Building Client Success for Predictable Growth with Bradley Rausch

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to today’s episode of the Work At Home Rockstar podcast. I’m excited for today’s episode. We’re talking to the owner of Level Up Influence, and what he does is he helps his clients to make more money from the clients they already have, which is really cool. I like, I like that. That’s really cool.

So we’re rocking out today with Bradley Rausch. Hey, Bradley, you ready to rock?

Bradley Rausch: I am ready, Tim. Let’s do it. I appreciate you having me on

Tim Melanson: Awesome. We always start off on a good note. So tell me a story of success that we can be inspired by

Bradley Rausch: Really fortunate to say, you know, I’ve had a lot of mentors and, and people giving opportunities that they absolutely did not, uh, did not need to give me. And part of my, kind of my origin story or reason why I do what I do now, um, is very early on in my career, I was 19 when I first started, uh, in the, like, online high ticket, you know, coaching, consulting, SaaS, all of this stuff, uh, world.

And I worked my way up to what was at the time the top train- sales training and coaching organization, um, [00:01:00] uh, doing, doing about nine figures a year as a, as a closer. And that opportunity, uh, which we can get into it if you’d like, that opportunity, while not aligned with who I am, really sparked, um, my passion for now what I do, um, in terms of client success and showing up for clients and helping businesses be more, more profitable, uh, as you say.

And, um, uh, but that, that opportunity really, really at such a, such a young age, uh, to be around those people and just get in those rooms, that was, that was insane. Uh, it was huge for, for, for my, for my… Kind of set me on a kind of trajectory, so to say. So

Tim Melanson: Yeah, isn’t that amazing, right? And when you’re 19, when you’re younger, like it’s, it’s, it’s funny ’cause you, you get around these really successful people and you can just absorb so much from them at that time. And, and they tend to be very, very like excited about sharing their knowledge with someone who’s so young as well, so it’s really lucky for y- that you were able to do that.

Um, I do find that, you know, as, as you get older, you know, people tend to not necessarily [00:02:00] take as good advice, like good advice from people around them. You know, you’re not as, uh, I, I guess, I guess open to taking advice. So, you know, with you being so young, like do you… Like are all your clients young as well, or do you coach people who are older than you are?

Like how does that work?

Bradley Rausch: Uh, all of my clients are actually older than me, yes. So, um, so yeah, so I, I work with coaching, consulting, and SaaS, uh, founder-led brands, founder-led companies on, just, just as you said, on, um, uh, making every client worth more for… That they are making every client that they already have worth more. And, um, I got into that after, uh, that opportunity that I just mentioned that I had.

I, I actually ended up walking away from it, which at the time was very controversial ’cause that company was the company you got fired from, uh, that you walked away from. And I went, I, I went back to some of the companies I had, I had been with before and I said, "Hey, let me try my hand at your client success."

Just long story short, the large company was not a good fit for me morally, ethically, [00:03:00] ’cause clients were treated really poorly, and that’s what sparked really my passion for, for client success, um, and for, for this work. And so, um, from there then, uh, I, I built up, you know, just repertoire of clients, et cetera.

I was, um, for about four years period of time, I was director of co- director of client success for a B2B, um, eight-figure brand, working from home and then building my… All of it working from home, and then building my consulting company on the side. And then for the last year I have solely worked on doing the consulting company, so

Tim Melanson: Amazing. That’s a great story. So now, not everything goes as planned though, right? There are some mistakes that you make along the way, and I do like to talk about those unfortunately because,

Bradley Rausch: No, I love it. I love

Tim Melanson: most part, that’s what pe- holds people back is, is being worried about making a mistake. So y- have you got any big ones?

Any ones that people would kind of think, "Oh, I’m not doing that. I don’t, I don’t want… I’m scared to make that mistake"?

Bradley Rausch: Definitely. Uh, more, more than I would probably consciously remember, ’cause I [00:04:00] probably blotted them out of my memory now. Um, the, the one that always, the, the one that, the one that stands out, biggest one, um, is I actually was offered, and again, this was a very young age. I’m 27 now, I was maybe 23 or 22. Um, I was offered a very, very prestigious position as a director of client success for another company, um, that was more money than I had ever made.

It all f- you know, working from home, working remote, all of that. It was d- an incredible opportunity. It was before I knew I really wanted to be on my own doing my own thing, and I was like, "Hey, I wanna work within somebody else’s company." And there’s nothing wrong either way, but it’s just not for me. Uh, but I saw this opportunity, applied for it, went for it.

The founder and I got on really, really, really well. Worked together for about a week, and then I was fired after about a week. And when I s- the reason I bring this up, as far as a quote unquote "mistake," is because the caliber of what they needed, uh, was not the caliber of the skill that I had at that time.

Um, have it now, I would say yes, [00:05:00] but at that time, no. And, uh, me going into it, I knew it was something that was well over m- I, I, I had an awareness that it was something that was well over my head. Um, but it just seemed like such a good fit that I was just like, "You know what? Yes." And it was, it was something that I…

Th- the- the mis- the quote unquote "mistake" in it for me was, um, not looking at how it would play out long term. Looking at, looking at a very short-term decision about something that could financially be great, but long term, how I would be able to not only level up my skills, but then, you know, contribute and m-make reciprocity, make sure that I could contribute to them, et cetera.

And so it just wasn’t a necessarily… It was, it was one of those things, one of those, uh, you know, lines that people say all the time. It was like, "Oh, if you see a really big opportunity, take it, and then figure out how to do it later." I, because of that and because of many other things, of course, now in my life that I do around client success, my take on that is not necessarily the [00:06:00] opposite, but it, it’s just that make sure you’re well prepared for opportunities that come your way.

