PP 234: Experience Mindful Guidance with Mitch Russo

Website: https://mitchrusso.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mitchrusso

Transcript not yet cleaned up but thanks for checking it out!

Welcome back to another episode of positive productivity. I’m so happy you’re here to join us today. I’m thrilled to introduce our guests, Mitch Russo. Mitch is a master business strategist and the owner of mindful guidance.

Mitch, welcome.

Mitch Russo: Thank you so much, KIM. Great to be here.

Oh, I’m thrilled to have you you have such a fabulous story. And I can’t wait to have you share it with the listeners. Would that said Mitch, would you mind just jumping right in and sharing your backstory and more about where you are today as well?

Mitch Russo: Absolutely. I can go back to my high school days when I built a rock band and we had a lot of fun back then. And that band basically laid down the foundation for me to learn the lessons that I needed to learn in order to build the business. And from there, I of course finished school and I went into electrical engineering and then eventually I started a software company.

And having started that software company, it gave me so many options because now I was a company owner. And now I was, I had to survive as a company owner and I learned so many lessons growing and building my company. And we were finally rewarded. We were able to sell the company for well over eight figures later, nine years after we started it.

Mitch Russo: And then finally, I had another amazing thing happened to me in life in business. And that was to meet and work with Tony Robbins. So, Tony Robbins and I and one other gentleman named Chet Holmes, together, we built a company called business breakthroughs International. Chet and I had been friends, Chet brought, Tony to me, basically, I brought I helped Chet build his business. And then together the three of us build business breakthroughs. And that was the most incredible adventure ever. We got a chance to work together and I had two of the greatest mentors in the world. For five years. I’ll never forget that experience

Kim Sutton: That is phenomenal. What did that look like? And would you mind sharing more of, of that journey? Actually, Mitch, I just want to back you up even further.

Mitch Russo: Sure.

Kim Sutton: So you’ve started this software company, would you mind sharing a little bit more like what time period was that was that during the whole.com era, and what was it like building, growing and then selling?

Yeah, and it was way before.com. And Kim, unfortunately, my age is going to start showing very quickly here because it’s just the number Mitch, exactly. We built this company started at 1985. Wow. So it was before.com. In fact, it was really at the beginning of the personal computer industry. And I was fascinated by personal computers. I was already in a technology company. I was working in the center conducted industry. And I saw this guy named Bill Gates released this product called Dawson basic. And I said, we got to get into this thing, we’re gonna miss the boat. And my next door neighbor and I were chatting over breakfast, and I was telling them about some of my problems, getting my reports done. And that’s why I bought a personal computer. And I said, you know, the biggest problem is I can’t keep track of my time and deduct that computer from my IRS tax returns, unless I have this thing called contemporaneous record keeping, which the IRS says is detailed records of its usage. So I looked around, I couldn’t find anybody who sold a software program that did that. And I mentioned that to my, my now my then friend and now partner and said, What would you think about maybe building something like that and You know, he laughed and and next thing I know about five weeks later he he called me up and said, Hey, come on over I want to show you something. And they’re on his screen on Apple too, believe it or not, was a prototype of what would soon someday become time slips. And that’s how the company started.

Wow, that’s, that’s phenomenal. My eye that was Apple two and I’m going to show my age sorry not to make you feel old but I remember the apple two he and I remember just the very basic computer programs that we had going through elementary school, total side topic I have to tell you, I don’t even remember what type of computer it was. But I remember in in high school still having dial up internet and I mean I say still just because I know there’s millennials listen who have known nothing different than Ethernet and high speed internet but I was messing around in back end of the computer I shared with my mom and I accidentally deleted any record of the mouse from the C, the C drive. Yep. And that was the end of that computer. Oh my god. Well, we couldn’t I, I just didn’t. I did what I could, using the keyboard and encoding. But I didn’t know enough. I still don’t know enough. I don’t even know how I managed to delete the mouse.

