Kris Safarova  00:45

Welcome to the Strategy Skills podcast. I’m your host, Kris Safarova, and our podcast sponsor today is StrategyTraining.com. If you want to strengthen your strategy skills, you can get the Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies. It’s a free download, and you can get it at firmsconsulting.com/overallapproach. You can also get McKinsey and BCG winning resume, which is a resume that got offers from both of those firms. And you can get it at firmsconsulting.com/resumePDF. And lastly, you can get a book that we co-authored with some of our amazing listeners and clients. It’s called Nine Leaders in Action. It went to number one bestseller on Amazon, and you can get it at firmsconsulting.com/gift. And today, we have with us Ken Rusk, who is a 9-figure CEO and the Wall Street Journal, Best Selling Author of Blue-Collar Cash. Ken, welcome.

Ken Rusk  01:38

Thanks, Kris, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Kris Safarova  01:41

So nine figures, that’s a difficult level to get to. Maybe we can start with, how did you decide what not to do in your early days, when you were just starting out?

Ken Rusk  01:51

Well, I learned early on that if you’re truly going to be an entrepreneur, then you have to give up some of the day to day, stuff that you do mechanically so that you can rise above the company and look out, you know, 123, miles ahead and see what’s coming at you, or what, what decisions you have to make from a driving standpoint, you know, it’s, it’s really easy to say, well, you know, I do Everything. I make the rules. I set the pace. I fix things. I repair things. I yell at people, I do all those things. I work 70 hours a week, and I’m a hero, right, wrong. You really have to learn to give up if you want to get growth going and you learn, you need to learn how to create entrepreneurship, which is getting people to run divisions and departments around you, like they run their own, like it’s their own. And as soon as you do that, you’ll recognize that there’s power in that collective. And yeah, you’ll, you’ll, your company will get much further than you can do it on your own, that’s for sure.

Kris Safarova  02:56

Do you remember what helped you to go from, let’s say, 1 million to 5 million?

Ken Rusk  03:01

Well, it was exactly that I remember plateauing in a couple of see, you know, a couple of cycles we plateaued. And one of the lessons that I learned was I walked into my my conference room with about 10 people that I thought had entrepreneurial tendencies, and I had them all take a small piece of paper and write down what they thought our company could go to in the following year. And wouldn’t you know, it Kris. And before I had them write it down, I said, Now, just so you know, I’m going to share in that eventuality, if we get there, I’m going to share that with all of you once you know what Kris said, all those numbers were at least one or $2 million higher than the number I was thinking. So you have to be careful that you’re not your own self limiter, your own worst enemy. And again, sharing the ideas, sharing the visions, sharing the growth potential, is something that I think we all should do, because you didn’t start a company so that it would run you. You started so you could run it. And you don’t want to spend your life being a prisoner of the thing you’ve created. So you definitely want to enjoy the path, enjoy the journey and and sharing it on the way. And by the way, it doesn’t cost you any money, because the money you’re going to use to reimburse those people is money you don’t even have yet. So it’s found money, and it’s a really great program that is very true.

Kris Safarova  04:26

Can you take us through a journey a little bit in terms of the growth of your company and important milestones along the way that allowed you to get to that next level of giving?

Ken Rusk  04:37

Well, we started in 1986 with six people, and we have over 200 today, and I just remember that for me growing up, you know, I had four brothers in a very small house with my parents, and we didn’t have much of anything. So, you know, we had basics, we had food, we had shelter, we had some activities. But if I wanted to get beyond that. If I wanted something new, for example, I had to go out and find work so that I could afford to do that. So I learned early on that if you traded labor for things, okay, I was amazed that I could spend 20 hours working on a farm or on a landscape job and then walk away with a brand new baseball bat, right? Okay, so I took that lesson all the way through and I, as I started hiring people, I said, Listen, if you’re going to work here, you need to be chasing something. You need to have something in mind that you want to manifest into your life, whether it’s a physical thing, whether it’s a mental thing, whether it’s a social thing, a spiritual thing, you know, an actual, you know, milestone, or whatever you want to do, you have to start chasing things and and so we don’t allow people to work here if they’re not actively pursuing something. Because, if you know, if you think about it, Kris companies are linear creatures. So there is, there’s people in raw materials and a product or services created that comes in from the right side, and then that product has a price tag, and then it’s sold, and then it’s delivered and installed and it works, and then you get paid, and then there’s profit on the left side. You’re always as the entrepreneur, you’re always at the end of that line. So why wouldn’t you want everyone in front of you to win? And I’ve said that many times, I can’t get what I want for myself or my company, until all of you get what you want first. And it’s absolutely true. So for me, it was building many entrepreneurs alongside of me the entire time, the whole way, and making sure that everybody was chasing something to make their personal lives better. Because if I had synergy between their personal goals and my corporate goals. That’s where the real momentum started to happen. And again, that’s where the growth happens, whether you like it or not. So get ready, because here it comes.

