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Leadership Through Connection with Faust Ruggiero · The Heart-Led Business Show

• 0:01
  Speaker: Welcome to The Heart-Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love.
• 0:09
  Speaker: Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second.
• 0:20
  Speaker: From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism.
• 0:29
  Speaker: So buckle up and let your heart guide your business journey.
• 0:36
  Tom Jackobs: Well, welcome back to the heart-led business show where passion meets purpose and profit doesn't take itself too seriously.
• 0:43
  Tom Jackobs: Today we have a real gem for you.
• 0:45
  Tom Jackobs: Meet F With over 35 years as a psychologist, Faust has traversed the tangled tapestry of life from prisons to playgrounds, weaving wisdom into every corner.
• 0:58
  Tom Jackobs: Ease the Mastermind behind the Fix Yourself Empowerment Series.
• 1:02
  Tom Jackobs: Helping folks tackle life's tricky tribulations.
• 1:04
  Tom Jackobs: So get ready as we dive into Faust heart-led journey in business.
• 1:08
  Tom Jackobs: A delightful dance of passion and expertise awaits.
• 1:12
  Tom Jackobs: Faust, welcome to the show.
• 1:13
  Faust Ruggiero: Tom, thanks so much for inviting me.
• 1:15
  Faust Ruggiero: It's a pleasure to be spending time with you today.
• 1:17
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah, I'm really excited about our conversation as well, especially the prisons to playgrounds and, and getting the, the backstory on that.
• 1:25
  Tom Jackobs: But of course, the first thing that I always like to ask is, what's your definition of a heart-led business?
• 1:32
  Faust Ruggiero: No, I love the question, to be honest with you.
• 1:34
  Faust Ruggiero: I've always had just a different word that I've always used and for me it's connectivity.
• 1:39
  Faust Ruggiero: Authentic connectivity.
• 1:41
  Faust Ruggiero: That's the key.
• 1:42
  Faust Ruggiero: When I talk about heart-led, you know, I, always tell people, your business is your business family, and if you're going to treat them as less.
• 1:51
  Faust Ruggiero: Then you will have problems.
• 1:53
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, it's, it's staying connected on all levels.
• 1:57
  Faust Ruggiero: What people have done, what business does is they tend to like to kind of, you know, be economical in the way they do things.
• 2:05
  Faust Ruggiero: So, you know, I, I'm at this level, then I got you three or four at this level, and then you got your guys on the floor and you guys connect with them and then you get back to me in the meeting that I'm thrilled to be having with you.
• 2:15
  Faust Ruggiero: And we're all connected and that is anything but connectivity.
• 2:20
  Faust Ruggiero: that is that is not heart-led.
• 2:23
  Faust Ruggiero: That is just simply saying, I'm at this level.
• 2:25
  Faust Ruggiero: I don't go back.
• 2:27
  Faust Ruggiero: You guys handle all that kind of stuff.
• 2:29
  Faust Ruggiero: And if the top person isn't doing it, the rest are gonna follow that lead in some way.
• 2:35
  Faust Ruggiero: Now you don't have a heart-led business.
• 2:37
  Faust Ruggiero: Now you have one that is designed really where you know, the ledger business, I call them.
• 2:42
  Faust Ruggiero: That's the bottom line business.
• 2:45
  Faust Ruggiero: And, if that's what you're gonna take care of and not your employees, and not have that connectivity, eventually have problems and your bottom line's affected.
• 2:52
  Faust Ruggiero: That's just the way it works.
• 2:53
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 2:54
  Tom Jackobs: And it's a shame that many business owners that can just look at that bottom line don't actually realize that, you know, the long term, taking care of people, being connected, like you say really does pay off in the long term, but they're so, so shortsighted.
• 3:11
  Tom Jackobs: I'm curious, you know, being in psychology, is there something that is in our brains that makes some people think that way versus the connectivity?
• 3:20
  Faust Ruggiero: The same people who don't do this are people who are not really not great communicators.
• 3:26
  Faust Ruggiero: They have mastered the talk, but they not have not mastered the connectivity of the talk, they're not good confronter.
• 3:35
  Faust Ruggiero: They don't they don't do well in situations, and they tend to be protective people.
• 3:40
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, if I get heart-led and I kind of try to connect with my employees, you know what'll happen, don't you?
• 3:47
  Faust Ruggiero: They'll take advantage of me, and, and they firmly believe that that separation is necessary.
• 3:54
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 3:54
  Faust Ruggiero: I'll tell the story of a company.
• 3:56
  Faust Ruggiero: It's 37 years, I'm working with this company in a capacity where I work with the HR people.
• 4:01
  Faust Ruggiero: And I remember when the, when the HR person hired me way back in the late eighties, he said, I'd love to bring you aboard, but I can get a hundred of you.
• 4:10
  Faust Ruggiero: What's gonna set you at, what's going to set you aside from them?
• 4:13
  Faust Ruggiero: And I said, well, I want to get in there and know everybody.
• 4:15
  Faust Ruggiero: And that answer just floor me.
• 4:17
  Faust Ruggiero: He said, well, I'm gonna call you on that.
• 4:19
  Faust Ruggiero: They had 500 employees at the time.
• 4:22
  Faust Ruggiero: He said, I want to take you through business.
• 4:23
  Faust Ruggiero: I want.
• 4:24
  Faust Ruggiero: It's, it's a me a foundry.
