Leap Academy with Ilana Golan - Going All In: How Russ Ruffino Went from Bartender to $100M CEO

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

Russ Ruffino spent his 30th birthday sobbing into his bourbon because he felt like a failure. He had spent the last decade bartending while clinging to his dream of becoming a movie star. So, how did he go from bartender to CEO of a $100 million business? He took his first step by applying his acting skills to writing persuasive sales copy. In this episode, Russ shares his incredible journey, offering lessons on leveraging unique skills, taking bold risks, and building a values-driven team to build a thriving business. Russ Ruffino is the founder and CEO of Clients on Demand, a company that has generated over $100 million in revenue. He helps entrepreneurs, coaches, and consultants attract their ideal clients at the right price, anytime they want. In this episode, Ilana and Russ will discuss: - Translating his acting skills into compelling sales copy - Taking the plunge into entrepreneurship - Going from zero to $250K  - Scaling from small offers to a $100M empire - The problem with scaling too quickly - Why marrying the right person is a superpower - Building a solid team by focusing on mission - Why your company needs a "no jerks" policy - Accepting that obstacles will come - His rule of thumb for firing people - Why entrepreneurs need acting classes  - Celebrating wins and enjoying the journey - And other topics…   Russ Ruffino is the founder and CEO of Clients on Demand, a high-ticket sales company that has generated over $100 million in revenue by helping entrepreneurs scale their businesses. After struggling as an actor and bartender for a decade, Russ discovered online marketing. He took the plunge into entrepreneurship and today, he helps coaches, consultants, and service providers attract the right clients, at the right price, anytime they want.  Connect with Russ: Russ’s Website: https://russruffino.com/  Russ’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russruffino/  Resources Mentioned: The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss: https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/dp/0307465357  The Ultimate Sales Letter: Attract New Customers. Boost your Sales. by Dan S Kennedy: https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Sales-Letter-Attract-Customers/dp/1440511411  How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets by Felix Dennis: https://www.amazon.com/How-Get-Rich-Greatest-Entrepreneurs/dp/1591842719 

I was bartending from age 21 to age 31. My life sucked and I didn't want to be a 40-year-old bartender. So I quit my bartending job. I jumped off the cliff. And that first year I made $250,000 online and it changed the rest of my life. When you're all in, you have to make it work. Yeah. So many entrepreneurs get into business and they take that first punch and they go,

he hit me. Yeah, dude, that's kind of what you signed up for. If you are setting these extraordinary goals for yourself, that's a life without limits. And if you want that life, you have to be prepared to deal with some setbacks and obstacles along the way. But my God, is it worth it? Today I have such an incredible guest and for me it's just the biggest honor because I owe them so, so much. I owe Russ Orfino, who is the founder and CEO of Clients On Demand. They built the Clients On Demand to over a hundred million in revenue.

Come on. And it's probably even past that by now, but they literally changed my life. So having them here and having Russ here on this show is just the biggest privilege. Russ! Thank you for coming! Thank you for having me. It's still great to be here. I'm so excited for you. I'm so proud of you. It's awesome. So thank you. So take me back in time because I know a little bit of your story and you did not born suddenly with clients on demand

and it wasn't that smooth of a sailing. So take me back in time. How did you get started? Well, my whole life, I actually, I wanted to be an actor. So I went to a high school for performing arts. I went to UCLA School of Theater. And then I was living in LA, studying at some of the top acting studios in town.

That's actually where I met my wife. And when you are a struggling actor, you are a bartender or you are a waiter or you are giving massages or you are personal training or you're doing whatever because it's impossible to pay the bills until you really get some work going, right? So for me, that lasted 10 years.

I was bartending from age 21 to age 31. I remember on my 30th birthday, I was sitting in the lobby of the Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas with my girlfriend, who is now my wife, just sobbing into my bourbon because my life sucked and I didn't want to be a 40 year old bartender. So, and I had no idea what I was going to do because the acting thing wasn't working out and I was just like, what am I going to do with my life?

Where is this going to go? And around that times, a couple of really interesting things happened. I was also the lead singer of an 80s cover band at the time. I did not know that. Yeah. Yeah. You didn't know that. Yeah.

Called Cobra Kai actually, which is like now there's a whole show about it. But back then before the show, we would wear the karate uniforms and we would come out, we would do 80s. That was awesome. Anyway, my guitarist's younger brother comes in and he's sitting at my bar and I'm pouring drinks for him or whatever.

And he's like, you know, man, I made $1,200 today. I made $800 yesterday. What recession, baby? Like he's just talking all this smack. And I'm like, what is this kid talking about? And as it turned out, he was promoting products online, he was doing affiliate marketing, and that got my curiosity up.

And then a couple of days later, I was on break and I walked into Barnes and Noble, and sitting right there was a copy of the four hour work week by Tim Ferriss. And so I picked up that book, I take it home, I read it, and that was the first aha moment in my life. Because up until that point, I thought that you basically had two choices in life, which was go and be some sort of corporate employee working in an office.

