Certified Business Coaching: Turning Business Ideas Into Real Success With Russ Thomas

Tim Melanson: welcome to today’s episode of the work at home rock star podcast.

today’s guest. is the president of RST coaching academy. And he helps people make more money and scale their businesses. So super excited to be rocking out today with Russ Thomas. Hey, Russ, are you ready to rock?

Russ Thomas: Tim, I’m a child of the sixties.

Let’s go

Tim Melanson: we always start off here in a good note. So tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired

Russ Thomas: Probably many people that are listening and watching your podcast. I have an addiction like many of them. I’m addicted to business. My addiction started out in 1972.

Two years out of college, I was lamenting the fact that I didn’t have much going on for a career during college, I majored in weekends. I did not apply myself to studying very well, and so, there just wasn’t anything around. So, here I am in my apartment with my girlfriend, Jenny, lamenting my Trouble of trying to make a career all of a sudden she casually [00:01:00] says, Maybe you would be happiest just owning a gas station now I had worked at two gas stations during two summers while I was in college I have a college degree in business management, and it just seemed a little bit below me to get involved in a gas station.

But guess what? A year later, Jenny was gone, and I had purchased my first business, a gas station up in Wisconsin. I owned that for two years. But the addiction started at that time and since then I probably owned some eight or ten businesses Mostly in the computer industry most recently in the marine industry

I call myself a hopeless entrepreneur. Every time I would hear about a business, my ears would perk up and I’d be interested in it. But I’m trying to get away from that because I need to be focused on helping people with their business and not trying to be so diversified. [00:02:00] I’ve had eight or 10 businesses.

In that time, I was always A one man band. I never had anybody that I could counsel with, that I could get coached by, and get, you know, information. I’ll tell ya, you probably know this, college did not prepare me for business ownership. They were trying to prepare me to get a good education, which I threw in their face, you know, because of weekends.

And get a good job. Well, you know, both of those things failed. And so here I am by myself, trying to learn the ropes. I didn’t know how to build a business. until I came into contact with the final solution.

in the mid two thousands, I was making a lot of money, but I spent it on lifestyle. The money that I made in the computer industry on lifestyle. We bought a 44 foot motor yacht. We moved [00:03:00] to Florida, living the life,

Skiing, et cetera. Living the lifestyle, but did not invest for the future. So here I am 75 years later. Still in the workforce, still in the day to day workforce, but at least I’ve got a passion of trying to do something more than just for me. I’m involved in trying to help other people build their passion, build a life for themselves, a lifestyle.

My friend Grant Cardone says it is your responsibility, your obligation. and duty to be successful and that’s what I teach the people that I work with get started and don’t quit keep going but you got to have somebody along the way to help you get through the difficult times you can’t see the forest for the trees and so if you have a you know kind of a disinterested third party that’s not emotionally involved That individual can give a little more [00:04:00] insight as to what needs to take place to become successful.

So, that’s kind of it in a nutshell, the good, bad, and the ugly. I started in this coaching career a little over a year ago. Tell you the truth. I’m still ramping up because I’m so old. I’m slow, but I’m a passion about getting this thing going and helping as many people as I can. My goal is to help some 500 people by 2026 to help them get to a place of more income, more choices, more business for themselves.

More for their families So I don’t know. we seem to be in that

Tim Melanson: Like I know when I first started in my business, it was probably around 15 years ago and the, just the landscape was so much different now it seems that there’s a lot more people with some experience, in the field willing to help people with that.

It’s easier to find those people. before it was so much harder to find the right people that were ready to help you. I wouldn’t be [00:05:00] where I am right now if I didn’t have those mentors early on, but I had to work to find them.

Now it’s like they’re in your face. Now, how do you narrow it down to somebody who actually knows what they’re talking about, right?

Russ Thomas: I’m on LinkedIn, RST coaching is my handle there on LinkedIn and I’ll get these accept, you know, they want to connect with me and so they’re in this business or that business.

And so I’ll go ahead and accept it because I want to increase my reach, of course. And then a little while later, I’ll get a message from these people wanting to teach me. How to build my business, how to do what I’m already doing, you know, and it’s just like blows my mind. One guy I met. I posted back to him and I said, did you read my profile?