Kris Safarova  06:50

So you started in 1986 with six people. How did things progress from there?

Ken Rusk  06:55

Well, we, we, we did great work. We started winning individually, and we started winning corporately, and we got a lot of referrals, and we reinvested money back into marketing, just like anybody would. And we got more referrals, and we got more referrals, and we were really, really focused on our reputation. We were really, really focused on the customer experience. We were really, really focused on the quality of our service, and also we have this neon sign on our wall in the hallway right behind me that says, work hard, play hard. So we’re interested in making sure that we rewarded ourselves along the way, and that just kind of re energized our batteries and kept us going.

Kris Safarova  07:36

How did you market your business? So you mentioned that you reinvested in marketing?

Ken Rusk  07:41

Well, we do it a lot of different ways. We do it, obviously through television ads and newspaper ads. And back then it was the Yellow Pages, if you remember that. Now it’s all online, okay, that kind of thing. We have lead aggregators. We have all kinds of things. We also, believe it or not, we do it the old fashioned way. When we visit our customers, we go and see their neighbors and ask them if they want, if they are interested in our services. We go to, you know, home shows like spring and garden home shows, and we go to county fairs and malls, and we just put ourselves anywhere there’s people, and the basis of our marketing is we give you a free foundation or free home inspection once a year, and you can do with it what you will. And the more people learn about who we are, and the more they learn about how their foundation, in their in their house ages, the more we build future customers, and that’s what we see today.

Kris Safarova  08:39

Very interesting. So how did your mindset shifted from starting out and then getting to 1 million, 5 million, 10 million, 50 million and so on, what changed in your mind to be the kind of leader who can run that size of a business?

Ken Rusk  08:56

Well, I look at it this way. So if you’ve ever built a puzzle. Okay, let’s assume, Kris, that I walked into your office right now and I dumped 1000 piece puzzle on your desk, and then I took the box and I walked away, and I said, Kris, I want you to build this puzzle. You look at me and you’d say, well, what does it look like, Ken, what am I supposed to build here? And I would say, Well, I just think you should start doing it without the without the cover, without the picture. You’d have a very hard time doing that. I mean, you might get the frame with all the square edges right, but you’d really wonder, well, what is it that I’m building here? What am I actually doing, and how am I possibly going to start organizing this? Did you know Kris that I think if you build 1000 piece puzzle for every puzzle, you probably look at that box 100,000 times. Okay, so if you think about it in those terms, my my attitude, my outlook, changed when I thought, well, if I can do that for a puzzle, why am I doing not doing that for every aspect? Of my life. Why do why do I not have a picture, a puzzle box of what I want my life to look like? So then I started sharing that with other people, and now they all have a picture, a vision board, some type of a schematic of where they want their life to go, and we all collectively help each other get there. So I think without the vision, you’re just kind of like waiting for things to happen and hope and if and certainly not when. Okay, you get a lot more confident when you know exactly when things are coming your way and what they look like in advance. And I think that’s the biggest secret for us.

Kris Safarova  10:38

If you could go back to yourself when you were starting out, maybe during the second, third, fourth year. What advice would you give yourself?

