Alex Kutsishin is the Founder of Sales Boomerang and Chief Marketing and Visionary Officer of TrustEngine, the industry’s top-performing mortgage business that has introduced an automated borrower intelligence system.
His family moved to the US when he was seven years old. He took inspiration from his parents, who decided to venture into the world of entrepreneurship in the US. So at the age of twenty, he started his own business.
Over the years, Alex has provided several businesses with his vast entrepreneurship knowledge and a keen eye for developing and identifying new opportunities.
Routine | The Anti-Routine
Alex believes that there is a routine for breaking a routine. It is necessary to identify what needs to change in order to establish effective, healthy routines. Alex’s philosophy on doing what you love has not only motivated him but also established a culture of passion and commitment towards individual growth.
Success
Alex defines success as being at peace, happy, and okay with what is right. It requires sacrifices and the willingness to change to accomplish new goals. Alex has made a significant contribution to the development of Sales Boomerang, ranked as the No. 54 fastest-growing financial services firm nationwide and the No. 18 fastest-growing company in Maryland on the Inc. 5000 list. Sales Boomerang has also been on the list for three years, coming in at 101 in 2021 and 708 in 2022.
Book Recommendations:
The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz
Connect With Alex Kutsishin
Website: https://www.trustengine.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salesboomerang/
Transcript
Hannah Mitrea 0:05
Hello, everyone, this is Hannah, your host and you are listening to the success is routine podcast. Our show is on a mission to talk to leaders in life and business that have achieved success and to learn what their routine is, if you are ready to create your routine to success, you’re in the right place. Now let’s get started. I will welcome back everybody to the success is routine podcast. I am so excited to have Alex queued session here with us. Alex is the founder of sales boomerang and chief marketing and visionary officer of chess engine. Welcome to the show, Alex.
Alex Kutsishin 0:39
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Hannah Mitrea 0:41
And I’m super excited to dive into your teen. And I know we talked it’s almost like the anti routine that we’ll be talking about. But before we get there, share a little bit about you to all of our listeners and what you do. And you know how you got started in Annals of sales, boomerang and trust and
Alex Kutsishin 0:57
who are so again, first of all, thanks for having me. And hopefully, your audience enjoys the conversation we’re about to have, like you said, there might be a lot of anti routine routines that we talk about. But we’ll get into that a little bit down the road. So a little bit about me serial entrepreneur, truly inspired by my parents, who are both entrepreneurs as well, immigrants from Ukraine. I was came here when I was seven. They brought me here when I was seven. And a couple years after moving to this country, I just saw, my dad opened up a limo company, my mom started her own interior design business. And I’ve watched it unfold. And that inspired me to want to do similar things and sort of build businesses for myself. And so age 20, I started my first business and now with trust engine, we’re on business number nine out. So 20 years of launching businesses, I just turned 40. Now, so 20 years of launching building businesses, and it really is building teams, and go to business, go to market models. And that’s that’s my will again, we’ll probably get into some of that in just a minute. So before I got to sales, boomerang and are creating sales Boomerang, some of the other industries where there’s runs the gamut. So from the first one was medical business in the physical therapy, space, and printing Supply Company, nightclubs, apparel company, mobile software, company, consulting, practice, and then the intelligence platform, and so on. So quite quite an array of experience. And all of that actually is a big part in all of you that’s listening. Your life is made up of pieces that are like puzzles. And ultimately, when you pull back, it is a perfect puzzle. Put together, no matter what’s happened in your life, how good or bad you think it is. It it, there’s pieces that are all going to come together and what you learned here, this piece, sometimes you don’t realize the importance of it until this piece gets put in. And so all of those experiences of being in all kinds of industries, having a marketing company for actually my marketing company still exists my business partner still running it after after going on 17 years now. It has given me that ability to be extremely flexible in understanding businesses period, which is why there’s been the success that we’ve experienced. Again, we’ll probably get into it. But I think it’s important just to note, all of those previous experiences have helped create the experience needed to have been able to build the most recent couple of businesses. So been a fun journey.
Hannah Mitrea 3:40
Man, I love that they’re also different. So what’s something that you’ve taken from your very first business and like kind of like physical fitness, health, wellness, kind of that space that has helped into trust into, into going from the very first to the newest? Yeah,
Alex Kutsishin 3:55
one of the things that really stuck with me from a very early time and starting businesses was a lesson that my dad taught me, which was, you have to be able to understand every part of your business, not just the thing that you have a title for. But if you own the business, you need to know from A to Z, how things should work best. So that when you start to hire people, you have expectations, you’re not bringing them in and saying you set the expectation now, you set the expectation, right. And so that has from from the first business to trust engine that has always served me extremely well. This at that could be a routine, by the way, is to know every part of the business like we’re getting ready. I’m getting ready to launch another business here in July. Beta starts next next month, but the full business really gets launched in in July. And it’s from that that new brand new business learning, thinking about how every piece should work and knowing that if I was in that role, and my job was to take care of this one thing, here’s the level I would execute at. And so when we bring somebody in, we expect you to get that level of execution. Right? And so I think that’s one lesson that probably stick around with me until the last business.