Well, you know, it happens. I mean, the problem back then was that, you know, if you were not a computer expert, all you really could do is use the applications and really messing with the operating system, as you know, it can be dangerous. So you definitely experienced some some of the side effects of getting curious.

Oh, yeah. And actually, I would drive my mom crazy. I can’t even tell you how many times I took the Shayne off my bike is a little girl, just because I wanted to see how the gears worked. I guess. I haven’t thought about that in ages. Thank you, Mitch. Like thinking about it. Now I wanted to see how the gears worked in. It’s funny looking at positive productivity because I use the gear as my logo. I’m so very intrigued by how everything works together. So going back to your software company, you built it, you grew it, and you sold it. What did you do with Tony Robbins and Chet then you grew the company, but what did that journey look like?

Yeah, that that was an interesting journey. Now when I was building time slips, there was this very persistent sales guy who kept calling me all the time trying to sell me advertising space in his publications. And you know, at first I dismissed them as annoying sales guy, but Later, I started to realize that this guy was different. I mean, he was certainly persistent. But he was bringing value every time we had a conversation. So he would come up with a reason to call me and said, Hey, Mitch, did you realize that this new guy launched in the marketplace, and he might be a competitor. And if you like, I can get you some of his material to show you before he comes out. So he would be doing things like that, and we built a friendship. And that’s Chet Holmes and Chet and I started that friendship in 1988. And we stayed best friends for all of the years through until he passed away. But it was Chet, after again, all the years we’ve been in touch and talking almost every week. He called me up and he needed a little help with his business and of course, I agreed. And at that point, he asked me to join his company and and I had already sold my company, and I was doing messing around with some options trading, you know, doing shiny objects basically chasing more shiny objects until Chet said, Come on, help me out here. And I said I would. So I became eventually skipping over a lot of the detail, I ended up starting almost at the very bottom and working my way up to become the president of the company. And about five months into working with Chet, he told me that he had been trying to get ahold and and set a meeting up with Tony Robbins. And he had accomplished that and he wanted me at the meeting. So the three of us got together on the phone. And the idea behind the meeting was to find a way that the three of us could start a new company and combine our strengths, build this company, grow it and eventually sell it. And Chet love the idea Tony loved the idea. And of course, I was all in I had already done it. I loved the idea as well. And we spent about every Thursday night, week after week, figuring out a different strategy, what types of focus might work what business structure money work. And then finally, we came up with the idea for the ultimate business mastery summit. And so that summit took place in Las Vegas in late 2009. And there were 15 speakers among them some of the luminaries of our age. And we recorded all those sessions. And we were in business now we had the basis for launching business breakthroughs International. So we took that material that we have recorded over those four days, and we broke it up into lessons. And we then spent a year building the modules and the study materials behind each of those lessons. And that became the ultimate business mastery system, which we then offered to clients over the radio. So that’s how that started. And that’s when Tony and I and Chet started. really work together? And I mean to answer your question, it was an incredible experience working with Tony. And as I got to know Tony, the more I got to know him The more I enjoyed our time together and appreciated that he was far smarter and far more of a business strategist than anyone ever realized. So he was an incredible mentor to me.

Coincidentally, 2009 is actually when I heard of Tony Robbins. Oh, really, ah, I had lost my job in late 2008. And I joined some networking groups. And there was a young kid who I can’t remember exactly what he did personal finance or investing or something, but he invited me to a meeting. And we just got to talking and he told me about the edge. told me I should listen to it. And that was my Introduction and to this day, I’m actually looking at myself. It’s actually not on my bookshelf here next to my desk today it’s on the table right next to my bed.

I have unleash the power within.