We’re in the same business, You know, you’re right, they’re out there. a person that’s looking for help. A coach, mentor, whatever you want to call it. There’s gotta be a fit, a personal fit, of blending personalities and [00:06:00] being able to work together.

a person can be very well versed in their field, but maybe they’re a total jerk. And I don’t know if you really want to work with that person or not. When there’s other fish in the sea, so that’s the thing. If you’re really serious about that, you’re probably going to interview a few people and vet them to see which is the best fit for your particular needs.

Tim Melanson: when you’re hiring a coach, a jerk is usually a little bit better. they get

Russ Thomas: I believe in telling the truth in love.

Tim Melanson: let’s expand more about the bad notes. So now, you know, there are, you know, you’ve got a lot of experience.

There are sometimes things that don’t go as planned. And I’m wondering, is there a big mistake, that didn’t work out and how did you get out of it? how can we avoid that if it happens

Russ Thomas: Well, I think that the majority of the things that I have been into of late.

Have been revolving around the internet, a website, for example, I created a t shirt [00:07:00] sales business, I call it BeachLifeUSA. com and designed a t shirt, that’s got the palm trees on it. Maybe you’ve heard of Salt Life that’s a big name, especially down here.

So I thought I’m going to come up with this beach life. I signed up and created this pattern for the t shirts, created a website, you know, and it was just an e commerce website, you know. Nothing happened. So I’ve essentially kind of just walked away from it. Now, knowing what I know now, there were some things that I could do.

To make it work like social media, marketing of one sort or another email and podcasts, for example, just promote, the fact is that money follows attention and you got to start with attention That’s where marketing comes in. While I wasn’t doing.

A job of that at all and so that was a big failure, but I’ve moved on from that because that’s not where I’m focusing right [00:08:00] now. If I had somebody alongside of me that may be wanting to learn the ropes and e commerce and all this stuff, I turn it over to them and teach them what to do and let them do it.

But right this minute, I don’t have anybody. the t shirts are really cool, but nobody knows about it. I sold a few, but I don’t even think I broke even on the deal. I still got a bunch in my closet. So that’s an example of a failure because I didn’t really know what I was doing.

You know, I thought I’m gonna create a website and if you create it, they will come. Well, that is not necessarily the case. And there’s been other things that I’ve tried to do, security systems, that just, didn’t go very well either.

The best thing that I had done historically had probably been in the computer world, but I got tired of writing computer code. You know, I was making a gob of money doing that, that’s where we got the money to waste it on lifestyle. I got tired of that, and I wanted to get into the marine industry, into yacht brokerage, and to [00:09:00] try to build boats, and so on and so forth.

And so, that’s just a diversion from something that I was bored with, basically. I probably should have stayed with it. But, you live and learn, if you don’t have the input. Ideas and direction. you’re on your own And that can be a scary place I love being in business for myself, but I don’t like being by myself

Tim Melanson: and when it comes to getting Into different types of businesses and all this.

I think that’s really relatable to anybody with an entrepreneurial mindset, we see things all the time. what we’ve been told probably could be good at anything really, any one of those ideas. If someone else is doing it and being successful, you

Russ Thomas: can do it too.

Tim Melanson: Very true. As you said, you need focus into that area and we only have so much

Russ Thomas: focus. Yeah, that’s right.

Tim Melanson: Sure. You can start up a t shirt company if you want, and you can be successful with it. There are people that

Russ Thomas: have done it, but are you going

Tim Melanson: to take all your attention away from this other place that’s successful right now and put it into the t shirt business?

Exactly.

Russ Thomas: Yep.

Tim Melanson: for the short term, [00:10:00] there was somebody that was talking to me about, this they’re like, Oh, this, so and so has 10 businesses or 20 businesses and all that stuff.

And wow. You know, I can just, you know, that means I can do 20 businesses if you don’t know. And what you find out when you talk to this person is they didn’t build 20 businesses at once. They built one business. delegated it out or sold it And then they built another one.

So they put the focus in one place at a time and they were just laser focused on that. And that’s what we don’t see. We see the 10 businesses and go, Hey, I can do that.

Russ Thomas: Well, diversity I think is a great thing and a healthy thing because you’re spreading your exposure. Out in the business world, you’re spreading that out in case one thing takes a hit, you’ve got nine other things that are still very well, or at least pretty well.