So that would be my, that would be my, my remote work, work from home, uh,

Tim Melanson: Big mistake, yeah. Well, and, and it is interesting that you say that because that does come up quite often, is that people will say, "Say yes, and then figure it out afterwards." And I, I guess, you know, it’s, it’s one of those things where, uh, for the most part, that probably is good advice, I would say. And I think it’s probably because most people underestimate what they can do, right?

And so saying yes, you know, and, and then figuring it out probably is something that they’ll be able to figure out. But then on the other hand, you know, if you’re the type of person that overestimates what you can do, then you might end up in a tough situation, right?

Bradley Rausch: Absolutely. Absolutely. I think it’s that, a little bit of that entrepreneur delusion there coming in.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Now, so I’m [00:07:00] just got curio- uh,

curious though, like how, like how did the fallout go? Like how did you recover? Like what, what, what happened after that?

Bradley Rausch: Uh, it was a… I mean, it, it’s, it’s dumb. It was a, it was a hit to my, my self-esteem, my confidence, my confidence in, in what I was doing and how I did it, like professionally, personally, everything. Uh, I was really fortunate that, you know, I had a couple of… Had, still had a couple of clients on the side. My, my through line with everything I’ve done over the last six, seven years is I’ve always had my own thing.

It’s just for the last year or so, this has been the first time where the, my own thing is the only thing I’ve had. Um, so fortunately I had that, and I was able to find then another full-time role that was a much better fit for me. It was actually still director of customer success. It was for, uh, an eight-figure B2B consulting company, much more suited to both my skill set and then also what I could…

My skill set and what I could provide to what the company needed, and also what the company could teach me in terms of, you know, [00:08:00] my own growth. Um, and I found that about two months later or so, which is a considerably, for the job market, a very quick turnaround time. Uh, so, so yeah, so I was fortunately able to pivot pretty quickly, but I mean, I, I won’t lie, it, it was probably one of, if not the biggest, uh, professional blunder of my, of my career thus far, so.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. It’d, it’d be so tough on the, on the ego, right? ‘Cause you think you could do anything, and then all of a sudden you realize you can’t, right?

Bradley Rausch: But, you know, it’s, it’s a good, it, it’s a good, it’s a good humbling thing though, I will say, because when you think you can do it, when you, when you think you can do anything, you think you’re invincible, something will eventually come along and knock you down a peg or two. It’s just a question of how far down it knocks you.

And I feel fortunate that I had that experience early, and I had that experience while I, I would say really needed it, ’cause I did feel quite invincible at the time. Um, and so it, it, it also, again, really indoctrinated in me that thing of make sure that you’re prepared for [00:09:00] the opportunities that, that come your way, and this is, this is something which I, I think we’ll probably get into.

But in terms of like advice, early-stage entrepreneurs, people wanting to start something from home, wanting the inspiration to work from home, uh, you know, start their own… Usually that takes the form of starting your own business, things like that. I’ve spent a lot of my career working with companies that helped early-stage entrepreneurs, so super, super common conversation I have.

Um, but one of the biggest things I, I will often tell people is folks will often worry about, "Oh, how can I be confident doing my own thing? How can I be, um, um, how, how can I know that some- that, that I will, you know, find the income to then work from home? How can I… Essentially, how can I be sure that this is the right thing that I’m doing?"

And my answer is usually always something along the lines of, "Instead of worrying about the confidence in doing it, instead of worrying about what’s going to happen, work on building the skills to have the competence that it will happen. Work on building the skills that will prepare, that you will be prepared for something whenever something does end up happening, and then lay the bricks that you need to then eventually build the [00:10:00] house for, to ha- to have it happen."

Instead of, instead of trying to, you know, connect those dots so quickly, there’s that middle one that says you need to be… You need to build, you need to build the capacity to have the thing versus ins- instead of just trying to have the thing right away. Um, and I just, I think looking at it that way gives you, um, it gives you more freedom and more permission to kind of mess up along the way, uh, and to have just a less linear path to it, ’cause it’s, it’s never linear.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and isn’t that funny that the best advice really is to make the mistakes quicker, right?

Bradley Rausch: Yeah, abso- no, absolutely. Absolutely. No,

Tim Melanson: Yeah

Bradley Rausch: no, no. I love asking people, it’s like, "How can you fa- how can you- how many ways can you fail at that?" And then just get them over with, and then, and then you go from there

Tim Melanson: Yeah, and you’re just more, uh, resilient. The younger you are, the more resilient. So right now is the best time, do- no matter how old you are, right? ‘Cause later it’s gonna be harder, right?

Bradley Rausch: Exactly. I love, I love GaryV- do you know anything

Tim Melanson: Gary Vee, yeah

Bradley Rausch: yeah, yeah. [00:11:00] One of his, I mean, I love one of his things. He’s like, talks to people and they’re like, they’re like, "I’m 50, I’m 60, I’m 70." Grant it a grain of salt, I’m 27, I don’t know what it’s like to be 50, 60, 70 yet. But, uh, this, you know, 60-year-old woman comes up to him and he’s, and she’s like, "Oh, I feel like my career’s behind me."

He’s like, "How old are you?" She’s like, "I’m 60." He’s like, "Well, you d- you got 20 years left to crank this out. What are you talking about? Da, da, da, da, da. You know how much I could do in 20 years? Please." Like, I love him. He’s great

Tim Melanson: Yeah, he is great. And it’s true. I mean, any time is a good time, right, for all that. Now, uh, that does lead pretty good into the next, uh, into the practice side though. So like what are some of those skills that you’re gonna need?

