Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Paper Routes to Payroll Empire: Rob Basso's Wild Ride Through Business | Financial & Tax Series | Advisor

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Paper Routes to Payroll Empire: Rob Basso's Wild Ride Through Business | Financial & Tax Series | Advisor · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories where leaders
• 0:07
  share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
• 0:10
  how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
• 0:13
  they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
• 0:17
  the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their
• 0:20
  experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
• 0:24
  by how they've overcome adversity.
• 0:26
  My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and today's guest is Rob Basso.
• 0:30
  Rob has spent 27 years buying, selling and investing in
• 0:34
  businesses. He was the founder of Long
• 0:37
  Island Advantage Payroll, which at the time was the largest
• 0:40
  independently owned payroll, tax filing and HR service firm in
• 0:43
  New York. He sold this business in 2018 to
• 0:47
  a publicly traded company. Then he built another company
• 0:50
  called Associated HCM that focused on human resources,
• 0:54
  payroll, time and labor management and insurance
• 0:56
  services and exited this business to a different publicly
• 1:00
  traded company. In 2021, he founded an insurance
• 1:04
  company called Integrated Coverage Group that he ran for
• 1:06
  10 years. So Rob understands how hard it
• 1:09
  is to build something from nothing.
• 1:11
  He now travels the country as a keynote speaker, a coach and a
• 1:15
  consultant where he speaks the truth to entrepreneurs about how
• 1:18
  to get profit now and exit big with his strategy.
• 1:22
  His website isrobbassso.com, that's ROBBAS so.com.
• 1:28
  Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
• 1:31
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• 1:34
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• 1:57
  Now back to our, excuse me, back to our guest today, Rob Basso.
• 2:02
  I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
• 2:05
  Thanks, Anthony. And you know, I, I heard that
• 2:07
  introduction and I'm like, I'm wondering if my mother wrote it
• 2:10
  because and when, whenever I hear it, it's still like, did I
• 2:12
  really do all that? I don't feel like I'm that old
• 2:15
  to have actually have done that stuff.
• 2:17
  So thank you for putting it together concisely.
• 2:20
  And it still surprises me to hear it every morning when I
• 2:23
  wake. Yeah.
• 2:24
  And I'm excited to get into more details about some of these
• 2:27
  things that you've done. So today, Rob, you're really
• 2:30
  focusing on consulting, coaching, the keynote speaking
• 2:34
  business. But as we heard in the intro,
• 2:37
  you've accumulated a number of impressive work experiences
• 2:40
  along the way. Maybe we can start at the
• 2:43
  beginning and just kind of give people some highlights so that
• 2:47
  people listening understand that everything we're going to hear
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  from this point forward is coming from a person that's
• 2:53
  speaking from a place of real experience.
• 2:55
  Right. Well, I mean, you know, the
• 2:57
  logical place to start is probably when I was really young
• 3:01
  and I had my first real kind of work gig making jewelry in a
• 3:07
  strange person's basement when I was like 12 years old.
• 3:11
  Now you're going to think that's weird and creepy because it kind
• 3:14
  of is. But but the fact of the matter
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  was I was working and I was responsible for myself and
• 3:21
  rarely did the the checks bounce, but once in a while they
• 3:24
  did when they tried to pay me. But then I had one of the
• 3:27
  traditional jobs that people back in the day had.
• 3:32
  I was a paperboy, and I did the morning paper.
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  I did the Philadelphia Inquirer outside of Philadelphia.
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  And I can literally still remember those cold mornings all
• 3:41
  bundled up while my friends were still asleep.
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  And then I was delivering newspapers on the doorstep.
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  Now, you know, they seem like really simple things, but those
• 3:51
  things are the genesis of who you will eventually become.
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  And I didn't know anything about business.
• 3:58
  I was a history major when I was in college.
• 4:00
  I was going to be a social studies teacher.
• 4:02
  I was going to have the patches on my arm.
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  I was going to show up with the chalk on my hand and and, you
• 4:07
  know, fill the the young minds of America with the history of
• 4:11
  our country. And that didn't work out.
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  So I went into business. That's the short story of how I
• 4:18
  got where I was going. And I love that because, you
• 4:22
  know, I think that paper route, you know, and the the jewelry
• 4:26
  work that you were doing, you know, at such a young age shows
• 4:30
  that there was probably something hardwired into you,
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  right? Like you came out of the womb
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  just kind of like ready and raring to go.
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  Obviously as you went along, like you picked up a lot of
• 4:42
  skills and learned a lot of lessons.
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  But yeah, I feel like you have something you want to say to
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  that. No, I was going to, you know, it
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  was also out of necessity. You know, I, you know, my
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  parents were divorced when I was very young and if I wanted
• 4:53
  something, I had to get it. That, you know, we, we were not
• 4:56
  poor, but we certainly didn't have an abundance of anything.
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  So if I wanted a new bike or I wanted something special, it
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  just wasn't there for me. And I don't want to.
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  There's no sob story here. That's not what it was.
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  But I knew at a young age that if I wanted things or to go to a
• 5:12
  concert with my friends, I had to do it myself.
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  So it literally wasn't an option to to to get something from
• 5:20
  somebody else. And that's where I learned my
• 5:23
  significant independence. And it to this day, I look back
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  at it and I don't think I was happy about it at the time at
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  all. But nor I mean, who is really
• 5:34
  happy about that hard work while you're in the middle of it?
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  It's only in that perspective where you look back and you go,
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  oh, well, that's why I'm like this now, or that's why my
• 5:44
  parents taught me this or that. I'm hoping to do the same for my
• 5:47
  kids who are 21 and 23 right now.
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  But it's going to be, it's a great lead into my next question
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  because I'm curious as somebody who's been very successful in
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  business, like you said, when you were, when you were growing
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  up, you weren't poor, but you didn't have excess, right?
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  If you wanted something as a kid, you were going to have to
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  earn the money to go and get it yourself.
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  Now you've moved on, you've been very successful in your life.
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  Your kids probably grew up in a bit of a different home, a
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  different environment than you did.
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  How have you been able to translate some of those lessons
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  of like grit and hard work and determination that you know
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  wouldn't have been just sort of naturally baked into their life
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  experience? Well, it's interesting, I think
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  about this a lot and I did not know you were going to ask this
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  question, but I'm, but I'm glad that you did.
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  I struggle with it greatly. To tell you the truth.
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  My wife and I do because, I mean, I've been self-employed
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  since I was 22 years old and, you know, they've seen me since
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  the day they were born. Hustle and work hard, but always
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  have time for family when I needed to.
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  And you would make this assumption that they would
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  collect something by osmosis. And I would say that only worked
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  some of the time. They grew up very differently,
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  like you said, where I probably spoiled them.
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  I probably gave more of the things that I wanted as a kid.
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  And probably by the time they were 10 or 12 years old, my wife
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  and I started having serious discussions.
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  Like we keep doing this in a significant fashion and this is
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  not going to help them when they get older.
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  So we made a conscious decision to talk about money, to talk
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  about success, to talk about what it took to go on this
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  vacation or do that. And some families, it's taboo to
• 7:33
  talk about money. It's taboo to talk about work.
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  It's taboo. Oh, how much money did you make
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  it? What?
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  It was a topic of conversation all the time in their tween
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  years all the way up until now as young adults.
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  And I have to tell you, they both turned out pretty darn
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  good. My son is probably a little
• 7:53
  underemployed and struggling a little bit good.
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  And I tell him that I, and, you know, and I'm not willing to
• 8:00
  really reach out there and be like, oh, well, you need a nicer
• 8:03
  apartment here. Here's an apartment.
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  Not a chance. Not in this house.
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  Never going to happen. And it was my choice.
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  And I've got other very successful friends who do it the
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  other way, buy the multi $1,000,000 place for the 20 year
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  old kid right out of college. OK, I'm not, you know, that's,
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  that's their life and there's nothing wrong with that if
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  that's what you choose. For me and my kids, it was about
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  earning your own way. The simple fact is we've had
• 8:28
  conversations about our estate planning and you know what
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  that's going to look like when we're no longer here.
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  And I want to build good, usable, functional kids in
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  society that are going to really shepherd the next generation and
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  be part of the good things in America, not part of the old
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  school money situation. And where has that gotten us in
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  this country, regardless of the political aisle that you're that
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  you're part of. But to this day, even sitting
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  here thinking about it, Anthony, I struggle.
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  I want to do more but I know it's not in their best interest.
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  It is hard, Rob. You know, I've got two boys,
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  ages 8 and 10. This is something we think about
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  in our house a lot, too, because, man, we hate to see
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  them struggle, right? We, we hate to see them go
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  through a pain and, you know, and deal with hard things.
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  But then, you know, I look back on my life and some of the
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  greatest lessons came through those painful, stressful,
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  strained periods of time. And it it builds character.
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  That's where I think growth happens at the uncomfortable
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  edges of life. And so it's a hard balancing act
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  as a parent because when there's like, when your son's struggling
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  now he's underemployed, you know, maybe he's not living in
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  the nicest place. Like there's a part of you that
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  wants to help him. There's a part of you that wants
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  to see him be better and more comfortable and, and happier.
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  And there's a part of you that knows, hey man, my path was
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  struggle and it's helped to put me in a much better place long
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  term. So short term pain, long term
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  gain, right? And additionally, they're not
• 10:00
  us, they're not even little mini versions of us.
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  They really are their own people.
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  And they've, they might have some of our traits, but to
• 10:07
  really do their service, you've got to let them be their own
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  people. So maybe he won't be an
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  entrepreneur. You know, he'll, he, he wants to
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  be in business and he's doing well at it.