Ken Rusk  10:47

Well, I probably even though, even though I was able to become successful, and again, I’m very blessed and great, very grateful for that, I think what I would have done is I probably would have said, Let the power of compounding money work for you. Okay, you have to remember that from the time you’re 21 to the time you’re, let’s say, 63 years old, that’s 42 years, okay, that is seven segments of six years, okay, so or six segments of seven years. So you basically have seven opportunities to double your money from the time you’re 21 to the time you’re 63 if you wait and start saving money until you’re 2831 33 you’ve literally missed the first double, or even the first two doubles at doubling your money that you save. And by the way, you’re going to notice that at the end, because the biggest double you’re ever going to get is the last one, right? So I would tell, and I tell this to everybody here, I would say, get on board with that 401 K, get on board with that savings plan. Because when you’re 21 your money doubles like crazy. And if you wait till you’re 35 or 40, you miss half the boat.

Kris Safarova  12:06

So let’s go back to speaking about your organization, your team. How do you get teams to push standards up instead of dragging them down?

Ken Rusk  12:15

Well, if, if you again, if you do work here, you need to be chasing something, but there’s more to it than that. So, you know, sometimes people talk about the word goal. Oh, we all have to have goals, right? Well, that word is so overused and it’s so watered down that I decided to change that word to timed pathway. So if you’re chasing something here, you have to have a timed pathway, and it has to be live. So a timed pathway is to make sure that what you’re after is certain to happen just in a matter of time. And so for us, publicly displaying all of our timed pathways, so each one knows what the other one’s chasing, that’s been a game changer. Because, as you know, I mean, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a gym, or you worked out, or whatever. You have some type of health plan, but you do know that it’s always better if somebody’s at the gym waiting for you, for you to go there. Otherwise, sometimes you don’t go. You might say, I’m going to skip it today, or whatever. So sharing the goals publicly. Sharing the timed pathways publicly is a crucial step in making this happen. We have these giant black glass boards with neon markers that we write these time pathways on, and it has to be very specific, Kris. You know, let’s say I can. I can tell you about one that’s current. I want to go see my relatives in Spain. It’s going to cost me $4,000 to do that. Okay? I’m going to save $40 a week for two years. I’m going to go in January of 2027 and I sign it, I date it, and I make it live. I go to my payroll department, I have the money taken out, and now that goal is actually lived. It becomes a timed pathway. It ceases to become a goal, and now it’s a time pathway. So now you anticipate that for the next year or two, and everybody else knows what that person’s doing. So the way to keep it all Rolling is to keep them all very engaged in chasing their own time pathways, and have everybody else know what they’re doing at the same time.

Kris Safarova  14:24

And do you find that people stick to the goal they had? or along the way, they decide, You know what, they don’t really, actually want this. I want something else.

Ken Rusk  14:31

Well, that’s that’s an interesting question, because there are times when I will see that some timed pathways aren’t progressing. And when that happens, I simply go up to the board and wipe it off. I just wipe the goal off. And when someone comes to me and says, Hey, Ken, why did you wipe my goal off? I say, Well, you tell me. And they’re like, Yeah, you’re right. I really wasn’t committed to it. I really didn’t own that goal. So I didn’t own that time to pathway. So let’s create another one. It. Let’s create one that you really believe in, because some people participate just because they think they you want them to participate, and they they don’t put something up there that’s totally committed. And that’s okay, because they’re learning, they’re learning the they’re learning the process of how to become an effective goal setting individual. And if they, if they mess it up one or two times on their on the way, that’s fine, because eventually they all get it, and when they do now, they not only hit their first one, but they start putting two or three of them up there, and now their life is in full swing.

Kris Safarova  15:31

What is your process for making very difficult decisions when you don’t have enough information?

Ken Rusk  15:37

Well, first off, I don’t allow people to ask me about decisions if they don’t have options. So if somebody comes in and says, Hey, we have this problem, what do we do? First thing I say is, I don’t know. What are your options? Go go back and get me three very good options and bring them back, and we’ll debate those. And then when they come back, I’ll say, Well, you know what’s right or wrong with option one? What’s right or wrong with option two, what’s right or wrong with option three, and usually, that person will end up solving the problem themselves. They just need a little bit of coaching, directing, and I have to tell you, that’s the whole goal. You don’t want to be a decision maker. If you don’t have to be, you want to build decision makers. You want to build problem solvers, because that’s how you get to true entrepreneurial freedom is by building people that have the ability to make those decisions with and for you.