But to try to do that simultaneously is just a disaster and a half, there’s no doubt about it. But diversity after you get the first one going, and then the second and the third and the fourth, you know, and in the [00:11:00] diversity thing, so, you know, and this is something people have to think about too. So, I was in the computer programming business, I get into the t shirt business.

Well, there’s not a whole lot of continuity between those two worlds. They’re a whole different thing. So a person’s got to decide, do I want to do something that’s got some overlap or do I want to do something that’s just totally different?

But there is a market for, and that’s where some market research comes into play is to test the market and see how people are going to respond to this new. invention. So I think it’s cool. You know, just diversify and I love it.

Tim Melanson: So now work from home comes with its own set of challenges.

what is your home office, look like? what do you think is important in

Russ Thomas: that? Well. I think it’s better, felt than tell, so I can show you a little video. I can walk you around my office and show you all the things that I have in here.

This is my world. We live in a four bedroom house, two story house, [00:12:00] and I’m on the second floor in one of the bedrooms. And I have my own little world and I love it. You know, honestly, I spend. Probably way too much time up here, but I’ve got so much to do and I love what I’m doing. So it’s not like I’m really working.

I’m a hopeless entrepreneur trying to build something for my family and for generations to come. So number one, you got to have a computer.

Tim Melanson: your virtual background off

Russ Thomas: because we can’t see anything.

Tim Melanson: maybe that’s not going to

Russ Thomas: work. So for people

Tim Melanson: who are listening to this on Spotify or anything like that, just go to the YouTube channel. There’s a Work at Home Rockstar Podcast YouTube channel, and you can see this video.

Russ Thomas: That’s it.

So there’s the computer. You got to have a computer. I recommend a large screen so you can really see what you’re doing, especially if your eyes are getting a little dimmer like mine are at 75. And I’ve got over here, this is my lovely desk. Keyboard right here, [00:13:00] and what this is, is I think it’s called a secretary desk, so it’s got the main desk area, and then it’s got, I think they call this a return, which is where the computer, keyboard and stuff is, there’s the CPU on the computer,

I cleaned it up just for you people today but this is a desk, this computer here. I actually host my own website for some of my businesses and that’s the server over there. Then we’ve got the printer and the CPU for the server Over on this side.

This is my podcast department, and I interview people on my podcast, which I’m going to ask Tim, if I can interview him someday. I’ve got a nice, camera that I’ve got set up at 1280 by 720 pixels. I’ve got a laptop for my zoom calls and my little microphone and my chair.

And I’ve got a banner here, RST Coaching Academy, another one on the wall that says RST Marine Electronics. Can [00:14:00] you believe I’m in that business also? And then over here, moving right along briefly, I’ve got way too much stuff on my Bookshelf. A lot of it is knickknacks. My wife teases me about this. She’s under orders not to ever try to dust those shelves because she would ruin everything.

This is a wall here of some boats that I have designed in my boat building business. And down here is another desk. This one belongs to my seven year old granddaughter. She can come up here and she creates all sorts of interesting things.

This is a 125 foot expedition yacht that I had designed. I’m looking for 25 million if somebody wants to invest in it so we can build it and sell it. So, that’s kind of a round robin of what’s going on in my office. Yeah, you need to have a good computer. You need to have a good printer. The printer that I have, I paid, I think, 269 for it many [00:15:00] years ago, and it’s been working great.

It’s never failed me, have to keep it fed with ink on occasion. Not anymore. We get by with our cell phone. So, I’ve got two cell phones. This is for some of my businesses and personal use.

And this one here, the newest phone, this is for my RST coaching academy. if you’re going to call me, this is the one that’s going to ring. Now you get to talk on the newer phone. Nice. Yeah,

Tim Melanson: that’s an excellent idea right there. But it’s too falling, especially nowadays with the phones being as inexpensive as they are, because everything is requiring text messaging now.

So you know, that’s probably part of your reasoning, right? Like how do you separate business from

Russ Thomas: home life, right? When you got people calling you at all hours. Right, yeah, and that’s a whole separate thrust and because of that, I want my voice, my message, my greeting to be applicable to this specific business that the phone is serving.

And so, with the RST Coaching [00:16:00] Academy phone, guess how I answer? Hi, this is Russ with RST Coaching Academy. And the other one is, this is Russ with RST Marine and, and Ruby Yachts, so keep them separate. Now, if you’re going to diversify folks into 10 businesses, I don’t know what you’re going to do.