• 4:26
  Faust Ruggiero: They, you know, they cast metal,
• 4:29
  Tom Jackobs: Wow.
• 4:29
  Faust Ruggiero: metal pieces, valves, and things like that.
• 4:31
  Faust Ruggiero: And I want you just to go in and see all the people working their machines and.
• 4:35
  Faust Ruggiero: So you can really see what goes on in our factory.
• 4:38
  Faust Ruggiero: Now, the type of person I am, I love people.
• 4:40
  Faust Ruggiero: I love to shake hands, get a hug, what have you, you know?
• 4:43
  Faust Ruggiero: So as I went in, they, you know, he said wear jeans and you know, a t-shirt.
• 4:47
  Faust Ruggiero: So I went in and the guy's at his machine and I shake his hand, hi, nice to meet you.
• 4:51
  Faust Ruggiero: At the end of the thing, we had gone through three hour tour, he said.
• 4:56
  Faust Ruggiero: You did what I wanted you to do.
• 4:58
  Faust Ruggiero: You connected with all the employees.
• 5:00
  Faust Ruggiero: Can you keep on doing that?
• 5:01
  Faust Ruggiero: Of course.
• 5:02
  Faust Ruggiero: And I'm still doing it today.
• 5:03
  Faust Ruggiero: So I provide that link for those in, for that business.
• 5:07
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, I, I know there's, now the business is now worldwide, or so countries.
• 5:14
  Faust Ruggiero: We have three in the area.
• 5:15
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, where I live, so I know almost all the employees and I will go back and forth and say, well, you know, so and so's got an issue with this.
• 5:25
  Faust Ruggiero: We need to get on that person, and this one's got this going on.
• 5:29
  Faust Ruggiero: Could be, we had one that was just high blood pressure, but got to the point where, and I could see it, and I, I relate it to medical, and medical, pulls him in and it was like 170 over one 30 and off to the hospital he goes, if you don't now you may look at that and say.
• 5:45
  Faust Ruggiero: We spending a lot of time just on, on doing this employee thing, but that was a key employee on the floor, was a manager.
• 5:55
  Faust Ruggiero: And if we lose him trying to replace him, was gonna be a problem.
• 6:01
  Faust Ruggiero: We'd have lost money.
• 6:02
  Faust Ruggiero: But the other part of it is we, we might have lost the employee.
• 6:06
  Faust Ruggiero: And all it is, is, so your heartfelt business and how you deal with it is to be, is connectivity.
• 6:12
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, a guy at the top should be going through the company and shaking hands and looking in people's eyes and asking'em how they are.
• 6:19
  Faust Ruggiero: If you do it once a month,
• 6:21
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 6:21
  Faust Ruggiero: Don't employees change the way that the way they work.
• 6:24
  Faust Ruggiero: Hey, it took time for me.
• 6:27
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 6:27
  Faust Ruggiero: And one day works.
• 6:28
  Tom Jackobs: of course we always have the exception, right?
• 6:31
  Tom Jackobs: I, I had a job I worked in oil and gas for 12, 10 years.
• 6:35
  Tom Jackobs: 12 years, and I had a manager for a while that just stay in his office.
• 6:40
  Tom Jackobs: He didn't, he only came out when there was a problem and had to yell at somebody.
• 6:43
  Tom Jackobs: I was like, God, this guy's such a jackass.
• 6:45
  Tom Jackobs: It was so, it was so bad, and you could tell versus the previous manager, I had same company.
• 6:52
  Tom Jackobs: Super helpful.
• 6:53
  Tom Jackobs: Always was out around people and his department was doing so much better than the other guy's department.
• 6:59
  Tom Jackobs: It's a stark difference when you have that connectivity and lead with the heart.
• 7:03
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, Tom, it's interesting that I, I'll get an excuse that, and I'm sure you've heard this many times, we don't have the time to do all that, and I say.
• 7:12
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, I always talk about the, what I call the credit card principle.
• 7:16
  Faust Ruggiero: You can pay your pay this now you can go in there and do all these things.
• 7:20
  Faust Ruggiero: Or when the train comes off the track just a little bit, you can spend three or four times the amount of time and money and resources to get it back on track.
• 7:29
  Faust Ruggiero: This people, particularly union chops, will say, well, if you're not gonna worry about us.
• 7:34
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, union's got my back.
• 7:36
  Faust Ruggiero: I'll give you 70%, I'll give you 80%.
• 7:39
  Faust Ruggiero: I'll give you what I think you're giving me.
• 7:42
  Faust Ruggiero: And you know, and so they raise the salary.
• 7:45
  Faust Ruggiero: Okay, we give you a couple dollars more an hour, and that's great, but I still come into the same conditions.
• 7:51
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 7:51
  Faust Ruggiero: You don't tell me I did a great job.
• 7:54
  Faust Ruggiero: You don't tell me, Hey, how, you know?
• 7:56
  Faust Ruggiero: Ask me, how's the family?
• 7:57
  Faust Ruggiero: How's everything going?
• 7:58
  Faust Ruggiero: But if, but they're all gone.
• 7:59
  Faust Ruggiero: And if I make a mistake on the job, you're right there to say, oh boy.
• 8:04
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, simple questions.
• 8:06
  Faust Ruggiero: Hey, how you doing?
• 8:07
  Faust Ruggiero: How's the family?