Kris Safarova  16:26

And what about decisions that you have to make?

Ken Rusk  16:29

Well, decisions I have to make are always based on, how does this further my puzzle? How does this further my life? I mean, if this is going to add to what I want my life to look like. Bingo, let’s go. If this is going to detract or take away from what I want my life to look like, I’ll tend to pass on those decisions. And you know, I also consider not only my pathways, but the pathways of everybody here, if it’s a good decision for everybody, yeah, let’s do it. If it’s a good decision for only a few or if it doesn’t like I said, further my picture, then I’ll tend to pass on those things.

Kris Safarova  17:08

Could you tell us about the time when you had to handle a really difficult situation, or it was really hard time for the business? What did you learn during that time, and how did you handle it? How did you solve with the whole problem you’re facing?

Ken Rusk  17:21

That’s a great question. So when you run a company for 35 years, you think you kind of seen it all, right? You think you kind of know it all. You think you’ve been through all that you’re going to be through, okay? And then something comes along called the pandemic, right? So now you have 200 people, and you’re hearing about all these businesses just shutting down overnight. I have a friend who had several restaurants he just had to close them overnight. And so one of the things that I heard was that they were allowing essential businesses to remain open. So I said, Okay, how are we essential? Let’s find a way to make ourselves essential, even if we weren’t perceived to be at the time. So that’s what we did. We looked up what essential businesses were. We looked at what the services were. We found out that of the 20 or 30 things that needed that you could be deemed essential, we had two or three of those categories, and then we created a fourth and a fifth. So then we were allowed to operate, but it’s just like anything else, you know. I don’t know if you remember the book Who Moved My Cheese, okay, but if somebody takes your cheese away, you need to find another way to go, to go find it. So, yeah, you just have to, you have to pivot, and you have to reinvent yourself. And the way my friend survived with his restaurants is he had the most amazing because he had high end luxury restaurants. He had the most amazing takeout service built you’d ever seen in your life, and people just came and took his food out. So he survived. And yeah, so you just have to reinvent yourself, pivot and move forward. The worst thing you can do is sit still and go, Okay, now what? I’m in trouble. Okay, you have to just take it head on and rock and roll.

Kris Safarova  19:10

Can you tell us a little more? This is very interesting. So how did you made your business essential?

Ken Rusk  19:15

Well, the categories were see at that part of the business works on foundations of buildings like basements and crawl spaces, okay? And so we learned that sewer lines and interior plumbing was an essential business. Well, we do work on some of that. We also learned that the healthcare industry was essential. Well, if you if you have indoor air that’s polluted, then you know you’re going to get a lot more sickness. You’re going to get a lot more pandemic, because you have people that are in this house, and the House has got filthy air and dirty and it’s, you’re plugged up in this box, and you’re sharing each other’s air. So we came up with ways to make the air more healthy inside of a house by getting rid of it and replenishing it. And so we started selling products and services that helped with that. So between the plumbing and the sewers and cleaning up the air and making houses healthy, yeah, that’s kind of how we got through it that is very smart.

Kris Safarova  20:21

Are you noticing changes right now, this year, last year, the year before, with AI and so on, and how your customers may be needing something else, acting differently?

Ken Rusk  20:34

Well, I guess people, the benefit of the pandemic is people understand how important your home is, because at the end of the day, whether it’s a war or it’s a pandemic or it’s a bad weather event, your safest spot is to be in your home with your family, right? And that’s what you cherish and value the most. So that has helped, because people, you know, people used to live in minivans and go to soccer fields all day long and running out run all over the place with their kids, and now they’re in the backyard having cookouts, and they’re throwing a Frisbee around and riding bikes in the neighborhood and walking their dogs. So that kind of stuff kind of came back to how it used to be when I was younger. So that was a good thing as far as AI goes. You know, until AI learns how to dig a ditch, I think we’re going to be safe in what we do, although it certainly helps with analyzing indoor air and it helps with those types of highly technical things, but it hasn’t really affected us from the standpoint of replacing laborers or anything like that.