Which to me sounded really boring or be a movie star. That was it. There was nothing else. Right. So I read far work week and I realized that there's this whole world that's emerging and this book came out in 2006. I don't even think Facebook existed in 2006. This was when the internet was just coming to fruition and it gave me this

inspiration of this whole world of online entrepreneurship. So between running into that kid at my bar and reading that book, I said, look, man, if these guys can figure this out, I can figure this out. So I went online and I dove in and I just started, I don't know, poking around and trying to find products that I believed in and promote them and get affiliate commission. What was crazy, Alana, is I could just do it. No background in marketing, no background in sales. I was a freaking actor and a bartender, but when I sat down to like write sales copy, it just flowed. It was like if you were like a chess prodigy,

but you never sat in front of a chess board until you were 30, you know? And then you were just like, oh, what's this? And you could just move the pieces around. Let me stop you here for a second, because those that don't know you didn't see how you write copy. So Russ is the type of person that somehow,

and I don't know how you do this, but you first of all understand the psychology of your audience in a way that I have never seen before. And it doesn't matter who they are. Maybe it's this actor in you, right? Because it could be somebody helping with careers, but it can also be somebody helping with health. Things that are so opposite, but you understand your audience

in a way that is just different than anyone that I've seen, and then you're able to write the copy in a way that is just, everybody feels the pain. It evokes these emotions. Do you know where you learned that? Because that's a skill that I don't know where it came from.

That's incredible to watch you, by the way. Thank you. That's awesome. So what was very interesting is I'm learning about online marketing and I'm learning about copywriting. And I buy this book called Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy. It's the only book about copywriting that I had read. I just grabbed it at Barnes and Noble

and I'm going home and I'm reading in it. And in that book, he has, I think it's 13 questions that you have to ask yourself about your target audience. Really good questions like, what keeps them awake at night staring at the ceiling filled with anxiety? If they could wave a magic wand and have a perfect day, what would that day look like? But as I'm reading this book, Ilana, I'm like,

oh my God, these are the same questions that we ask as actors when we're trying to break down a scene and get into character. And so I was like, oh, I can do this. And so it's like, maybe you're not married, but you're writing a copy for an offer to help people save their marriage, right? I can close my eyes and I can imagine what that would feel like and then put that into words. And that's all I'm doing is putting myself into the customer's shoes and talking about what he is feeling, what he is experiencing, how he's experiencing these problems on a day-to-day basis. And then when I started doing that, the copy just flowed, but it was 10 years, actually

more than 10 years, because I went to a high school for performing arts, 20 years of acting training that I thought was going to be completely useless as a life skill. When I sat down to write copy, it actually was like, oh my God, I get this because the power of good marketing is empathy. It's connecting with where your audience is emotionally. So you're starting to write this copy. How is that turning into a business? This is literally just me stumbling around in the dark trying to make a buck.

So I go online and I find products that I believe in. I buy the product, I go through it. I'm like, oh, this is pretty good. This ebook is really good. This video course is really good. It's not my stuff. But I said, look, I can promote this. And I start running ads to drive traffic to those different offers.

And I start making a little bit of money. I start making maybe $500 a month, which is not enough to replace my income from bartending, but it's enough for me to go, oh man, you know what? Maybe I'm onto something here. And one day I go into work, I get into a huge fight with my boss. He gets on my case about something that I didn't do

and I wanted to tell him to F off and I did it. I bit my tongue and I kept my mouth shut. And that night I go home to talk to my girlfriend again, who's now my wife. And she had just gotten fired from her cocktailing job. So I was the only income coming in and I go to her and I tell her what happened. And I said, Hey baby, you know, my boss said this, and I wanted to stick up for myself, but I didn't cause I was afraid I would get fired. And I said, I feel like I'm really being a wuss to myself.

And she looks at me and she goes, you gotta quit. Just like that. And the next day I walk in and I quit my bartending job and just say, look, I'm gonna make a living online no matter what. I'm only making $500 a month now, which is not even close to covering my rent in LA, but I did it.

I jumped off the cliff. And in that first year, I made $250,000 online and it changed the rest of my life. And I don't think I ever made more than 20, 25 ever as a bartender. So that changed everything. Insane, insane Russ. So basically, first of all, the fear of both of you now, and by the way, I know her very well, and no wonder she's always such a big supporter, and I love her and say hi.

And I'll start with that, that that's not a given, because I see a lot of partners that that would sabotage everything. You would now need to, sorry, suck it up and stay there, because they would not support that. So first of all, what do you think made her feel like that's okay? I think that marrying the right person is a superpower. And I think that she loved me so much that she was like, there's no way my man is going to go into a job every day where he feels like a wuss. It was like a there's no way my man is gonna go into a job every day where he feels like a wuss.

It was like a no-brainer for her. It was unacceptable to her that I would be in that situation. She was like, you gotta quit, you know, go for it. And if I didn't have her in my corner, I seriously doubt I would have had the courage to take that step. But it changed the whole course of the rest of my life, that one decision, yeah. So let's start from the beginning,

because I think for a lot of people, first of all, that is the hardest thing, right? So you're quitting, and the day after, what do you do, and how do you bring the first clients? Because the first clients, I feel, are almost the hardest thing, maybe. I mean, there's also scaling, which is hard, but let's kind's start with that.

There's a lot of things. Yeah. So the whole business model changed about two years in, and I'll talk about what that looked like. The day I quit, I was on cloud nine. I did it. I was so excited. This is amazing. I wake up the next morning in absolute mortal terror. I got $600 in the bank, rent's due in three weeks. Okay. It's game time, right? So I get up, I grab my laptop, 6 a.m., Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf opens up, I'm there before it opens, sit there with my laptop, trying to find different products to promote and run different promotions.