You might end up with 10 phones or whatever.

Tim Melanson: there are some really cool technology tools that will allow you to have different phone numbers on the same phone. if you had a work phone and a personal phone, that would still work. all your work would come into the same point.

Russ Thomas: Very good. Well, that’s awesome.

Tim Melanson: And I think the biggest takeaway there is that you’re excited about your office. you’ve got to be excited to come into your office and do work, right? It’s

Russ Thomas: Working for somebody else is work, but working for yourself when you’re passionate about what you’re doing, that’s fun.

Tim Melanson: Now let’s talk about getting fans. I have LinkedIn and people will, accept their invitation and they start sending messages. You know, to me, I don’t, and that works all day and I wouldn’t recommend that someone do [00:17:00] that.

Just, you know, send messages to random people, trying to get them to, and I think it probably has something to do. Cause I have the same thing. I have people offering me websites all the time. That’s my business.

Russ Thomas: just want to, what are you

Tim Melanson: thinking? Yeah,

Russ Thomas: man. You just want to reach

Through the internet and grab him by the throat It’s like, read my profile, man. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Why would you offer me the thing that I do? I have a feeling it has to do with the way that people are trying to find clients. they’re looking for coach in their searches which is obviously the wrong way to go about doing it.

Russ Thomas: How would you

Tim Melanson: If you were to go out there and, gather a fan base, what would you do to get your name

Russ Thomas: out there? Well, social media is definitely a big thing. I’m on all the major platforms. I’m not on TikTok. I’ve got some RST coaching on TikTok, but I don’t really do anything with it.

And actually I have, I think it’s five different accounts on those platforms. And fortunately I have got a product called socialpilot. [00:18:00] co or io or something like that. And I can set up my posts in advance on a bulk way and then I push the button, they get uploaded and then they’re sent out at the appropriate time.

I’ve been creating 45 posts in advance, covering three weeks, Monday through Friday, and they just go bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, automatically. I don’t know if the repetition, you know, I’ve got a three week cycle, so if I did a certain post on the first of the month, that means, 16 days later, I’m going to put that one out again.

Honestly, I don’t know if that’s a good way to do it, because of the repetition. Hopefully people are coming on board all the time and a person can always add more and, have more in their repertoire. social media is a big thing, email marketing is a big thing, to create a landing page and have subscribers off of your website.

I hope you have a website. If you don’t, I know somebody that can help you out with that. And get going with a landing page to [00:19:00] sign up subscribers and then you’ve got people that want to hear your story, they want to hear what you’re about and you can send them anything, tips and practices offers

So that’s another part of it too is the email subscription service. I have bought some email addresses. I’ve got several thousand and they’re not the best thing to do, but it’s better than nothing If you don’t have a big following at the time, then start with that.

You know, there’s a lot of sifting through and you got to know what you’re doing. In fact, that’s another thing to hire somebody to oversee that for you to make it more professional and more successful. So we’ve got the email thing. Podcasts is another way to get out there. I’m interviewing a whole bunch of people that are business people.

I want to hear their stories. I want them to tell their stories to my audience just like you do, Tim, and let the audience be blessed by that information. Offer some advice and how they can, be contacted, etc. And so in that course I’m helping my [00:20:00] guests get promoted out there and it’s helping promote me as I’m interviewing these people

So podcasts is another thing. Stages is another thing, talking to people on a stage whether it’s five people or 500 people. Learn how to talk in front of people. Get something that you want to say. There’s two big features. Number one is, what problem do you solve?

Number two is, who do you solve it for? that’s your target market. that’s the problem you’re going to take care of for those people. Develop that thing. It’s called a signature talk with the people that I work with at 10x Stages. they’ve been teaching me how to develop my signature talk

and I end up providing an offer for my viewers on these stages. attention follows money. And marketing is superior to sales. If you don’t have good marketing, you’re probably not going to make any sales because nobody’s have heard of you.

And the better your marketing is, the [00:21:00] easier the sales process is because part of that marketing is you’re creating an interest. You’re creating an urgency in your particular product or service. And the thing is, is assume that nobody sees it. In other words, keep doing it. Yeah. Don’t say, well, I’m going to do this for five weeks.