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  My daughter thought she wanted to be a business student and is
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  just finishing up her career and, and she's picked a
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  different path. That's fine.
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  You know, my wife was a a teacher for 30 years.
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  You know, if that's what they want to go into, that's great.
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  I'm here to shepherd their dreams and hopes.
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  I'm not here to do it, for there's a difference.
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  I like that. But let's talk about the things
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  that you have done. And so the first company that we
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  mentioned that you sold the Long Island Advantage payroll, how
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  did you come to start that? How was it you got yourself into
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  that space at all? Well, I was working in a deli in
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  an office building when I graduated college looking for a
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  job, and I decided to wrap my resume in the sandwiches for all
• 11:03
  the business people coming into the office.
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  I see you smiling because it gets funnier.
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  I could literally picture them pushing the mustard aside and I
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  would look out over the counter and people's heads would be up.
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  Like, what? What is this?
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  But I got five job interviews. I got four job offers in the
• 11:19
  marketing department working for various firms.
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  I took a job working in healthcare and I was back in the
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  deli while they were waiting for the position to be available a
• 11:30
  couple of weeks, no problem, still making the lady sandwiches
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  that gave me the job. And she came down one day and
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  she says, Rob, I have some bad news.
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  And I had the apron on with mustard on the apron and she
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  goes, we can't hire you or the few young people.
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  I'm sorry. And I had said no to the others.
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  So I was back in the deli. But I didn't lose my cool with
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  that woman. I didn't get upset or mad.
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  I said I understand, I'm disappointed.
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  If something opens up, please let me know.
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  Couple more weeks go by, she goes, you know, my husband runs
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  a payroll service company. He'd like to interview you.
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  I'm like, I don't even know what that is.
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  Didn't have any idea what that was.
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  I, I've been paid, I've been paid cash or barely a check.
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  Definitely no payroll company. I'm like, OK, And that's how I
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  got at my start. The gentleman hired me and I was
• 12:19
  their top salesperson out of their 22 offices my first year.
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  And underpaid, underappreciated, very underappreciated.
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  And everybody listening. That's a big important part
• 12:31
  about the beginning of your career.
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  While you have to work hard, you should be someplace that you're
• 12:36
  appreciated. So I left without a job.
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  And the rest of the story, you know, could take us another few
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  minutes about how I ended up starting my own thing.
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  But you know, realistically, that gave me my impetus to be
• 12:49
  out on my own because I was treated poorly and underpaid.
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  I want to hear how you went from zero to top salesman in the
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  first year in a place that's got 22 locations.
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  Well, you know, I, I, and I think about this and I talk a
• 13:04
  lot about it. And the, the, the crazy part is
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  it's, it's not a singular answer.
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  It's not even multiple things. I I didn't know any better, so I
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  just listened. I did what I was told.
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  I didn't pretend that I knew how to do something.
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  You know what, Rob? You need to stop at 100 and you
• 13:22
  need to knock on 150 doors this week.
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  OK? I assumed everybody else was
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  doing that because my boss told me you need to knock on 150
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  doors. Meanwhile, everybody was lazy
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  and not actually doing that. They were knocking on 10 doors
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  and going to lunch and taking extended this or that.
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  I ripped through the volume of work.
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  Now nowadays you might say there's faster, better ways to
• 13:44
  do that, but I will still disagree to that to this day.
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  I did my 10,000 hours. I did my reps I knew how to
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  stand in front of somebody who did not want to talk to me to
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  get them to talk to me. So that's where I learned all my
• 13:57
  basic business communication skills, cold calling, knocking
• 14:01
  on people's doors. And for whatever reason,
• 14:05
  whatever I had to say resonated with them.
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  And they bought from me. They bought from a complete
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  stranger that would walk into their office, not know them from
• 14:14
  a hole in the wall and within a few minutes set a second
• 14:18
  meeting, maybe with the boss and I'd close them right on the spot
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  with the contracts on the table. My first year, I think I closed
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  130 businesses, which was a lot, you know, I mean, I had to go on
• 14:30
  thousands and thousands of cold calls and telemarketing calls.
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  I would come home and hand write hundreds of letters, hundreds
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  of, and you hear this from some of the big tech success stories
• 14:43
  that are out in the marketplace now.
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  And there are humble beginnings. They handwrote letters.
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  I didn't know that that was not a thing that people did.
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  I'm like, oh, I'm going to write them a note.
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  I got such an overwhelming response from writing a personal
• 14:55
  note. I think more and more when we
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  get to the automated world, which we clearly are in now in
• 15:01
  the advent of AI, there is still always a place for that human
• 15:06
  connection, for that one-on-one. And for me, it's still going to
• 15:10
  be a big part of business going forward alongside of the
• 15:14
  technology, and I just don't want people to lose sight of
• 15:16
  that. This is really interesting, so
• 15:19
  do you think the handwritten letters still work today?
• 15:22
  A. 100% I know they do because I still do it.
• 15:24
  I don't write hundreds of them, but when I'm impacted by
• 15:28
  somebody or something, however small, Anthony, you might get a
• 15:31
  letter by the by, you know, by whatever the interaction I had
• 15:36
  with them. You think about what it does to
• 15:38
  somebody mentally because nobody really does it or very few
• 15:41
  people do it. You had to take the time to open
• 15:44
  a piece of paper, whether it's personalized letterhead or not.
• 15:48
  You had to take your pen out. You had to think about what you
• 15:50
  were going to say, even if it's generically sometimes the same
• 15:53
  or you had to think of an interaction.
• 15:55
  You put an extra few minutes into your day, you wrote it, you
• 15:59
  folded it up, you put it in an envelope, you had to stamp it.
• 16:01
  You had to put it in a mailbox. That's a lot of effort just to
• 16:05
  say thank you or hello. But you could have sent a text
• 16:10
  and said, hey man, thanks for the podcast, appreciate it.
• 16:12
  Nice meeting you. And OK, that works and that's
• 16:15
  what's expected, but it doesn't really create a relationship
• 16:19
  with somebody. So 100% it works today.
• 16:22
  And I get thank yous for my thank you notes, which is crazy,
• 16:25
  which doesn't make any sense to me, but that's what happens, so.
• 16:28
  Yeah. OK.
• 16:29
  So how long were you at this payroll company where you were
• 16:32
  under appreciated? About it for you about 14
• 16:34
  months. OK.
• 16:35
  So just over a year and then you leave, you don't have anything
• 16:39
  else lined up and somewhere between there, like what was the
• 16:43
  gap between there and starting your own payroll?
• 16:46
  Company 6 months and you know, when I quit the job, I called my
• 16:50
  father who is a was a nuclear engineer by trade, you know,
• 16:55
  very regimented. You know, he's had a few jobs
• 16:59
  his entire career, you know, just go to work, do your thing.
• 17:03
  You know, he's been very successful at it, but he had a
• 17:05
  very different mindset. He's like, are you out of your
• 17:07
  mind? You quit your job?
• 17:08
  Like how I said don't worry, I did well, like I got enough
• 17:11
  money for a year and he's like really?
• 17:13
  And then I told him how much I made my first year and he almost
• 17:16
  fell off his chair. Like literally he's like didn't
• 17:19
  even know what to say. He's like, oh, oh, OK.
• 17:24
  But while I was contemplating what I wanted to do next, I
• 17:28
  started looking in the industry and I found this company called
• 17:31
  Advantage Payroll Services. And I called them up out of the
• 17:35
  blue and I asked to speak to the president.
• 17:37
  And they're like, no, we're not going to put you on the phone
• 17:39
  with this guy. But I was persistent.
• 17:42
  The guy finally got on the phone with me and then dumbed me down
• 17:44
  to somebody else. And that's somebody else with a
• 17:47
  It was a guy named David McAllister, who's still my
• 17:49
  friend today. He's probably about 15 years
• 17:51
  older than me. And he took a shine to me and
• 17:55
  said, you know what? This kids got something.
• 17:56
  I I don't know. You know, let's figure out what
• 17:58
  to do with him. You know what?
• 17:59
  What, Rob, we want you to open our Long Island office.
• 18:02
  I was 22 1/2 at the time. And I'm like, you want me to
• 18:05
  open your office? I said, no, I don't really want
• 18:07
  to open your office. I want to own this office.
• 18:09
  And you can imagine his reaction kind of laughing, like, yeah,
• 18:13
  no, no, we're going to give you a job.
• 18:16
  And I'm like, I don't want a job.
• 18:17
  I I want to own this office. So he and I divides, devised a
• 18:21
  plan, sent to the president to say if I did certain things,
• 18:25
  they would let me buy that location back from them.
• 18:29
  It took a while, but because of David's advocacy and my thorn in
• 18:34
  the side personality, the guy did it.
• 18:38
  The guy said, OK, fine. What's the worst case scenario?
• 18:41
  The kid will sell some deals and we have a presence in New York,
• 18:44
  and then he'll take the job, right.
• 18:45
  So there was not a huge amount of downside when you really
• 18:48
  thought about it. Well, I crushed it.
• 18:50
  I killed the numbers and he didn't have a choice.
• 18:54
  You should. I remember the look on his face
• 18:56
  because I went physically to see him and the look at his face was
• 18:59
  like almost pure astonishment. It's almost a little annoyance
• 19:02
  that he had to do the deal. But I did it.
• 19:06
  And I independently owned that office of the bigger network for
• 19:10
  many years. And we were the largest out of
• 19:12
  the entire Advantage organization and the largest in
• 19:14
  New York State. So the only ones we really
• 19:17
  competed with were our public competitors.