Hannah Mitrea 5:17
Awesome. And so I know you saw your parents building these, these businesses, did you see a lot of routine from them to them? And other ways, just like in everyday life, did you see routines that kind of helped carry you into your life?
Alex Kutsishin 5:30
You know, my mom always talked about I want to her routines is to write everything down meaning goals. Don’t just think them write them down. And she used to say that, you know, if it’s, if it’s just in your mind, it’s just an idea. It’s a daydream, when you put it on paper, it’s becomes real, because what’s real is not just what you can see, it’s what others can see to. And a piece of paper everyone can see in her Oh, yeah, that’s what that’s what he wants to do. Okay, great. And so one of the routines I saw from them, or from her is always goal setting. Like, every, every time they were revamping their business, or opening up another business, or whatever it was, my mom would always start with what is the goal we’re trying to accomplish? And it wasn’t a conversation, and people gave thumbs up. Yeah, we agreed it was. Do we agree? Right. That’s our goal. Fantastic. And so I think that’s been a very big part of that I saw routine wise from her. And it’s helped me as well, that was a big part of growing up from a very early age, I would write down my goals. And have, you know, once you write it down, it felt like your butt like your entire mind shifted, your body shifted things around, you shifted, because it became real. And like you almost kept yourself accountable once it was written down.
Hannah Mitrea 6:49
I kind of I know a lot of people talk about manifestation, but a big part of that is writing it down. And it sounds like that was a huge thing, kind of, to push into those goals. And you know, a form of manifesting, you know, I’m writing it down because I’m going to make it happen.
Alex Kutsishin 7:03
I’m a firm believer and manifestation. As a matter of fact, let’s be clear. Every single thing is pencil, this microphone, this bottle. Every single physical thing that exists in this world was once a thought. Everything, there’s not one thing on the physical planet. That wasn’t once a thought. And so everything’s manifestation, everything
Hannah Mitrea 7:28
I love, I love thinking of it that way. I don’t think nobody thinks of it that way, really. But it’s true. Like, even the you know, the iPhone, that was Apple manifesting, we’re gonna do this. Nobody else does it yet. And now today, when we look like something that we all see every day and think about So, alright, well, let’s talk a little bit now, like your routine and kind of, what does that look like? What’s this anti routine that you talk about? Yeah. And how are the different routines adding up into your day to create that success.
Alex Kutsishin 7:58
So when we talk about anti routine, it’s about preventing getting stale. Now look, there are routines I have routines, I wake up every single morning, breathwork, meditation time for self, couple glasses of water, before any coffee or anything, to give the body what it needs. So my routine is a lot about wiring this human body to operate well for the rest of the day, which is stretching, breathwork meditation mindset, getting getting the sun on your face as fast as possible. It’s a very big part of what the human body needs and requires to be able to produce the chemicals and the the energy you need for the day. You know, when a lot of people start do this, and they stay on there, and then they green drink their coffee, and it starts off, you’re really kicking yourself off. Wrong. Wrong. And that could be questioned, you know that that’s an arguable statement. So I do have routines for certain things for mindset when it comes to running a business. My routine is anti routine. I am the contrarian when it comes to running businesses, if it’s been done before, it’s been done before. What can we do new? And how can we look at the same thing, but find something new. That is, to me is what’s exciting about building businesses. Building a business is like drawing a piece of art. Nobody would want to buy the same. You can’t buy the Mona Lisa. Over you’re like No, I want the original where’s the original that right? And so routine can in business can be something that limits your imagination. It limits the way that you consider the possibilities. And so, I use an anti routine which is like, here’s how we’ve always built a bit Isn’t this a? Nope, let’s try something new. Right? Here’s how everyone’s always looked at this at this part of the business, okay, then we shouldn’t look at it this way. Here’s, I’ll give you another example in I do a lot of marketing, a lot of communications work a lot of all of this. And in, in marketing, there are certain theories and philosophies that you want to follow. But I find this strange thing that happens a lot in businesses where, let’s say a financial firm says, hey, help me build a brand helped me build a business. Look at all of these financial brands, I want to look like them. And I say to a businessman, why do you need me? Now you already know what you want to look like? What do you need me for? That’s because you don’t want to look like them. You want to look like you? Right? And so one of the ways to break routines in things like that, and building businesses. And I know your whole podcast about routines is like what are you doing? Because the rest of the team is breaking routines, right? There’s a routine in breaking a routine in that. I want to be a financial, you know, I want to attract customers from my financial service. Okay, if you looked at brands like Gucci, and Prada, have you looked at Michelin star restaurants and how they promote themselves and a financial visor? But why would I want to do that? Well, because those industries compete with so many distractions that their consumers go through and yet they still get you to engage with their brand. So Mister missus