• 8:08
  Faust Ruggiero: How's everything going for you?
• 8:10
  Faust Ruggiero: Just thought, you know, I was thinking about you.
• 8:11
  Faust Ruggiero: How's, you know, just, you know, taking care of your employees.
• 8:15
  Faust Ruggiero: Simple.
• 8:16
  Faust Ruggiero: It, it's, it's like 10 seconds with an employee, but you look the person in the eye.
• 8:20
  Faust Ruggiero: That's key.
• 8:21
  Faust Ruggiero: You don't walk in and just, if you're looking around, do a quick, okay, I got you.
• 8:26
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 8:26
  Faust Ruggiero: I'll this right away.
• 8:27
  Faust Ruggiero: If you and I are doing the interview and I, and I'm over here doing something, you're gonna say, okay, I don't wanna talk to this guy anymore.
• 8:34
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, it, it's gotta be genuine and, and it's simple to do.
• 8:40
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 8:40
  Faust Ruggiero: I go in businesses and train them and they all say, oh, we all got this.
• 8:43
  Faust Ruggiero: And I say, great, let me see.
• 8:45
  Faust Ruggiero: And I, and I asked them to demonstrate it.
• 8:47
  Faust Ruggiero: Let's go back, let me see you do it.
• 8:49
  Faust Ruggiero: And when I first, and some, they'll look at me and say.
• 8:52
  Faust Ruggiero: Okay fine, let's do it.
• 8:53
  Faust Ruggiero: And so how you doing?
• 8:55
  Faust Ruggiero: And I'd say, what's his name?
• 8:57
  Faust Ruggiero: It might be a, a shop with maybe 50 employees.
• 9:00
  Faust Ruggiero: You don't know everybody by name with 50 people.
• 9:03
  Faust Ruggiero: You should, you don't know them.
• 9:06
  Faust Ruggiero: I watched you.
• 9:06
  Faust Ruggiero: You didn't shake their hand, you didn't look in their eyes.
• 9:10
  Faust Ruggiero: And you can see that you had one foot in the conversation and one ready to walk away.
• 9:16
  Faust Ruggiero: You're getting in there.
• 9:16
  Faust Ruggiero: It's, you know, it's like, it's, it's like, you know, you, you wanna give'em the bear hug, you wanna let'em know I love you.
• 9:21
  Faust Ruggiero: I got you.
• 9:22
  Faust Ruggiero: Whatever you need.
• 9:23
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 9:24
  Faust Ruggiero: I always tell people, you know where I am.
• 9:26
  Faust Ruggiero: You know when to reach me.
• 9:27
  Faust Ruggiero: Call me anytime.
• 9:28
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 9:29
  Tom Jackobs: And, and you know, that's, that's a hard lesson to learn and it took me a while in, in business to, to really learn that.
• 9:36
  Tom Jackobs: And in the last 10 years, I, I think it's been about 10 years where, where I've done a better, much better job connecting with employees.
• 9:45
  Tom Jackobs: It makes life so much easier for everybody because I think in the back of my mind, I always thought, well, it's the money.
• 9:51
  Tom Jackobs: You know, most people are motivated by money, and that's all it's gonna take is just, you know, showing them appreciation with a dollar versus giving them a dollar and giving them appreciation and the performance goes through the roof.
• 10:05
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, I, I tell people, Tom, if you don't wanna get heartfelt about this, get strategic.
• 10:11
  Faust Ruggiero: Okay?
• 10:11
  Faust Ruggiero: You have all these business plans, all these programs you bring in to make your business more efficient.
• 10:18
  Faust Ruggiero: If your goal is productivity and the bottom line, you should be able to say A happy employee gets me to that bottom line.
• 10:28
  Faust Ruggiero: Why in the world would you not want to do it for at at least, at the very least to say, Hey, I make more money.
• 10:35
  Faust Ruggiero: This company makes more money.
• 10:37
  Faust Ruggiero: I get better bonuses, whatever, if these people are motivated to work for me, so I gotta go do what I need to do to motivate them, and money's only one part of it.
• 10:48
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 10:48
  Faust Ruggiero: It's only one.
• 10:49
  Faust Ruggiero: The other part is I'm gonna, I'm gonna look you in the eye.
• 10:52
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, I, I get this, this company to, you know, and I say they've been doing golf outings, family things.
• 10:59
  Faust Ruggiero: They set up once or twice a year where they put up a big food tent and the employees are all able to take their breaks and, and they, and, and you know, someone when we were talking about that said we lose part of a day of work, I said, you will gain it back tenfold.
• 11:14
  Tom Jackobs: Yes.
• 11:14
  Faust Ruggiero: Because they're gonna say, I work for a company a, first of all, that has an employee assistance program that's me that says, he'll come in anytime if I call him at 12 o'clock, you know at night, two in the morning.
• 11:26
  Faust Ruggiero: He answers the phone.
• 11:27
  Faust Ruggiero: I got that.
• 11:28
  Faust Ruggiero: Look at the little things they do for us.
• 11:30
  Faust Ruggiero: The food court, they put up the, the baseball family game they put on every year.
• 11:34
  Faust Ruggiero: The golf outing.
• 11:35
  Faust Ruggiero: They do, yeah.
• 11:36
  Faust Ruggiero: They put trips to go to the various baseball games or what have you.
• 11:40
  Faust Ruggiero: They do all these little things and they come back into the shop,
• 11:45
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 11:46
  Faust Ruggiero: They know people, you know.