And if nobody responds, I’m going to stop. No, do it for 500 weeks. Do it. Until your pipeline is so full, you can’t handle it all. Assume nobody sees it. That’s my tips. on marketing how to get known

it’s a challenge. It’s probably our biggest challenge because without sales, we don’t have a business, but without marketing, I don’t think we’re going to have sales.

Anik Malenfant: Hi, my name is Anik Malafa. I’m from Mastering Ascension, and I’ve been working with Tim Melanson and the Creative Crew Agency for a number of years now.

Tim is my go to guy for all things technology, and [00:22:00] his team have helped me to create the platform that represents my brand, and connects me to my ideal clients. What I particularly love about Tim is before he starts to dive into the technology, he always makes sure that he understands your ultimate goals

So then that way you’re not wasting time switching around technology or platforms. He creates something scalable, which is beneficial for any business. What I’ve experienced from Tim and his team is they’re highly responsive. They are a wealth of information and they’re going to offer you the tools that you need to really make the mark that you want to make in the world.

So. That’s my recommendation for Tim. He’s awesome. You’re going to love every minute.

Tim Melanson: regret it. You’re right.

Russ Thomas: Yeah. And I think the good

Tim Melanson: news is that the way that the market has

Russ Thomas: changed is

Tim Melanson: back maybe, 30 years ago, it would be something that you’d just spend a bunch of money

Russ Thomas: on a billboard.

Right.

Tim Melanson: And you know, you’re done. However, now those things don’t really work the same way.

Russ Thomas: You can [00:23:00] reach a pretty big

Tim Melanson: The bad news is that everybody can reach that same audience the same way.

Russ Thomas: So

Tim Melanson: how do you stand out? Right. it’s not the same as it once was where it’s just a matter of picking up the phone and calling and, you know, or sending people messages and you’re.

Thing and saying, how are you doing? Like that’s not better work as well as bringing out some real good value.

Russ Thomas: And have people come to you. Right.

Tim Melanson: times I’ve had a conversation. We’ll probably talk about it later about how to find people on a subcontract. don’t follow them, follow their content, get a good feel from their content, then contact them.

if you flip that the other way on how to get fans, Have a newsletter where you’re offering value, have a social media channel where you’re offering value, speak on stages where you’re offering value, if you could prove to them that you have this value to offer, then people are going to actually come to you and ask you for that value, right?

Russ Thomas: Right, exactly. and part of that is branding Create a brand. Your brand. You know, [00:24:00] you’re the rock star. That’s part of your brand. mine is RST Coaching Academy. The funny thing about that name, Is that some people look at that and think, Oh, you’d coach sports.

What kind of sports do you coach? That’s not quite true. But if I had to do over I might’ve called it something different, but right now I’m committed to RST coaching Academy, but something that you can brand yourself and it will set yourself apart from the market.

In a name that has something to do with what the business, is about. Yeah. I interviewed a fellow the other day that he argued with that and he brought up Apple, what’s that got to do with a computer or an iPod, and so if you do it right, you can pick just about anything.

So I went on the internet and I checked them out and unfortunately they’ve already been taken. So , they come up with some other ones. Just recently I came up with one that’s Ask Russ Us. Yeah, there you go. Ask russ anything. Dot [00:25:00] com or how about pick my brain?

Do us, those are three domains that I just came up with to kind of brand me a little bit and they’re gonna link into a Calendly. Where people can sign on to have a conversation with me. So that’s where the ask me, ask Russ, pick my brain comes from.

branding is an important thing, you know, and it takes time. It takes time and it takes repetition. Coca Cola. They’re probably one of the best known companies in the whole world, like Apple. Y’all, that didn’t come overnight. That’s part of the marketing process too, is branding.

Tim Melanson: evolve as well. Hiring a real good branding company can be pricey.

Russ Thomas: it’s a real thing. It’s a real skill.

Tim Melanson: sometimes you might, spend a bunch of money on a brand and then realize a few years later that, okay, I think I need to do a rebrand.

Russ Thomas: And then.

Tim Melanson: I think a lot of people will hold on to that brand and go like, I spent a bunch of money on it. Maybe I’ll just keep on pushing them forward if you look at the big companies in the Pepsi’s and the Coke’s, they’ve [00:26:00] changed their logo. they’ve actually changed their branding over time.