financial person that wants to build a brand that looks like every other financial person. What if we made you look like a high end luxury brand, instead of a financial advisor? A lovable restaurant a, you know, a brand that is outside of your industry. So that you can really represent yourself and now what everyone else represents. And so this is just an example of my anti routine is like, most people say, Okay, well, we’re building a company. So what we are building up, you know, we need to do something, we need to come up with a slogan, right? It’s, it’s like, Wait, there’s another way to break our routine? Don’t do that. Why are you even going into business? What’s in it for you? People don’t ask themselves that question. I want to make money. Well, did you know that this particular job, whatever it may be, I’ll give you an example. Like, there’s certain parts of the of the country where sifting through trash is a very high paying job, because they’re looking for certain things, but it’s disgusting. Very few people do it. Because they’re looking for something specific that goes into research. And so it’s like, Oh, you just want to make money. You want to make good money, go do that. Very few people want to do it, you’re gonna get paid a lot of money. Why are you really doing this? Right? And it’s, and that’s, again, breaking the routine. When I talk to people about business, they’re like, I need a business plan. Why? Why do you think you need to start with a business plan? That’s breaking a routine. That’s a typical routine, write a business plan to start a business? Why? Well, because I really need to understand my SWOT analysis. Oh, where did you hear that? Or read it online? Why do you think that’s important for you right now. All these people want to follow somebody else’s routine. I anteye routine is always focus on the thing that brings you the joy of whatever you’re going to do. And then figure out how you’re going to perfect. But if it doesn’t bring you joy, if it’s not something you’re going to be looking forward to doing every day, being a part of something every day. Then none of the other things even matter. Like who cares about business plans and SWOT analysis, and all this good stuff, and SEO, it’s my other favorite thing in website building. Before we build a website need SEO. I have built as I mentioned nine businesses. I’ve helped countless other businesses build their businesses. And when it comes to website development, you know how often I start with SEO? Never see zero ever, doesn’t mean it won’t happen one day, but it’s not where I start. But if we talk about routines, and this is, you know, you asked me the question of anti routine. So I’m giving you lots of examples. If we look at, you know, developing websites, and you talk to web developers, they will start your conversation with SEO. And they may think they’re doing you a good service, but they’re really not because SEO is something that happens over time. You first need to identify who you are as a business, and why anyone would even care about visiting your website. That’s just another example of breaking routines and not using an anti routine to then get into a process that may then require routine. That’s a whole different thing. But that’s just a few examples of how I use sort of a contrary anti I routine process to get things accomplished and get them accomplished, typically in remarkable fashion, meaning they’re unique, they, they feel different, they look different, they do something that is valuable. And it’s typically done in a very different way than most would do it. So that’s why I continue to believe in an anti routine approach for myself.
Hannah Mitrea 15:26
I love that love how you’re applying it to business, because I was just talking to my dad, he’s reading a Dan Kennedy book, and Dan Kennedy says there, there’s really no new form of marketing. It’s just how you go at marketing now. And it really is looking at it and those different ways and looking at it that way, is more creative. Because everybody can go duplicate the financial advisor website and just recreate that’s easy, but it’s when you want to stand out. And when you want to be unique to who you are. And you can’t do that when you’re just copying somebody else’s things.
Alex Kutsishin 15:58
Oh, yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s remarkable to hear people say, I want us to be unique. Let’s see what they’re doing. Let’s see what they’re doing. I want to be unique, but I want to know what they’re doing. And it’s like, yeah, just just do the thing that you know, would feel good to you. And that’s enough. Because, in reality, anything that you love, there’s probably a million other people that love it, too. Mary, Meg, and I think that that’s right. And that’s another lesson that my dad taught me. Because I asked him when I was younger, I was like, What business? Should I say? I want to do something that makes a lot of money. My dad’s like, anything makes a lot of money, anything. Name it. Somebody’s making millions, billions off of it. I was like, God, that’s a good point. So I just got to find anything that I like to do. And then I will make money from it. He’s like, exactly right. Yeah. So it’s, and that’s why I have a tattooed on my body, I have a tattoo that says always. And under this, it says, willing, which stands for doing what I love, who always doing what I love. That’s, that’s the motto, right? And no routine for that. That is the routine and just do what you
Hannah Mitrea 17:12
know that I love that. Because when you’re doing something you love, you have the passion to keep doing it. Yes. And you’re going to be able to stick to a routine, I think a lot of people struggle with staying to any routine, because they do not love it. Yeah. So when you’re always doing what you love, you’re going to be able to stay to routine because now it excites you, it has that fire in you to keep smiling every single day.