• 11:48
  Faust Ruggiero: So if I get something, I might call the HR person and say, Hey, Larry over there has got some issues with this.
• 11:55
  Faust Ruggiero: I'm hearing it from the guys back there.
• 11:57
  Faust Ruggiero: And they might, they won't call him out.
• 11:59
  Faust Ruggiero: They'll just walk back and say, Hey Larry, what's up?
• 12:02
  Faust Ruggiero: As they see three or four, and they'll look at'em.
• 12:04
  Faust Ruggiero: You okay?
• 12:05
  Faust Ruggiero: You don't look.
• 12:05
  Faust Ruggiero: Okay.
• 12:06
  Faust Ruggiero: And now we got Larry.
• 12:09
  Faust Ruggiero: In the fold, if you will, and he's talking about, well, you know, this happened at home, or my, you know, my grandmother's in the hospital, whatever it may be.
• 12:19
  Faust Ruggiero: And Larry says, wow, they cared about that.
• 12:22
  Faust Ruggiero: Has nothing to do with work.
• 12:25
  Tom Jackobs: Mm-hmm.
• 12:25
  Faust Ruggiero: Larry doesn't forget that.
• 12:27
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 12:28
  Tom Jackobs: Now, do you find that when you have that good balance of giving compliments and being, being heart-led and having that connect connection with the employees, that it makes it a lot easier to have the more difficult conversations or the, the, the radical candor that, you know,
• 12:48
  Faust Ruggiero: Yeah.
• 12:48
  Tom Jackobs: some, some people are talking about.
• 12:50
  Faust Ruggiero: Yeah.
• 12:50
  Faust Ruggiero: And, and we have employees like that all the time.
• 12:52
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, we're, we'll say, you know, this guy's just not doing what he's supposed to do.
• 12:55
  Faust Ruggiero: Or he's, he's late, he's calling off a lot.
• 12:58
  Faust Ruggiero: Those kind of things.
• 12:59
  Faust Ruggiero: Now I can go in and I'll, and I'll say, Hey, you know, you.
• 13:04
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, first of all, how's everything going?
• 13:06
  Faust Ruggiero: And, you know, appreciate the job you're doing.
• 13:09
  Faust Ruggiero: I'm gonna, and say, but you know, I gotta talk to you about a couple things.
• 13:12
  Faust Ruggiero: So you, you know, we, we care about you.
• 13:14
  Faust Ruggiero: I'm, I gotta make sure that everything's all right in your life.
• 13:17
  Faust Ruggiero: But here's what I see, you know, performance.
• 13:21
  Faust Ruggiero: I know what you're capable of.
• 13:22
  Faust Ruggiero: I see you all the time.
• 13:23
  Faust Ruggiero: That's down a little bit.
• 13:25
  Faust Ruggiero: You call off a few times.
• 13:26
  Faust Ruggiero: You've been late.
• 13:27
  Faust Ruggiero: Now I know you, you're a good employee and I'm, I'm concerned that you're okay.
• 13:32
  Faust Ruggiero: I just approached that a whole different way than go up and say, you know, Hey, what is it with you?
• 13:37
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, the last four days I'm getting next to nothing from you.
• 13:41
  Faust Ruggiero: The, if the guy's already having problem or the person I should say is already having problems, I just piled another one on him.
• 13:47
  Tom Jackobs: Yep.
• 13:47
  Faust Ruggiero: But when I said, I got you, however, let's understand that I got you, we're gonna do what we can, but this is a job and you're running this machine, or you have this responsibility that's gotta come up.
• 13:59
  Faust Ruggiero: So let's do what we need to do to help you, your family, if, if necessary, and get you back to work to productivity.
• 14:06
  Faust Ruggiero: Let's talk about it.
• 14:07
  Faust Ruggiero: Let's have the conversation.
• 14:09
  Faust Ruggiero: They're almost always willing to go there.
• 14:13
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 14:13
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 14:13
  Faust Ruggiero: A lot of times they've been waiting for someone, but they can't, they can't
• 14:17
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 14:17
  Faust Ruggiero: can't do it.
• 14:19
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 14:20
  Tom Jackobs: I think a lot of people feel embarrassed or uncomfortable bringing some of the more personal things up, especially at work.
• 14:28
  Tom Jackobs: But so, so if you have one of those conversations with, with the employee, but there's still not performing after that, like at what point do you just, you know, the hammer comes down and it's like, look, we can't have you here.
• 14:42
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, there are two kinds of hammers.
• 14:45
  Faust Ruggiero: The first one is the softer hammer.
• 14:46
  Faust Ruggiero: It's that's, that's the rubber mallet, if you will, and that's where it says, okay, I had the conversation with you.
• 14:52
  Faust Ruggiero: Now, in order to keep your job, I'm gonna refer you to our company, EAP person, or I want you to go out and get yourself involved with a counselor or a doctor, whatever it is, because I've asked, you know, we've talked about it.
• 15:08
  Faust Ruggiero: You work here, your productivity has to come up.
• 15:12
  Faust Ruggiero: I'm concerned about you.
• 15:12
  Faust Ruggiero: So my next step is to, make it mandatory.
• 15:16
  Faust Ruggiero: You need to go and let me know that you're in counseling.
• 15:19
  Faust Ruggiero: And if you do that, we're okay.