Exactly, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What an incredible program that was, you know, I had that same program touched my life many years earlier before I got to speak with and meet Tony. It turns out that in 2002, I went through a really, really bad divorce. And I had to take a business trip and I was going to be in the car for eight hours. So I got that program. And I started playing those CDs at the time. And you know, there was a point where I was crying in the car as I was driving and screaming at the windshield at this I was following his instructions and declaring who I was and what I was going to do. And, and that program Brought me through a very hard time. And I’ve always appreciated that. And I told Tony that later when we spoke, so I know what you mean.

I have to admit, I have never finished the whole book. I have started it. And I’ve gotten good ways through, but I always, I can’t even tell you how many journals I have where I have started the exercises, and the and I’ve even started using some of the not exact verbiage, not per, how do you say it pervade them to clients? What’s going to happen to you, if you don’t do this today? But what could happen? If you do?

Exactly. Yeah, great questions.

I have to use it in my own life. I mean, just just this past weekend. My son wanted me to watch the Walking Dead with them and I don’t watch a lot of TV and I really didn’t have an interest in getting into it. whole nother series listeners. I got into a whole nother series. However, in the back of my mind was I know what I have to do. But, listeners, it’s so important that we do spend time with our kids. I mean my son enjoyed immensely. I know you have kids too, or at least daughter how many kids do you have Mitch? I have one daughter. Okay, so you understand? I mean, we have to spend time with our kids. Yes, so I yes, last night, I watched my first three episodes ever of The Walking Dead and I know he’ll remember that. But in the back of my mind, I also knew Okay, this other stuff when he goes to bed I have I know what the impact is. of everything else. And Tony’s actually he’s like the first one that really got into my head. So if we don’t do it today I think Gonna do it tomorrow and what’s the what’s going to be the pain of putting it off? You and I were both at a similar at the same conference lately listeners, you’ve heard me mention it before. And you’ve heard guests mentioned it before New Media summit with Steve Olson. And there was a quote that was said, I don’t remember if it was Steve or somebody else, but the best time to plant a tree was 50 years ago. The second best time is today.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Steve did say that. That that quote goes back many, many, many years. Yeah,

I know. It wasn’t the first I just didn’t know who to credit it to properly.

I don’t, I don’t but I’ve heard it before.

Listeners if you know who to credit it to please go to KIM SUTTON comm forward slash p p 234. And there you will also find all the books and resources and all the links to Mitch which we’ll discuss later. I’d love to know though. It’s such an important thing to consider in everything that we do. What are we working on? And how is it gonna impact us today, tomorrow and in the future. Sure, what ended up happening to the ultimate Business Breakthrough? I don’t think I got the name right. But what happened there? Did you end up selling it?

Well, no, it’s a bit of that part’s a little bit of a sad story. Everything was going absolutely incredible. I mean, the company was, was growing like a weed, we were doubling in size every year, we had reached well over 25 million in sales. And then my friend and partner Chet Holmes, contracted leukemia. And it at that point, unfortunately, it was a slow, but horrible process of him getting sick and declining and health and eventually passing away and 16 months later, he died. And at that point, my life had changed. I mean, my life was filled with chat and with Tony and with business and with all of the opportunities and helping many Many people and running a 300 person organization. And all of a sudden I realized that this time in my life had finally come to a close. And it was time for me to move on. And it was hard to admit Kim, I have to say, it was an emotional decision. I felt like I was jumping off of a cliff in one regard because I didn’t have anything else. I didn’t have a list. I didn’t have a program to sell. I didn’t have anything that most people would have thought of. I didn’t prepare. I mean, so when it came time for me to resign, I knew I was going to be in the void for a little while. And I had decided that it was going to be okay. And I took three months to do nothing but catch up with family go visit mom, dad and Florida and all the little things I had been putting off because they’d been so busy with the business. And I decided at that point that After three months that I wanted to get busy again, I wanted to get back into business. But I didn’t know how I didn’t know what I was going to do or even where to start. So I called my friend, Jay Abraham. And I said, Jay, you know what I did at business breakthroughs? What do you suggest? What should I do next? And Jays words were very clear, he said, Mitch, no matter what you choose to do, no matter how you do it, you must teach others what you know, you cannot let what you know, go to waste. And those were his words. And I thought about that for a long time, and I didn’t know how I would apply that incredible sage advice. I thought maybe, I don’t know. Maybe I should teach it or maybe I should. I don’t know get into the job. I didn’t like the idea of a job. You know, I’m not good with jobs. People should ever hire me. Oh my god. I forget it, you know. So I then decided that the way to manifest that particular advice into reality would be to write a book. And so that’s what I did. I spent a year. And I wrote and I wrote and I wrote, and I had a book and I thought it was terrible. So I threw it away. And I started again. And I wrote it, I wrote it, I wrote, finally the book emerged, the spine of the book took hold. The theme that I use to take this book forward, was exactly what I needed. And when it did, everything flowed in about seven more weeks, I finished the book. And I launched that in June of 2015, called the invisible organization.