But I was doing that very successfully, and then I realized that, well, why would I promote other people's products when I could promote my own products? And so I started creating educational materials to show people how to do what I was doing. How do you make money using affiliate marketing? How do you make money using online marketing? And I was doing that at a very low price point,

$7, $27, $97 or whatever. And so we would do these launches where I would put out a new product and I would get my own affiliates to promote it, just like I was promoting their stuff. And we would make $20, $30,000 in a weekend, which was crazy to me. But over time, I started to realize that because of that low price, people would buy my stuff,

they would read the books, they would enjoy it, the reviews were always good, nobody wanted a refund, but nobody was taking action either. So I'd catch up with people and I would say, hey, Ross, that video course was awesome. Okay, great, man, what'd you do? Did you put into action? Did you follow the steps? Oh, hey, you know, Ross, that video course was awesome. Okay, great, man, what'd you do? Did you put into action? Did you follow the steps?

Ah, well, you know, I got 10 or 15 other courses I gotta get to first and then I'll get to yours. And so it just started to bother me. And so I started to think, okay, well, you know what, man? What would happen if I flipped this whole model on its head? Instead of trying to sell thousands of copies of a $27 ebook, what if I raised my price to 5,000, 8,000, $10,000,

just worked with a handful of people and then I could really give them results and really give them a VIP experience and because they were investing at a higher price point, I bet you they would show up and they would take action and they would get the result. And everybody in online marketing at the time, because I had a lot of colleagues in the space,

they thought that was nuts. They were like, there's no way. There's no way you're gonna run ads on Facebook and send people into a program that costs $5,000, $8,000 or $10,000 and get them to say yes right out of the gate. There's no way. And so I said, look, you're probably right, but let me at least try it. So I shut down all my low ticket offers.

This is I think August of 2013. I'd been online marketing for about two years. I shut down all my low ticket offers, which is a really stupid thing to do because I had zero money coming in. And then, and then tried to do this thing where I raised my prices and July went by, I made nothing August. I made nothing September. I made nothing.

I was really close to shutting it down October, November. And then in December of 2013, it all just clicked and I had my first $200,000 a month, and that was the month that changed everything for me because I was enrolling people into a high ticket program and Everything that I thought was gonna happen Alana actually happened. They showed up committed. They showed up coachable They did the work they got the result and everybody was happy and it was an amazing life-changing thing So since then and that was what 10 11 years ago? That's been the model that we do that's been the model that we do, that's been the model that we teach.

We've had 6,000 clients, $100 million in revenue with that particular model. That was the second big life-changing moment for me. And I will just double down on what you just said. And that's how I met you, right? Because of that, I paid my dues and freaked out that it's not gonna work and then it changed my life. And I will say a few things.

First of all, if it was a $7, $27, $47, $107, doesn't matter, I would just not go. The first time it would be just a little tiny hard, I would just let go and say, oh, never mind, this is not gonna work. So to some extent, my back was against the wall. I needed to make it work. And I think you're right. When you're all in, you have to make it work. And I think that's basically when you draw the line,

the sand and say, you know what? It just has to. And now the only question is how fast can I make it? Who are the experts by my side is how fast can I make it? Who are the experts by my side and how can I run and do big things? Right. So doubling down on what you just said, it makes all the difference. Another e-book on the shelves. I can show you how many books I have.

And I didn't even open them. Like, it's kind of pathetic, but it's true. So you're starting this thing. But again, it's starting a business, right? And suddenly you scale too fast and suddenly people don't get results or you have some issues. Talk to us a little bit because

now that you have your first client, which is amazing to have your first 200K so fast, but between that and scaling is light years away. Russ, talk to us a little bit about the journey. The model that we use, just to clarify for everyone, is really simple. We run ads on Facebook and Instagram, targeting our ideal clients.

People click those ads, they sign up with their name and email to watch a video presentation, and the video presentation blows their minds because it's amazing. And then at the end of the video presentation, we invite them the opportunity to book a phone call to talk to us about potentially working together. So it's a really, really, really simple model.

And so in principle, scaling that model is pretty easy. You just spend more money on ads, and then the more money you spend on ads, the more people you're getting through, and then the more people who book calls, and then the more clients you have, and the more clients you enroll. But what we did, Alana, that I think was really critical

and important is that we deliberately scaled slow. So we didn't just like, oh yeah, let's spend a million dollars on advertising right out of the gate. It was like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Let's ramp up the ad spend gradually. Because normally what happens in a company is that as their revenue goes up, the quality of their service delivery goes down. Tim Ferriss was talking about this on his podcast years ago, where he would sometimes plug businesses on his podcast. And he said, you know, we had to stop plugging service based businesses. Because we would give them what he called the hug of death. They would get featured on his podcast and thousands of people would come to

order their service and that would just break everything. So we really didn't want that to happen. So we very gradually would increase the ad spend and increase the throughput. And as we had more clients coming through, I would go and hire more coaches and better coaches. And we just made sure that every single client got an amazing result.

That was our North Star. And I think that's what served us so well. Cause we've seen so many competitors come and go over the years where they go, oh, that guy Russ is making a bunch of money. I could do that. And they just set up shop trying to compete with us. And yeah, they can copy our marketing

and they can copy our funnels and they can copy our ads and copy all that stuff. But then they try to copy our results. And that's where the wheels just come off the cart cause they're just not willing to make the level of investment in people we were willing to make. And I totally agree. And again, for those who are listening, basically clients on demand will help.

If you're a coach consultant. So if you're trying to scale your business, this is the place. They're going to teach you exactly how to create that funnel that will take your business to the next level. I'm going to teach you exactly how to create the funnel that will take your business to the next level. But, Russ, talk to me for a second about, again, as you're trying to scale, I know your team and your team is incredible. So first of all, how do you get a team that is good, especially when you're sort of broke

initially, right? That, to me, was a little bit of a hard moment initially. So talk to me a little bit about that. I think that more than anything else, people deep down, they want to be a part of something. And so if you're a coach or consultant and expert author speaker, and you're helping people solve some of the biggest problems in life. So our clients are saving people's marriages. We have another client, Becky, who helps dyslexic kids learn to read.