• 15:22
  Faust Ruggiero: If you should say no, then I may have to let you go.
• 15:26
  Tom Jackobs: Okay.
• 15:27
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 15:27
  Faust Ruggiero: I put it back in his hands.
• 15:29
  Faust Ruggiero: I didn't put the
• 15:30
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 15:30
  Faust Ruggiero: hammer down.
• 15:31
  Faust Ruggiero: Now if I have to bring the hammer later, there's been the initial conversation where I said, I'm caring about you, love you wanna help you out.
• 15:38
  Faust Ruggiero: The second one, which says, okay, you didn't respond.
• 15:41
  Faust Ruggiero: So it's something a little bit deeper here.
• 15:43
  Faust Ruggiero: You need to go get yourself help.
• 15:45
  Faust Ruggiero: I want you to do that if you're gonna continue to work here.
• 15:48
  Faust Ruggiero: If you say no, then I have my third hammer, and that's where you brought me.
• 15:54
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 15:54
  Faust Ruggiero: I know I did everything I can
• 15:57
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 15:57
  Tom Jackobs: And it should never be a, a surprise.
• 16:00
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 16:00
  Tom Jackobs: I love that.
• 16:01
  Tom Jackobs: So, shifting gears just a little bit curious about the prisons to playground.
• 16:06
  Tom Jackobs: So tell us about the experience that you've had in working in correction facilities.
• 16:12
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, I, I came outta grad school, Tom, and you know, you, you get two or three jobs, small things, you know, it was an a nursing home and an alcohol counseling center.
• 16:21
  Faust Ruggiero: I got myself certified in addiction and the opportunity came up to see a few people in the prison.
• 16:27
  Tom Jackobs: Hmm.
• 16:27
  Faust Ruggiero: I was working as an alcohol counselor, I said, sure, why not?
• 16:30
  Faust Ruggiero: It was only two or Yeah.
• 16:31
  Faust Ruggiero: three inmates.
• 16:31
  Faust Ruggiero: And I said, great.
• 16:32
  Faust Ruggiero: And then I thought we did real well and didn't intimidate me in any way.
• 16:36
  Faust Ruggiero: Three, four months later, the prison called and said, look, we're, we're going to expand and we're looking for another treatment staff person.
• 16:43
  Faust Ruggiero: Are you interested in going full time?
• 16:46
  Faust Ruggiero: I thought about it.
• 16:47
  Faust Ruggiero: For one thing, the pay was much better.
• 16:50
  Faust Ruggiero: It was a government job, if you will, so benefits and everything.
• 16:54
  Faust Ruggiero: So, so that was nice.
• 16:55
  Faust Ruggiero: But it was an opportunity to treat all different kinds of people and get, you know, you myself, into something that was not traditional at all.
• 17:03
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, when we, it's always nice to have all these reference points when we counsel, so I said, sure, why not?
• 17:09
  Faust Ruggiero: out to be one of the you know, more significant moves I've made in my life.
• 17:13
  Faust Ruggiero: Not only because you see people for what they are, but and, but you've gotta go deeper inside yourself to make some things work.
• 17:20
  Faust Ruggiero: But when you talk about heartfelt, I could have said, you're inmates, you're, you did these.
• 17:24
  Faust Ruggiero: And I, and a lot of people did.
• 17:26
  Faust Ruggiero: I went humanistically
• 17:28
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 17:29
  Faust Ruggiero: the way I dealt with them, and I saw it work.
• 17:32
  Tom Jackobs: Hmm.
• 17:32
  Faust Ruggiero: and some tried to manipulate, but you know, we, we, we, we see those.
• 17:36
  Faust Ruggiero: But other people were saying things like, no one's ever treated me this way.
• 17:40
  Faust Ruggiero: They throw me in a cell.
• 17:41
  Faust Ruggiero: And they don't care I've had this all my life.
• 17:43
  Faust Ruggiero: And now someone said, Hey, I got your back.
• 17:46
  Faust Ruggiero: You got things to do.
• 17:48
  Faust Ruggiero: That's the black and white of it, but I'm here and I'll listen to you.
• 17:51
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, and I, how many people I see burn out and get into their substances and whatever it is, because they really don't care much about what they do.
• 18:00
  Faust Ruggiero: They care about that paycheck, but those moments are going by in your life every day, and you're working there.
• 18:06
  Faust Ruggiero: So, you know, if your whole life is about your paycheck and what you can do with it, and then eight hours a day or whatever it is, you are not liking what you do or the people you're working with, there's a problem.
• 18:17
  Faust Ruggiero: So the first thing you know for me is I, you know, I love what I do.
• 18:21
  Faust Ruggiero: I have three businesses going, you know, I have my counseling program and I see about 25 30 people a week.
• 18:29
  Faust Ruggiero: I, I just, again, ready to publish my sixth book.
• 18:33
  Faust Ruggiero: So that's a, the publishing business is, is is another one.
• 18:37
  Faust Ruggiero: We have the the, interviews that I do, we have the whole publishing business has its staff that we do.
• 18:45
  Faust Ruggiero: Now we're getting into some television things that we do.
• 18:48
  Faust Ruggiero: So, you know, and then I have the EAP that I'm doing.
• 18:51
  Faust Ruggiero: So there's a lot of irons in the fire, but all of them are put in a perspective every day.
• 18:57
  Faust Ruggiero: Each gets its, its time.