Now I understand where the foreword by Jay Abraham came from. I was gonna ask you about that. That is huge.

How did you get today, if you don’t mind me asking

Don’t In fact, it’s funny because I, I, I was just tracing this back a few months ago when I was talking to Jay. So I bought Jays newsletter in the late 80s when I was building and running my software company, and I became familiar with his work back then and I bought some of his audio programs and I listened to every word and I made lots and lots of notes. And then finally, when I was I had located a buyer and I had sold my company, they moved me and my 10 top people to Dallas, Texas, where we were to work and then grow the company from Dallas. It was there that I decided I was finally going to go to a Jay Abraham event. So I think it was $5,000 a ticket which was incredibly crazy money to me, but but you know the company was going to pay for it. So I was on with it. So I went to this event. And it was, I think it was a four day event. And it was like the typical 14 hour day events. And I remember coming with a yellow pad was just the legal yellow pad. And by the end of the second day, maybe the beginning of the third, I had used up the entire yellow pad. We just writing notes, notes and ideas. And every time I wrote down a note, I get a brainstorm, and I’d have to write the idea down and, I mean, it was it was just my hand felt like I needed to get hospital care in the woods. It was hurting so badly. I finally ended up coming home with almost two full notebooks of notes. And I then started taking the notes and cutting them up and I started to pass them out to my team and began implementing. And that turned out to be one of the big growth stages in my company. So Here’s a tip, when you go to an event, and you take notes, think about in advance who inside your organization, that note should be used for or should be given to the heck to implement. And that amplified my ability to act much faster. So I came home with all this great material, fix the company in so many ways. And then I had pretty much not really done anything at all with Jay other than by his newsletter and listened to his audios. until many years later, after Chet and I started business breakthroughs. We invited Jay, to our conference, and Jay and I met in the green room. And we got to meet for the first time and he remembered me and we shook hands and he said, you know, you look like a very happy person. That was his words. I said, Jay, you’re right. I am even happier today. Because I’m finally meeting you. And that started our friendship. So our friendship really started back in, in 2009. And since then we’ve done projects together, we’ve worked on things together. And just recently, I worked with him and his team to help build a program. And so, I mean, Jay and I, our paths have crossed several times, they’ll probably continue to cross.

I love that story. I have to say, I hope that someday I can shake hands with Tony with using the same type of similar story, you know, how you had gone to Jay’s event and gone through his materials so far in advance and, you know, the same type of line thanks to you. Yeah. I have to say, though, going back to Tony, just for a quick second, and then I want to go back to you, obviously, I was a little bit shocked by his mouth when I watched I am not your guru. Because listening to him on audiobook book is so different. It cracked me up, but it was nice too. And I know this might shock some listeners considering I don’t. There’s not much cussing at all on the positive productivity podcast. It, it’s just seeing, I don’t know if that’s him for real or not, but just seeing the different

side is what I’m trying to say.

Mm hmm. Well, I will assure you that that is him and that was real.