We have a client, Jamie, and you know all these people, but Jamie, who, uh, works with at-risk girls who are dealing with anxiety and depression, and they're just moving in the wrong direction. So these are basic human condition type problems. People had marriage problems today. People had marriage problems in caveman days. People are going to have marriage problems a thousand years from now. Right.

They're these big life problems that if you have a great marriage, it makes problems today, people had marriage problems in caveman days, people are going to have marriage problems a thousand years from now, right? They're these big life problems that if you have a great marriage, it makes your life great. If your marriage is having problems, your life sucks. It just is what it is. So helping people overcome these problems is the kind of thing that our clients do. So when you're talking about building a team, I think the mission is more important than anything else. Most people work at a job that they really don't believe in.

And you can have people that sing the corporate tune, that yeah, I'm really excited about what we're doing. But if you work at Cheesecake Factory, and I can say this because I used to work at Cheesecake Factory, are you really changing the world? I mean, really, I know, you know what I mean? Like, I know it's like, it's really Cheesecake Factory. Are you really changing the world? I mean, really, I know, you know what I mean?

Like, I know it's like, it's really good cheesecake, but are you really changing the world? You know, if you work at Pinkberry and you're like, okay, here's your frozen yogurt. You know, it's like, okay, that's great. But you're not really changing the world. But when you have a coaching or consulting company where you are helping people solve the biggest problems

in life and in business, anybody who works for your company is literally changing the world. And you'd be surprised man. People are willing to take pay cuts for that to be a part of something. And especially the way that we teach it. Most people's companies are completely remote. So my company is totally remote.

We have like 30 people working here. They're all over the world. I work from home. Everybody works from home. And that's another big perk as well. Sometimes you got someone that's making $140,000 at a corporate job, but they have an hour and a half commute to work and from work every day. And it's like, look, I can afford to pay you 120 and you're going to be a part of something awesome. And you get to work from home. People will be like, yeah, I'll take it in many, many cases, because it's

just worth it. So I think having that mission and that vision where, yes, you can make the money you want to make. Yes, you can enjoy the freedom you want to make, but you could also make that impact that you were born to make. There's so few jobs out there that really let people do that. And I think that's the power of Elon Musk's companies. There's a guy right now at SpaceX who's cleaning the toilets, but he's got so much meaning in his work because he's being a part of getting us to Mars. That just changes everything for people, I think.

And at that point, that's all you really have, right? You have the mission. You can't pay them. I mean, we can't compete with the tech world, but again, we can change people's lives. And again, at the end of the day, you want people that will wake up every morning and decide to be here, not because of another few dollars, but decide every single day that they want to change people's lives. And it is about that. But tell me, Russ, this entrepreneurship journey can get also really, really hard. And one of the things that I also want to make sure is that when people are choosing entrepreneurship, they're choosing it for the right reason,

not because it's hard to find a job. So can you share some hard moments that you went through if that's okay in the business? Because I think people need to see the other side of the glamour. I always say that if you want to be heavyweight champion of the world, you're going to get punched in the face. It's inevitable. And so many entrepreneurs get into business and they take that first punch and they go, he hit me. Yeah, dude. That's kind of what you signed up for. So people

go like, well, Russ, you know, am I going to have somebody who trash talks me online? Yeah, that's inevitable. Am I going to have a customer who wants a refund? Yeah. If I get big enough, am I going to have a customer who threatens to sue me? Yeah, it's inevitable. Am I going to get sued? Yeah, it's probably inevitable if your company gets big enough, am I going to have a customer who threatens to sue me? Yeah, it's inevitable. Am I going to get sued? Yeah, it's probably inevitable if your company gets big enough. So for me, we've dealt with so many things over the years. You have unhappy customers sometimes, you have crazy customers sometimes, and they can cause a lot of problems for you.

I've had clients sign up for my program, copy and steal all of our IP, and then leave and set up the exact same business using our exact IP without even really changing anything. That's crazy. I've had team members quit, take our IP, set up a competing company, try to poach our clients, and then absolutely crash and burn because they had no idea what the hell they were doing. So all of this stuff, as painful as it is, it's just par for the course. And the question I always ask myself was, well, what am I going to do? Go back to bartending? Right? So I know I'm not going to do that.

I got no choice but to just suck it up and deal with it and keep persevering and pushing forward. But yeah, man, I mean, you name it, it's happened. When those things happen, I think having you name it, it's happened. When those things happen, I think having a healthy attitude about it is key. I think having a level of acceptance. There's so many people that think that,

especially with the whole law of attraction crowd, people are like, oh yeah, it should be effortless and it should be a flow, man. And you should just be in this flow state and it should be amazing and cool. And if you're on the right track, the universe is just unfolding, it's bringing you everything.

No, they run into their first big obstacle and they take that as a sign that they're on the wrong track. No, man, if you're gonna climb Mount Everest, guess what? You're gonna be cold and you're gonna be out of breath and you might die. That's just what you have chosen. So you have to have a level of acceptance if you are setting these extraordinary goals for yourself.