Alex Kutsishin 17:36
And this is why in what you’re discovering or what you’re sharing right now your audience can really pin this back to why so many different apps these days, are trying to gamify things gamifying badging, all of that why excitement, interest, make me come back make me want to make it a habit or routine. So that’s why gamification is such a powerful thing. Because it makes you like the thing that you may need to just build a habit around or routine around. So you’ll see fitness apps, weight loss apps, meditation apps, financial apps. You know, I have this, this the tracking my with my, hey, yeah, Marathon badge, whatever it is, right? And it’s like, oh, cool. And, you know, I try to give my 10,000 steps a day, that badge is going to make me want to, because it makes me excited, just like you said, when you enjoy something, you could be more committed to it, you could force yourself to have a routine around it, because there’s joy around it. And so I think you hit on something really interesting.
Hannah Mitrea 18:36
Awesome, man, you know, and I think, you know, just even thinking about it, and Mark, because I’m in marketing, too. And so always thinking, how can you apply these things into a business? So that’s what I’m thinking of, like, when we talk about games and stuff like that? Because that is how you get people, you know, to be more invested in those things. And different things. Yes. So what is something when you’re going out to Santai? Or TNC? You get a business or, you know, and they’re like, I want to do this way. I know, you kind of mentioned like, hey, how do you like get it stuck in their head really, to make these different changes? Beyond just saying, hey, look a good product, maybe they don’t like those brands, and now they’re like animal, it’d be like them. So what are the things you’re doing to make them understand how you have to change?
Alex Kutsishin 19:21
So I think one of my favorite things when consulting for new businesses or businesses that have been around that need to need to transform, it does go back to you know, this not not surprising. Simon Sinek did a great job about talking about the why. And starting with why. And it’s in it’s more than just the y alone. So I can give you some examples from here. I’ll give you a couple of examples of a real scenario where I told somebody, uh, you don’t need my help. But let me ask you a question. It’s my favorite thing to do. You don’t need my help. But let me ask you a question since you’re already here. One is a great case study. Have a friend of mine, that that I met when I owned my first nightclub in Baltimore. And his name is Rich, and he came to me. And he said, Hey, I want to open up a business. And I want you to help me create a logo, website and advertising. I said, Oh, fantastic. Well, business, he said, I want to open up a business for what’s it called? Not appraisals, home inspection, Home Inspections. Pretty simple. I said, Okay. I said, so you’re gonna do all these things? And he said, Yeah, I’m gonna build a website advertising by billboards, all this good stuff. I said, Oh, I said, same thing. I just thought your second this is real. We can get him on the phone, he can tell you the story. I said, well, then rich, you don’t need me, you already know what you’re going to do. So really a second, that would be way too expensive. You don’t want to use me, you know what you want. The people come to me when they don’t know how to get to a place. You know what you want. So just do it. He said, Okay. And you recommendations, a web that I said, sure. I’ll recommend everyone. I said before you go. Why do you think you need those things? And he said, Well, launching a business. I don’t need a website I need. I need to advertise myself. I’m thinking of doing radio ads. Like why do you think you need that? Well, how else will people find me? I said, Rich. Let me ask you a question. What was the last time you know, anyone? That search searched for a home inspector? He was like, I don’t know. I said if you do know, he’s like, Yeah, this my two homes, his own two homes. By the time Ross speaking to him, said, Did you look up a home inspector? No. I said, let me ask you. How did you find your home inspector? I said I didn’t my realtor gave it to me. I said, Ah, so why in the world do you need billboards? Why do you need ads? Why do you need a website? And then he started listening. Then he leaned in, he’s like, Oh, you got my attention. Said you don’t need any of that. I said, you need to become the guy. What do you mean? I said, every Realtors got a guy got a gal got a guy, they got somebody, your job is to become that person. Your job is not to become great at being found on SEO or, or, or search words or me driving past your billboard, go one day when I buy a house, I’m gonna get an inspector. Nobody’s doing that. Nobody’s thinking about it. A realtor. And even a realtor isn’t thinking about it. But you know when they do think about it, when that guy doesn’t answer their phone call. When that guy messes up a relationship when that guy’s late when a guy doesn’t submit paperwork. Now they’re going I need a new inspector where can I find one so guess what your job is? Your job is to become that guy. He’s all like be taken notes sent home it’s not much there’s not going to be much notes to take what’s interesting for rich and this is the other thing that’s very important to your question is what do I do with people like this? I find their unique advantages advantages that they only have that nobody else has. Riches last name was Beck named Most companies called Beck inspects Okay? His name is also tied to a billion dollar brand, a billion dollar brand that spends lots of money getting his customers realtors to drink their product. Beck’s beer. This ad rich, very simple. You don’t need any websites. You don’t need anything. You were one of the nicest people. I know. That’s another advantage