Yeah. It was motivating to me, I know the math is shocked a lot of people but it was still motivating. And sometimes we just need to hear the F bombs being dropped. Because that’s what we need to do also just take turns.

And remember that that’s strategic. It’s, those f bombs are designed to to be basically be pattern interrupt in NLP language. So for many people who would never expect that to happen when it happens, it really gets their attention. It basically moves them into the present moment, which is what Tony is all about.

Oh, definitely. Going back to you, Mitch, have you had to struggle at all with mindset, negativity or anything similar? Because I know that while growing businesses, it is something that a lot of us do have to deal with.

Mitch Russo: Yeah, Kim,  I have and I’m going to share a bit of a personal story if that’s okay. Please. You know, when I was a young man, I was 1515 and a half years old. I got deep involved with drug abuse. And it turns out that I became addicted to heroin at one point in my life, and I had to pause my life and go into rehab in order to reclaim myself And that in itself could be another whole nother episode. But I gotta tell you it could be a whole nother book. Exactly, exactly. But in that process, which of course looked like a disaster turned out to be one of the greatest blessings of my life to have gone through that program. at such a young age, I emerged a and awake adult at the age of 17 and a half years old, and by the time I was 18, I had reclaimed my position in high school, I had to make up what I missed. And now I was an A student, I was determined there was a fire in my eye and a fire in my heart to be a success in this world. And I had cleaned up most of the emotional trash of childhood by having gone through rehab. And and I’ve stayed this way ever since. So for me because Becoming a heroin addict was a disaster at first almost died, but became one of the greatest blessings of my life as my life evolved. So what happened later though, and again, this is the ups and downs of life, what happened later, is that stuff happens, and it changes what you think about who you are. And that’s mindset. You know, I mean, I found myself as I said earlier, without a job without an income, without a business, nothing at the end of 2012. And I started to blame myself. And you know, and I, what I did is I did something that I encourage everyone, including my own clients to do is go get a coach. So I did that. And I found a coach, a life coach at the time, an incredible guy, and he had me examine the reality of all these thoughts, until I prove to myself that none of them were real. And it was like another reset for me, which was just fantastic. So yeah, I have

Well, I want to go back to what Jay told you about sharing what, you know. What if you’re not passionate? What if you weren’t passionate about what you knew? Because I know. And I’m just going to share my own personal story a couple years ago, 2015. I knew a lot about social media, or I thought I did at least. And I started building a program that I was going to sell an online course, teaching people how to use social media. But I didn’t have any passionate. I didn’t have any passion about it. I was building it because I wanted to make money. And I didn’t care about the impact. I was doing it purely out of income. Mm hmm. I was just talking to my husband about it this morning. And I said, you remember when he was like, yeah, you hated every second and creating in that course, I’m glad you didn’t do it. Because now I’m, I’m actually, and this might feel like a shameless plug, but it’s not, I promise. However, I suppose I can do shameless plugs on my own podcasting.

You’re allowed.

I’m building out the positive productivity pod right now, which is also going to have many courses. And I’m so passionate. And it’s, it is stuff I know, because I’ve gone through it.

How did you know if

what you knew was what you really should be doing? And is that something that you have to work through with your clients today?

Yes, yes. It’s a great topic. I’m glad you brought it up. You know, when I started timeslips Corporation, and time slips was time and billing software for lawyers. Kim, I asked myself this question, what do we care about? I mean, and I said to myself, wait a minute. I don’t really care about lawyers. I mean, don’t get me wrong. My family of two lawyers are my family. I love them both. But I’m not passionate about helping lawyers build their clients more efficiently. I mean, that’s, that’s great. I mean that that’s, that’s what we did. Our entire company was focused on helping lawyers and accountants grow their companies by being more efficient with their billing and accounting software. But there was something there that had nothing to do with accounting or legal. It had to do with building the team and succeeding it has to do with growing a tribe and turning that tribe into a powerhouse of of not just customers and, and staff members, but into fans and into lifelong followers. And that’s what I was passionate about. I wasn’t passionate about lawyers. I was passionate about growing bill. During this incredible base of people who I knew I could enable to do a better job in life to be happier to make more money, that was where my passion lied.