We've done $100 million in revenue. I work from home. I can travel wherever I wanna travel and I'm making an incredible impact on the lives of my clients. That's an extraordinary life. That's a life without limits. And if you want that life,

you have to be prepared to deal with some setbacks and obstacles along the way, but my God, is it worth it? It's so worth it. For me, one of the biggest things that I got from working with you, some of it is just this very honest conversation. I remember you would share some of these stories with us.

And to me, that was really important to listen to because first of all, it sort of prepares you to, sorry, some crap will hit the fan. That's going to be coming. So first of all, you're not alone on the journey and it doesn't feel that shocking when it comes. But I think there was also an element of that vulnerability of being able to share the truth

and you're learning from the truth, right? And some of it was also, I think, around how you look at money and your first time that you got to a million dollar. Would you share that story? Because to me, that was really, really inspiring. This was, I think, in 2015 or 2016, where it was the first time I had a million dollars in my bank account. So for the first time.

There's a difference between doing a million dollars in revenue and actually having a million dollars cash in the bank, which I had. And I was so excited. And I remember I called my dad, I texted my dad, I took a picture of the bank account screenshot and I was like, dad, I have a million dollars in cash. And he was like, oh man, you know, so proud of you son and everything. And I was just like like, I want to say April 5th, it was early in the beginning of the year. And that joy lasted about two weeks because then I got a call from my accountant and my tax bill for that year was like $950,000. So I was like, oh, all right, great.

And that was a huge lesson too, because I had kind of just been winging it when it came to taxes, like, oh, I guess I'll have enough, but I wasn't putting money aside or anything like that. So I had a million dollars for like two weeks and then that disappeared and then we had to build it back up again. But I mean, I'm sitting here and complaining

about the time I had a million dollars, but you know, we didn't really have a million dollars. The government had a million dollars. I was just kind of just holding it for them. You know, it's like, here you go. You know? Incredible. And these are lessons that I love learning it from you versus trying to figure this out on my own

and not leaving enough. So it's all these little pieces of learning that way beyond just a whole funnel and all the things that you guys teach, but even just little nuggets like this that actually make a huge, huge, huge difference when you try to scale. funnel and all the things that you guys teach, but even just little nuggets like this that actually make a huge, huge, huge difference when you try to scale. So I appreciate that. I will forever remember that story. But you're then trying to scale. What are some of the tips

that you would say to people when they are looking to scale, when they're looking to build something impactful. What were some of the things that you would share? I think it's very important to have a no jerks policy, no jerks anywhere in your company at all, ever. My friend, Dan Fleischman was talking to me about this and the analogy he uses this, let's say you were at a hotel and there was this giant swimming pool, the biggest swimming pool you've ever seen, and there was one tiny little piece of poop in the swimming pool.

Would you go in? It's like, no, you wouldn't. And that's the way you need to look at your no-jokes policy. It's got to be zero tolerance. Like there is no tolerance for that at all. And so there's gonna be moments where, of course, you hire someone and that person puts on a really great face to you in the interview and when you're on your leadership meetings, they're amazing.

But then they're treating your team and your clients completely differently. So the moment you see that cynicism, the moment you see any kind of an abusive attitude or bad attitude, you need to get those people out of your organization immediately. Business owners need to understand that your primary loyalty needs to be to the business. These are all lessons I learned the hard way, by the way. So none of this is something I read in a book. Your primary loyalty has to be to the business. And here's what I mean by that.

We've had employees in the past who've been underperforming in one way or another. And I was paying them very well. I was paying them a good salary, but for whatever reason, it just stopped working. They either stopped doing their jobs or they stopped showing up the way that they needed to, they stopped getting the outcomes we were paying them to get. And I kept those people on the payroll. And in some cases for years, because I said to myself, man, you know what? I really like this person and I don't want to put them out and what's going to happen to their family, where they're going to be

financially. You will always get punished if you don't do what's best for the business. And I confused my generosity with the business's generosity. I was like, oh yeah, I can afford to be generous because I'm a generous guy, but your company, it's not you, it's your company. And when you're paying someone that you shouldn't be paying, you are stealing from your company in a way. So that's basically the thing. The biggest lesson I could give to people is to know what you want and do not settle. Know what you want and don't settle. The second you get that feeling in the back of your neck that something isn't right? You must pay attention to that. You need to look at your business like you look at your child.

If I hire someone to come and wash my car and that person does an okay job, it's like, ah, whatever, you did an okay job. I don't really care. But if I'm hiring someone to work with my kid and that person's doing a bad job, I fire that person immediately. So you don't get what you deserve, you get what you'll tolerate. And small business owners tolerate way too much. You start to get in your own head, you start to say,

well, oh man, you know, this guy's a pretty good, I don't know, media buyer. If I get rid of him, who's going to run my ads? I don't know, I'll just keep him around. And that moment right there determines your destiny. And it doesn't seem like much. It seems like, well, they're doing an okay job, but an okay job is not what your business deserves.

You need people who are superstars. And you need to keep hiring and firing until you get a team that's all superstars. There's no reward for doing it either. That's what I learned, there's no payoff. So what was crazy is that a lot of these people that I kept on the payroll for longer than I should have, they eventually quit.

And then those were the people that went and started a competing company and tried to poach our clients. So I was like, not only did I lose the money by keeping some people on the payroll way longer than I should have, then they turned around and stabbed us in the back. It was such a lose, lose, lose situation. You know, like in negotiation, they're like, yeah, find the win-win and then find the win-win-win. That was lose, lose, lose.

Like everyone loses. I got right here, literally on my desk, How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis, one of my favorite business books. He says all this stuff in here. I read this, I knew this years before it happened, and I fell into those traps anyway. So these are some things you can only learn through the school of hard knocks.