for him. Said you’re one of the nicest people I know. Follow this and you want to write some down, write down this script. You’re going to go pick up about 10 different cases of six packs of Beck’s you’re going to go to a realtor’s office, you’re going to drop off the backs beer and say, Hey, someone dropped off this beer for you guys in this hot summer day. And, you know, I’m very trustworthy person. People would, you know, trust me to babysit their kids or their dog. I just so happened to be an inspection business. You can look him up. He’s one of the biggest inspectors right now in the East Coast. All he does to this day is drive around drop off Beck’s beer. So he does to this day, no, no advertising, no radio shows no nothing. So why I’m bringing this up routinely. I need a website, I need advertising. I need all this. And people spend 10s of 1000s of dollars to get zero value is unique advantage was that he had a name that matches something that is customers love to do, which is drink beer. He has a personality that people want to trust, which is what Realtors need to somebody they can trust. And you’re just a friendly person. And so his win wasn’t a great website wasn’t a great logo, which was a great logo, by the way which we helped them design. None of that was the winner. The win was doing an anti routine approach and saying, I’m not an inspector. I’m a nice guy that happens to be an inspector, have a drink. And then people would call him Hey, are you he told me a story. Hannah. You’ll love this. He called me and made brought tears to my eyes actually. He told me he went to a conference a convict conference for is industry. And on stage this guy is speaking. He’s just there listening, taking notes. This guy’s on stage. And all of a sudden he starts to tell a story. He’s like, Listen, I want you all to to to hear the story about this guy out of Maryland. Talking about rich, richer sound. No clue is sitting in the audience. Thanks. Any no clue, he’s sitting in the audience. Okay. He goes, this guy starts giving a beer to realtors. And it’s the same name as his company. And Rich is sitting there going. There’s somebody else doing this in Maryland besides me. So he couldn’t remember the guy’s like, the guy on stage couldn’t remember, but rich riches company name back. And, you know, he told him about He’s like, he’s like, I will email everybody. I can remember. I will email everybody will rich gets up. And once everybody’s done talking to him, he goes, flags them down. He goes, Hey, can I ask you a question? We thought he pulls out his business card we talking about this company’s I guess that’s me. He’s like, that’s you. He’s like, That’s me. And so his approach got recognized. He wasn’t, he wasn’t even asked to be talked about. This guy just talked about him. And I had it. It’s real. That’s the thing I was talking about earlier. It’s real. It’s unique. It’s his, it’s nobody else’s, nobody will confuse him for anyone else. And the thing is, if somebody was to copy him, they would know that they’re copying him know, somebody clever, will get creative and make it their own. And it will still work. Because we can I can give you 1000s of examples of somebody that took somebody else’s idea, but made it uniquely theirs. And it works. But a lot of people don’t have the creativity to make it uniquely theirs. They just copied, and it didn’t understand they go Why isn’t this working for me? Because the genuine that the real you isn’t coming through, what’s coming through is somebody else’s essence. You want it to be yours, but it’s not. And so you’re going to have a much tougher time doesn’t mean you’re going to fail just means you’re going to have a tougher time getting to where you want to go. And so that’s one example. I’ll give you another example. And then you probably have other questions. I talked to somebody came to me and said, I want to start a property management company. Okay, I find build a property manager, why are you talking to me, you’re in your what you want to do? Well, we need loads of the same story. And we need all this stuff. And you will know what you need, you need to hire somebody that just doesn’t for you know what you need. So I did my normal thing said, See you later. But before you go, could I ask you a question? Why are you starting a property management company? Oh, we want to work with Airbnb, renters to make the experience for the people that stay in their homes really unique. I mean, I’m just blown away by this. I said, Okay. Why are you starting a property management company again? Well, because, you know, that’s, that’s who these Airbnb people hire, they hire property managers to manage their properties. So wait a sec, you didn’t say you’re starting, you just told me you’re doing this. Because you want to make people have great experiences while staying at these places. That’s not a property management company. You may manage properties as a thing you do, because you’re making experiences great. But your business is making vacationing, more exciting, more memorable, unforgettable, something to talk about whatever it is, that’s what you’re doing. And again, people’s people’s minds just kept blood like, yeah, that is what so is that not a? No, it just so happens, that you’re going to do Property Management while you’re creating these experiences. And then it clicks for people like, Yes, that’s right. And now they can become uniquely themselves. And of course, we went from being a property management company looking like a property management company. Very simple plan, even very simple plan. Again, this is by the way, this this, this group, husband and wife team, had been trying to launch this property management company for a couple years. They were doing it there. on off on off none. I said, I’m gonna give you a simple strategy. Okay. You don’t need to spend a dime to do this. Okay, you will want to execute, but you don’t need to spend a dime.