Bradley Rausch: I mean, how long have we got? No. Um, m- most important try, I’ll try and narrow it down to I think most important three for me that have helped me the most. Um, number one is something that actually I’ve really only just kind of wrapped my head around, quite honestly, in the last maybe six to 12 months, [00:12:00] um, which is the ability to know what to say no to.

Um, there’s this thing that, uh, Alex Hormozi talks about a lot, which is the, the idea from The Matrix, which, you know, the red pill, blue pill, but, like, the red pill, you know, the woman in the red dress essentially gets hotter for the bigger the thing you have to say no to, which is kind of the premise. So the bigger an opportunity You have or, or the more important an opportunity is to you, the prettier that the woman in the red dress, AKA these other things that will shy away your attention, the prettier that thing will get, the more attractive that thing will get.

Um, and it’s actually really, really interesting how this has played out for… I mean, I’ll just give you really s- quick snippet is, like, um, this year, as I was kinda telling you before we hit record, my goal with my business has really been to, quote-unquote, "step out of my comfort zone" or just my, my regular routine, uh, and do a lot of podcasting, do, um…

I’ve actually also started ads, things like that. Um, have ads literally launching this week. Found an amazing ads guy, so I’m [00:13:00] really excited about all that. But literally over the last month, as all of this stuff is coming together, I’m finally doing my own thing. I’m fin- Like, it’s successful, et cetera.

Over the last month, okay, I’ve had thr- from clients, I’ve had three… two offers and one conversation, um, around me coming to work in their business on other parts of their business, more in a, you know, part-time/full-time capacity. Like, it’s, it’s crazy how, again, the bigger the opportunity, the more you invest in it.

The more you invest in a thing, you have to know how to say no. You have to learn how to let the woman in the red dress go, and y- it just keeps getting sexier and sexier. So I would say a skill that I’ve really worked on lately, um, that’s come in, come in much handy is you have to, you have to know what to say no to.

And I think that applies to opportunities, but it also applies to just simple things like your attention span, your focus, um, knowing yourself enough. This would be the second thing, knowing yourself enough to know how to structure your day so that it’s most, uh, m- it’s most useful to you, that you get the most [00:14:00] done.

There’s nobody else out there like you, so you need to figure out what kind of thing works for you. For me personally, I am a, I am a total, uh, call it good or bad, it is what it is. It’s a double-edged sword, but I’m slightly extremist when it comes to, like, my calendar. I am either working and I am on or, like, I am off and if you contact me, I will bite your head off.

Like, I… It is, it is like I… my calendar blocked, and when it is not blocked for work, I’m out. Um, so know yourself enough to know when your time is best used and how it’s best used. Um, and the third thing, let’s see. I tell you what, the third thing I would say that I think is really, uh, probably, probably more common advice than not, but I’ll g- give it a nuanced way, is do not underestimate the use cases of AI.

But very specifically or nuanced is don’t underestimate the use case as to use it as a thinking partner. A lot of people will use it as just essentially an executioner. "Do this, do that. Don’t do this. What do you think about this?" Blah, blah, blah, whatever. [00:15:00] I, what I find is that if you actually encourage and train your AI Platforms that you use, this works for any of them, Claude, GPT, Perplexity, whatever.

Uh, you train it and you ask it consistently to think with you instead of doing all the thinking in the background. You create a really good, I call it like a sparring partner. Everything that I put into… I use Claude. Everything that I put into Claude, I’m always, I’m always telling it, it does it most of the time now ’cause I’ve reminded it so much, but I tell it, "No, I want you to think out loud.

Don’t, don’t keep your thinking in the background." Like, all the things that it goes through is like, "Okay, what about this? No, I don’t wanna do this because of this," da, da, da, da, da. And then it spits out an answer. I wanna see all of that. Um, and I think that that really o- has helped me to open up, um, very…

It’s, it’s, it’s helped me to operationalize my own decision-making a lot more ef- a lot, a lot quicker. It’s helped me to be a lot more efficient with how I make decisions. Um, so yeah, so those would be my top three.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, reminds me of my math teacher. Show your work.

Bradley Rausch: Yes. Yes, there it is. Exactly, yes.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. [00:16:00] That’s awesome. Well, and, and, uh, yeah, I, I agree. I, I love using it as a, a thinking partner, and I mean, there’s so many people that are, like, that are upset about AI and, you know, worried about it and all that stuff, and, and, uh, and thinking that it’s gonna take creativity away or take thinking away.

But I, I, I think that that’s a good point. It depends on how you’re using it. If you’re using it to help you think and to help you be creative, well then, how can it really take it away? It’s gonna make it a little bit more, uh, efficient, I think. It’s gonna make us m- us more efficient in, in doing the things we need to do, right?

Bradley Rausch: 100%. I look at it like the, uh… So my, my mom’s a high school, uh, high school teacher, and, um, every, I, I’m, I’m sure, I’m sure you were like this. I know I was like this. We always used to ask when we were younger, we always used to ask, "What’s the point of learning algebra? What’s the point of learning these really random things, crap about science and all this stuff," whatever, blah, blah, blah.

The larger scale point of all of that is not, you know, to know those facts. It’s not to know [00:17:00] what, you know, the 4x squared plus or minus AB, whatever, blah, blah, blah. It’s not to know all of that. It’s to train our brains to be able to comprehend at that level when, when it’s needed, um, in tho- in those different ways, those different modalities.

And so I think of kind of interacting with AI in the same way, which is that you, you can use it not to think for you, but to think with you and to empower you to think at a higher level. Um, and it just, it just, it, it, it just, it just expands, I think, how much you can, you can achieve conceptually, and then of course you can then take it and act on it

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And teachers used to say, "You’re not gonna have a calculator in your pocket."

