Resources in this Episode

Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hi Gorgeous. This is episode number 132.

Mitchell Russo [0:07]
Hi, this is Mitch Russo, you are listening to Heart Sells! Podcast with Christine Schlonski. Enjoy.

Christine Schlonski [0:14]
I’m so excited to share today the wisdom of Mitch Russo. And we’re going to start with his story because the story itself is so inspiring. Mitch created outstanding results when following his heart when listening to the nudges of the universe. So he has started a software company in his garage, then he sold it for eight-figures. And then he went on to work directly with Tony Robbins and Chet Holmes to build a $25 million business together. Wow! He’s also written several books. One of them is, The Invisible Organization: How Ingenious CEOs Are Creating Thriving, Virtual Companies. His new book is called, PowerTribes: How Certification Can Explode Your Business! Let’s follow his story and see how his life exploded, and how he was able to achieve these outstanding results. I hope you are inspired and have fun. Well, I’m so excited to have Mitch Russo on the show today. Welcome, Mitch.

Mitchell Russo [1:26]
Thank you, Christine. Delighted to be here.

Christine Schlonski [1:28]
Yes. I think your story is such an amazing story for a podcast that is focused on sales-success stories, and the pleasure to have a long chat with you. So I know your heart-centered and the way you are approaching. Yep, tribe building, I want to say, is really, really amazing. So maybe we can start with your personal story, a little bit, to give the audience some more information, then, you know, just that you sold the eight-figure business and went working directly for Tony Robbins and Chet Holmes like you would do that every day, right? Give us a little bit of background.

Mitchell Russo [2:13]
Well, my background might to some people be a little unusual. I started out as a young teenager, creating a rock band in high school. I did that because I was so shy, I had no other way to meet girls. So I figured with a rock band, if you can’t meet a girl with a rock band, then give it up, you know.

Christine Schlonski [2:36]
Yeah, smart.

Mitchell Russo [2:38]
Right. So that turned out to work very well. I had all kinds of social interactions after that. But really, the most important part of that story is the fact that it taught me so much about business, that ultimately, all of the core lessons that I needed to learn to run a company came from leading a rock band as both lead guitar player in a manager. So that was a great experience. It led me to several places some good, some not so good. So it led me to lead us really to becoming the probably the most highly paid High School rock band in the entire area. As we learned how to raise our prices in a gradual way so that we were able to then charge more every time we played. And just to give you some perspective, this is back in 1970, 1971, we were charging $500 a night. And that’s a lot of money back then, particularly for kids too young to even drive. So it was great. But the bad part about it was that I did end up getting involved with drugs. And that led me down a pathway towards addiction. So I became addicted to narcotics, in high school, shooting heroin. And I had to pause my life for approximately 18 months to recover from that after I basically needed to go to a rehab center in New York City. But that turned out to be just about the greatest blessing I ever received. Because I came out of that rehab center, completely clean and sober and more importantly, totally focused on being an adult and getting really clear on what my goals were and what my objectives were. And I just decided that I was going to go for it. And that’s what I did.

Christine Schlonski [4:41]
Wow. Yeah, I didn’t know about that part. So that’s, that’s really amazing, like, admitting looking for help. So many people might have a challenge asking for support. So you really chose life. And then, you know, not just living but really making an amazing success story out of it.

Mitchell Russo [5:08]
Well, didn’t quite ask for it. A little bit, it was my parents found out about it. And at that point, they insisted that I get help, which is smart, and was a very good move on their part. Ultimately, it was because of that, that I ended up in rehab.

Christine Schlonski [5:28]
Okay, well, good, good for your parents that they found.

Mitchell Russo [5:30]
Yes, exactly.

Christine Schlonski [5:33]
Sure the story would have been different if they wouldn’t.

Mitchell Russo [5:37]
Of course.

Christine Schlonski [5:38]
Yeah. But I mean, that’s really amazing. Like in the beginning of the 70’s asking $500 a night. I think still for today, that’s a pretty good paid for a high school rock band.

Mitchell Russo [5:52]
Probably.

Christine Schlonski [5:54]
Did you apply certain principles or did you just rock the whole room that everybody wants to hire you?