Kris Safarova  21:38

Yes, I definitely understand that. I was wondering if you are noticing just different customer behavior.

Ken Rusk  21:45

Well, I can tell you, people are smarter and they’re a lot smarter a lot faster. I’ve noticed now that when we get to someone’s house to talk about fixing their foundation, they might have a list of 10 questions they already want to ask us where before they would just wait for us to share with them our information, and then they would formulate questions on the go. So yeah, I think people are more prepared. I mean, you could simply go ask chat GPT or the top 10 questions I should ask about my foundation, and boom, there they are. And that, that that actually helps, because it cuts down on, on, you know, us thinking we they want to hear this, and they’re thinking, Well, I really want to hear that. So it kind of makes the conversations a little more efficient, if you will.

Kris Safarova  22:27

Very interesting. What is your vision for the business? Where do you want to take it next?

Ken Rusk  22:32

Well, we just completed an employee stock ownership plan in ESOP, so I gave part of the business to them. I had had many offers for people to buy my company, like over and over and over, and I had friends and family members who had done that in the past with large venture capital companies, and then their companies got ruined because they they gutted them, and they they they got rid of the people, they consolidated a lot of things and and the company didn’t look the same anymore. It was a fraction of what it once was. So I didn’t want people that had gone through this journey with me over the last I mean, I have people that have been near 1520, 2530 3540 years. I have my first employee ever still here. So I didn’t want them to lose in that prospect. So I decided to have them share as owners in the company, and we’re building new headquarters right now, right down the street, a much larger building, and we hope to fill that as well. But yeah, I wanted them to be involved in it, and for them to reap the rewards that they helped me get over the years.

Kris Safarova  23:39

Do you have a system for spotting cracks in the business before it becomes very difficult to fix them?

Ken Rusk  23:45

Yeah, and it’s, it’s the what I what I said earlier. So if I’m in a, if I’m in a virtual helicopter, and I’m hovering above the company, and I look down on top of it, and I tear the roof off again, virtually, I can kind of see what’s happening down there, and I can kind of watch, it’s almost like a general watching his army from the sky. So if you’re looking down and you can kind of plug yourself in, I think I’d like to plug myself in there, or I’d like to go spend some time there. I’d like to go spend some time in there. And that’s enormously freeing Kris, enormously freeing for an entrepreneur to be able to plug his or herself in wherever they want. So yeah, that’s kind of the way we do it. Is by my my, um, benefit to this company is by looking 1, 2, 3, 5 years out. So yeah, I try to plug the holes that way, by avoiding what’s coming.

Kris Safarova  24:40

When you are mentoring your people, how do you transfer wisdom to them in a way that really something that they get, and not just it sounds good, but they forget and never really internalized?

Ken Rusk  24:52

Well, probably because I walked the walk okay, like if I asked them to have a goal up on the board or time? Pathway, then I’m going to have one myself, and I do, and I don’t shy away from letting them see that I’ve accomplished things. I don’t hide the cars that I have, I don’t hide the trips I’ve been on. I don’t hide the golf things that I’ve done. I don’t hide that because I want them to understand that they are in control of their input, they’re in control of their output, they’re in control of their day, their time, their schedule, and they’re in control their financial gain. And I want them to see just like I did when I was younger. I want them to see people and living in different ways and living in great ways and fun ways, because, you know, you don’t live to work Kris, you work so that you can live. Well, what does living mean? Right? Let’s explore that a little bit. Let’s open that up. Let’s see what the possibilities are, and then let’s find ways to motivate people to go do it.

Kris Safarova  25:55

And what does it mean for you? What does it mean to leave?