Hmm.

So I see that as being a continuum, then for you are the star of the future. Because I mean breakthrough business. I mean,

that carried all the way through. Yeah,

absolutely. It can. It’s, I look back, and I haven’t really stopped to think about it this way. But I’ve always been that way. I mean, even as a little boy, when I was doing things like washing cars and shoveling snow and selling greeting cards, and all the things I did, I did because a I found them to be a challenge, not because I liked washing cars, but I thought, wow, wouldn’t it be great if I could make enough money to buy an electric guitar? I mean, after all, I wanted to start a band. How am I going to get the money to do that my parents Couldn’t afford some fancy electric guitar. I mean, back then I had to earn the money. And I did I earned $257 and 50 cents. And I bought my Gibson SG special from Sam Ash on Kings Highway in Brooklyn, New York. But I wouldn’t have got there unless I had this passion, about knowing that I can accomplish what I wanted to, and my desire to create this disband. And eventually, because I have a band, I would then be able to pick up so much more easy than I could on my own.

Oh, I love it.

I want to thank you for sharing your story of your addiction, because I have seen so many times in social media, especially with some of the mentors that I follow just people commenting in threads on their ads, especially on Facebook. Well, it must be really easy to be so successful when you’re born with a silver spoon in your mouth. But these people have no idea that a lot of these influencers icons and my mentors are not born with a silver spoon in their mouth. And I don’t I don’t know about you. I’m not asking about that. But you went through struggles. Brendon Burchard, he was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Tony Robbins went through bankruptcies and struggles. Todd Herman, when you look at, it looks at so many of the huge influencers out there today. And they have come from so little and built so much.

Mitch Russo: That’s right. Yeah, you’re absolutely right. And I think we lose, to some degree, we lose sight of that these days. Many people, particularly those who have the privilege of owning a phone, a smartphone, and who are on places like Facebook, and I call it a privilege because there are many people who can’t ever can’t really afford a smartphone or Or have the time to go on Facebook, because they’re too busy working and trying to keep a family going.

But you know, for those of us that are there and we get jaded, we get jaded when you, when you see things that, you know, we’re people are showing off their new Maserati or whatever. I mean, I can’t stand those type of things. But the point is, is that this is stuff that is the, the exception and not the rule.

Mitch Russo: Most of us who’ve ever had any success, Kim, you included, really, really had to make a lot of mistakes and work really hard to get there. And most people don’t get that all they see is the tip of the iceberg. And that’s okay. Because, I mean, it’s that story that I just told you. You have your stories and you share your stories with your listeners as I do my listeners. But here’s the point.

Nobody starts off that way. weigh in less. And if they do, by the way, they don’t live a very happy life. I know that for a fact. I’ll give you an example.

Mitch Russo: My partner in my business, my timeslips business. When I started the business with him, he was just my next door neighbor, I didn’t know truly who he was. It turns out that his family had a net worth of over a quarter billion dollars. And he had access to that money if he wanted it, but he never did. But the fact is, is that he could have lived an entire life without ever working a day and be privileged in that way. But here’s what was different between him and his brothers and sisters.

He wanted to prove to the world of what his true value was, whereas his brothers and sisters at the time only wanted to have fun and spend the money. Unfortunately, his brothers and sisters, they lost this one. One of their siblings died of a drug overdose. Another one never really amounted to anything. And the third one is not enjoying their life doing what they’re doing. But not my partner.

Mitch Russo: My partner, Neil has an amazing life that he created deliberately. But if he would have followed the path of the wealth of his family, he would have been just as miserable as the rest of them. So when people think, oh, what did they know? They were born with a silver spoon in their mouth. I know it doesn’t seem that way. But that is a sort of hell of its very own.