There'll be 1% of your listeners that hear what I just said and actually listen, but the other 99% will learn it the hard way, just like I did. In entrepreneurship, there's just millions of decisions you need to make in a day, and it just becomes really, really hard to figure out if this is the right decision, is the grass just looks greener on the other side.

Sometimes it's just overwhelming with decisions. How do you cope with that, Russ? Because it is a lot. Not well. Not well at all. I get decision fatigue. You get tired. You get exhausted. Steve Jobs wore the same thing every day for a reason. Barack Obama wore the same suit every day for a reason. Because it's just like that's one less decision you have to make. So for me, I try to make decisions as what we call expected value calculations.

So when I'm looking at the decision to quit my bartending job, let's say, you look at, okay, what is the worst case scenario? So that right there is a big antidote to fear. If you're thinking about doing something and you're afraid to do it, it's just this nebulous feeling. It's like, oh God, I could never do that. Or oh God, what if this, what if that? But I think I find that it helps to just really clearly define what is the worst case scenario. So in the case of quitting my bartending job, it was like, what's the worst case scenario?

Okay. I go into debt, I take out some credit cards and max out my credit cards. It doesn't work out. And guess what? I got to get another bartending job and I'm back to square one, except I'm just a little bit in debt. Well, when you define it like that, that's really not that bad. That's like, okay, I could live with that.

I'm just pretty much in the same boat that I'm in right now. So that's the worst case scenario. And then you go, okay, well, what's the best case scenario? The best case scenario to me that I could visualize at that time was I could make $100 a day. I could be online. I could be making $100 a day. And that would be all the money in the world.

And I wouldn't have to bartend anymore. Oh man, that sounds really good And so you got two scenarios where you got the worst case scenario really isn't that bad? But the best case scenario is life-changing and then you say okay Well, which scenario is more likely and in that case I gave myself about 50-50 So now you basically have a coin toss. I flip the coin if it's tails Yeah, I got to get another bartending job. If it's heads, the rest of my life changes. I'm making $100 a day online and I'm in fat city, baby. So to me, it was like, okay, when I gamed it out that way, the right decision became obvious.

I find that if you can map out your decisions in that way, you make a lot more accurate decisions because when you consider the consequences of A and the consequences of B and the consequences of inaction, a lot of the time the right decision becomes obvious. But man, it is tiring and it's especially tiring now that I have four kids, eight, six, five, and three. Oh man. I haven't had a good night's sleep in eight years. But it's just, this is what we signed up for, man. So you got to just deal with that.

I gave up at two. But let me tell you, there are teens now and I don't know which one is easier. So buckle up, mister. I'm screwed for the next 10 years. I know it, I know it at least. But seriously, so first of all, I agree. End of the day, I can get to a state where my husband is like,

what do you want to eat? And I'm like, I don't care. Just decide, there's no more decisions coming from me. But I think sometimes that worst case, best case, I'll say two things. One is sometimes it's really hard to figure out, especially when you want to fire someone or do you want to change course because you just don't have enough data. So now you're playing with I don't have enough data. I now you're playing with, I don't have enough data. I can try to dream, imagine, experiment,

but how do you make some of these decisions? I got you. Here's my rule of thumb. If I've had more than three conversations with my wife about whether I need to fire someone, they needed to go six months ago. That's my rule of thumb. That's a really good rule. If you're sitting there and you're talking to your husband at the dinner table and you're going,

oh, you know, so and so, blah, blah, blah, blah, they dropped the ball on this, maybe they're not the right fit, maybe they're not the right person. Okay, fine, maybe that one day you're in a bad mood, but you do it again and you do it again, that person's gotta go. That person's gotta go.

And you just don't wanna face it. But you will be far better off just ripping off the bandaid than not. We had a few people leave in the past couple years, and these were people that I thought indispensable to the company, who were getting paid a lot of money. And it was astonishing to me

that two days after they left, no one even noticed that they weren't there because nothing fell through the cracks, nothing fell apart. The wheels didn't come off the cart. Everyone just picked up the slack where they needed to and everything was fine. You see Elon Musk by Twitter and fire like 85% of the people who work there and everybody was horrified. Twitter works great and it just goes to show you, oh man, there is waste in your company. I don't care who you are, what your name is.

There's people who should not be working there. There's money that you're spending that you shouldn't be spending. So you gotta be ruthless about cutting those things because if you don't, your business suffers. And that's something I didn't realize for years because we were making so much money that it's like it didn't matter.

And the payroll just got bigger and bigger and bigger. And then it starts to matter. So you have to really take a good look at your team. But yeah, that's my rule of thumb. If I have more than three conversations with Sarah about letting somebody go, they gotta go. So sometimes, especially in entrepreneurship, one of the big things is to start looking

at that new possible, right? And what is possible? What is the dream? What is the big vision? And you wanna start making decisions based on these hopes and dreams versus the fear and doubt. But the dreams and the vision is so vague. It's more like, I don't know. I think it's this, but I don't know. Should we go to this direction? Should we try this?

How do you decide what to experiment? What are some of the directions of the company? How do you decide some of these things? How do you assess? You have to ask yourself what sucks about what we're doing right now. And this is difficult because if you are the salesperson and you are the promoter, you have to talk about whatever you've got. Like it's the greatest thing in the world. When Apple launches a new iPhone, they're hyping it up.