Ken Rusk  25:59

I wrote a book called comfort, or called Blue Collar cash, and what I talk about inside of it is something called comfort, peace and freedom. And again, Kris, I don’t know how a ditch steer became a best seller. I really don’t know how that happened. I’m still shocked about it, but again, I’m grateful, but in the book where I talk about comfort, peace and freedom, that’s it for me. If I can be who I want to be, if I can live the life that I saw for myself so many years ago, which I have and I am, if I have the freedom to do the things that I want to do, and if I practice finding peace, yeah, that’s it. So living for me is comfort, peace and freedom, and all the things that create that.

Kris Safarova  26:42

And it’s interesting. I also always talk about peace and that it is very important for happiness, and many people don’t get it. They don’t don’t understand why peace was being important. When did you realize that peace was important for you?

Ken Rusk  26:55

Well, when you when you go through a lot of challenges in business, there’s times where you’re unpeaceful, okay, your peace is robbed from you for days, weeks, ends, months on end. Also, my daughter was sick. She got very sick when she was 12. She’s good now. She’s survived it, but it was a very scary disease that she had. And you’re without peace for years. You know, in some ways, we’re still without peace, thinking of her, and so you have to find peace. You know, we’re all so reactive in our daily lives. We react to the weather, we react to our friends, we react to the news. We react to, you know, our businesses and our work schedules and time and money when we should be proacting. Okay? Life isn’t about reacting to stimulus. Life is about creating your own stimulus, proacting, being spontaneous, thinking about the future, visualizing and anticipating those results. So I guess that’s, that’s what it is for me, is to, you know, just to make sure that I’m always looking forward, that I’m always seeing something, I’m I’m always anticipating something, and living life that way.

Kris Safarova  28:12

And I’m so sorry about your daughter, and I’m so glad that she’s okay.

Ken Rusk  28:16

Thank you. Thank you. She just had her first, her first daughter too, some grandfather for the first time and loving every minute up.

Kris Safarova  28:24

Congratulations, amazing. Construction companies have bad reputation. How did you manage to maintain very high standards? We spoke a little bit about it, but I feel we need to COVID a little more on. How were you able to get the point that people actually felt the heel, because many people, when they deal with the construction company, they never want to hear the name of the owner ever again or whoever they deal with, right?

Ken Rusk  28:48

Well, look at it this way, if you have, let’s, let’s just pick one of my guys. He’s chasing a brand new pickup truck. Okay, that’s what he wants. That’s fine, and that’s three years away. Okay, fine. So if he’s out there doing things that are wrong, chances are the reputation of the company is going to fall. If the reputation of the company falls, we’re going to find out why. If that why falls back on him. What do you think happens? I mean, his pickup truck is in direct proportion to the quality of his efforts, right and there and the efforts of the rest of us. So, yeah, if why would you want to burn your own timed pathway? Why would you want to ruin your own future by not doing something correctly? It’s the people that are lost or focused on just this Friday and how much beer they can buy, those are the people that do those kinds of things. And it’s just because they’re lost and they don’t believe Kris that they’re in control of their future, when, in fact, they are. They. Don’t know it. So, yeah, if people are looking to create things for themselves, they know that they need a sound, stable employment. And yeah, good quality work is the way to get that.

Kris Safarova  30:16

And every single employee has this time to pass this thing that you I don’t remember exactly how you called it, but this goal they’re chasing on the blackboard.

Ken Rusk  30:25

Yeah, there’s, there’s always at least 100 of them on there. Some of them have just finished. Some of them are starting ones. Some of them are thinking of their next one. But yeah, there’s always at least 100 up there. And you can see there’s a whole nother board that has all the ones that we’ve accomplished. So the goal is to get as many people participate participating as possible. And you know, sometimes you might have somebody that says, Hey, I’ve done this two or three times. I’m good. I know how to do it, and you believe them, and they’re doing great work, and they like graduate, and that’s okay. Other times you might have people that are saying, You know what, Ken, I have something that’s kind of intensely personal. So I just want you to know that I am chasing something, but I don’t want to tell everybody about it. That’s fine, too. Okay, I’ve had people work on getting better relationships with their mother. Okay, well, that’s not something we need to put out to the world, but they tell me about it, and yeah, I’m here to help in any way, shape or form.

