books about it and were invited by SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) to lead workshops across Southern California for nearly two years, traveling from Los Angeles to Victorville, Redlands, Corona, and Murrieta.
Along the way, we were fortunate to be interviewed by Kevin Harrington from *Shark Tank* and James Malinchak, motivational speaker and entrepreneur featured on ABC’s *Secret Millionaire*. James later invited us to join his mastermind, which turned out to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Through that group, we found ourselves learning alongside and being mentored by some of the most accomplished leaders in business and personal development, including Patty Aubrey (“The Billion Dollar Brand Builder” and President of The Jack Canfield Training Group), Brian Tracy (legendary speaker and author), Jack Canfield (co-creator of *Chicken Soup for the Soul®*), Jeff Hoffman (co-founder of Priceline.com), Joseph Theismann (NFL legend and corporate speaker), Kevin Eastman (NBA executive and coach), and many others. Being in rooms with people of that caliber changed the way we thought about business, leadership, and growth.
Over the years, the constant thread in our work has been this: small business owners don’t just need marketing—they need clarity, confidence, and consistency. That belief eventually led us to launch **Persystent AI**, which builds on everything we learned through Musselwhite Marketing. Instead of cobbling together tools or depending on the old agency model, we set out to create a complete system that makes marketing and operations simpler, smarter, and more effective for the kinds of businesses we love working with.
So, if Musselwhite Marketing was the foundation of our journey, Persystent AI is its natural evolution. Both are rooted in the same mission: helping small business owners stay in business, grow with confidence, and never feel like they’re navigating the challenges of marketing and technology alone.
We hope this is okay and not too much.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Has it been a smooth road? Absolutely not—and honestly, we wouldn’t trust anyone who says it has. When we started, we didn’t know what we didn’t know. We’re pretty sure we made just about every mistake possible, but the silver lining is that we always learned from them and used those lessons to get better.
Like most small business owners, we had to wear all the hats—sales, marketing, finance, customer service, operations—you name it, we did it. There were plenty of long days and late nights, but we weren’t afraid of working hard to reach our goals.
And of course, since it was just the two of us in the beginning, we butted heads. A lot. It took time to understand our individual strengths and to give each other the space to lead in those areas. Once we figured that out, everything became smoother, and our business (and marriage!) was stronger for it.
One of the smartest decisions we made early on was investing in masterminds. We didn’t try to figure it all out alone—we surrounded ourselves with people who had already achieved the success we were aiming for. Those experiences accelerated our growth and helped us avoid a lot of unnecessary trial and error.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Musselwhite Marketing and Persystent AI?
At our core, we help small business owners simplify marketing and growth. For years, through Musselwhite Marketing, we became known for our **7 Pillars of Digital Marketing**—website, content, email, ads, video, social media, and reputation management. That framework gave business owners a clear road map for what they needed to do to compete and grow in the digital age.
But over time, we saw a bigger challenge: business owners didn’t just need a road map—they needed a system. Too many were bouncing between agencies, freelancers, and disconnected tools, all while trying to juggle the demands of running their business. That’s what inspired the next chapter of our journey: **Persystent AI.**
Persystent AI is more than a marketing platform—it’s a **business and marketing operating system**. It pulls together everything under one roof: websites, funnels, CRM, email, SMS, automation, and now AI-powered assistants. Our AI features—like Voice AI, Conversation AI, Reviews AI, Funnel & Website AI, and Workflow AI—act like digital employees, handling repetitive tasks, generating content, and freeing business owners to focus on the work they love and the customers they serve.
What sets us apart is that we’re not just software people or just marketing people—we’re business owners who’ve walked in the same shoes as our clients. We’ve been in the trenches, made the mistakes, and figured out how to simplify the process. That perspective lets us customize Persystent AI for industries we know best—independent insurance agencies and residential service contractors—so they can grow with confidence without feeling overwhelmed.
Brand-wise, we’re most proud that **Persystent AI reflects who we are**: relentless in helping small businesses stay in business, practical in our approach, and always innovating to give them an edge. If there’s one thing we want your readers to know, it’s this: you don’t need more tools, more gimmicks, or another expensive agency contract. You need a system that works—day in and day out—and that’s what Persystent AI delivers.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
We’re both lifelong learners, and books have been some of our best mentors over the years. A few that really stand out include:
– Scott Fox’s Click Millionaires – this book literally changed the trajectory of our lives.
– Dan Kennedy – a multimillionaire entrepreneur and author of more than twenty business books, whose direct, no-nonsense approach shaped how we think about marketing.
– Jim Cockrum’s Silent Sales Machine – a classic that opened our eyes to online business opportunities. I great study in what’s possible. Jim wrote this book as a downloadable PDF for $5 and sold over 250,000 downloads!
– Grant Cardone’s The 10X Rule – a constant reminder to think bigger and push harder.
– Ryan Deiss’s Invisible Selling Machine – this one was a total agency changer for us.
– Russell Brunson’s DotCom Secrets – brilliant at breaking down funnels and online sales.
– Daymond John’s The Power of Broke – a powerful reminder that resourcefulness often beats resources.
And honestly, that’s just scratching the surface. We literally have a 17-page list of books we’ve purchased and studied over the years.
As for blogs and digital resources—we follow so many that we sometimes joke we’re digital hoarders (lol). The truth is, we’re always learning. The digital landscape changes so fast that staying curious and teachable has been one of our biggest advantages in both life and business.
We also invest in a lot of apps to help us run our business and conduct marketing activities for our customers. One of the best is our online project management apps (ClickUp and Blue). We could not function without these apps.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://musselwhitemarketing.com/ & https://persystent.ai/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/musselwhite-marketing & https://www.linkedin.com/company/persystent-ai/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MusselwhiteMarketing & https://www.youtube.com/@PersystentAI