• 19:20
  And I still look back at like, you know, the, excuse my
• 19:24
  language, but the balls that it took and the gumption that it
• 19:27
  took, I don't know that I would do that now.
• 19:30
  I don't know that I would do that now.
• 19:32
  I just didn't know any better. And I just said, this is what I
• 19:35
  want to do. And I'm going to assert my way
• 19:38
  in a positive, reflective manner until it becomes a reality.
• 19:43
  And that's how I got started in the industry.
• 19:46
  And so then what was behind the decision to exit in 2018?
• 19:50
  A lot of years. Of planning and you know, I knew
• 19:54
  from the day I started that business, I don't know if it was
• 19:57
  intuitively or, you know, through conversations with
• 20:00
  others, you know, I can't really put my finger on it, but I know
• 20:03
  it was the thought, well, am I going to do this forever?
• 20:05
  What's after this or how am I going to get the most out of
• 20:09
  this? You know, I had seen or heard of
• 20:11
  people buying and selling businesses.
• 20:13
  So from day one I've thought about the company that I would
• 20:16
  want to build and eventually sell.
• 20:18
  And as the years clicked on, you realize all of those little
• 20:23
  things matter. The soft things, the way you
• 20:25
  choose to manage, how long you keep your employees, how clean
• 20:29
  you keep your books. So when you go to sell, you've
• 20:32
  got this beautiful road map you just hand to somebody and they
• 20:36
  look at it and go, oh, wow, you know, you've got all this
• 20:38
  beautiful accounting. You had somebody here for 20
• 20:41
  years, half of your staff has been here for 20 years.
• 20:43
  That doesn't happen anymore. Well, you must be a decent human
• 20:46
  being and you must do something right by these people.
• 20:49
  So I was at a young age, I realized what was important.
• 20:54
  When I was ready to exit, the final decision really came down
• 20:58
  to it was time. And you know, I wanted to try
• 21:03
  something different and slow down a little bit and really
• 21:08
  monetize the last 20 something years of my life.
• 21:12
  The multiples were good at the time.
• 21:14
  I knew roughly what they were paying.
• 21:16
  And these public companies were loaded with cash At the time.
• 21:20
  The company that bought me was sitting on 600 million in cash.
• 21:24
  And not to, not to digress, but they need to do something with
• 21:27
  that money. They need to for the
• 21:29
  shareholders will demand that they use it, invest and grow.
• 21:32
  And they were willing to pay significant multiples to get
• 21:35
  significant books of business. And the bigger you were in my
• 21:38
  industry, it's not always the case.
• 21:41
  Usually it is the bigger you are, the better bigger multiple
• 21:44
  you command. And I commanded a significant
• 21:47
  multiple and it was enough to never have to work again ever.
• 21:52
  And at 48 years old, to never have to work again and do
• 21:57
  everything with the rest of my life on my terms was a pretty
• 22:02
  cool prospect. So that's why I decided to exit.
• 22:06
  And then the the quick two year stint growing the other business
• 22:09
  was because I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew I could
• 22:12
  do it really fast and make another quick hit.
• 22:14
  And that's exactly what I did. And so the new.
• 22:17
  Company that you started focused on some of the same services as
• 22:21
  what you just exited. Was there not a non compete
• 22:24
  there? Yeah.
• 22:25
  That's what you're sharp, Anthony.
• 22:27
  I negotiated no non compete and you, my friends are like nobody
• 22:32
  does that and and I don't think I was a genius.
• 22:34
  I don't think anything special. I think that public company
• 22:37
  realized that I'm just fodder. I'm a future acquisition as long
• 22:41
  as I couldn't take the clients that I sold.
• 22:43
  If I was out there in the marketplace building something,
• 22:45
  they're just going to buy it. Well, they didn't get that bid.
• 22:47
  They didn't win the business. There was somebody that outbid
• 22:50
  them. So somebody else ended up buying
• 22:52
  it. But you got to remember when,
• 22:54
  when even when I said we were a big business for, for New York
• 22:57
  State and ours compared to these, you know, the company
• 23:00
  that bought me is a company called Paychex Corporation, $3
• 23:03
  billion company. No, even if I was 100 million
• 23:08
  ain't this big, this big compared to that.
• 23:10
  So I couldn't really damage their business.
• 23:12
  I could only help their future grow.
• 23:15
  So I don't think it was so much about my Wiley negotiations.
• 23:18
  I think it was more about them not wanting to argue about it
• 23:23
  and realizing that they had an opportunity in the future.
• 23:25
  And yeah, in a few years, we built a nice formidable group
• 23:30
  because I knew how to sell, I knew how to build a sales engine
• 23:33
  and I had the right people in place and my key people that
• 23:36
  stayed and got the right people in the positions.
• 23:39
  And very quickly. The reason it I sold so quickly
• 23:43
  was when I, when I decided to exit the first one, I knew it
• 23:48
  had to be quick because I did not want to spend the next 10
• 23:50
  years in the industry. And not because it wasn't good
• 23:53
  to me, but because as an entrepreneur that's owned and
• 23:55
  invested in many businesses along the way throughout
• 23:57
  throughout that part of my career, I really believe that
• 24:01
  for me to try something different, I needed to leave
• 24:03
  some stuff behind. And that's what I chose to do.
• 24:07
  What are some of the other? Businesses that you were
• 24:09
  involved with along the way. I was a founder in a bank.
• 24:14
  Myself and sixty other people raised about $50 million and we
• 24:18
  created a bank called Empire National Bank and we had a
• 24:21
  handful of branches and I got to see how the banking system
• 24:25
  really works from de Novo set up dealing with all the Office of
• 24:30
  Currency can control. While I did not hold a position
• 24:33
  at that bank, I was very involved in understanding what
• 24:36
  happened and I met a lot of tremendously talented, smart
• 24:40
  people while doing that and continuing to get an education
• 24:43
  on how business works in this country and worldwide.
• 24:47
  That that bank eventually sold to a large New York based bank
• 24:53
  and it did OK. It didn't do as we expected, but
• 24:57
  everybody made money. It just should have been more.
• 25:00
  Unfortunately, when it sold, it was just not a great, a great
• 25:03
  time period for banks. But ten years after the start,
• 25:07
  the investors were demanding their, their, you know, their
• 25:11
  blood, their, their, their currency back.
• 25:13
  So the board got pressured to sell and it's fine.
• 25:16
  So that was one of them. The insurance agency you alluded
• 25:19
  to at the top, I had a partner, he did the day-to-day, and
• 25:23
  because I owned a human resources and payroll company, I
• 25:26
  was talking to the same decision makers and I sent all the
• 25:28
  business over to him to handle. I was fully licensed to sell
• 25:32
  life and health insurance, which I still carry today.
• 25:35
  Don't particularly use it, but I have it.
• 25:39
  I've invested in tech companies. I recently invested in a retail
• 25:44
  business called Kindred, the founders of Lane Bryant, the
• 25:49
  inclusive size giant that's been around for 100 years.
• 25:53
  The great grandson started a new line and I invested in that and
• 25:58
  brought some of my friends and family along.
• 26:00
  So it's been very diverse and very satisfying.
• 26:03
  Anthony, that's. Amazing, Rob.
• 26:07
  Such a fantastic collection of different business stories.
• 26:12
  Now, everything we've heard up until this point has been about
• 26:16
  success, about momentum, about positive outcomes.
• 26:21
  But as business owners, you and I have both been through some
• 26:25
  really tough things, you know, really challenging experiences,
• 26:28
  maybe some businesses that didn't work out or maybe along
• 26:31
  the way, businesses that were eventually very successful, that
• 26:34
  were hanging on by a thread. And these are the stories that
• 26:37
  people don't really get to hear as often.
• 26:40
  So I'm curious to hear about whether it's professionally or
• 26:43
  personally, some challenges that you went through and lessons
• 26:48
  that you learn coming through the other side of them well.
• 26:51
  There's there's one that I can think of that I don't really
• 26:53
  talk about that much, but you know, it came through my mind a
• 26:56
  couple of weeks back because I just recently moved homes.
• 26:59
  I moved from the New York area down to South Florida
• 27:02
  permanently and I was going through some old stuff.
• 27:05
  So it was a company called Co Central.
• 27:08
  And I started this in the middle of running Advantage payroll
• 27:12
  Services. And part of the reason I started
• 27:15
  this type of company, and I'll tell you what it is in a second,
• 27:17
  is because the payroll company was really like the hub of a lot
• 27:24
  of transactions that took place with your employees and other
• 27:26
  vendors. Nothing happens without paying
• 27:29
  your people. So what we did was very
• 27:32
  interconnected to the individuals in the organization
• 27:35
  and the decision maker that made the decision to buy our services
• 27:38
  also made the decision to buy lots of other services.
• 27:42
  So I coupled myself with seven or eight different businesses
• 27:46
  like the, the equipment leasing company, cleaning services and I
• 27:51
  created this little network, what I would call the spokes in
• 27:55
  the hub that I owned all the little pieces or made deals and
• 27:59
  I went out and marketed this as Co essential.
• 28:01
  What your business needs was the tag line and I had a launch
• 28:06
  party. I made-up all kinds of
• 28:08
  paraphernalia. It was at a airfield and we made
• 28:11
  little airplanes and we threw them at the launch party.
• 28:14
  Get it a little literal. And I had hundreds of my
• 28:16
  colleagues show up and it failed absolutely miserably, very
• 28:21
  publicly. It just didn't work.
• 28:23
  And I think it was a good idea. Did I do it poorly?
• 28:27
  Did I, you know, just make a big splash without enough back,
• 28:31
  without enough backbone behind it?