Bradley Rausch: Right. Right

Tim Melanson: Yeah, we do. Well, i- it’s interesting that you s- when we talk about the, the skills that you need, and you know, the, the things that you mentioned are, like, all really, like, around personal stuff, like around personal thinking and all, which is, which is awesome.

I mean, that, that really is interesting that, you know, you’re not talking about, oh, well, you should go take a course [00:18:00] in this, or you should go take a course in that. You know, th- those are the things that, you know, you can learn anytime, I guess. It, it’s really around protecting your own personal, you know, space, I guess, uh, brain space.

And I think that’s kinda what does separate the people that get success from the people who don’t. They, I mean, everybody thinks that I need to go and, you know, e- even get business cards before they start their business. They’re thinking about the wrong things. They, you’re thinking about, you know, those things that are holding you back.

Well, I need to do that and then I’ll be able to get started on my business. But really, starting on your business is much different than that, right?

Bradley Rausch: Absolutely. Uh, if it makes you feel any better, I don’t even have business cards, and I’ve been doing this a while, so now, so, um, but, but no, 100, 100%. Um, the… I, I, I find that it’s like two levels. One, the first kind of level to it is, is like, yes, order operations, procrastination, et cetera, and, and thinking you need to have all this technical stuff done before you get [00:19:00] to, to actually interact with people.

But the second layer to it is, m- I find folks will often use it as a reason not to. So for instance, it’s like, "Oh, I can’t do this thing. I don’t know how to do this thing. Well, I guess that means I shouldn’t do this other thing over here," or, "I shouldn’t start this because I haven’t done this first thing yet," or, or whatever.

They’ll use it as kind of a, as kind of a crux and then make a story around that. Um, and I spent a lot of my life in a very victim mentality ’cause insanely, long story short, uh, which I’m super open about, is grew up having panic attacks left, right, and sideways every 10 seconds and, uh, separated myself from my family and all of this stuff, and like was definitely not…

I, I was very, very book smart, very, very school smart, uh, excelled in school. At the beginning, I sucked at being an entrepreneur. I was not consistent. I gave up after two seconds. I thought the world was my oyster. I th- I just, just had an ego the size of Guam. Like, it was just, it was n- that was not in the cards for me to be an entrepreneur.

Um, so I very much so had to tr- kind of [00:20:00] reverse engineer that. Um, and so all that’s, all of that to be said, um, is the consistency with which you can show up, I think, just changes everything, so

Tim Melanson: yeah. And luckily you had some good mentors along the

Bradley Rausch: I did. I did. I, I always, I always say people gave me, people opened doors for me, gave me opportunities when they, when they did not have to. There’s, if I ever get up on a stage and speak or get an award or something, there’s about six people who will be getting a shout-out, so

Tim Melanson: Right on. Well, okay, so let’s talk a little bit about, about getting the fans. Like, I, I mean, the world is so different now. It’s, and I mean, I guess you’ve been in it the whole time, but, but for someone, uh, you know, a little older, like, things have changed. You, you, you can’t necessarily just throw money at problems anymore to get, to get the fans, but the audience is everywhere.

Like, how do I, you know, cut through the noise, I guess, and, and get someone to pay attention to me?

Bradley Rausch: Yes. [00:21:00] So like I said, I spent a lot of time working with very early stage, very beginner entrepreneurs who wanna start like an initial thing online, um, wanna transition out of their job and start, et cetera, da, da, da, da, da. So several, several different, different things here. Um, boiling them down to, I would say the top…

We’ll go top three again. Um, things to think about, perspectives, things to do, et cetera. Uh, number one is the speed at which you can make mistakes, as we were kind of saying earlier, is, is paramount, and also being okay with making those mistakes. Um, the best learning I’ve ever come across is when my own money’s been on the table, when I’ve put in the time, the effort, and something didn’t work.

Uh, the, the phrase, "Oh, you learn as much from your mistakes," like that’s, that’s not BS. That’s genuine, really. We’ll learn more from that than a course, than anything like that. Kind of on the same point, as a subpoint to that, uh, again, do not underestimate the use of AI. You do not need a course. You do not need a degree.

You do not need a whatever. You need a pro subscription to ChatGPT for 20 bucks a month, a good cup of coffee, and a [00:22:00] Wi-Fi connection, and you are good to go for 99.9% of things that you wanna do. Um, I, I genuinely believe that. Um- So don’t underestimate the, the… All, all that to be said is the repetition that you put in and the reps at, especially at the beginning, is way more important than the quality of the reps that you put in.

Once you start getting traction, then the quality becomes, becomes an issue, uh, and something to focus on. But at the beginning it is very much so throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks, and being okay with 99% of things not sticking. Um, the second thing I would say, and again, I’m taking this from…

I’m a very big Hormozi fan. I’m taking this from Hormozi, uh, kinda sorta same as the first point, uh, which is, or along the same lines. Um, he has this thing called this rule of 100, which I just love, and it, I think it really just dials, dials this in. Uh, which is he says, trying to remember now, uh, he says for people trying to get their first customer, for people trying to build out their first thing, they have an offer, they have an idea, they have a whatever, and they’re ready, essentially they’re ready to sell [00:23:00] whatever it is.

Uh, he says there’s this rule of 100. So for 100 days you either spend $100 a day in ad spend if you’ve got 10 grand. So if you’ve got 10 grand, spend $100 a day in ad spend. Reach out to 100 people a day using free social media. Um, or, uh, right. Oh, uh, um, spend 100 minutes a day creating content on social media, and obviously if you can do more than one of those things at a time, then great.

