This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Mitch Russo. Mitch is the president of Mindful Guidance, a company that works with high net worth individuals who want to turn their passion into revenue on the coaching side. Before that, Mitch built and sold a software company for 8 figures and was partners with Tony Robbins and Chet Holmes as the CEO of Business Breakthroughs International - which he guided to over $25 million a year in revenue. He is also the founder and host of the Your First Thousand Clients podcast.
Mitch has won many awards and has been nominated twice for the Entrepreneur of the Year award by INC Magazine. He is also the best selling author of The Invisible Organization.
Mitch knows how to scale a business and build a tribe better than anybody and I’m excited for him to share his best advice with you in this episode.
www.MitchRusso.com
Mitch grew up never really fitting in. He was a smaller kid and didn’t play sports. He was a quiet kid and didn’t get invited to parties. So, he started a rock band to meet girls. He learned a lot about himself and business, especially in how to promote and market – making the band the highest grossing rock band in the area.
Later, he found himself working for others and found jobs to be unsatisfying and would make it tough to reach financial independence. So, he started buying real estate – until his first building caught fire. But, he got up from that, dusted himself off and had great success in real estate. But, he was still working at a job until finally he had his first big idea. The idea was to build a software to solve a problem that everyone had and it became Timeslips Corporation.
At the 6:30 mark, Mitch take us through the process from of how he took Timeslips Corp from idea to success.
- It comes down this – Mitch had a need. He had just bought a computer and he needed away to deduct it from his taxes, so he created a way to track time spent on a computer for business purposes.
- After 9 months of work, on the day of launch, Mitch’s CPA called him to let him know the IRS had just relaxed the rules on timekeeping – which basically made their product obsolete.
- So, they asked the question, “Is there anyone else that can use our product?” At that point they pivoted and turned the product into a time and billing system for attorneys.
- So what they started with became something totally different and that is what became a multi-million dollar company.
How did you build and run a 300-person company from your spare bedroom?
- First, you have to learn how to delegate – once you know how to delegate and leverage others, you can scale.
- Business Breakthroughs was built on unique scalable systems which is what allowed it to grow.
- If you cannot create a system for building a successful infrastructure, then you cannot run a large company.
What should people know about building and creating lasting, scalable systems?
- There are great systems out there today – technology has made it so much easier to scale.
- You have to be smart up front and make the foundation (software platforms, etc.) that you build your business on is one that can grow exponentially and keep up.
- You have to do the most important roles for success in your business first and master them, so you can teach them to others.
- You have to know how to do it, but you also need to them look for those better than you in those roles and fill yourself.
- You have to know enough about a role, so you know it is being done well or not.
Thoughts on hiring?
- This can depend on the position
- The basic idea is that in the process of hiring, you must infect the recruits with the spirit of the founder and mission of the organization – the why
- The promise of the role must be stronger than the promise of a paycheck.
- For Mitch, no one gets hired in the company unless he speaks to them at some point – he’s looking for something that no one else is looking for, but also infect them with the vision and mission.
Mitch offers two of his articles at www.MitchRusso.com on his blog called “Salesforce 101” and “How to Hire a Sales Superstar”
Talk to us about your new business and how you are getting to your goal of 100,000 clients?
- Mitch automated and patented the process of an accountability system for people who purchase training programs– a “Match.com” of accountability for ensuring that people work together to get the results from any program the purchase or go through.
- The software guides and keeps each individual on track to finish and get results from a success/training program.
- Working with a partner helps to push you is a momentum builder as you reach success milestones. This keeps people going to complete things.
At the 33-min mark, Mitch talks about building out certification programs with 3-5% of your client base and the amazing impact that type business model can have.
- Mitch taught it to the CEO of Intuit and that is now the Quickbooks Advisor Program
- Certification is the ascension strategy
- Competence leads to confidence and confidence leads to success and success leads to earning income.
- From there, it is an upward spiral.
What are the steps of creating a certification program?
- You need 500-1000 clients to do it well
- Planning – Setup the business model and how much you charge, where you consultants fit.
- Build the training program with a culture program and have a solid contract
- Train them and put them in business – but help walk them through their first few engagements to help them experience success.
- Check out www.MyPowerTribe.com
3 keys to proper training:
- Use verbiage and nomenclature that the world is familiar with
- Don’t go too fast. Go at a pace where the majority can follow and learn
- You have to incorporate real experience for people to see what you are teaching in action and do it. They can just hear it or read it.
Always remember that it all comes back to your mission and the systems you build to create it.
Best Quote: “Nothing is impossible, but instead it is probable…”
Mitch's Misfit 3:
- Accountability partnerships are the key to success. If you can find a partner that you can work with every week to get to your goals, you will reach them faster.
- Read a book every week. You must be on the hunt to acquire new information. Setup Google alerts for your industry.
- Network and go to big events. You are there to learn and make connections.