• 28:33
  Was the market not ready for a one place to buy everything?
• 28:37
  Ha, sounds familiar. Right Now you go to Amazon or
• 28:40
  other places and they aggregate everything.
• 28:42
  But this was, you know, probably 16 years ago.
• 28:45
  So it wasn't a ubiquitous thing. I keep telling myself I was a
• 28:49
  little early, but the truth is it just failed.
• 28:52
  It failed in its execution. And it's stung.
• 28:55
  It's stung because it still came up years later.
• 28:58
  Whatever happened to that company, Rob?
• 28:59
  And I'm like, ah, well, you know, it just didn't work out.
• 29:02
  And I spent a bunch of money which I never got back.
• 29:05
  But what I did learn from that, Anthony, was, you know, you can
• 29:09
  have a great idea and you can even execute it well.
• 29:12
  But if the market isn't ready for your idea or they don't get
• 29:16
  it in the way that you get it, you could have the smartest idea
• 29:19
  in the world and even get a few people to believe in it.
• 29:23
  And sometimes things just don't work, whatever what your best
• 29:26
  intentions are. And that's only one of the many
• 29:29
  stories and what's only been in the last six or seven years.
• 29:32
  Have I really talked about my public failures.
• 29:35
  Because general building my career, I wasn't waving the
• 29:37
  flag. My shit is crashing and burning.
• 29:41
  But anybody you've had on this show that's run any number of
• 29:44
  businesses has crashed and burned in many things.
• 29:47
  Most people are afraid to talk about it.
• 29:48
  And I was when I was younger, but not anymore.
• 29:51
  And I. Appreciate you opening up about
• 29:53
  that. I'm curious, you know, as you
• 29:55
  were coming through that and it was still very raw and fresh,
• 29:59
  what did you do to sort of, you know, lick your wounds and and
• 30:03
  pick yourself up and move on 'cause I mean, you'd had a track
• 30:06
  record at that point, right? And a singular track record.
• 30:09
  Remember that though, really a singular, I had one business and
• 30:12
  maybe invested in a few. But yeah, I'm sorry.
• 30:15
  And and and. You hit on the.
• 30:17
  The point that I was going to make is even with that, that
• 30:21
  track record and and, you know, a very good success story, you
• 30:25
  still questioned yourself, you know, like, oh man, did I get
• 30:29
  lucky, You know, can I do this again?
• 30:31
  Do I really have what it takes? You know, there's just a lot of
• 30:34
  imposter syndrome that kicks in after something like that
• 30:36
  happens. I had all.
• 30:37
  Those I had all those feelings and you know what I did was I I
• 30:42
  re concentrated on my core business and I said OK was this
• 30:45
  just a distraction? You know, was it because I
• 30:48
  wasn't putting the right effort into it?
• 30:50
  And the year following that failure, we had our best growth
• 30:54
  year at my core company. So I put my energies and efforts
• 30:58
  back into the sure thing at that time.
• 31:00
  And others might say, oh, well, you just didn't like the failure
• 31:04
  and you went back to the well. You know what?
• 31:05
  Yeah, I did, and I'm OK with that.
• 31:08
  The well was deep and it kept getting deeper.
• 31:10
  And I was fine with that at the time.
• 31:12
  So that was my way to cope with it, was to dive back into
• 31:16
  something that I knew really well to lick those proverbial
• 31:20
  wounds, take to build myself confidence back up again.
• 31:24
  And, you know, even the failures after that were the investments
• 31:28
  that didn't work out. I mean, I gave back in the day.
• 31:32
  It was like 50 grand or 100 grand.
• 31:34
  I forget what it was exactly. You know, I know it was $50,000
• 31:36
  to some guy. And it turns out I didn't do a
• 31:38
  background check and he was a criminal.
• 31:39
  He was stealing money from everybody.
• 31:41
  I had to go to the bank multiple times and keep presenting the
• 31:44
  check to see if he had money in the account to pay me back.
• 31:47
  And eventually I told him that I was gonna go to Newsday, the
• 31:51
  local New York newspaper. And come to think of it, I
• 31:53
  probably gonna get myself killed.
• 31:54
  I probably shouldn't have done that.
• 31:56
  And I, I, whatever that I said to him, I went, I cashed my
• 32:00
  check. And then he got arrested like
• 32:02
  six weeks later. I'm still waiting 15 years for
• 32:04
  someone to call me back and say, hey, you got your money back.
• 32:07
  Where's the rest of our money? People were listen, at the end
• 32:11
  of the day, when, when, when, when you think you can do no
• 32:15
  wrong, when you think you know that you're better than somebody
• 32:18
  else or that your one success is, you know, going to be
• 32:22
  indicative of all your future. You are sorely mistaken.
• 32:27
  And this is a big world we live in.
• 32:29
  And I stopped playing the you know, I can, you know, I can do
• 32:33
  better than this person or I can do better than that or you, you,
• 32:36
  you, you can't. And even someone like Bezos or
• 32:39
  somebody else, they'll be someone to supplant him at some
• 32:42
  point, you know, and you know what my wish would be?
• 32:46
  My wish would be that folks like me and you were, and not because
• 32:51
  of my ego. Believe me, I'm I got to help
• 32:53
  you. Enough ego, but the world looks
• 32:55
  at a Bezos and nothing, take nothing away from him.
• 32:58
  What an amazing story. But like, that's what they
• 33:01
  aspired to. Really.
• 33:03
  You really think that's realistic to aspire to be worth
• 33:07
  hundreds of billions of dollars and that keeps you going on a
• 33:10
  daily basis? I'd rather be inspired by being
• 33:13
  Anthony, you know, You know, I mean to me because that's at
• 33:16
  least somewhat realistic, you know, to be in this small
• 33:20
  business world and still live a life that people would only
• 33:24
  dream of. But that's generally not what
• 33:26
  happens. They focus on these eight or ten
• 33:30
  wicked success stories and they are awesome to follow.
• 33:33
  But that is such point. OOOO, one round.
• 33:36
  Whatever the percentage is of actual successful people in this
• 33:40
  country. So that's kind of my hope and
• 33:43
  dream is that people look at guys like you and me more
• 33:46
  towards, you know, this is what I should be striving for because
• 33:51
  not because you shouldn't reach for the stars, but because it's
• 33:54
  more realistic in today's world and you might not feel the same
• 33:58
  way or not. What do you think, Anthony?
• 34:00
  I I feel. Exactly the same way.
• 34:01
  Yeah. And as you were talking about
• 34:03
  that, it, you know, made me think of a parallel.
• 34:05
  You know, for a lot of the young women, they have body image
• 34:09
  issues because they see these airbrushed models, you know, on
• 34:13
  the on the covers of magazines and, you know, on TikTok and
• 34:17
  Instagram, Facebook. And it sets an unrealistic
• 34:21
  expectation for, you know, what they want to try to attain.
• 34:25
  And so, yeah, for guys like us or maybe people aspiring to to
• 34:30
  be, you know, us or, you know, further along, like a bit like
• 34:33
  it's, it's a similar kind of a thing like it's you're setting
• 34:37
  yourself up for failure because it's an unrealistic expectation
• 34:41
  that you're and an unrealistic sort of yardstick that you're
• 34:45
  holding yourself to. That's why the.
• 34:46
  The the book that I wrote a handful of years back, which was
• 34:49
  published by John Wiley and Sons is called The Everyday
• 34:52
  Entrepreneur. And the reason I called it that
• 34:55
  was for the exact conversation we're communicating now.
• 34:59
  Yeah, I'm an everyday regular person that just worked their
• 35:02
  ass off. And, you know, maybe there is a
• 35:04
  little luck involved. Maybe there's, there's all kinds
• 35:06
  of, you know, you know, confluences which make, you
• 35:09
  know, somebody successful. And the one thing is for
• 35:13
  certain, you don't do it alone. I've heard speakers, you know,
• 35:17
  talk and they're like, well, I did this and I did that.
• 35:19
  It drives me absolutely Batty. I don't know, you look like
• 35:23
  you're in a pretty decent sized office.
• 35:24
  You didn't get sitting in your office without the help of all
• 35:27
  the people that are sitting on outside and you just didn't.
• 35:30
  And and I know you know that, Anthony, but a lot of people
• 35:33
  don't. They just they take it to heart.
• 35:35
  This is my company and I did this.
• 35:37
  Yes, you had the idea, you had the impetus, you got it started.
• 35:41
  Yvette Hector, who helped me run my company, was my first
• 35:44
  employee. She was the she was the senior
• 35:46
  vice president at that company that I first worked at.
• 35:49
  I convinced her to leave and come with me when I was 22 years
• 35:53
  old. She had to be out of her mind,
• 35:55
  but she spent her whole career with me.
• 35:57
  And, you know, so that to me, you know, that's what that when
• 36:02
  people start really hearing those stories, they're like, oh,
• 36:05
  maybe I can do this rather than, you know, the Instagram bullshit
• 36:10
  that you see. I mean, and then I'm on
• 36:11
  Instagram and so are you, Anthony.
• 36:12
  But you know, it's a tool. It's not what people's lives are
• 36:16
  really like on a daily basis, at least my, my estimation, they're
• 36:19
  not. I know the stuff that I post is
• 36:22
  real, but it's not every day. I'm not flying in a plane every
• 36:25
  day or out on a yacht every day, you know, and it's part of my
• 36:30
  life, but it's it's not even the most important part.
• 36:33
  But you know, in today's world that we live in, you do need to
• 36:36
  grab people's attention and you do need to use the tools and
• 36:39
  techniques that work. And I won't forget that.
• 36:42
  But what I want people when they come to my social media is to
• 36:45
  enjoy the content and really pay attention to the content.