Oh, yeah. I’ve seen that as well. I went to one of the top art schools in the country for college. And while I would have to say that maybe a quarter to half of the student population was raised very fluently. The other half was not and we had to work. And I put myself in that category. We had to work for everything that we got all through college. But I can’t say that the other half was any happier at all. I mean, they had to work for their passing grades the heart, you know, just as hard as the rest of us did. And yeah, for some of them, it was the first time that they weren’t able to by their passing grades. Exactly. Yeah. Thank you for also bringing up about not liking when people are posting pictures about their brand new Maserati. That has been that was, it’s not anymore, but it took probably the first three and a half four years of my business to finally be able to ignore those posts.

I know what you mean. And by the way, I didn’t mind at all when I saw you posted it I thought it was wonderful.

Yeah, I can’t fit all the kids in though that’s a problem.

You have to get a sidecar for that Marathi

it will be the same size matchbox. It’s my husband. DeLorean. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

I went through three and a half to four years of being very I will fully admit that I had breakdowns like crying breakdowns in front of my husband. Why? Why is it working for them and it’s not for me. But then I had the eye opening realization that number one, those cars could actually be rented. Number two, the debt that they put themselves into Who knows? We don’t know what their credit card bills look like every month and we don’t know if they’re actually able to cover those right.

So while we’re here struggling with no debt

and maybe an older car

you know, there’s a whole nother struggle level of struggle just because somebody is quote, successful on social media does not mean They’re not struggling. I mean, look at all the superstars that we’ve seen struggle. Lindsay Lohan right, Michael Jackson, Michael Tyson, you can just the list goes on and on. They’ve made millions but they, yeah. they’ve they’ve gone through enough. Mitch, what does your business look like today? And what do you do?

Mitch Russo: Yes, Kim, thank you for asking. It’s it’s actually a little bit of a complex answer. I mean, what I do today is I work with a transformational people, transformational leaders, who have a passion about what they do, but don’t know how to convert that passion into cash flow. So I work with people one on one, and I only work with a limited number of people that I can become passionate about as well. And then I help them take what they know and convert it into a online program into a speaking program into training programs, mastermind Lions group coaching whatever it is appropriate for them, we build it together. And that has been a passion of mine for years. I always love to do this with people. But I’m transitioning into something very exciting that I want to share with you. I am I ran across a problem several years ago, something I think you’ll identify with. I was buying a lot of training programs off the internet, and I bought them but I never got many of them to work for me. And I never really received that transformation that they promised. Has that ever happened to you?

Seriously? Oh my gosh. I’m over here laughing even though I’m muted while you’re talking. I’m like, he’s done his homework. He knows exactly who he’s talking to you. Yeah, two programs, no transformation. But it could have been a lot more. I’ve had clients who have spent hundreds of thousands On programs that are still broke,

Mitch Russo: Yep, yep. And I’ve spent, unfortunately, more than that more than six figures on programs. But But here’s the thing, I came up with a solution. And I figured out how to make everybody who’s ever bought one of those programs, actually turn it into money. And I’m going to share with you what that is.

But I was the first one to say that when someone buys one of those programs, and sometimes as you realize people have to actually take out a loan, like on their credit card to buy one of those programs. So when that program doesn’t work, not only didn’t they get the promised benefit, but they also feel like a failure for not having made it work. I mean, after all, like we’re talking about a minute ago, there’s examples of all those successful people who are doing so well now that they bought the program and and here you are, you’re not and here’s what my solution is. It’s so simple.

Mitch Russo: Back many years ago, back when I was building business breakthroughs with Chet and Tony, we implemented a program called accountability. And we used to charge 1800 dollars a month to two CEOs, who would receive a 30 minute phone call once a week from a staff member. So a low level staff member who basically did nothing but ask them if they completed what they had started the week before. And then ask them what they plan on starting the next week. So those accountability sessions became very popular.