Alex Kutsishin 29:22
Your job is to make experiences for people. Yes, yes. What does that mean? I don’t know, said here’s what it means. It means I’m willing to spend more on this Airbnb than somebody else’s. And their eyes got wide. I said, Why am I sharing this with you? Because as a Airbnb property owner, that’s what I want you to tell me. I’m going to I’m going to create an experience so you can charge more for the same room, more for the same house, more for the same apartment, whatever it is. Nothing changes, but you’re going to charge more 20 30% more when you use my experience platform over whatever you’re doing with Another property manager, try that I said and then prove it. When somebody responds, tell them, you don’t want to talk to them on the phone, you’re going to meet them at one of the places that you’re going to use in creating the experience for for visitor. Shit, you’re not Hana. At properties from one meeting, I got 80 properties from one meeting they put out there, when people use our platform, they can charge 20 30% more because of the experience we create. person responded right away. They said, Hey, let’s have a call. The husband said, no, no, we want you to experience what your what your customers are gonna experience. Meet me here at this time. For this reason. He had talked to a restaurant owner, the chef create a special meal that did the whole thing. The guys like I’ve 80 properties, can you manage all of them? Oh, wow. That’s years years, they were promoting Property Management years? Yes, some? No, I need to cancel one meeting at properties. And now I haven’t talked them in a long time. I don’t know. They’re, they’re probably doing incredibly well. My point is, this isn’t to to promote Alex and his ability to market and build businesses, it is to say that sometimes anti routine can help you get into a place where a healthy routine will be necessary. But you may want to break the mold first. Find yourself in that thing that you broke, that is now yours, right? And then go out and build repeatable, scalable processes, routines, and things that you can measure and do. And don’t get me wrong, people should have their own routines, like health routines, workout family things, that’s that’s, but when it comes to building businesses, and this is what your podcast is about. It might be a healthy dose of, of breaking routines to get to a routine.
Hannah Mitrea 31:45
Yeah, and I love both of those stories in and it reminds me of like social media, everybody comes to us and goes, I want to do social media. I tried to make people away. So we have 10 followers, why? Why are you going to spend money on social media, when you should be spending it on XYZ, that’s gonna get you clients now. And they all look at me but it’s in, you know, it’s kind of that my tips here to it is a routine of marketing for them. This is a routine that I get the website, I get the SEO, I do this. And like so many times, we’re like, you’re not ready for that like, or you need that. But it is a routine. So it’s really interesting to like, even think of it in that way. One question I have here, and then we’ll jump to the success that you’ve had is how many people come to you that ends up, you know, they came with gear saying I want to do this, and then end up leaving with a completely different business idea. Because I realized they didn’t want to do that. They didn’t have any passion, they were only doing it for the money.
Alex Kutsishin 32:44
100% of everyone that comes to me with a predetermined plan typically leaves going Holy crap, I did not think of it that way. When somebody comes to me, and they share their idea, and it’s I had this just last last year with an incredible technology company in the, in the tech space, to share the concept with me, and why they’re doing it and how they’re going to do it. The reason? Perfect, there’s no reason to even challenge that it was like, You got it. Now let’s talk about execution. Like how are you going to do it? But, you know, we don’t talk execution until the idea and the reason for that idea. We can agree that it is exactly what they’re aligned in, in their sole forte right now. So, but I’d say most conversations I have when people come to me thinking they already have what they need and they just just need someone to help them bring it to life. Those typically are you know, like I said 100% of the time it’s like oh, shoot, I never even thought about it that way okay. Because we get you know, this is something else to think about when when we’re talking about manifestation you know, anything you can imagine it’s going to sound strange to your audience and maybe even you anything you can imagine is limiting and is limited let’s let’s unpack that for a second. Now let’s how in the world could what I imagined be limiting? Well because you can only imagine the things that your mind has ever stored. Okay, so if I’ve never seen sage before okay never seen sage never even heard of sage before. I couldn’t imagine a way to purify the air or clear the air or I wouldn’t know it’s I couldn’t even imagine it. So I would have to think of incense that go Yeah, incense limited. I’m limited to what I know. Now. And so often. A way to get to a place that is beyond the imagination is simply connecting to the feeling, not the physical manifestation of what you’re wanting. So an example of that would be For I want to Ferrari, I’m just making this up. Okay? If I just focused on a Ferrari, and literally, the Ferrari itself what I was really hoping for is the exhilarating experience of driving a supercar. But all I know is a Ferrari. So here comes a McLaren. I go, not a Ferrari presented to me, named to me, beautifully. Here comes a coin segue. A lot of people don’t even know the name of this car. Not a Ferrari. And your Ferrari may never come with two cars that are far more supercars than a Ferrari is just landed on your doorstep. But you had a limited view. You said I need a Ferrari, a cherry red Ferrari for that. And it doesn’t come it reminds me of the joke. Okay, limited, limited thinking you’re imagining, it reminds me of the joke where the person is you