They're like, oh, this is the iPhone. I don't even know what number iPhone we're on right now. This is the iPhone 15 or something, whatever. This is the iPhone 15. It's the greatest thing in the world. Now, you know, in their labs, they've already got the iPhone 20, the prototype of it. It's way more awesome than whatever they're launching now. But they still, you have to hype up what you're launching right now.

And so as the business owner, you have to be responsible enough to be able to aggressively promote what you have now, while at the same time, being honest with yourself, what sucks about this? And that goes back to the mistake Blockbuster made. And that's such a famous example. It's so cliche, but it's really poignant. People have to get in the car. They have to go to blockbuster. They have to stand there They got a rent the movie now

I used to love doing that but if I can just go on my TV and click a couple buttons and get the thing streamed I'm gonna do that and They were not honest with themselves about what sucked about their process So you have to constantly ask yourself, where are the points of friction? Where's the breakdown? Where am I providing a bad experience for my clients? And what can I do to fix that? And you have to be able to do that at the same time as you promote the hell out of what you've got right now. And so that's tricky. That's tricky for a lot of people to do. And what you tend to do is you either go into just hating your product, in which case you never launch it, you

never get version 1.0 out there and you get into this perfectionism where you're just tinkering or you get into this place where what we have is the best, there's never going to be anything better. It's the best the world has ever seen and no one's ever going to have anything better than this. And you know that that's not true. Somebody is going to come along with something better and they're going to eat your lunch.

So you have to be the one that is promoting your stuff while at the same time tearing it apart and figuring out how can we make this better. And that's, it's difficult to wear both of those hats at the same time. Do you think there's something again, I'm listening to all these insights and a lot of them are from just growing this business. And I think some of them, I'm curious, like is there something in your childhood or something that usually people don't know that built you to who you are today? I think the acting helped, of course,

because you really understand human behavior. Honestly, man, I think everybody that does marketing, I think every business owner should be in a top tier acting class because it will be one of the best things you've ever done. You will learn more about how people actually behave. Not how you think they behave, but how they actually behave. And all those insights were priceless. I've always been just naturally good with words and with

languages. I got an average score on the math portion of the SAT, but I got a perfect score on the verbal portion of the SAT, which is very rare for a guy. Usually guys are the other way around. And then my father started his own business and he started his own business right around the same age that I was when I started mine. He was a life insurance salesman working for Prudential. He was the top salesman in his office

and he left to go start his own agency. He would always tell me, hey man, you know, I just, I got a stack of credit cards. I started my own agency. I figured worst case scenario, it doesn't work out. I'll fire for bankruptcy and that's not that bad. And he took the plunge and you know, I just, I got a stack of credit cards. I started my own agency. I figured worst case scenario, it doesn't work out. I'll fire for bankruptcy. And that's not that bad. And he took the plunge and you know, he made millions of dollars from it.

I think I always had that example to look to as well. Where when I was around the same age, he was, is when I decided to take the plunge. And if I hadn't had that example, I don't know if I would have had the guts to do that. But my whole life I've heard no guts, no glory. You got to take the risks. You got to go for it. That was do that. But my whole life I've heard, no guts, no glory. You gotta take the risks, you gotta go for it. That was just drummed into my head since I was a kid. So I think those three things together, the acting ability, having very, very strong

verbal intelligence and just having that example of my dad. And just having faith as well, believing that if I provided excellent service to people and did the right thing by my clients and made that our North Star, that everything else would work itself out. And you know, so far it has. Right. And I think you spoke about your dad and I'm sorry he passed a few years ago, but I'm sure he was really, really proud and he knew what you built, right? He was extremely proud. That was the cool thing about it. My father passed away really suddenly. So April 13th, 2021, super healthy, super fit,

super energetic, non-smoker, got diagnosed with stage four lung cancer on April 13th at 2021, and then passed away on May 5th. So it was just like out of the blue. I had three weeks to get my head around what was going on. And what was great about it though, is that there was nothing that was left unsaid between us. There was nothing that was unspoken.

There was nothing like, oh, you know, I wish I would have told my dad this, or I wish he would have told me this. We got a chance to say everything we needed to say, and it was amazing. But I'll tell you, for the last three years, since he passed away, it's been hard. And it's been hard because I like to do gratitude

and visualization, and I like to be in that powerful mental state and put myself in that state every day. I think it's essential if you want to do great things in this world. I used to be able to access that state very effortlessly. And for the last three years it's been much harder because there's been this, yeah, but like, yeah, you built a hundred million dollar company, but you couldn't save your dad. And it's like, oh,

and that's really made the last three years pretty difficult. That to me, I think is like my superpower, this ability to like close my eyes and imagine the way that things could be, and then just will that vision into the reality. But it's been more difficult since he passed away. I'm working on that, and I feel like I'm just now coming out of it.

But yeah, the first two years after he passed away were especially hard, because I just felt like I couldn't access my magic or whatever you want to call it. And it sounds like he was just really a big part of the journey for you. Oh yeah. Every goal I set, every outcome I visualized,

he was a part of it. We would always talk like, hey Russ, what if we, you know, it'd be really cool if one day, you know, we had a bunch of money, we just spent a bunch of money and we chartered a private jet and we flew to Vegas or something, right?, what if we, you know, it'd be really cool if one day, you know, we had a bunch of money and we just spent a bunch of money and we chartered a private jet and we flew to Vegas or something, right?

Now we live in Huntington Beach, so that's like a 20 minute flight. But like when we flew to our Millionaire Alliance event, I chartered a private jet and I didn't tell him. He was like, what are we doing? Like, we're gonna be late for our flight. Like da da da da da. I'm sitting there going, no, they're not leaving without us.