• 18:58
  Faust Ruggiero: I love what I do and the key is it's, and this is the, the neat part, if you're doing it right, it's not work.
• 19:06
  Faust Ruggiero: People say, well, how do you balance work and play?
• 19:09
  Faust Ruggiero: I don't, I don't need to.
• 19:12
  Faust Ruggiero: I don't ever want to.
• 19:14
  Faust Ruggiero: I want to get up every day and I'm, you, you mentioned the word, I'm in my playground
• 19:19
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 19:20
  Faust Ruggiero: and I'm going to do this interview.
• 19:22
  Faust Ruggiero: I'm going to do one with a producer this afternoon.
• 19:25
  Faust Ruggiero: I'm gonna counsel seven people today.
• 19:28
  Faust Ruggiero: I'm gonna edit the book.
• 19:29
  Faust Ruggiero: We're getting ready to run.
• 19:31
  Faust Ruggiero: So people by looking and saying, my God, what are you doing?
• 19:33
  Faust Ruggiero: And I'm saying.
• 19:34
  Faust Ruggiero: Calmly going from one place to another.
• 19:36
  Faust Ruggiero: In involved in there.
• 19:38
  Faust Ruggiero: I will put a 45 minute stretch out where I can go back down in my little training center that we have, and I'm gonna work out for that in 45 minutes.
• 19:47
  Faust Ruggiero: And then by eight o'clock tonight, I'll kind of be done.
• 19:50
  Faust Ruggiero: It'll be a 12 hour day and I will not be, oh, I can't.
• 19:55
  Faust Ruggiero: I'm so glad I will be.
• 19:56
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, feel great and good and I'm gonna spend two or three hours with my wife and we're gonna sit down and enjoy time together.
• 20:03
  Faust Ruggiero: And you know, that's the way it's supposed to be.
• 20:07
  Faust Ruggiero: And if you're not making it go there, I think you have to look at, not at your circumstances, but at yourself and find out, what am I doing wrong here?
• 20:16
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 20:16
  Tom Jackobs: No, that, that's beautiful too.
• 20:18
  Tom Jackobs: And what, seeing work as a playground and, you know, I, I love how you said it too, about, well, how do you balance work and life?
• 20:26
  Tom Jackobs: I was like, well, it.
• 20:27
  Tom Jackobs: It's just, it is right.
• 20:29
  Tom Jackobs: There is no balance.
• 20:30
  Tom Jackobs: It is, and that, that's, that's a really testament to loving what you do and that old sage advice or the saying, if, if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life.
• 20:43
  Tom Jackobs: And I think that's.
• 20:44
  Faust Ruggiero: You know I, I go into our businesses and I, and I work with, with the HR departments and I say, look, yes, you're overworked.
• 20:53
  Faust Ruggiero: Yep, you're underpaid.
• 20:54
  Faust Ruggiero: All that's there.
• 20:55
  Tom Jackobs: Yep.
• 20:56
  Faust Ruggiero: Do you love, you got into this job to be with people.
• 20:59
  Faust Ruggiero: Do you love people?
• 21:01
  Faust Ruggiero: Most of them say yes.
• 21:03
  Faust Ruggiero: If you do then walk in here and say, let's go.
• 21:07
  Faust Ruggiero: Let me go get these people.
• 21:08
  Faust Ruggiero: Let me go enjoy my time.
• 21:10
  Faust Ruggiero: I've got paperwork and I got meetings and I got all that stuff that I have to do.
• 21:13
  Faust Ruggiero: But when I have a few moments, I'm going back and I might only touch four or five people today.
• 21:19
  Faust Ruggiero: Next day I might get 10, maybe
• 21:22
  Tom Jackobs: Hmm.
• 21:22
  Faust Ruggiero: day.
• 21:22
  Faust Ruggiero: I have a whole lot of time and I'll spend an hour out there.
• 21:25
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 21:25
  Faust Ruggiero: Go enjoy it.
• 21:27
  Faust Ruggiero: There are gonna be parts.
• 21:28
  Faust Ruggiero: None of us love the paperwork.
• 21:29
  Faust Ruggiero: Okay, we do it.
• 21:32
  Faust Ruggiero: Okay.
• 21:32
  Faust Ruggiero: It's part of it.
• 21:33
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, the key is, and that's the new book I'm writing, internal language.
• 21:37
  Faust Ruggiero: It's what you put in your head.
• 21:39
  Faust Ruggiero: That's good.
• 21:39
  Faust Ruggiero: Whatever you do, the thoughts you put in your head are exactly how you're gonna behave.
• 21:45
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 21:45
  Faust Ruggiero: Get your head where it needs to be.
• 21:47
  Faust Ruggiero: Enjoy what you're doing.
• 21:48
  Faust Ruggiero: If you don't enjoy it, you probably shouldn't be there.
• 21:51
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah, that, that self-talk is so important too, that I think, you know, I guess it.
• 21:57
  Tom Jackobs: I've heard that it's kind of true that humans, we have a negative bias, and so we automatically just, you know, everything catastrophizes.
• 22:07
  Tom Jackobs: And I'm really good at catastrophizing.
• 22:08
  Tom Jackobs: I think I've gotten better over time, but you know, it, it's, oh, it's gonna be the end of the world and this doesn't go right.
• 22:15
  Tom Jackobs: And, and now it's just like, you know, yeah, if it happens, it happens.