• 36:48
  I don't care if I have 10,020 thousand, 100,000 a million
• 36:51
  followers. I don't care.
• 36:52
  I'll tell you why, because I don't need that in my life.
• 36:55
  What I care about are the few that are listening and paying
• 36:57
  attention. There's a value added and when
• 37:00
  they think about me nicely and they recommend me to a friend
• 37:03
  and I get a new client, what's better than that?
• 37:06
  I don't need to impact all of America.
• 37:09
  I need to impact this teeny little bit that thinks about me
• 37:11
  on a consistent It's a much more.
• 37:13
  Realistic expectation for yourself, yeah.
• 37:16
  And so let's talk about kind of where you are today.
• 37:19
  So your your current business venture because there's a lot of
• 37:22
  people out there who present themselves as coaches and
• 37:26
  consultants, though I like the term that you use a a coach
• 37:29
  Sultan. And I think a big part, Rob of
• 37:33
  what makes you special is that you have such a strong and
• 37:36
  varied track record. Explain to me why you find that
• 37:41
  so important and how you're able to leverage those past successes
• 37:46
  and struggles to provide a a more effective message to your
• 37:50
  clients. Well.
• 37:52
  I can tell you what my clients say and the way I go about
• 37:56
  approaching an engagement is clearly I let them ask a lot of
• 37:59
  questions. But the stories I tell are about
• 38:02
  me running businesses and the difficulties they had and some
• 38:06
  of the stories we're talking about here.
• 38:08
  And when they start hearing the stories, they're like, oh, this
• 38:12
  is what happens to me every day. And the separator between myself
• 38:18
  and someone who might have gone and taken some courses and, and
• 38:21
  be certified to do something but didn't actually ever do it in
• 38:27
  this particular case is nearly, in my mind, nearly impossible to
• 38:32
  do as well as someone who's actually been there, done that.
• 38:37
  Because there's all the soft skills and the soft learning and
• 38:41
  the finesse that it takes to get to move somebody from point A to
• 38:46
  point B. And unless you're actually, you
• 38:49
  know, skilled at that and failed many, many, many times over many
• 38:53
  years to get to that spot where you can say you're an expert at
• 38:57
  something, having somebody who doesn't have those skills is
• 39:01
  just not as valuable. And this is what my clients tell
• 39:04
  me. Every single client that I've
• 39:06
  gotten on the specifically the coaching side tells me the main
• 39:10
  reason they've hired me is because what they found on the
• 39:13
  Internet about my background. And they said they said no to
• 39:16
  others that were I coached this person, I coached that person, I
• 39:20
  did this and I went to school and here's my certificate.
• 39:23
  That's all great. And I'm not saying they're even
• 39:25
  a bad coach necessarily. They just can't possibly have
• 39:29
  the types of experiences that professionals like myself and,
• 39:32
  and you have had running the day-to-day business.
• 39:35
  So to me, that's the separator. And I think the art of
• 39:39
  communicating and listening and getting your point across
• 39:42
  succinctly has has gone by the wayside.
• 39:46
  And I think when you're communicating with a prospect or
• 39:49
  a client or your friends or your family or whoever, you know,
• 39:53
  telling your story, whatever it is, getting someone to
• 39:56
  understand what you're doing and how you're doing it quickly and
• 40:00
  succinctly is the key to any long term relationship success.
• 40:05
  And sometimes I do it really well and sometimes I suck at it.
• 40:08
  You know, I'm you. Sometimes you're not on every
• 40:10
  day and you and you flub and you bomb the conversation.
• 40:14
  You're like, what was I saying? I remember the first time I was
• 40:18
  on live television. I was on Fox Business News.
• 40:22
  Who doesn't forget the political affiliation?
• 40:24
  I've been on CNBC too, but I happen to be on Fox Business
• 40:27
  News and I forgot Obama's name. I'm like the president and I'm
• 40:33
  looking and Neil Cavuto goes Obama and I'm like, yes,
• 40:38
  President Obama. And then I just went, I'm like,
• 40:41
  I'm like, they are never going to let me back.
• 40:43
  They are never going to let me back on.
• 40:45
  And I spent six years on that particular network as a guest
• 40:48
  three days a week. So, you know, even when you
• 40:50
  think you're bombing, you know, sometimes we're our own worst
• 40:54
  critics, Anthony. And I've gotten a little softer
• 40:57
  on myself. I still demand a lot, but I'm
• 41:00
  not as critical as I used to be. And I think that's another
• 41:03
  challenge, you know, with human beings where we really can be to
• 41:08
  the point we're so hard on ourselves that it cripples us.
• 41:11
  And that's an, that's an ongoing thing that I work on on a daily
• 41:14
  basis that I, I, I try to say, OK, Rob, you did the best you
• 41:19
  could. You know, tomorrow you'll do
• 41:21
  better. And if you don't, well, you
• 41:23
  know, maybe maybe this is something you're just never
• 41:25
  going to be amazing at. And sometimes it's OK, sometimes
• 41:29
  it's OK. You can't be great at
• 41:30
  everything, Anthony. And I'm definitely so it's.
• 41:32
  Just that regular sort of reaffirmation that, hey, I'm, I
• 41:37
  tried my best and just, it wasn't like a, a magic switch
• 41:40
  that sort of allowed you to be softer on yourself.
• 41:42
  It's just this repetition of, you know.
• 41:45
  You know what's really humbled me?
• 41:46
  It's I'm, I'm learning how to fly airplanes right now.
• 41:49
  And I tried this 30 year, 30 years ago, 25 years ago, but I
• 41:54
  kids and literally it was like six weeks of lessons.
• 41:56
  I I couldn't finish. I was too busy.
• 41:58
  So I said, because you know what, I got time on my hands and
• 42:01
  so I've been learning to fly in these little planes called
• 42:04
  Cirrus. It's a Cirrus SR20.
• 42:08
  The beginning of the training. I could take off the plane, I
• 42:10
  could land the plane. I'm like, this is easy.
• 42:13
  No, it's not easy. It's not easy at all.
• 42:15
  There's nothing easy about it. And I am struggling at the tail
• 42:19
  end here where all the cumulative knowledge you have
• 42:22
  gets compressed like this and you have to take this final Test
• 42:26
  with the FAA examiner and you have to do every single skill
• 42:32
  perfectly basically with zero mistakes in a, in a, in an order
• 42:36
  that they set. It can be in a particular order,
• 42:39
  it can be out. They can tell and they can ask
• 42:41
  you any question about aviation that they want 2 hour oral exam
• 42:45
  minimum and then two hours of flying.
• 42:48
  And I can't get a couple teeny pieces spot on.
• 42:53
  And I about two months ago said to myself, I was really down and
• 42:59
  I was talking to my wife and she's like, Rob, why are you
• 43:02
  putting so much effort? You don't, you're not learning
• 43:05
  to fly to become a commercial pilot.
• 43:07
  Isn't this supposed to be fun? You don't look like you're
• 43:09
  having fun. And I'm like, oh, you know what,
• 43:14
  She's right. I'm so used to doing and
• 43:16
  achieving. I took the freaking fun out of
• 43:18
  it. So I had a epiphany my wife
• 43:21
  helped me make and I, you know, I started having fun and not
• 43:24
  only did my skills get better, I didn't put that enormous
• 43:27
  pressure getting into an aircraft.
• 43:29
  When you have pressure to do something perfectly, that's not
• 43:32
  a good idea, but it's a metaphor for life too.
• 43:35
  You put that kind of pressure on yourself day in and day out, and
• 43:39
  without a release, something is going to pop and it won't be
• 43:42
  good. Whether it's a heart attack,
• 43:44
  whether it's you yell at your spouse, whether it's you, you,
• 43:48
  you, you're a horrible boss and people quit.
• 43:50
  You know, being gentle with yourself sometimes is
• 43:54
  appropriate, so I like that. Message a lot.
• 43:57
  I want to go back to we kind of glossed over the media
• 44:01
  appearances. You've had a lot of them.
• 44:03
  You mentioned, you know, Fox Business News, MSNBC, probably
• 44:08
  many others, but Fox Business News in particular, they had you
• 44:11
  on as a regular guest three days a week.
• 44:14
  It's amazing. What kinds of things do they
• 44:17
  have you on to discuss? I was on.
• 44:19
  On the air when Moammar Gaddafi got assassinated.
• 44:22
  And you know, they're like, Rob, what do you think it's going to
• 44:25
  do with the oil prices in the world now?
• 44:27
  The reason I loved it so much, Anthony, is because
• 44:30
  realistically, I don't know. I'm not an expert in the oil
• 44:34
  industry, but I live in America. I know that the threats an oil
• 44:38
  producing nation and I'm like, well, I imagine that through the
• 44:40
  Strait of Hormuz and blah, blah, blah, there's going to be a
• 44:42
  constriction. And shit just came out of my
• 44:44
  mouth and it sounded pretty good.
• 44:46
  And I think I was mostly right. But what the IT was so much fun
• 44:51
  because it was one of those times where you had no idea what
• 44:55
  was going to happen and you had to react with the calm and
• 44:59
  confidence that you had an answer.
• 45:02
  And you had an answer because your general knowledge of the
• 45:05
  world and how things basically work.
• 45:07
  And I don't have to tell you about television news.
• 45:10
  It's news as entertainment. And they try to put people on
• 45:14
  these stations which are smart. They try to can speak well, look
• 45:19
  a certain way if you haven't noticed.
• 45:22
  And for me, it was the best part of my career because I had
• 45:26
  hundreds of thousands of eyeballs on myself and my brand.