ever heard the joke? Where were the person their house is flooding? And, you know, a truck pulls up and says, hey, we’ll save you. And the person says, you know, I’m not getting religious here. But the person says, God will save me. Well, the water level rises, they get on the he gets on his roof. A boat pulls up, says jump in, we’ll save. He said No, God will see. Ready, helicopter comes, jump into the walk. Come on, you’re about to be dead. No, God will say, Well, he ends up in heaven. And he says, God, why didn’t you come save me that’s like I sent you a truck on boat and a helicopter wrapped. Its limited belief because he expected a hand to come down and just save him. Right. And so this is the same thing when we when we want to accomplish something. If we just connect to the what it is, we want to feel from this accomplishment. I want to feel joy happy. Just want to be excited. Here comes a McLaren that satisfies that. This it’s not let’s not limited to a little box that satisfies that. Because I’m just looking for the joy of driving a supercar that the feeling of being seen in a supercar by my friends, whatever. That thing’s just what that feeling is what the excitement of that what happens is limitless possibilities come. And then businesses and things like, oh, I don’t know, Airbnbs of the world show up, right? Because nobody said I wanted to build that business showed up limitlessly, because there wasn’t this limited belief of what you’re trying to create. It’s more of like, what is the feeling I want to have? And why do I want that feeling because it makes me feel good, great, then it can show up in any form. And you could take advantage of it in any form, not just the limited form that you can imagine. So this is a really interesting thing for everyone that that’s that’s listening to this to this podcast, is that think about what you want, but let go of the physical manifestation. Just hold on to that feeling. And watch what you want come to you in millions of different forms.
Hannah Mitrea 37:57
Yeah, I love that. And I think like expectations and letting go though, yeah. And enhance on one thing my husband taught me very early on not to expect things because when you expect you get disappointed, but also, it’s limiting you, I expect this, this is what I want. And that’s like, well, I’m going towards. So I love hearing it from that direction to just breaking your limitations essentially, about totally back. So I want to talk about success before you have to run I want to make sure I respect your knowledge. So talk to me about how you define success.
Alex Kutsishin 38:30
Now, it might not be come as a surprise after the conversation we’ve had. Just feeling at peace and and, and happy, right like that. That is success. For me, for talking about financial success, that’s a little different, or material success, that’s a little different, which I enjoy those things too, by the way. Or for a very long time. I was coin operated, right? It’s like hey, what’s gonna make me the most money I’m gonna go do that thing. That was a very young way of thinking about it early 20s way of thinking about success. But today success is like you know, being at peace being happy being being okay with what is right. Wishing something different from the moment that I’m in right now that to me success if I can be happy right here. That’s That’s great. That means I’m happy in any moment. If we’re going to talk about material success and success from business and being recognized like Entrepreneur of the Year two times in a row from Ernst Young, you know, fastest growing company in the country. 101st fastest growing company in the country, 49 fastest growing technology company in the country, that kind of success. The way you get to that success is by doing what the tattoo says doing what you love, right? It’s in a lot of times getting to that material success. You are going to find yourself in moments where you’re not happy with where you are in this moment happens lot in business had a bad quarter, it’s not where you want to be, you want to change, you want to be in a different place, working to one o’clock in the morning to make sure that you satisfy a need of a customer, you may not want to be there until one o’clock in the morning, you want to get some sleep you want to be with your kids, your wife you’re doing. I remember being 20 starting my first business, my friends on Saturdays are partying at these amazing clubs. And I’m like, I gotta go to bed because I got a business to run at 20 years old, and you’re going out partying, I think I wanted to go party too. And there’s, there’s some of that sacrifice. And that’s what happens when it comes to material success. material success comes with sacrifice. And it’s an exchange, it’s a sacrifice for an exchange, and then hopefully it pays off at the end. And so when I think about success, it’s it’s material and non material. And non material, as I said, just being happy in your skin and being at peace, material success, the sacrifice, right? Are you willing to sacrifice some of the things today for the material success, the financial success of tomorrow? Are you willing to admit your mistakes? Are you willing to be vulnerable? That all comes with material, if you’re chasing material success, it’s going to it’s going to require some of those things. And then I always recommend having a team around you, right, never try to do it on your own. Never assume you’re the smartest person in the room. Always be willing to learn. Be willing to change your habits and routines. If you want to accomplish new things, if you’re happy with where you are, and you don’t want to accomplish new things continue to do what you’re doing. And actually, often to keep getting the same success that results that you’re getting, you need to change things because the one constant is changed, right? And so if you don’t change your routines and the way you do things over time, they will deteriorate and they won’t have the same value, as they did before. In most cases. Not all cases, most cases. But that’s how I look at success two different ways material and not material.
