A Conversation with Warren Rustand

Adam: Welcome to another edition of the franchise consultant podcast. I’m so glad to have my mentor and friend Warren Rustin with us today. Warren, welcome to the show.

Warren: Thank you so much, Adam. Glad to be with you.

Adam: Well, Warren, the reason why I wanted to have you on is that you’re one of the people that I admire the most. If you could just please explain to our guests a little bit more about your background.

Warren: I’ll give you the real quick 32nd version, I think right grew, grew up, and raised on an isolated farm in Minnesota moved to California, Southern California, I was 12.

Learn to surf and play basketball, went to the University of Arizona on a basketball scholarship. met my wife got married 56 years, seven children 19 grandchildren, drafted by the Golden State Warriors, CEO of my first business when I was about 24 years old, have done about 17 businesses throughout my life. And we’ve had success and we’ve had a failure. So I know Both, but mostly a lot of success. We’ve been having a lot of fun.

So that’s kind of my life I have served as a White House fellow and worked for the president knighted states for nearly four years in the White House. And they had a great experience there as well. So all those things added up, I can’t keep a job and I keep moving around.

Adam: So Warren, what would you say to someone that’s in corporate America now? that’s potentially thinking about starting their own business? What kind of advice or wisdom would you have for someone like that?

Warren: Well, first of all, I assume that this person is already successful in doing a good job in the corporate environment, but wants to think about being an entrepreneur. And I would just tell you, I’ve been an entrepreneur my entire life.

And except for the time when I was working for the government and in the army, and as a result of that, some wonderful benefits come from being an entrepreneur. One is, you report to yourself, right, you’re your boss, and that’s a really big advantage but there also is the accountability and responsibility for The success or failure of your business, and that goes with that.

So you have to be willing to accept that. There’s a sense of freedom that comes with being an entrepreneur. There’s this notion of risk and risk-taking that comes with being an entrepreneur. That’s very important.

And we need to be sure that you’re comfortable with that risk. Because again, you assume that and that falls squarely on your shoulders. It’s the opportunity to hire the people that you want to have around you. And smart people tend to hire other smart people, to build a corporate culture that’s exciting for you, and to do all those things that allow you to build a business successfully.

So I would say if you’re seriously thinking about it, do your diligence, really pay attention, make the decision that’s best for you and your family. And then take that step. Martin Luther King once said, faith is taking the first step without seeing the entire staircase.

Sometimes we have to take that step into entrepreneurship, to learn about ourselves and learn what we’re capable of doing because we have tremendous potential. And oftentimes it gets unlocked as we leave a corporate setting, and we go out in the world of entrepreneurship. So I wish you well, I think it’s going to be an exciting adventure for you because it’s a lot of fun, and very, very exciting.

Adam: Thank you so much. And now it’s transitioning a little bit to what we’re seeing right now today. What kind of advice do you have for people that might have been furloughed or laid off that are now at home their routines a little bit off? What what are you seeing?

And if you could please share what you think would be a good thing for people to do in that situation?

Warren: Yeah, well, first of all, never give up hope, right? Things are going to get better things are going to change. The pandemic caught all of us by surprise.

In January, I was traveling in China, Thailand, and Vietnam. When I first learned of the virus in Wu Han, and at that time, it was an epidemic. It was centrally located around a single city and no one thought it would be moved on but it moved on very quickly and pretty soon and envelop the entire world.

And when a crisis hits us when we’re surprised by something, typically what happens is we break our routines when we get furloughed. When we get terminated. When we’re no longer employed and doing the things we normally do, we abandon the routines that make us successful.

And there are three Dr. Jenny Evans, who’s a research, the high-performance doctor talked about three things we have to do well, first, we have to continue to work out regularly, we usually abandon our workout routines, and yet anxiety requires high energy workout. It’s one of the ways of reducing anxiety and stress.

Secondly, is we start eating differently. We reach for junk food we reach for the sodas. We don’t pay attention to our diet, we tend to put on weight during times of crisis. And then thirdly, we don’t sleep well. About 68% of Americans have a sleep problem and much of that is induced by anxiety, stress, or overwork, too busy to overschedule, and so manage your sleep well.

And if you can work out, eat well, and manage your sleep, you’ll find that you will have the strength and the energy to get through this. There are other things, of course, but those three are critical as an individual.

Adam: That’s great. And just going on further about entrepreneurship. So how do you see the economy in the next year or two years or three years? I mean, is now a good time, in your opinion to start a business presuming that it’s the right business?

Warren: Yeah, so when this started our family, all men brought together as I said, we have seven children, 19 grandchildren, we all live together on a piece of property in Tucson, Arizona, where our children have built their homes, we have three generations living on our property.