Um, but he says it’s this rule of 100 where if you do any one of those three for 100 days, he guarantees that you will get a client. And he says, "I’ve never found anybody who did that and didn’t get a client or didn’t sell a thing or whatever." So again, it just really goes to, to nail in the repetition is way more important.

The qu- the quantity is way more important than the quality. Um, the third thing that I would say is don’t take yourself too seriously, and I, I say that lightheartedly and I s- I say that, I, I say that as somebody who used to take myself very seriously in the wrong ways. I take myself [00:24:00] very seriously now. I feel, what I would feel like are, quote unquote, "the more right ways" in terms of, you know, my personal development.

Like I journal every day. Like I, I invest a lot into myself, but in terms of, in terms of, you know, the interactions with others in kind of a business sense or, or selling sense, things like that, um, this kinda goes back to what you were, you were saying, your point of like the order of operations and figuring out what’s first and, and all that stuff.

Um, you don’t need a website. You don’t need a big, robust Instagram account. You don’t need, um, your, your perfect, m- uh, v- uh, vision and like marketing and all this, you know, the brand and all of this stuff, whatever, da, da, da. Like the amount of people that I have talked to that are like, "Well, my website isn’t up yet, so I can’t start like talking to people."

I’m like, "You don’t have a three-sentence explanation for what you do and the value you provide?" And they’re like, "Well, yeah, I do." And I’m like, "Okay, great, you can start talking to people about it." And what you’re gonna learn is that through talking to people you will actually learn more because you will, you will interact with them and they’ll echo things back, et cetera, et cetera.

Um, so at, [00:25:00] at the end of the day, again, y- you need- It sound, it sounds, it sounds very much overly simplistic, but I think there’s, if you’re anything like me, like I was, there’s a lot of people who need to hear it. Um, good Wi-Fi connection, a cup of coffee, and ChatGPT, and you would be amazed at how far you can get

Tim Melanson: Yeah, it’s funny, I, I… Well, a big part of my business is building websites, and one of the first questions I ask people is, "Why do you need a website?" Right? Because really, what people tend to do is they tend to, uh, not really have the business figured out yet. And, and how do they not have it figured out yet?

They haven’t gone out there and done it yet. Like, you’re better off to get some clients, figure out what you do, figure out who you serve. All those things are gonna be important to build your website, ’cause if you’re just guessing and then you’re thinking, "Oh, this is definitely gonna work," you’re gonna spend a bunch of money on something that might not even work and will be off-brand from what you’re trying to accomplish.

So you’re better off, like you said, to just get out [00:26:00] there and do it. Pick up a couple clients, figure out what they want, and now you can, you know, if you wanna up-level things, you can start to build, you know, some of those tools around it, right?

Bradley Rausch: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I’m sure you’ve also had your share of people who come to you and they’re like, "Well, I don’t know what I wanna do, but I’m hoping you can help me build… I’m hoping you can build me a website and it’ll help me figure it out." And I’m like, "Oh." We’re like, "Okay, well, hmm, I don’t know about that."

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, and, and even just, you know, my m- website’s gonna sell things for me. Well, will it though? I, I

Bradley Rausch: Will it though? Yeah, I know, exactly. Exactly.

Tim Melanson: websites is a supporting tool, right?

Bradley Rausch: Yes.

Tim Melanson: you use to help you do the work, right? You know? And, and I mean, uh, yeah, that, that’s the thing, right? I mean, it’s, it’s just one of those things that people will s- use as the, the block to get out there and do things in the first place, and

Bradley Rausch: And if it’s not the website, it’s something else. So 100%.

Tim Melanson: Uh, but I like what you said about what Hormoni- Hormozi said, which is, I mean, yes, you can throw money at something, for sure. But, you know, the other [00:27:00] two things I think you mentioned are more focused on your time, on actually get out, getting out there and doing the work. And I think that that’s what’s most, um, exciting about this time that we’re in right now is that never has there been a time when really just hard work is what you need to do.

Like y- the tools are fairly inexpensive. I mean, social media’s free. I mean, come on, like

Bradley Rausch: Well, the, the thing with AI and the, you know, social media as it is and stuff like that, I feel like over the last, um… I, I’m 27, but I consider myself an old soul, so we’ll go with that. Um, but I feel like over the last 20 years, and I know I certainly fell into this when I first started, um, building a business, is the tools and the accessibility and the social media and the f- you know, the free ChatGPT subscription and the AI and everything, it gives the illusion that it’s easy and quick.

It gives the illusion… Like, I think, I think 40 years ago it was still hard, but [00:28:00] everybody was okay with it being hard because there was no other way. But now it’s the illusion of it being easy that gets people into this mindset trap of thinking, "Oh, well, it’s… This is all so accessible," and, "Oh, I see people, this, this person makes one post on Instagram and gets 10,000 likes and makes $1,000 in sales for this thing.

You know, it, it’s just that easy for me, too. Okay, let’s do it." And, and I, I, I don’t, and I don’t mean to belittle, I don’t mean to make fun, but that’s really the conversation going on in a lot of people’s heads. Again, for me it certainly was. And, um, it, I think it just feeds this delusion that it, it, it is that accessible and it’s that easy.

And I think it, to your point, um, the hard work hasn’t, the, the requirement of hard work has not gone away, it’s not changed, but I think the, the level at which you have to play it has changed

Tim Melanson: Yep. Uh, and there’s als- there’s a lot of fake stuff out there too. There’s a lot of scams. There’s a lot of people saying that, "Oh, you know, I, I can help you do this and it’s gonna take no [00:29:00] time at all." Oh, come on. Like, like you say, it, there’s, the hard work aspect of it has always been there. I just think that the accessibility of it is, has changed now.