• 22:18
  Tom Jackobs: But I'm gonna do the best that I can and I'm gonna enjoy the ride as, as I'm, as long as I'm here.
• 22:23
  Faust Ruggiero: I tell people when it comes time and business people, I've been working with this concept for years.
• 22:29
  Faust Ruggiero: When they come in and they have that mindset, I will say the first thing you do is hit a pause button, say, I'm not gonna think about that.
• 22:37
  Faust Ruggiero: The second thing you do is say, I'm gonna think about this.
• 22:40
  Faust Ruggiero: Third thing you do is develop that new thought.
• 22:42
  Faust Ruggiero: So you walk in and you say, all right, I got that manager, that boss, whatever.
• 22:47
  Faust Ruggiero: That supervisor I really don't like to work with.
• 22:52
  Faust Ruggiero: I'm getting that outta my head'cause I have to go in and work with'em.
• 22:54
  Faust Ruggiero: Why would I want to beat myself up?
• 22:56
  Faust Ruggiero: I stop thinking about that.
• 22:58
  Faust Ruggiero: I'm gonna think about doing this.
• 23:02
  Faust Ruggiero: Now I'm gonna go do it.
• 23:03
  Faust Ruggiero: Most of the time that's gonna work.
• 23:05
  Faust Ruggiero: Every now and then it gets to be a little more intense.
• 23:07
  Faust Ruggiero: But it's, it's really about training your brain to move away from negative dialogue.
• 23:13
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 23:13
  Faust Ruggiero: If I walk into a business, I'll walk into meetings and I know we have a couple difficult people there and we have a situation that was not good, something happened.
• 23:21
  Faust Ruggiero: So, you know, the rest are saying, oh my God, this is gonna be a rough meeting.
• 23:24
  Faust Ruggiero: And I'm walking in and saying, okay, gimme that information and let's get to the solution.
• 23:29
  Faust Ruggiero: That may sound like I'm trying to throw fluff at you, but in my mind, that is the only way to deal with it.
• 23:38
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 23:38
  Faust Ruggiero: There is, if you went in there I defeated already, why walk in?
• 23:43
  Faust Ruggiero: You already got, you already got your conclusion.
• 23:46
  Faust Ruggiero: Walk in there and say get, let's get the information and we are going to put a solution on this and we're gonna work together and make it happen as best we can and you will.
• 23:55
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 23:56
  Tom Jackobs: Ah, I love that.
• 23:57
  Tom Jackobs: It's so great.
• 23:59
  Tom Jackobs: So what piece of advice would you give to a heart-led business owner that might be struggling right now with the profit side and the business side that maybe you've experienced and would love to share that.
• 24:11
  Faust Ruggiero: Yeah.
• 24:11
  Faust Ruggiero: What what I do is I tell the and, and I do this from time to time, and the key is not to wait until you struggle.
• 24:18
  Faust Ruggiero: That's the problem.
• 24:20
  Faust Ruggiero: We like to go on autopilot.
• 24:21
  Faust Ruggiero: We know we put the program in, we go and it stayed, and then all of a sudden we think it's all of a sudden we just, the curve went down.
• 24:29
  Faust Ruggiero: I said the curve did not just go down, you know?
• 24:32
  Faust Ruggiero: It was going down and you didn't take care of business.
• 24:36
  Faust Ruggiero: I tell people, what I do is I appraise my businesses every month.
• 24:42
  Faust Ruggiero: I, every other week I go through them and I say, where are we on this?
• 24:47
  Faust Ruggiero: Okay, what needs to be done?
• 24:48
  Faust Ruggiero: What I, what do I need to pull out at the end of my day?
• 24:51
  Faust Ruggiero: Every day?
• 24:53
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, the phrase I say is, I want my desk cleaned off and ready for the next day.
• 24:58
  Faust Ruggiero: I want my life, my work life from today.
• 25:01
  Faust Ruggiero: Put where it needs to be.
• 25:02
  Faust Ruggiero: It's in perspective.
• 25:03
  Faust Ruggiero: So tomorrow I'm not picking up what I had to do yesterday.
• 25:08
  Faust Ruggiero: The key is to constantly be appraising what you're doing.
• 25:12
  Faust Ruggiero: If you can do it every day, you're not micromanaging.
• 25:16
  Faust Ruggiero: That's, that's the thing I want people to understand.
• 25:18
  Faust Ruggiero: You're just appraising where it is.
• 25:20
  Faust Ruggiero: Where are we today?
• 25:21
  Faust Ruggiero: All right, let me look at it.
• 25:23
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, guys come in, you know, if they run three shifts, what do we do?
• 25:27
  Faust Ruggiero: Supervisor from the first shift stays 15 minutes, or the next supervisor comes in early and they have that overlap and they say, here's what happened.
• 25:36
  Faust Ruggiero: Here's all things we need to know.
• 25:37
  Faust Ruggiero: So you need to know this and this is what was done.
• 25:40
  Faust Ruggiero: And.
• 25:41
  Faust Ruggiero: is the communication, that's the connectivity from shift to shift.
• 25:45
  Faust Ruggiero: Connectivity means, again, constantly, re constantly appraising where you are and getting your people to do the same, and then coming in and being solution oriented in, in those meetings.
• 25:58
  Faust Ruggiero: And so you don't leave in.