Hannah Mitrea 41:55
Yeah. And I agree, I think routine is constantly evolving and changing with you as you grow. And if we keep the same routine that we had when we were teenagers, guess what I’d be sleeping till five every day faint. That’s great. And all those things. So two questions before I let you go. One is if somebody is in no place a routine, they don’t have a routine or an anti routine. They’re trying to grow their business. What’s the one thing they need to start doing right now? To kind of take that next step?
Alex Kutsishin 42:27
If this is an existing company that’s trying to grow their business, yes. That’s the best starting Yeah. Okay, so let’s answer, Bob. Somebody that’s got an existing business that’s looking to grow it is, I’d have lots of questions of industry and what how long they’ve been in business and all that good stuff to answer to do a really good job answering. The easy sort of like, I don’t want to call it a cop out, but just like a broad a broad answer would be for an existing business to grow their business is. Surely, my mentor, Paul Natan, who’s passed away he wrote this amazing book of, they’re all acronyms can clear the air meeting, like he’s got all kinds of acronyms. He said something, it’s, I think it’s probably in this book, too. That is a great advice for existing businesses, grade your clients, grade your clients, you want to grow your business, grade your clients A to E. And at the end, anyone that C, D, or E, cut them off right away. Focus on A’s and B’s, and make sure the B’s turned into A’s but focus on the a’s and b’s. You want to grow your business, charge more, have better customers, better referrals easier to work your business better to scale, raise your clients, anyone that’s seen or less, don’t even feel bad about it, cut them off, and then raise your prices. Simple. So that’s, that’s an existing business and your business that’s trying to start this trying to, you know, really find their niche or get going. I think we kind of covered some of that. Is that not the industry that you’re going to be in not a property management company or a home inspection? Okay, that is a an overarching kind of broad industry that you’re going into. What are you trying to accomplish and why? That’s answer that question before you do anything else? What do you try to accomplish and why you’re trying to accomplish it? And what’s in it for you? What are you going to get out of it? Right? If it’s just money, consider things that make lots of money that a lot of people don’t want to do. There’s a lot of those things. Some that don’t even require schooling at all. Just people don’t want to do them like the trash thing I was telling you about. I wish I could find others or specific name for it. But you pay get paid high six figures, but you’re dealing with trash all day. Like the turnover there’s like insane, but you want to make good money. That’s the way you do it. So that would be my advice. For a brand new startup that’s just thinking about business is, what’s in it for you? What are you trying to accomplish? You know, and why? Why are you doing this? That’s, that should help clear the air for making better decisions.
Hannah Mitrea 45:14
Awesome. And my other question is, if you were to recommend a book, what’s that one book, everybody needs to read?
Alex Kutsishin 45:21
The Go Giver, the giver, Bob Berg, the Go Giver must must read for everyone several times. The other one would be the Four Agreements. And the other one would be remarkable.
Hannah Mitrea 45:32
Awesome, isn’t it? We’ll put everything in the show notes, as well as information to connect with Alex, go to his website. And really explore all that. Thank you so much, Alex, for joining me on successively 14 Today, both having you learning all the different stories. I think that is the best way to learn is to hear the story. So thank you for joining us.
Alex Kutsishin 45:50
Oh, my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me on. I hope you and everyone gets some value out of this. I enjoyed it very much.
Hannah Mitrea 45:57
Awesome. They definitely. Thank you for listening to success is routine podcast. If you found value in this episode, share it with a friend episodes go live weekly on Sunday at 8am. Cyber week with the right routine, like follow and review the podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, or wherever you’re listening during the success and routine movement and get exclusive downloads and content from the guests go to www dot success is routine.com and follow the conversation there or on social media. Until next time, remember,
Alex Kutsishin 46:31
you have to be able to understand every part of your business. You need to know from A to Z, how things should work best. So that when you start to hire people, you have expectations. You’re not bringing them in and saying you set the expectation now you set the expectation. Anti routine is always focus on the thing that brings you the joy of whatever you’re going to do. If it doesn’t bring you joy, if it’s not something you’re going to be looking forward to doing every day. Being a part of something every day, then none of the other things even matter think about what you want, but let go the physical manifestation just hold on to that feeling and watch what you want come to you in millions of different forms. Just feeling at peace and and happy. Right like that. That is success.