It’s not necessarily that you need to be part of the, you know, proper country club in order to get the proper connections to get the big banners and billboards in order to build your business. Now it’s a matter of you, you have the tools right there, but you still gotta do the hard work, right?

Bradley Rausch: Absolutely. Absolutely. Being part of the country club does not hurt though, I will say. No, I’m just kidding.

Tim Melanson: Oh, yes, the country club can still help, absolutely. And, and you do hear that quite often from, you know, some of the guests on the show is, is that’s a great way to get the word out there too, is to be part of the clubs where your clients are, right?

Bradley Rausch: my g- oh my God, absolutely. One of my clients is a, uh, she’s a, actually she’s an oil and gas investor. Uh, it’s a very long story short, but the, the, the, the easiest way to explain it is her father [00:30:00] owned an oil and gas company that consulted with a lot of these big guys, ExxonMobil, et cetera, and she inherited the company when he died.

She transitioned it into a, uh, investment company where private investment, so like you and I, could go and invest with her into these large oil and gas deals, which is something that is n- honest- never been done before, and it’s just insane what she has been able to accomplish. Uh, she literally just started an email list, like, last year.

She’s raised, I mean, over the course of her career, 20 years, I mean, she’s raised hundreds of millions of dollars off of attending networking events, uh, going and having in-person coffees, in-person meetings, uh, flying here, there, the other place for stuff. I mean, it just w- didn’t go digital literally until we started working together, and I was like, "Do you have an email list?"

She’s like, you know, raising… You know, coming off of raising, like, $300 million. "Do you have an email list?" "No." "Do you have any social media?" "No." "Do you have an, do you have, do you have a website?" [00:31:00] "Barely." I’m like, "Okay, let’s do this." But it just, it’s incredible, honestly, and I think you’ve heard everybody say this, so I’m not gonna be, I’m, I’m not gonna toot this horn anymore, but, um, after COVID, everybody wants in-person stuff again

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yep, they do. Uh, now mind you, COVID has definitely helped to improve the tools of remote work and all that stuff too, which is fantastic. But I, I, I think, I, I think there’s gonna be… It’s, it’s, it’s interesting how, you know, the world sort of works, is that things kind of go around in circles. It’s like, you know, you, you have all these people going into email and texting and all that stuff, and now, uh, y- with chat ch- with chat stuff and bots and all that, I think that we’re gonna get back to the point where people are gonna really put a premium on, "I actually get to talk to a real person now?"

Right?

Bradley Rausch: Yes

Tim Melanson: "And I get to talk to them in person? Wow, that’s, that’s next level now," right?

Bradley Rausch: Absolutely. Absolutely

Tim Melanson: you know? And, uh, and that’s, I think that’s just exciting, you know? And, and, and we keep [00:32:00] coming back to it. If you’re the type of person that’s a, a go-getter, that has a lot of motivation, I mean, the corporate environment is probably not the best place for you.

I mean, you could start your own business, and you’ll probably get, uh, further if you are doing it on your own, because it really is your baby now, right?

Bradley Rausch: Absolutely. You, you, you put, uh, more of your, I, you put more of your discretionary effort into it. Um, I think a lot about, and, and actually I’ll add this to the list we were talking about a minute ago of, uh, most important things to kinda start your, your business or, uh, get that going. Um, think about your discretionary effort.

I love to think about this topic both personally and professionally. Uh, where does your discretionary effort naturally go? And what discretionary effort means is the time, the energy, the brain space, the thought, et cetera, that you put into something, um, once all of the things in your life that need taking care of are taken care of.

So obviously your food, your shelter, your, your main source of income maybe, whatever. [00:33:00] Um, once those things are done and handled for the day, you’ve got, you know, your evening left or you’ve got a weekend, where does your extra time go? Or, you know, kids are taken care of, da, da, da, da, da. I don’t have kids, so that’s not something that comes to mind, but your kids, your family’s taken care of.

Um, where does your extra time go? Where does that naturally gravitate toward? And can you find a way to monetize that? And I think if you can, the chances that you will be able to stick with it long enough to actually start seeing real returns on it is much higher than going and watching a random video on what are the 20 best side hustle ideas in 2026, and then picking one at random from that list.

Please don’t do that. Take, take the afternoon of contemplation that it will take to reflect and look at where does your discretionary effort naturally go, and see if you can find something within that realm to focus on.

Tim Melanson: And you probably will find something too. And, and, and I mean, it’s one of those things where you, uh, I think people discount a lot of the, i- in their gift zone, I think, a little bit, thinking that, oh, well, I’m so good at it, and it comes so natural to me that who would wanna pay me for it? But I mean, the [00:34:00] reality is that we’re all d- very, very different, and there is somebody who really hates what you love to do, right?

You know? And that’s, that’s your gold mine right there, right? It’s, it’s something that you love to do, and people are gonna pay you for it? Come on. Like, I think we’re just brainwashed into thinking that work is hard and work sucks. And so we think that it’s supposed to be like that. But it could be fun.

It, I mean, it- it’s still work, still hustling, but it could be something that actually makes you feel good about yourself, right?

Bradley Rausch: 100%. 100%. And the thing is with social media right now, and obviously the, the entertainment value in it, even if the path to, quote-unquote, "selling" whatever you’re passionate about, you know, a course, a service, a product, a, a subscription, whatever, uh, even if that path isn’t super clear yet or you’re like, "I don’t know, I’m, like, super interested in this really random, very specific thing," like I don’t know, like I’m, I- I’m interested in I, I draw penguins.