Russ Thomas: they’ve changed it. if those big companies are doing it, maybe there’s

Tim Melanson: a reason and maybe that’s something you might want to look at it. there’s very few companies that have the same logo for years and years and years. Right.

Russ Thomas: Yeah. That’s a good point. The name is still the same. The logo changes. And they hone it in, right? Like, and you could kind of

Tim Melanson: see it as, as time goes on. There’s this. Element that stays the same, but everything else around it changes, they’re honing in on something, right?

Russ Thomas: Good point. nothing is carved in stone. You come up with something that’s working today, maybe it’s not going to work tomorrow. So you do need to maintain a degree of flexibility so you can evolve and change with the times. Otherwise you’re going to stagnate and you’ll never really get to where you want to go.

Agreed.

Tim Melanson: tell me what’s exciting in your business.

Russ Thomas: What’s exciting in my business? Oh, being able to help people. Years ago, my wife and I, [00:27:00] when we moved to Florida from Wisconsin, it was not long. that we realized that there just doesn’t seem to be much of a work ethic down here.

And we thought how cool it would be to be able to develop seminars. To be able to teach people those kinds of things, work ethic, going the extra mile and just being totally professional.

It was a cool idea. It didn’t go anywhere because we didn’t really know how to get it off the ground. that was in 1998 when we first moved to Florida. And meanwhile I’d done, some of these other businesses that I’ve gotten going down here in Florida, October, well, I think it was maybe September or so of 2022.

I saw a video by Grant Cardone talking about real estate and business I signed on for one of his seminars. and, looked at some other stuff. one day I got contacted by his office, by one of his guys [00:28:00] and said, would you be interested in becoming a licensed coach?

Oh, well, they only asked that question one time because it was something that I thought, this is really cool. there’s a need. For people being trained and how to be professional, how to make more money, how to build their business, how to become great in the marketplace, and in their family, community, church, country, in every aspect of their life, the proper training and information can affect it.

All of those areas. the fella, his name was Elliot out of Miami. He went through the Dog and Pony Show on a Zoom call and my wife and I were listening to him it was a 25, 000 buy in.

Be able to make a decision. don’t be afraid to make a decision. we had the information, and I made the decision right then and there. so we shelled out the money and the rest is history. Now, it’s been a long call for me getting ready because like I said [00:29:00] earlier, I can get distracted really easily.

But I’m on a mark, on a big thrust now shooting for 250, 000 in revenue this year. Wanting to reach 500 businesses, 500 people by 2026 to affect their lives. And that, you ask me what’s exciting? That’s exciting. To be able to help these people that might be floundering, might be just Flopping around, not knowing what they’re doing.

Maybe they’re a new business startup. Maybe they’ve been in business for five years, ten years, but they need to go farther. that’s what I want to help them to do. What I don’t know, I’m connected with others that can definitely pass on the information that they need.

So we can take a business that’s literally a startup. up to 125 million dollars in revenue in short order. There’s certain principles, breakpoints, things that need to be covered in that process. That’s exciting as can be. I pity the person who says, I don’t [00:30:00] want employees, I just want to stay small.

Well the thing with staying small, is someday I’m going to be gone. Just myself. I’m still a one man band. I want to build an organization that lives on After Russ is gone or that lives on after Russ is Sailing in the Bahamas with his wife And I can just check in from time to time I don’t want the business to continually revolve around me.

And I would hope that most people listening to us today, Tim, would come to that conclusion is that there’s more going on. There’s more at stake. There’s more that can be accomplished. We’re talking about freedom. We’re talking about freedom of money, freedom of choice.

Picture the day when your account calls you and says, what should I do with the extra money? Picture the day when you have choices, that you can work when you want to, and then play the rest of the [00:31:00] time. It’s attainable. There’s ways to get there, no matter what your business, no matter what your background.

You need information, training, coaching, etc. It’s available. Tim said there’s gobs of people out there doing what I do. I’m aligned with the best in the world, you know, which helps me put me over the top, but nevertheless, there’s help out there.

And it works.

Tim Melanson: We’re living in a golden era for businesses and for work from home and for freedom, there’s never been a situation where just the average person. Good find help so easily, right? Yeah, but you know, the one thing that we are working against I think is programming, you know We’ve been programmed to be employees just through our yep society And so, you know, I think that that would be the main thing to start the break Yeah, you know if it’s tough and I mean, I’m sure I don’t know You know, we’ll look at your story, my story is very similar.