• 25:59
  Faust Ruggiero: People said, okay, yeah, I got that, got that, and they all run away because the next, the, the next thing is to be able to be accountable.
• 26:07
  Faust Ruggiero: Okay, last meeting we said this, this, and this.
• 26:10
  Faust Ruggiero: Tell me what you did.
• 26:12
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 26:12
  Faust Ruggiero: And, and, and we have to do those things all the time.
• 26:15
  Faust Ruggiero: If we do those things, that doesn't say we're gonna survive all the time.
• 26:20
  Faust Ruggiero: Most of the time we will though.
• 26:22
  Faust Ruggiero: Sometime it's just the economy or somebody or the, your major customer says, sorry, we're out of business or we're going elsewhere.
• 26:28
  Faust Ruggiero: And it happens.
• 26:30
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 26:31
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 26:31
  Faust Ruggiero: for the most part, you have to control what you are capable of controlling.
• 26:35
  Faust Ruggiero: And it's work.
• 26:36
  Faust Ruggiero: It's work.
• 26:37
  Faust Ruggiero: It's your job.
• 26:38
  Faust Ruggiero: Get in there, work hard, do what you're supposed to do.
• 26:41
  Faust Ruggiero: Get away from, you know, the, the, the owners get away from the hour lunch breaks where you had two drinks.
• 26:46
  Faust Ruggiero: That's insane.
• 26:47
  Faust Ruggiero: Why would you even think about doing that during a workday?
• 26:50
  Tom Jackobs: Right.
• 26:51
  Faust Ruggiero: You're connecting with no one.
• 26:53
  Faust Ruggiero: You know, so again, my, my thing is to constantly be appraising transition where I have to.
• 26:59
  Faust Ruggiero: And the big, the last piece with the big piece, get your ego out of it.
• 27:03
  Faust Ruggiero: I don't care if you're the boss, the president of the company, I don't care if you wear, if you wear your$2,000 suits and drive your$150,000 car and live in your mansion, you better get your check your ego at the door when you walk into your business.
• 27:18
  Faust Ruggiero: 'cause your ego will do nothing but destroy every bit of connectivity.
• 27:23
  Faust Ruggiero: And heart-led strategy that you need.
• 27:26
  Faust Ruggiero: Check your ego at the door.
• 27:28
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 27:29
  Tom Jackobs: Oh, that, that's brilliant advice because it that, that's gonna shut down any good ideas as well.
• 27:34
  Tom Jackobs: If, if the ego is too strong, nobody, I work for a boss like that.
• 27:39
  Tom Jackobs: Or you just try to say something, ah, that's stupid idea.
• 27:41
  Tom Jackobs: And then two weeks later he is like, oh, I got this great idea.
• 27:44
  Tom Jackobs: We should do this.
• 27:44
  Faust Ruggiero: Yes, it did.
• 27:46
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 27:46
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 27:47
  Tom Jackobs: Check that ego.
• 27:48
  Tom Jackobs: Oh, that's awesome.
• 27:49
  Tom Jackobs: Faust how can people learn a little bit more about what you do and, and potentially get in contact with you?
• 27:54
  Faust Ruggiero: Best way Tom is just to go to my website.
• 27:56
  Faust Ruggiero: It's my name, faustruggiero.com.
• 27:59
  Faust Ruggiero: Everything about me is there.
• 28:01
  Faust Ruggiero: Books I write, excerpts are there.
• 28:02
  Faust Ruggiero: Connection link is there.
• 28:04
  Faust Ruggiero: When I do these kind of interviews, I get a lot of business people that'll, you know, send me a text or HR people and they'll say.
• 28:11
  Faust Ruggiero: I got a question, how can you, how can we do this?
• 28:14
  Faust Ruggiero: And I'd be glad to answer.
• 28:15
  Faust Ruggiero: It doesn't cost anything, you know, for me to answer a question.
• 28:17
  Faust Ruggiero: So anyone who wants to get in contact with me, the contact link is there.
• 28:21
  Tom Jackobs: Awesome.
• 28:22
  Tom Jackobs: Great.
• 28:22
  Tom Jackobs: We'll link all that up into the show notes.
• 28:24
  Tom Jackobs: Thank you so much for coming onto the show today and spending a little bit of time with me.
• 28:28
  Tom Jackobs: I really appreciate it.
• 28:29
  Tom Jackobs: It's been a fascinating conversation.
• 28:30
  Tom Jackobs: So thank you so much for your time.
• 28:32
  Faust Ruggiero: It's been a pleasure.
• 28:34
  Faust Ruggiero: Thanks for inviting me, Tom.
• 28:35
  Tom Jackobs: Absolutely.
• 28:36
  Tom Jackobs: And thank you listeners for tuning into this episode of The Heart-Led Business Show.
• 28:40
  Tom Jackobs: I really appreciate it.
• 28:41
  Tom Jackobs: And make sure you're checking out everything that Faust is doing.
• 28:44
  Tom Jackobs: And we're gonna provide all of those links down into the show notes so that you can easily just click away and check out what he's doing.
• 28:51
  Tom Jackobs: And also, while you're down there, there's probably a review button.
• 28:55
  Tom Jackobs: So if you could do me a favor and just hit that little review button, give it five stars, and that really helps spread the word about the show and help more people that want to have a heart-led business.
• 29:04
  Tom Jackobs: So, until next time, lead with your heart.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: You've been listening to The Heart-Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.