• 45:30
  I tried very carefully not to be very political because I didn't
• 45:34
  think that would help my brand. Not because I'm not afraid to
• 45:37
  speak my mind, but I got stakeholders at my business,
• 45:40
  like I talked about earlier, it's not just about me, it's
• 45:43
  about those people. And if it damaged my business,
• 45:45
  it damaged that. And I was not prepared to do
• 45:48
  that. So I was on probably for six or
• 45:51
  seven years straight and then they cycle through and they, you
• 45:55
  know, I wanted a job there and they didn't hire me.
• 45:58
  And when they didn't hire me, I was going, you know, and so how
• 46:03
  were. They presenting you This is Rob
• 46:05
  Basso. Well, they.
• 46:06
  They they for a long time, it was the I was on for a lot of
• 46:10
  the jobs reports and anything numbers related because I owned
• 46:13
  a payroll company. And if you don't know your
• 46:15
  listeners, ADP, the biggest payroll processor in the world,
• 46:20
  comes out with AD PS unemployment numbers just like
• 46:23
  the government does. So you'll hear on these talk
• 46:25
  shows, the ADP numbers are out. And I would comment on the ADP
• 46:29
  numbers and talk about unemployment and talk about
• 46:32
  small business because I had thousands and thousands of small
• 46:35
  business clients. And when I originally pitched
• 46:38
  them, this is all true. We told them that I had
• 46:41
  literally been personally in and out of thousands of small
• 46:44
  businesses, which was true. So they're like, OK, he's got
• 46:47
  the small business perspective. He's a business person himself.
• 46:51
  We need, we need new people on the air.
• 46:53
  Let's give them a shot. And then eventually, just like
• 46:56
  any media cycle, you run your course.
• 46:58
  I wasn't as valuable to them anymore and they needed a new
• 47:01
  face. And then I was gone just like
• 47:03
  that, not back on for years. So that have you been back?
• 47:08
  On Nope, no, OK, they when it was gone, it was done and then
• 47:12
  the people. Move on.
• 47:13
  They got you on and they don't care.
• 47:15
  And if you don't remember, that particular network had major
• 47:18
  problems with their CEO. I have a handwritten letter from
• 47:22
  Rodger Ailes. OK, all the Rodger Ailes haters.
• 47:25
  I didn't know what he was doing. I didn't know what type of
• 47:27
  person he was. But you know, I have a
• 47:30
  handwritten note asking me to speak at a professional round
• 47:37
  table for 30 of his young professionals that worked at
• 47:40
  Fox. I was blown away that I got a
• 47:42
  chance to do this, yet they still didn't hire me.
• 47:46
  Why? Because they could get me for
• 47:48
  free a few days a week. That's what I think didn't
• 47:51
  partly didn't happen. And at the end of the day, that
• 47:55
  experience and the major media stuff was great.
• 47:59
  I still get press coverage now, but the television stuff is much
• 48:05
  harder to get than it used to be.
• 48:07
  You know, it was really about who you knew at the beginning.
• 48:11
  And with some relationships shift, it's very difficult to
• 48:14
  just automatically pop us up as a regular guest anymore.
• 48:17
  They have different needs and wants today than they did a
• 48:20
  handful of years ago. Shifting gears, Rob, I'm curious
• 48:25
  to dive into two halves of this question with you.
• 48:29
  I think you would have a kind of a unique perspective, especially
• 48:31
  given your strong sales background.
• 48:33
  You know, as business leaders, as business owners, we're always
• 48:36
  keeping an eye on the bottom line, right?
• 48:38
  And there's sort of two ways to giant buckets or giant levers
• 48:43
  ways that we can, you know, adjust that.
• 48:44
  Number one is, you know, how do we boost sales and the other is
• 48:47
  how do we decrease expenses? Let's kind of talk about those
• 48:51
  maybe one at a time. First, on the sales side of
• 48:53
  things, what are some creative things that you've tried in your
• 48:57
  businesses and or coached some of your clients to try that you
• 49:02
  found have been successful? Well, I'm, let me think about
• 49:06
  one from current client situation.
• 49:10
  A client that runs a medical billing company and you know,
• 49:13
  they wanted to have, you know, exponential growth over the
• 49:16
  last, the last, the next few years and they were struggling
• 49:20
  deciding to where to put those resources.
• 49:23
  So the first thing we did we, we figured out was, you know,
• 49:26
  clearly who their who their audience was and who, where was
• 49:29
  the their biggest centers of influence, where they were
• 49:31
  getting the referrals from and were there any that they were
• 49:34
  leaving on the table. And then we did some testing
• 49:37
  with different opportunities within that kind of vertical to
• 49:41
  see what they responded to the most.
• 49:43
  So we took three different options about the way we
• 49:46
  communicated a particular message.
• 49:48
  And we selected one of the options because we got more of a
• 49:52
  reaction and we chose to do something that they didn't do in
• 49:56
  the past, which was online advertising.
• 49:59
  And sometimes it gets a bad name and sometimes people say it's
• 50:02
  throwing good, you know, money after bad because you, you know,
• 50:06
  who knows what you're actually going to get from it.
• 50:07
  But when it's done well with the right vendor in the right
• 50:11
  industry, it can be very successful.
• 50:14
  And they had the results that they wanted because they chose
• 50:17
  not to build out a sales team. They did not want to invest in
• 50:21
  putting bodies on the street. They wanted to do it with as few
• 50:25
  bodies as possible. You might have, they might have
• 50:26
  spent almost as much money, but it was a management philosophy
• 50:30
  that that CEO chose. And because they didn't want to
• 50:33
  have more individuals on payroll with benefits and all the other
• 50:36
  good stuff and just personalities.
• 50:38
  So he trimmed down his staff to be able to pay for some of this
• 50:42
  stuff. And the organization's
• 50:43
  subsequently grew more than it had grown before.
• 50:47
  But I think the overall answer to the question is, you know it,
• 50:50
  it depends. It depends on your industry.
• 50:52
  It depends on, you know, what your absolute goals are and how
• 50:56
  you feel comfortable getting there.
• 50:58
  For me, you know the PR. I've had a full time publicist
• 51:03
  for 25 years and even when I couldn't afford it, I did.
• 51:06
  And the reason I did is for all the reasons we've been talking
• 51:10
  about, because people automatically assume that you're
• 51:13
  connected with successful things, even if it's stretched,
• 51:17
  especially at the beginning, the whole kind of fake it till you
• 51:20
  make it kind of situation. There's, there's some truth to
• 51:23
  that. But when it comes to growing,
• 51:26
  it's it's pick, it's pulling, like you said, those right
• 51:29
  levers, spending the right amount of dollars in the right
• 51:32
  categories that makes sense for your industry to be quite frank,
• 51:36
  it's not rocket science. And most business owners after a
• 51:40
  fairly brief conversation about the options they may have in
• 51:44
  front of them do get it. And that's part of the reason
• 51:47
  about coaching. You're not there forever.
• 51:49
  You're there to kind of shepherd them along and then if you
• 51:52
  really do your job well, you instill the things you need to
• 51:55
  instill and then they move on without you successfully.
• 51:58
  Not that they need you forever. So how would you?
• 52:02
  Answer the question. OK.
• 52:03
  So yeah, it was a great. Answer.
• 52:05
  Thanks. Rob, I'm curious, how did you
• 52:07
  leverage the media exposure that you were getting for several
• 52:10
  years to actually turn that into sales and clients?
• 52:15
  Well, back back when I was doing that stuff, I also had my own
• 52:19
  little web show before people were really doing these little
• 52:22
  web shows. It was called Bassilon Business.
• 52:24
  And I would go out and interview local people, solve their
• 52:27
  problems. And I would, you know, put that
• 52:30
  out there. And then I would have live
• 52:32
  events and I would invite, there'd be 100 people that come
• 52:35
  and we'd watch the six minute episode and then the crowd would
• 52:38
  give feedback on how the person could have solved the issue or,
• 52:42
  you know, give input. So they had this 11 business
• 52:46
  owner would have 100 people, you know, helping them with the
• 52:50
  problems and challenges they have now.
• 52:51
  It took a particular business owner to be able to say I got
• 52:54
  problems and put it out there in the world.
• 52:56
  Some of them were very reluctant, but the smart ones
• 52:59
  did it and it would help their business.
• 53:01
  So at the same time I was doing the media stuff, I was putting
• 53:05
  these little videos out. So more and more people were
• 53:08
  seeing me as that business helper.
• 53:10
  Even though I owned a payroll company, I never billed myself
• 53:14
  as the guy who owned a payroll company.
• 53:15
  I billed myself as a successful entrepreneur that helps business
• 53:18
  owners. And I wanted to separate myself
• 53:22
  from my core industry because I felt that more people would want
• 53:27
  to work with me. And that's partly why the media
• 53:31
  chose to work with me. My clients, when they Googled my
• 53:35
  company would pull up five different things if I if it was
• 53:38
  against me and any other local competitor and they pulled up a
• 53:42
  Fox clip, a CNBC clip, something from The Associated Press.
• 53:47
  It's almost a no brainer. If our prices are similar, who
• 53:50
  would you go to? You're going to go most likely
• 53:53
  to the person that looks more trustworthy in the marketplace.
• 53:57
  So I can't even put a number value on how important I
• 54:02
  believed it was. And the reason I, it wasn't just
• 54:05
  my company that was successful, meaning that the buyout that I
• 54:08
  got, it was because of all of these things that I got above
• 54:13
  industry multiple. If you had found somebody in my
• 54:15
  marketplace that had a similar client count with revenue, they
• 54:19
  would have got less money because I sold the Paychex
• 54:22
  Corporation on me and the breadth that my my ability had
• 54:26
  in the marketplace and that people would continue to do
• 54:28
  business with them and they paid me extra for that.