We were sort of like the rebels. not listening to the authority. kind of outcasts, I [00:32:00] guess, in a way. And, you know, we decided to start businesses because really what else are we going to do? I worked in a cubicle for eight years, hated it and decided I didn’t want to do it anymore.

this is where I am Now that journey is long and it’s not super simple. we’re fighting against our own programming, but with businesses like yours. There’s lots of people out there that are willing to help and it’s a win

Russ Thomas: win,

Tim Melanson: You make your business by helping someone else make their business.

if you can create those win wins,

Russ Thomas: And then you’re leaving a legacy in the process, I want people to remember Russ Thomas and what he did for this person, that person, this company, long after I’m gone, and for my family, too. I’ve long believed and maintained that there’s actually two American dreams.

Number one, of course, is home ownership. But I maintain that the second American dream is business ownership. Given the opportunity. [00:33:00] I’ll bet most people would rather be in business for themselves than working for the man every night and day, but don’t know how to do it.

They’re not ready to take the risk. They’re not ready to explore the possibilities and have an idea for a product and put it out there as far as say, what we’d call marketing research to see if this is a viable thing. You know, one of the fellows that I interviewed the other day, we were talking about, you know, creating this really cool product that you really think is neat.

But if nobody else does, man, what are you going to do? What’s, what’s going to come of it? Now, maybe you can create a desire. And I think I mentioned to this fellow, the iPod, you know, the Apple iPod. And what the, what he answered was something like, well, people needed it.

They just didn’t know they needed it. So they had to be [00:34:00] educated basically. If it’s a new revolutionary product, Then that makes it a little harder. To get out there and get people to turn their head, put their attention to it and say, Hey, I like this thing, but it’s all part of the game starts with the desire and the passion to be self employed, to be an entrepreneur, to take some risk.

you don’t want to put your home in jeopardy. You don’t want to sell your kids or anything like that, but. Figure out a way to take some risks. What does it cost? 20, 30 to build a web, to start a web, to register a domain name? it’s going to cost you several hundred to have a website design and so on, but that’s a drop in the bucket and you’re in business.

how do we find out more about you? You can go to rstcoachingacademy. com, probably the big way. If you happen to be in the marine industry. Which is, one of my big target niches It would be marine business growth.

And that [00:35:00] kind of discusses the same things that RST Coaching Academy does, but more from the Marine standpoint. I can give me a call at 386 286 2450 is my phone number. You could also go to any of the other little Domains that I mentioned here, askruss.

us, askrussanything. com, or pickmybrain. us. they’re all going to a Calendly page where people can set up for an appointment to talk with yours truly. It’s a free conversation, 30 minute conversation. Just get to know each other and see how I might be of service.

That’s what I’m about. Phone number, website, And, my blog page is r rst coaching academy.com/blog. there’s podcasts and video blogs that I’ve done, so that’s how to get ahold of Russ. Russ, I’m here to serve your audience. Tim, here to serve. Do whatever I can.

Well, thank you so

Tim Melanson: much for rocking out with [00:36:00] me today, Russ. It’s been a lot of fun. Well,

Russ Thomas: I love rockin and rollin and that’s what we’ve been doing. I try to dance the dance that I can, without breaking any bones but, It’s been great chatting with you, Tim.

I really appreciate the opportunity to have spent this time with you. when I signed up for this, I didn’t know If you had some vetting process or not, but I signed up and it was like, you’re in, so it’s been great. And I appreciate knowing you and hopefully I can get you on my podcast one of these days soon.

I’ll send you the link and you could sign up. we’ll reciprocate a bit So thanks for the time, the opportunity to get my story out there a little bit and to share ideas and this whole world of entrepreneurship and working from home. You bet. I love it. It’s cool.

Right on. I had to dress up for today. You know, sometimes I don’t this nicely dress, but I’m trying to impress your audience.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Well, thank you again for rocking out to the listeners. Make sure you subscribe, rate, and comment, we’ll see you next time on the work at home. Rockstar

Russ Thomas: [00:37:00] podcast. Thanks for listening to learn how you can become a work at home rockstar

Head on over to work at home rockstar. com today.