Kris Safarova  31:20

If you had to strip away everything and only teach one principle to build a serious, successful company that adds value to the world, what would it be?

Ken Rusk  31:30

Don’t do it all by yourself. You can’t, you shouldn’t, you won’t. Don’t do it by yourself.

Kris Safarova  31:37

And if you could teach three principles, what would be the other two?

Ken Rusk  31:42

I would say that again. I said this earlier. You can’t get what you want, or your company can’t get what it wants until everyone within it gets what they want. First, that’s number one. Number two, always be chasing something everybody in your company. And number three, look for the entrepreneurs. They’re the ones that will set you free. Okay, look for the entrepreneurs. They’re out there. They’re within your company. Ask questions, discover who they are. Pour fertilizer on those people. Have them help you draw you know, again, drive the company to heights you never thought possible.

Kris Safarova  32:17

They feel that there was a single decision or situation that really changed your company’s trajectory.

Ken Rusk  32:24

Yeah, allowing people to understand that they are in control, and allowing people to, for me, allowing people to make decisions on their own and run their divisions on their own the way they would want to run them. And I, obviously, I get to oversee what they’re doing, but for them to be autonomous, big decision. Huge, huge, huge ramifications from that.

Kris Safarova  32:47

So you recently wrote the book. I mentioned it in the beginning. We spoke a little bit about it. What do you want people to take away from that book? What are the key things you want them to take away?

Ken Rusk  32:58

Well, the name is a little misleading. I mean, I had several names, and my publisher, HarperCollins, picked they like blue collar cash. It’s not necessarily a book just for blue collar people. What I want people to take away from it? And I get this from all walks of life. You could be 15 to 30 years old and figure out what your future is. You can be 40 years old and say, You know what I hate where I’m at right now. I want to go back to where I was. I want to build a new future, or you could be a company that says I want to build a bunch of great, loyal, entrepreneurial people. I’m going to book club this thing. I’m going to buy copies for my people, and we’re going to read one chapter a week, and we’re going to talk about it. We’re going to implement Ken’s ideas, and then we’re going to watch our company go crazy. So there’s really three readers, and the one the book club one. I was surprised. I was surprised how many companies went out and bought it for their people to book club it. That was I didn’t expect that So, but yeah, I mean, the first day of the rest of your life is today. Don’t listen to anybody else. Listen to your heart. Listen to what you know you want your life to look like, and then go get it.

Kris Safarova  34:04

Stepping away a little bit from our topic of discussion, I want to ask you my favorite question over the last few years, what about two, three aha moments, realizations that you’re comfortable sharing that really changed the way you look at life or the way you look at business?

Ken Rusk  34:20

Well, I would say this. You know, everybody builds assets in their life. They build financial assets. They build physical assets. They build, you know, they build what they call a nest egg, okay? They build a future. They move up in the world, all those things. And it occurred to me, that time is probably the most potent asset you will ever own, okay, and the freedom of what you do with your time. So I would say to any entrepreneur out there, make sure that you understand that time is not inexhaustible. Make. Sure that you understand that time is a precious element like gold or copper or whatever, palladium, whatever you want to call it, and and work towards creating time for yourself, for your family, for your friends and for your own peace, because you you started this company for a reason, and that reason is to give you a better life. And part of it, better life is the peace and the time to be able to do the things you want to do.

Kris Safarova  35:35

And if you could instill just one belief in every listener’s heart and mind, what would it be?

Ken Rusk  35:42

That’s easy. So, Kris, I just met you today, and I’m sure that I could never guess your favorite color. I couldn’t guess your favorite mode of transportation. I couldn’t guess your favorite pet, a dog or a cat. What color? What did you name it? I couldn’t guess your favorite vacation. I couldn’t guess your favorite home, what that would be like, your favorite sport or hobby, but you know what? Kris? You know those things. So why would you ever allow me to influence what your life could be like, instead of you knowing and saying, Well, wait a minute. I know what my favorite everything is. I know what my puzzle box would be if I were free to design it. Why am I letting society trying to create that box cover for me? Why am I letting other influences try to do that? Throw that out. You trust yourself. You know what’s best for you. Now. Go do it.