• 54:31
  So it does matter. People think it doesn't.
• 54:34
  It absolutely does. You'll never convince me
• 54:36
  otherwise. So let's talk about the other
• 54:39
  lever. How about some creative
• 54:40
  strategies for lowering expenses?
• 54:43
  You could fire. No, I'm kidding.
• 54:45
  You would not do that. You don't fire everybody,
• 54:47
  Anthony. So the the truth is sometimes
• 54:49
  people get, companies get, do get, do get heavy.
• 54:53
  They get heavy on the employee front.
• 54:55
  It's the last place anybody wants to cut you when you when
• 54:59
  you look at these big public companies soon as their earnings
• 55:02
  are looking a little shaky, 7% gone without any thought and
• 55:06
  that's OK in that world because they have stakeholders and
• 55:09
  shareholders and they have to do what they do in some respects.
• 55:13
  But I think for small and medium sized business owners, I don't
• 55:16
  recommend being that that the place to cut because we all know
• 55:19
  the old story, how much it actually cost to train and
• 55:21
  retain somebody. You're going to find yourself
• 55:24
  needing to hire people back. It'll cost you more later.
• 55:27
  So I routinely advise my clients to have an annual or BI annual
• 55:32
  every two years review of every single vendor.
• 55:36
  It's a simple place to get low hanging fruit, but it can bear
• 55:39
  significant rewards. I had a delivery company that
• 55:44
  delivered all of the payrolls. Believe it or not, even now
• 55:48
  people still get an actual paycheck.
• 55:49
  It's not always direct deposit, so I would charge 10 bucks for a
• 55:53
  delivery and my delivery service would charge me five or six.
• 55:57
  And every year their rates would creep up six, 6 1/2 and seven.
• 56:02
  And I would renegotiate and invariably get a much better
• 56:06
  deal, which would save me, you know, eighty, $100,000 a year
• 56:09
  routinely. Many people think just because
• 56:12
  you know, the vendor's good and you have a nice relationship
• 56:16
  with them that you shouldn't to communicate with them about
• 56:19
  getting a better price. There is never anything wrong
• 56:23
  about communicating even with your best vendor to say, hey,
• 56:27
  you know, it's a competitive marketplace.
• 56:28
  We love what you've been doing for us and we really appreciate
• 56:31
  it. Here's where we are and we went
• 56:34
  out to get some competitive bidding and this is where we
• 56:37
  fall. You know, we'd like you to work
• 56:39
  with us the best you can. Almost never do they not take
• 56:43
  off something. OK, now some vendors you can't
• 56:46
  do that to every year because you know, you just can't.
• 56:49
  They need to make a living too. You got to be cognizant.
• 56:51
  You can't cut your vendors to the bone because then what
• 56:54
  happens is their business suffers and you suffer because
• 56:57
  they can't provide the service at the right level.
• 56:59
  And we can see that in today's world with the big online
• 57:02
  shopping companies and this and that.
• 57:05
  It's just, it's cut so thin that they just can't provide the
• 57:08
  level of service that I think the clients demand.
• 57:11
  That's one way. Another way is to really take a
• 57:18
  look at your staffing. And now I know we talked about
• 57:20
  not cutting staff, but routinely you can find that sometimes
• 57:25
  people that have full time jobs might not be really working full
• 57:29
  time and might appreciate a few hours less work.
• 57:35
  And I've had to do this routinely.
• 57:37
  And we carefully select the right folks that we know have
• 57:40
  other things going on in the world or, or or might be more
• 57:43
  prime to having that conversation if they're in the
• 57:45
  right department. And routinely, if you have
• 57:48
  probably more than 50 or 60 people, you would find that
• 57:52
  there are people willing to make those kinds of adjustments.
• 57:54
  And even if there were only temporary to not lose them, you
• 57:58
  know, when you needed them again full time.
• 58:00
  There is nothing inappropriate about having a professional
• 58:05
  conversation, even if it's uncomfortable.
• 58:08
  And a lot of people, especially small business owners that want
• 58:11
  to love everybody, hold on to people and they get buried
• 58:16
  because they can't afford to pay the human beings.
• 58:20
  To me, you're doing a disservice to the rest of the company, your
• 58:25
  family, your clients. If you you keep people that you
• 58:29
  can't afford and it starts hurting the the ability to run
• 58:33
  the company properly. You're actually doing a service
• 58:35
  to the stakeholders that remain does not feel that way when
• 58:38
  you're the person being fired. Believe me, I get it.
• 58:41
  But it is a function of business and it's just one of the other
• 58:45
  ways that you have to look at. And you should look at your
• 58:47
  payroll critically on an ongoing basis.
• 58:50
  Just like everybody has told you before.
• 58:52
  Your business plan is supposed to be a living, breathing thing.
• 58:55
  And you don't just make it, put it in the drawer and hope that
• 58:57
  you're following it. That is supposed to be ever
• 59:00
  present in your world and you're supposed to be tracking
• 59:02
  relatively close to that. Did I always do that, Anthony?
• 59:06
  No, because sometimes I would follow the shiny object and go
• 59:10
  Willy nilly, spend money where I shouldn't have.
• 59:12
  Then I would probably say more than half the time it didn't
• 59:14
  work because I went Willy nilly to the shiny object.
• 59:18
  So let's. Think about employees in a
• 59:21
  slightly different way. Like there are times definitely
• 59:23
  when you need to cut and it's a really hard thing to do.
• 59:26
  It's a hard decision. It's a hard conversation to
• 59:29
  have. And the other end, you know,
• 59:31
  we're still in a pretty tight labor market.
• 59:33
  And so there are a lot of businesses that are having
• 59:35
  trouble finding and then holding on to the folks that they really
• 59:39
  want to keep. I'm curious when you think about
• 59:41
  it from that perspective, what are some different things that
• 59:44
  you've tried from recruiting and retention standpoint that you've
• 59:47
  found have worked well? On specifically on the retention
• 59:51
  standpoint, it's being ultimately flexible.
• 59:54
  You know, be as flexible as you can until you feel that you're
• 59:57
  going to break because people have options, they have
• 1:00:01
  significant options. And if you're really good?
• 1:00:05
  You know, you've got more options and you I don't want to
• 1:00:07
  say you have to cater because that's a hard word, you know,
• 1:00:10
  cater to your staff, but in some respects they're the only reason
• 1:00:14
  you're even in business. And you know, there's these ebbs
• 1:00:17
  and flows where the employers feel like they're in control.
• 1:00:21
  And then there there's this flow where the the employees think
• 1:00:24
  they might have more control. I think that's all basically an
• 1:00:29
  illusion. I think if you're a good
• 1:00:31
  employer, you take into consideration the wants and
• 1:00:34
  needs as the best that you can. Everybody on an individualistic
• 1:00:38
  basis, you might say, well, I've had hundreds of employees.
• 1:00:42
  That's impossible. It's not impossible.
• 1:00:44
  It's just really hard to put that much effort into caring
• 1:00:48
  about everybody's individual situation.
• 1:00:50
  I remember one of my staff members early on couldn't get to
• 1:00:53
  work. Her car was unreliable.
• 1:00:56
  I bought her a car. Now, you might say that's
• 1:00:58
  ridiculous, Rob. You can't buy everybody a car.
• 1:01:00
  I did not buy her a nice car, but I bought her a car that I
• 1:01:02
  knew that it would get her there.
• 1:01:04
  And you know, my friends are like you're, you're out of your
• 1:01:06
  mind. She's going to take that car and
• 1:01:08
  she's going to quit in a week. It did wasn't a week, it was
• 1:01:10
  probably 6 months. But I critically needed that
• 1:01:13
  person at that time, and I got six good months.
• 1:01:16
  And she did leave and thanked me up and down.
• 1:01:18
  She found a better opportunity that was willing to pay her
• 1:01:21
  more. And that's fine.
• 1:01:22
  But business owners do what they need to do to sometimes survive
• 1:01:26
  in the moment. But if you don't treat people
• 1:01:29
  with the extreme flexibility in the world that we live in now, I
• 1:01:33
  think you're going to find yourself in a very difficult
• 1:01:36
  place. I mean, JP Morgan Chase, all
• 1:01:37
  these other companies, you're back to work in the office or
• 1:01:40
  you're fired. That didn't go so well for them,
• 1:01:42
  right? It just didn't go so well.
• 1:01:44
  The world might never go back to what it used to be.
• 1:01:48
  And this is the new new and I have friends that have had their
• 1:01:52
  whole career that are much younger than me, never seen me
• 1:01:54
  inside of an office, never had a Co worker to sit next to.
• 1:01:57
  I think that's weird, but whatever.
• 1:02:01
  They sit on their laptop and one of them is in Thailand right
• 1:02:03
  now. That's their life.
• 1:02:06
  So flexibility, I said it like four times, but be flexible.
• 1:02:10
  I like. It Rob, are there any specific
• 1:02:13
  mentors, books, experiences that have been particularly helpful
• 1:02:17
  for you in your journey you. Know I'm going to say somebody's
• 1:02:21
  name and you're going to be like, everybody's going to be
• 1:02:23
  like, yeah, figures you said this guy, but I don't care
• 1:02:26
  because I saw him live. It's it's Tony Robbins.
• 1:02:31
  And you know, he gets, you know, he's got a lot of followers.
• 1:02:35
  He's got a lot of people that don't like him because they just
• 1:02:38
  think he's a big talking head. And he is a big guy.