Like, I’d sit there [00:35:00] all day and I could just draw penguins all day. Okay, great. I would bet your ass that there is a world in which you could go and make a, so- an Instagram account completely dedicated to, "Here’s how I draw a penguin. Here’s what I think about when I’m drawing a penguin. Here’s make, how I make sure that the penguin actually looks symmetrical," and this and that, and da da da da da.

And, "Oh, by the way, here’s my 99, my 9.99 course on how to draw a penguin," and, "Oh, here’s my time lapse video of me beginning to end drawing a penguin, and, and, and here’s the color palettes that I use for these different kinds of penguin," blah blah blah blah. Even if nobody gives a damn about you draw- you drawing penguins, the entertainment value and your ability to present it as something that’s entertaining and, and, you know, comical and things will get you so much further, will mon- monetize you so much further than trying to sit there and being like, "How can I sell the ability to draw a penguin?

I don’t understand that." Like, just start entertaining people around whatever it is, and the rest will come

Tim Melanson: Yeah. At, at the very least, I mean, it could even serve as leads for your other business where you actually do make m- Like, it, it’s, it’s funny how that works. I mean, you might [00:36:00] not even necessarily primarily make money from drawing the penguins, right? But people are following you and they’re thinking, "Ah, this person’s kinda cool.

What do they do?"

Bradley Rausch: exactly. No, I love how they make content, or I love how, you know… There’s tons of people, tons of people, I’m sure B- I’m sure you too. There’s tons of people that I follow that I’m like, I don’t even remember why I follow them or what, what, like, what they do, or I’m not even following them for the thing that they’re talking about.

I just like how they communicate, or I like that they, I don’t know, they had a funny video that made me laugh or something. Like, it doesn’t, it, it’s all these auxiliary things that are gonna add up

Tim Melanson: Totally agree. So let’s talk about your solo. What’s exciting in your business right now, Bradley?

Bradley Rausch: In my business right now, um, as I said, I, I think we, we- before we started recording, um, I got out of my… Pushing myself to get out of my, uh, get out of my own way a bit. Um, my business very fortunately is, is very referral-driven, uh, for the last, last couple of years. I’m super thankful for, you know, clients and engagement and time I get to [00:37:00] spend with them and everything.

Uh, but I’ve done a lot of podcasts this year, pushing myself to do that. Um, also I literally have ads launching this week, um, which is really exciting. And most exciting, exciting thing I would say in, in my business is this is something that I’m, uh, the, the consulting, um… Let me, let me put it this way The industry of online sales and coaching, and I’m sure everybody’s seen, regardless of whether you’re familiar with this industry or not, you’ve seen people talking about online.

It’s like, "Oh, you can, you know, lose 20 pounds in, in two months if you follow my X, Y, Z plan, and here it, here it is for $3,000 with a group coaching program." Or, you know, if you’re in any sort of a, a business capacity or you wanna find a career or whatever, it’s always, you know, "Here’s a, here’s a, here’s a coaching program.

Here’s a, here’s a consulting thing. Here’s a, um, here’s a software that’s gonna help you land these jobs, things, whatever, for $99 a month," whatever. So these three, these three kind of areas that are really all I feel like blend into one, so coaching, consulting, [00:38:00] and SaaS, software as a service. This industry as a whole, this online business industry, um, I feel, and this is a very bold claim, um, but I feel it is really in need of a, of a refresh in terms of how they, how we deliver to clients and how we, um, how we curate the client experience to make sure the clients are staying with us longer and, uh, that the lifetime value of a client is more than just what they’re paying you up front, but is also comprised of the referrals they send you, the testimonials they give you, how they ascend into a back-end offer, and how they upsell to whatever else.

Um, uh, for the last… My, my kind of main line of, of everything I do is for the last 10, for the last decade, we’ve perfected how to sell. I mean, everybody’s seen on social media the sales, the closers, you know, the Shelby Saps of the world. We’ve perfected within an inch of its life how to sell any of these things.

But no one’s taken the time to perfect or try to, how to deliver these things at scale, how to deliver on the promises we [00:39:00] made to our customers. And that is, that’s what my brand is around. It’s what my IP is focused on, is really creating nuance and clarity and frameworks and structure to delivering or rather over-delivering to the promises we make our clients, um, as we, as we scale a business, whether there’s just a handful of clients or a- a customer.

Really, really, really thankful and, again, super honored to say, not a throwaway thing, I’ve, I’ve got a client who’s doing, raising, um, $100 million right now. So it’s like i- regardless if you’re doing, you’re selling one thing, an e-commerce product for 29 bucks, or you’re, you’re raising money to go invest in a oil well that Exxon’s drilling, whatever it is, uh, the importance of, um, working with your customers to make sure that they can become an asset for you instead of a liability is really, really, really key,

Tim Melanson: Hmm. Well, so it sounds like your customer base is pretty, pretty, pretty broad, but I’m wondering is there, like, somebody that would get the most out of working with you? Like, is there a specific [00:40:00] type of person that would w- that would benefit?

Bradley Rausch: Um, the company that I would say this is kind of mostly geared toward, um, as far as just the IP in its kinda natural state, of course, you know, we’ll, we’ll blend it and make changes on the fly and everything, um, I usually say is coaching consulting SaaS company doing between 500K to three million. And the reason I say that range, uh, is because whenever you get to running a, running a business that’s kind of going from that 500,000 a year mark to the million, two million mark, depending on the business, depending on the scale, depending on…

There’s a lot of factors. But somewhere in there, maybe closer to the five, closer to the three million, who knows? Somewhere in there, everyone has, and bleep this out, everyone has what I could just call an oh shit moment, where they’re like, "I can’t do this by myself." Like, you’ve gotten to the point where you were at without team, without, you know, a really strong layer of resources or [00:41:00] infrastructure, um, and it’s this, it’s this moment where they’re like, they hit the wall, they hit the fan.