Kris Safarova  36:39

The last question probably for today is, how do you manage to stay healthy, energetic? Have the time to run your business. Have time for your family, for your new grandchild, for all the things you have on your plate. Are there specific so to say success habits that you have you rely on?

Ken Rusk  36:58

Well, every morning, it’s every morning at the exact same time, I make my 16 ingredient protein shake in my pub at my house, and I have a rotating frame. And the rotating frame is a couple 1000 pictures that rotate, and I get to see all the things that I’ve done, all the places I’ve been, all the family that I’ve loved, all the memories that I’ve created. And so that starts my day by being grateful, okay, but I can tell you that I’m also into if you look up longevity, if you look up longevity on Google, you’ll see there’s lots of different things that longevity does, exosomes, peptides, stem cells, purified ammunic stem cell fluid, all those kinds of things. I’m into all that kind of stuff, because I I believe in staying healthy and sports minded as long as I can, and my make it a priority when I come in on Monday, the first thing I think about on Monday is, when am I going to take care of myself this week, and how much fun am I going to have? That’s the first two things I those are the first two questions that I answer okay, because if you wait to the end, you’re never going to have the time to do it, because you’ll get robbed at that time by all these other things. So how am I taking care of myself? When and where am I doing it? And then what fun am I going to have this week, when and where, and how am I doing that? And then I put work around all of that and that that seems to do it for.

Kris Safarova  38:21

And as a follow up for people who are listening to us, who are such hard workers that they forgot how to have fun and forgot how to even come up with things to do. How do you select what to do that will give you joy throughout the week?

Ken Rusk  38:36

Well, first off, you have to say, if I if I had a month to go do whatever I wanted to do. What would those things be? Is it? I’m going to get on my boat, I’m going to race my car, I’m going to play golf, I’m going to shoot my guns at the range, I’m going to spend time with my granddaughter. I’m going to try whatever it might be. I’m going to go out to lunch with my friends or with my family, whatever those list of things are. I mean, you know what they are. You just got to give yourself a minute to think about it, for For God’s sake, right? And you just have to sit there and say, Okay, well, what are these things? And you’ll probably start with saying, well, wow, nobody ever asked me that question before. Well, you’re right, because no one is going to ask you that question if you don’t ask it of yourself. So, yeah, sit tight. Be quiet. Sit in this in a dark room and figure it out.

Kris Safarova  39:22

Ken. Thank you so much. Where can our listeners learn more about you by your book? Anything you want to share?

Ken Rusk  39:28

Well, I would say they would go to kenrusk.com one of the things that I did Kris is I wanted to make sure that my book had impact beyond just, you know, being read and tossed on a shelf. So I built this inexpensive, course, it’s $179 you get a free book with that. And I’m not trying to sell this thing because I donate all the money to first responders and military members that I that I get from the from the course. So it’s a way of me giving back to the world. So just know that if you’re helping yourself, you’re going to help somebody else in the. Process, but it really takes what we’ve talked about today, and it gives you, it gives you worksheets, to actually go do it, to start doing it this afternoon, you know, not someday, but today. So you can improve your life today, and I guarantee the results or your money back. So, I mean, you got nothing to lose.

Kris Safarova  40:21

Our guest today, again has been Ken Rusk. Check out his book Blue Collar Cash. Ken, thank you so much for being here. I really enjoyed meeting you and enjoyed having this conversation.

Ken Rusk  40:31

Thanks, Kris I appreciate it. Appreciate you having me.

Kris Safarova  40:35

And our podcast sponsor today is StrategyTraining.com. If you want to strengthen your strategy skills, you can get the Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies. It’s a free download, and you can get it at firmsconsulting.com/overallapproach. You can also get McKinsey and BCG-winning resume, which is a resume that got offers from both of those firms. And you can get it at firmsconsulting.com/resumePDF. And lastly, you can get a copy of Nine Leaders in Action, a gift from us. It’s co-written with some of our amazing listeners and clients, and you can get it at firmsconsulting.com/gift. Thank you so much for tuning in, and I’m looking forward to connect with you all next time.