• 1:02:40
  He's got a big head, actually. But he is larger than life.
• 1:02:44
  And when you meet him in person and you have a conversation with
• 1:02:47
  him, it's almost like when you meet the president of the United
• 1:02:52
  States, and I got a chance to do that twice, you're almost at awe
• 1:02:55
  of the presence of an individual.
• 1:02:58
  And the way he can convey his message in a particular way
• 1:03:04
  resonated me with me so strongly.
• 1:03:07
  When I was at one of his events, it was a private event, so
• 1:03:10
  there's only a couple 100 people there.
• 1:03:12
  It wasn't one of this big massive events.
• 1:03:13
  So we really got to spend a little bit of time with him.
• 1:03:17
  He had a way to communicate how to make big decisions and then
• 1:03:21
  why, how you should make them and why you should make them.
• 1:03:24
  And after that event, there was a big decision I needed to make
• 1:03:27
  actually with a staff member. And I had a much clearer head
• 1:03:31
  about how to make that decision, why I needed to make this
• 1:03:35
  decision and how it was actually going to be better for that
• 1:03:37
  person. And he's the first person and
• 1:03:40
  the first author, you know, coach slash guru type person
• 1:03:45
  after all the readings I've done my whole career really impacted
• 1:03:49
  me in that significant of a way. And for the folks that are
• 1:03:55
  listening, he's not really just a talking head.
• 1:03:57
  And I don't work for him and I don't go to his Tahitian
• 1:04:00
  retreats. And I did buy a couple of his
• 1:04:02
  books. But I think if you find somebody
• 1:04:06
  that you resonate with and that you have this connection with,
• 1:04:09
  whatever it is, that's the person that matters to you.
• 1:04:12
  And sometimes you don't get a chance to pick and choose that
• 1:04:15
  you read a chapter out of a book or you read a line and you're
• 1:04:17
  like, like, it could be just one thing.
• 1:04:20
  And you're like, I really, I get this now.
• 1:04:22
  No one's explained it that way. And it might be different for
• 1:04:26
  you, Anthony, than it would be for me.
• 1:04:27
  My guess is it would be we're just we're we're wired
• 1:04:30
  different. We're humans.
• 1:04:31
  Everybody's got a different thing.
• 1:04:33
  And I had such an experience there.
• 1:04:37
  It wasn't like an out of body experience or epiphany.
• 1:04:39
  I don't be weird about it. But it was a, a pointed
• 1:04:42
  experience that turned my head in a different direction.
• 1:04:45
  And to this day, I, I, I, I, I, I make decisions more critically
• 1:04:50
  and more swiftly than I had in the past.
• 1:04:53
  That's terrific. Rob, I just have one more
• 1:04:55
  question for you. But before I do it, I want to do
• 1:04:56
  2 things. First of all, if you're
• 1:04:58
  listening today and you like today's content, please hit the
• 1:05:00
  like share subscribe button on your favorite podcast app.
• 1:05:03
  The second thing I want to do is tell people the best way to get
• 1:05:06
  in touch with you. Would that be your website,
• 1:05:09
  soitsrobbasso.com. We'll have it in the show notes.
• 1:05:12
  But for those who are listening and not watching ROBBAS so.com.
• 1:05:19
  And then the sort of the last thing that I, I want to ask you
• 1:05:22
  here is, you know, we were talking a little bit in the pre
• 1:05:25
  interview about how you're able to help businesses that are
• 1:05:30
  maybe at a certain stage of growth where they need some
• 1:05:32
  additional resources. I'd like to hear more about that
• 1:05:36
  and what you're able to do for those folks.
• 1:05:39
  Well, I've been recently asked and, and been taken on as an
• 1:05:42
  advisor to several companies, one in startup mode and several
• 1:05:45
  other that are mature. And they're the two that are a
• 1:05:49
  little bit more mature are having stagnancy issues.
• 1:05:54
  And you know, whether that's the need for capital for growth and
• 1:05:59
  stability, whether that's the need for, you know, connections
• 1:06:02
  in particular industries that will move the ball forward or
• 1:06:05
  acting as a board member, even though I'm not technically on
• 1:06:10
  the board to help coach and, and, and mentor the other
• 1:06:14
  executives in the organization. What some organizations find is
• 1:06:19
  that outside voice that might not even have specific industry
• 1:06:23
  experience has been extremely important to them.
• 1:06:27
  Because what they tell me and what I found out is I can walk
• 1:06:30
  into a a business and not really know a lot about the industry
• 1:06:33
  other than the basic research. And then I ask lots of
• 1:06:36
  questions. And by asking those questions, I
• 1:06:40
  see the stares in their faces like, oh, well, I'm not sure how
• 1:06:42
  to answer that. All right, I don't know.
• 1:06:44
  Do you think our clients are thinking that?
• 1:06:46
  And it creates this whole other conversation to start the
• 1:06:50
  creative juices flowing to help them solve their own problems.
• 1:06:54
  I can't always come up with a solution, but what I can do is
• 1:06:59
  push all the right levers to help people come up with the
• 1:07:01
  solutions that might already be in their head.
• 1:07:03
  They just haven't thought about it from that direction.
• 1:07:06
  And I enjoy it so much When you have a breakthrough with a
• 1:07:10
  company and they change the direction or they make a
• 1:07:13
  significant decision based on the prodding and coaching and
• 1:07:18
  mentoring that you're giving to the folks.
• 1:07:20
  It's it's there's no feeling like it.
• 1:07:22
  Yeah. And they pay me to do it, which
• 1:07:24
  is great. But, you know, the simple fact
• 1:07:26
  of the matter is I get so much enjoyment out of helping others
• 1:07:31
  that it's a joy to wake up every day and have these clients.
• 1:07:34
  So I'm looking for anybody that might be in the need for either
• 1:07:39
  growth capital, connections to that kind of capital situation,
• 1:07:43
  someone who you know, might be stagnant, or someone that just
• 1:07:46
  doesn't know a direction that they need to take.
• 1:07:49
  Someone that needs help in getting where they think they
• 1:07:52
  should be or want to be. And my track record really
• 1:07:56
  speaks for itself. My ability to not only help
• 1:07:58
  myself, but the employees that have worked for me for 20 years
• 1:08:03
  plus all did well upon the exit. And I can help people get their
• 1:08:08
  businesses ready for sale, even if it's a startup.
• 1:08:11
  And I think many people, Anthony, forget the minute they
• 1:08:14
  get into business, like I talked about earlier, you need to think
• 1:08:17
  about how you're going to exit this business, even if it's 20
• 1:08:19
  years from now. And you hear talking heads
• 1:08:22
  talking about this all the time. Very few business owners
• 1:08:26
  actually do it. And I can help you get there.
• 1:08:30
  And that's great. Yeah.
• 1:08:31
  There's such a breadth of experience there.
• 1:08:33
  You know, not only can you help coach people on the sales side
• 1:08:36
  of things, I mean, we've heard many examples of how you were
• 1:08:39
  able to, you know, rocket sales in a in a relatively new space
• 1:08:44
  very quickly. You're able to help on the
• 1:08:46
  operational side of things. You have successfully exited
• 1:08:49
  multiple businesses to publicly traded companies.
• 1:08:54
  That's, you know, just an experience that's rather rare to
• 1:08:57
  find in a coach. And and now you're also able to
• 1:09:00
  layer in some of that capital support.
• 1:09:03
  You know, again, yeah, it's maybe somebody's a little bit
• 1:09:05
  stagnant. They need to invest in some new
• 1:09:07
  product lines or some new, you know, talent to bring in.
• 1:09:10
  Maybe they're at a rapid stage of growth.
• 1:09:12
  And to support that growth, again, they they need access to
• 1:09:16
  a form of capital to help them with that.
• 1:09:19
  And So what this picture that you're painting is sort of like
• 1:09:21
  this, you know, one stop shop like total solution that you
• 1:09:25
  know, can be really helpful for a lot of different businesses
• 1:09:28
  and you know. What I found out and you and I'm
• 1:09:30
  sure you felt this way in your career, maybe this morning when
• 1:09:32
  you woke up. Sometimes it's very lonely.
• 1:09:34
  You know, you you think you can talk to your friends or your
• 1:09:37
  spouse or you know, or maybe even a Co worker, but they don't
• 1:09:41
  they don't, they're not going through what you're going
• 1:09:43
  through. They can empathize, but they
• 1:09:45
  really can't generally help you through some of these
• 1:09:49
  challenging times. And you know, a lot of my
• 1:09:52
  clients where I, you know, where I'm critically listening and
• 1:09:56
  hearing what they're saying, you know, my response has helped
• 1:10:00
  them move the needle. And sometimes it's just willing
• 1:10:03
  to, to sit and listen to someone to, to listen to you and
• 1:10:06
  understand they know what you're talking about.
• 1:10:08
  So my reaction to them is genuine and real and I, I could
• 1:10:13
  talk for hours about it. Because I've seen like on the
• 1:10:16
  camera, a lot of my stuff is on, you know, through Zoom, you, you
• 1:10:19
  look at somebody and you just see how all of a sudden
• 1:10:22
  something changes in them. And it's like, I got it, I got
• 1:10:25
  them there. And there's nothing like that.
• 1:10:27
  There's nothing like that. Rob Basso, I want to be the
• 1:10:30
  first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your
• 1:10:33
  story with us today. I really appreciate it.
• 1:10:35
  Thank you, Anthony. And you might get a personal
• 1:10:37
  note. I'll be checking the mailbox,
• 1:10:40
  folks. That's a wrap on another episode
• 1:10:41
  of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us
• 1:10:44
  today.