But he's thinking to himself all the way, oh man, we're gonna be late. We're gonna for our flight. Like da, da, da, da, da. And I'm sitting there going, no, they're not leaving without us. But he's thinking to himself all the way, oh man, we're going to be late. We're going to miss our flight. We're da, da, da, da, da. And then we roll right up to the freaking tarmac and get out and get on the plane. And the look on his face was like amazing. He was a part of everything that I visualized. Every little piece of my success or anything cool that we did was always just run through that filter of what's my dad going gonna say and enjoying it with him.

He just made everything better. Like he was just an amazing person. Thank you for sharing. I just love that story that you were able to do that with your dad and I think a lot of us are living in this concept of if then else, right? Like, or if when I get to get there, I will do it. Or if I'm gonna make those multi-million,

then I will celebrate with my family. And I think it's just so important to just not only create the paycheck, but the life that you want with it and to celebrate those moments, because you really don't know. And I think that was a big piece that I took from you. That's such an important point, Alana, especially now. I go on Twitter, I see the same stuff you do. It's like, oh, rise and grind, you know, get out there and hustle and push and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I'm like, okay, fine, yeah, there's a place for that. But at the end of the day, this is your life. Your life is not when you have a hundred million dollar exit. Your life is not start when you sell your company. Your life does not start when you get acquired. This is your life right here, right now. And if I don't spend time with my children, I'm gonna blink my eyes and my son's gonna be 18.

And I'm gonna wonder where the hell his childhood went. So you really have to remember that. So many people set goals, but they don't stop and think, what do I want my life to look like every single day? And how can I be in that place of enjoyment right now? Because if you're not enjoying the journey, you're not going to enjoy the destination either. This is your life. It's not something that happens in the future. All you have is right now. And so if you're not enjoying right now and you're not present right now,

you're stealing from yourself and there's no payoff. Because I can promise you when you're 80 years old and you have a hundred million dollars in the bank, you'd give up all of it for another 20 years. So you need to make sure that you're enjoying the old and you have a hundred million dollars in the bank, you'd give up all of it for another 20 years. So you need to make sure that you're enjoying the time that you have. Right. Because there was also no destination. The pole keeps on moving anyway. You know, when you have 1 million, then you want 10. And when you want 10, you know, you move it to a hundred.

The pole will keep on moving anyway. So might as well enjoy that life that you're creating for yourself. And I think that was a big thing that I took from you too, Russ, because I was the grinder. I was a person that would put the head down and I will grind through it. And I think to lift your head up and to also enjoy the moment and to take from time to time that moment

and just do something for yourself, I think I didn't have that realization that that's even okay to do. It's your life. Every moment that goes by, this is your life. You don't want to be doing a bunch of stuff that you hate, spending 20 years doing something that you hate so that you can retire, you know what I mean,

when you're 65 or whatever, and then you're going to start enjoying life when you're 65? Come on. You know what I mean? Like,'re 65 or whatever, and then you're gonna start enjoying life when you're 65? Come on. You know what I mean? Like, you know, enjoy your life now. And create a life of possibilities and change lives, yes. So, we have this thing in the show. What would you say to your younger self if you had had a conversation now?

Stop worrying. Everything is gonna be okay. You are enough. You were born to create something wonderful and you are going to fulfill that destiny. And like we just said, stop and just breathe and enjoy your life because it is gonna go so fast. My son's eight years old. I feel like he was just born. Oh man, to go so fast. My son's eight years old. I feel like he was just born.

Oh man, it goes so fast. So you really need to stop and spend time with the people that you love. And what's great about this business is this business gives me the freedom to do that. I can run this business from at home. I can run this business out of a backpack. It's a hundred million dollar company

and I can run it with a laptop. So that's cool. You know, that's the cool thing. I mean, mine are right now 15 and 17, Russ. Can you believe that? That is freaking me out. But this opportunity and having my own business the way you taught me is this created the flexibility that I never had. So I will just forever be grateful,

because I think this conversation is also a big piece of it, because we didn't even talk about funnels. Take care of the funnels, the ads, the copy. You take care of that. I mean, my goal, Russ, I don't know if you remember that, but in 2020 was to just make, well, first it was only 20k a year That goal moved very quick because within I think the first month that I started selling I understood that I passed the 20k So right after that it was the goal moved to be 100k

And I was very adamant about it And in fact, they drove me nuts that some people were like, Oh my God, my goal is a million dollars. And like, come on, what is this crap? Like, this is bullshit. Right. And now we're like, I don't know, we're making most of it in one month. You know, like the whole thing just, you know, I mean, I think I shared with you, my first salary here in the US was 60 K or something along these lines. Now we make it in a day sometimes. How insane is that? That's amazing.

That's amazing. That's what you, your team, you created. You literally created a machine that changes lives and I'm just so grateful. Thank you. Thank you. Working with you is an honor. You're so coachable and you get it done and you do what we tell you to do and you don't argue with us. Like it's really, it's really nice. But then I, a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. That's right. You did. Now that I look back, you did argue a little bit. That's true. But

you are an Israeli ex fighter pilot, so you need to have some fight in you, of course. That's true. Like it took me time to realize how much what you're teaching works. And the minute I started being more coachable, it just started working out. And then it worked again and again and again. And again, the pole kept on moving. So thank you, Russ. You got it. My pleasure. My pleasure. So thank you for being on this show. And I hope everybody got so much from it. and you and your team are just the best.

Thank you so much. Yeah, it's been great to be here and I'm so proud of you and I'm so excited for where this is going.