It, it’s like, "I can’t do this by myself." And they have that really humbling moment where it’s like, "Okay, I either need to, I either need to start to build this like a scalable business, or I need to stay the level I’m at and optimize for that and not seek to grow any further, because I can’t do both." Um, and that is kind of the, the sort of humbling moment that I would really prefer people that I work with to have before we start doing some of the, before we start implementing a lot of what we implement together.

Um, because there’s a lot of, a lot of, um, change and optimization and effort that goes into the, that goes into the customer journey. But done right at scale, um, y- it stops people from needing to… The whole, the whole goal of it is to generate your revenue from the client relationships and from making your clients worth more, not from always finding new clients and needing to spend money on ads and running all this [00:42:00] front-end stuff and just churning and burning.

Tim Melanson: Hmm. So how do we find out more then?

Bradley Rausch: So my LinkedIn, uh, is where I do everything. LinkedIn’s my jam. Uh, I post daily content and I’m super active on there, so LinkedIn would- LinkedIn’s perfect spot. And then, um, my website is just my name, bradleyrausch.com

Tim Melanson: Awesome. All right, before we go, let’s talk music a little bit. So who is your favorite rock star or band?

Bradley Rausch: Oh, I got… So you just opened up a, you opened up a can of worms here. I don’t know if you, I don’t know if you know that. Um, and I didn’t even, I didn’t s- I meant to tell you this before we started recording, but I just slipped my mind. Um, I, my very first business, I taught piano lessons actually.

Um, yeah, classically trained pianist. Uh, I taught piano lessons from 13 up until COVID, um, so for seven years. I put myself through school, um, or well, the two years of school that I went to. Um, and I, yeah, I, I so just loved that period of time. It was just so amazing, so much fun. [00:43:00] Um, loved all the kiddos. I had up to, like, 46 students at one time.

It was insane. Um, so anyway, sorry, all that to be said, um, do have a musical background there. Uh, to answer your question, I have to be completely honest. Um, she’s not rock. She kinda does a little bit of everything, but my answer is Taylor Swift. I’m

Tim Melanson: Oh, wow

Bradley Rausch: very, very big Swiftie and, and I’m, I’m, I’m one of those people that if you get me in a car with, with, like, Taylor Swift on the thing, I will blast it and I will, I will sing it.

My best friend, I got my, as a gag gift for my best friend, but she, she uses it, um, ’cause I talk about Taylor Swift so much and with her personally. Uh, I got her this, this, like, candle thing, whatever, that says, "When this is lit…" Or, uh, or, or no, no, no. It’s something like… Oh, it’s um, "This smells like a Taylor-free conversation."

That’s what it is. And, um, whenever I come over, the damn candle’s lit and I have to abide by it, so so Taylor Swift, I would say

Tim Melanson: That is awesome. And my band, uh, [00:44:00] we, we, uh, I’ve got a girl in our, in our band that sings as well, and, and we’ve just added a couple of Taylor Swift songs. We added, uh, the Fate Ophelia and Opal Light, and they’re, uh, they’re such great songs. Yeah, those are cool

Bradley Rausch: know what you should… You know what I, I would encourage you is, um, are you, are you familiar with, like, her, her albums, discography at all, or not really?

Tim Melanson: I’m not, I’m, I wouldn’t say I’m a Swiftie, but I do know quite a bit of her, of her stuff, yeah

Bradley Rausch: okay. So what I love, just, and this is just a personal thing, so grain of salt, take it for what you will. What I, what I personally, some of my favorite, like, cover things from, uh, from Taylor’s work to see is when people really take a song and then, um, mold it, not, not just from a, um, not just from like a, a, a…

Good Lord, what is the word I’m trying… Not just from a melody, but from a harmony perspective with as far as the genre. So for instance, um, her albums Folklore and Evermore, those came out during COVID. Those are very somber. They’re very kind of poetic. They’re very artsy. They’re very lyrical. Um, I [00:45:00] love when people take those and they turn them into…

It doesn’t, it, it’s not even necessarily like a full 180 and does like a full pop thing or full rock

Tim Melanson: like a different genre.

Bradley Rausch: it’s just a different genre. It’s got a different, it’s got a different style. It’s got a different beat to it, and it has a totally different texture. Um, I, I, I love that. So I’m, I’m by no means I’m like, "Oh my God, don’t touch the original."

I’m, I’m not like that at all. Um, but no, I would encourage you, like look at like Folklore and Evermore, the two albums that came out during COVID, and see. It’s like if you have a certain style as like a band, see, see about like adapting those, which I think are the more, the most kind of siloed of her, of her discography.

Look at those and say, "Okay, how can I take this and really mold it into our own?" And I think doing that versus doing it with any of her other music, I think is the most kind of challenge and the most just kind of differentiating thing. So anyways, food

Tim Melanson: Cool. I’ll check out those albums. That’s awesome. Thank you so much, Bradley, for rocking out with me today. This has been a lot of fun

Bradley Rausch: I appreciate you, Tim. Thank

Tim Melanson: Oh, awesome. And to the listeners, make sure you go to workathomerockstar.com for more information, and we’ll see you next time on the Work at Home [00:46:00] Rockstar podcast