And I had this thought that maybe if I can get an accountability coach, I could recover some of these programs. So I did, and I did. And I then had the brainstorm Why don’t I build a software based accountability system for all entrepreneurs, where you can come and fill out a profile and be matched to your exact person who maybe even took the exact same program you did. So that you could set up a schedule. You could work with them and have the software, modulate that entire meeting to make sure you stay on track, track your results in a dashboard and set you up next week for the next one. So that solution is called results breakthrough calm. And as of right now, it should be launching almost by the time this airs it should already be launched

listeners there will be a link no matter when it gets launched. If it’s not aired, but or if it’s not launched by the time this episode goes live. I am holding you accountable. Okay, accountable. To get me that link please. Now, I do have to ask so and I want to be I also want to recognize your time. You’ve been so generous today. Thank you. One of the programs I went through was actually it was great. Don’t get me wrong, it was helping us compress what would have normally been year long goals into much shorter segments. I’m not going to give away how long those segments were because that will talk about the pros that will lead directly to the program. However, part of my problem was that I was so focused on income at that time and not impact that I was staying up all hours to build out these programs and I was neglecting sleep. Have you ever neglected sleep before? And how do you address that when we are trying to be accountable and reach our goals?

Mitch Russo: Well, I think the first person we have to be accountable to is ourselves. And I think most of us are for the most part, but, you know, if sleep is that important to your well being as it is to me, then I have a responsibility to make sure that I get enough sleep. I mean, I don’t I don’t drink much. Have occasional glass of wine with friends. But for me to be drinking in the evenings and trying to get up the next morning and go to work well, that doesn’t really work out well for me, for me to stay up past midnight and get up and get to the gym as I do every single morning at 730. I mean, that’s not gonna work out either. So if I go without sleep nowadays, as I’ve gotten older, it ruins my next day. So I really care a lot about sleep.

listeners, I will hold you accountable for your sleep. Mitch, I actually told a client a couple weeks ago that I wouldn’t talk to him because he had only gotten two hours of sleep the night before. That’s how important sleep is to me.

Mitch Russo: Yeah, I totally agree.

Mitch, thank you so much for joining us on the positive productivity podcast today. Can you please share with listeners where they can find out more about you where they can buy above for you? They also share about your podcast and where they can get your book.

Mitch Russo: Sure. Well, everything that we talked about today is on MitchRusso.Com. And so if you go to Mitch russo.com, you’ll see my podcast, which is called your first thousand clients. If you see the podcast link right on the page, you’ll see the link to we didn’t talk about my certification programs and the things I do for for large clients. You’ll see that on that page, you’ll see the blogs, I have over 50 business building blog posts, that are available to anybody who would like to enjoy them. So they’re also on Mitchrusso.com. And of course, the book you could buy the book on Amazon or you could go to invisible organization, which was the book launch site. It’s still there and and go grab a copy of that book as well.

Kim Sutton: Listeners if you’re not able to go to Mitch russo.com right now, you can also So go to KIM sutton.com, forward slash p p 234. But I do just want you to know that Russo is ru SS o just so you don’t misspell it if you’re trying to go right now. Mitch, thank you so much again for coming on. Do you have a last piece of advice or inspiration that you can offer to listeners?

Mitch Russo: I just wanted to say one more thing. And here it is.

Life is a journey. And I know everybody has heard this before. But recently, I’ve had an experience where I truly saw the power of really getting this one point. We’re here to experience life. We’re not here to focus on making money or focus on doing one thing only we’re here to experience all of life. And that means our family that means our work. That means our clients. That means our employers, our employees. It’s everything.

Mitch Russo: If we can stay focused on exactly today, the beauty of art Life in this moment today, then I think we miss out. And so, for me, my focus has been stay as close to the moment as I can and that’s the way I like to live.