And so we gathered as a family and sat down and said, what do we think about the pandemic? What do we think about getting our arms around it, conceptualizing it, and coming To some conclusions, one of which is how long do we think it’s going to last?

And there’s simply no way of knowing everyone’s hoping for a miracle cure that, you know, soon we’ll wake up, and there’ll be this wonderful vaccine and everybody’s going to be inoculated and it’s going to be over in a few months. That’s probably unlikely. We’re probably looking at a scenario, our family embraces the two-year time window. We think we’re going to be in this until February or March 2022. So what does that say?

It says that during any crisis, there are great opportunities. In every crisis, there’s a chance to start a new business start with a new idea. If you think back to the crisis of 2008, nine and 10, the economic recession globally. Think of the companies that were started during that period. Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, Spotify, Shopify, etc. So rather than dwelling on the crisis itself, look upstream to see where you’re going and where the opportunities lie.

This might be the ideal time to start a new business. This might be a critical time, over the next few weeks and months to find that market niche where you can have an opportunity to establish your entrepreneurship and establish your business. Pay attention, understand what the issues are in the pandemic and civil unrest.

Understand that we’re in a presidential campaign starting now. And just be prepared to understand and work with those factors as you create your new business. But oftentimes, difficult circumstances are the ideal time to start a business.

Adam: Which one trait do you think is the most important for an aspiring entrepreneur to have?

Warren: discipline? I get asked that a lot, Adam and I just think you have to have discipline but I think that’s true of everything we do in life. I got that from athletics, right discipline, dedication, commitment, sacrifice. Those are the things I think that require entrepreneurs to be successful. They’ll

Always be smarter people we are than we are. There’ll always be people who have a better location or a better franchise or whatever it might be. But if we’re disciplined, work hard serve our customers well take care of our business in a very disciplined way, then I think we have a really good chance to be successful.

Adam: Could you share with our audience, the 10-10-10 method that you shared with me last year?

Warren: Yeah, sure will, and Adam, we got to get to working harder at that now. Come on. So this notion is how do you start your day, and all too often people when I ask people, how do you start your day, they’ll say one of several things. I go to the bathroom, I walk the dog, I read a newspaper, I turn on the TV, I reach for my cell phone, I brush my teeth, those are all interesting things.

But not one of those things prepares you to have a successful day. So many, many years ago, I discovered a process that’s helped me and I’ve taught it to 10s of thousands of people first when you first realize you’re awake and open your eyes. sit on the edge of your bed for one minute and ask yourself why am I alive today? Meaning what’s my purpose today? What am I going to do? What’s my highest priority today? What’s my purpose important?

And then take 10 minutes and be grateful. We know an attitude of gratitude makes us more successful, and it puts us in a positive frame of mind. There are so many things for which we have to be thankful.

Our homes, our families, or sunrises, or sunsets, flowers, grass, extended family careers, education, go on, and on and on. We could fill books with it. Then take the next 10 minutes and read something inspirational.

I’m reading the hundred greatest speeches of all time. So it’s Mandela and Churchill and Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Well, Mother Teresa Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, etc. It’s just phenomenally inspiring things but there are smaller books that you can read. There’s one called Thank you. There’s another called chicken soup for the foot souls, another called treasure chest.

They’re short, inspirational messages that lift us. And then for the third 10 minutes, have a journal. I have mine right in front of me right now. Have a journal and write the positive things that you’ve learned from the day before that are going on in your life.

You don’t have to read it, write about the bad stuff. Write about the lessons you’ve learned, even if it was a bad experience. Learn about or read about the positive lessons, and then write about the positive lessons that you have in your journal so that your journal becomes a composite of very positive stories and comments.

Now you’re 31 minutes into your day, you’ve decided your purpose with the first minute you’ve been grateful for 10. You’ve read inspirational reading for 10. And you’ve now journaled in a positive way for 10. Where do you think your mind is?

You’re positive, you’re ready to go. I have never sent a group of athletes in a locker room before a game. And we sat around and told each other how bad we were, or that we weren’t good enough, or that we couldn’t measure upright. We’ve got to be positive in life because positive Things create positive outcomes. And so we have to have that good mindset. So, practice those 31 minutes you do that faithfully and religiously. You’re gonna have great days. Great days.

Adam: That’s great. That’s great. So Warren, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. Do you have anything else that you’d like to share with our listeners?

Warren: No other than this, this, this pandemic, social unrest, a presidential campaign all coming together three different waves. We’re all in this storm. But each of our boats is being rocked differently.

For some The boat is health. For some, The boat is the finance for some of the boat is family. Each of our boats is being tipped and term differently within the context of the storm. Be strong, be committed, understand that we can overcome all things and that we can have the outcomes we want to have to keep a positive mindset is set, and never give up. Hope. Adam thanks for allowing me to be with you today. I appreciate

Adam: Thank you so much, Warren

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