Mitchell Russo [6:02]
Well, that’s an interesting question. Here’s the way I chose to approach it. We had to overcome the name of the band first, the name of the band was, Absolutely Free. I named the band after my hero, Frank Zappa and that was the name of his first album. I was lucky enough to go visit him during those early years. I saw him at the Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village, New York. I wasn’t there for this. But there was a rumor that he was standing outside that first week handing out his new album called, Absolutely Free. I miss getting it for free. But it turned out to be one of my favorite recordings of all time. When it came time for me to start a rock band, I figured, why not name it after my heroes first album, and that’s what I did. Unfortunately, most of the moms who tried to hire us for sweet 16 parties thought that was the price. A little bit difficult to overcome. However, over time, you know, we started with $50, $50 a night. And then from there, you know, we just kept what I would call price experiment things. So we’d go from $50 to $75. Then we’d raise it maybe to a $100. Then once we’re getting gigs at a $100, we’d raise it a little more. We just kept doing that until we hit some resistance. So over $500, we started to hit resistance. So at that point, we basically held that at $500, which was great, we made a lot of money as kids for basically doing something we love. Later, several years ago, I wrote a pod, I wrote an episode for my blog called, How being the lead guitar player set the stage for being the CEO, which I hope if you like you could share with your readers with your listeners. And in there, I document the lessons that I learned in building a rock band as they applied the business.

Christine Schlonski [8:15]
Yeah, I love that. I love so many parts of that story. So first of all, you did something you really enjoy, your love, right? You didn’t just come up with an idea where you thought, “Well, this could potentially make some money.” Then, obviously, you had a challenge and you were able to overcome that challenge by creating something that closes the gap to communication. Which is super smart. I love the piece where you started asking for money probably like every, all the other bands, like maybe for 50 bucks, and then you raise the pricing. So you adjusted to the market. And you were really playing and testing, which I think is sort of so important. Because if you just put a high ticket, but people don’t know you, you can’t really sell yourself, then it’s not working. So smart approach. And we also learned something about branding. If you call your brand with something with the word free in it, it might be difficult to charge, right?

Mitchell Russo [9:21]
Exactly.

Christine Schlonski [9:22]
So wonderful stories. Yes, I’m happy to share that blog post, I’m sure it will give a lot of additional value to the conversation that we’re having already. Which is really, really great. So what happened when you then came back from rehab, and you focus like, what was your next step in life? Did you start to build a company right from scratch there or what keeps you up?

Mitchell Russo [9:50]
Well, I guess I had to finish high school first.

Christine Schlonski [9:54]
Oh, okay.

Mitchell Russo [9:55]
Yeah, I did. I came back after rehab and finished high school. And a big difference was I was getting, you know, kind of B’s in a couple of C’s, and maybe an A every so often. But when I came back, I was getting straight A’s. Because I was so focused on getting out of high school and moving on with my life. So for me, once I realized that “Look, to be successful, you got to have an education, you got to know what you want, and you got to go for it.” And so when I said to myself, “Look, it’s the only thing I could do is really get a high school education. So the simplest thing in the world, you just got to do it.” From there, I decided that I was going to pursue the one thing that I’ve always loved all of my life, which was electronics. When my mom asked me what I wanted to do, how do I want to study electronics? I said, “I don’t know. But Ralph, the guy who comes to the house to fix the TV is a really nice guy. And I wouldn’t mind learning how to fix TVs. So I could go door to door helping my clients get their TVs repaired.” And so my mom and I came up with the school for TV repair and the Technical Institute. And I went there. And it’s it was a two-year program. I got it done in 18 months, and the very last semester was called Digital Electronics. Now, back then, it almost was baffling as to why they would teach digital electronics in a TV repair class because of TVs world tubes. So we always made fun of it, and said, “Well, what the heck are we doing in here? There’s no digital electronics and TVs.” Turns out that course and that instructor was the turning point in my entire career. And I’ll tell you why. The reason why is because he saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. And every day after class, he would call me up. And he would, the first time he called me up, he gave me a textbook. And he said, “I want you to read Chapters one and two and do the exercises at the end of Chapter two.” And I said, “I would.” And I did. And I came back the next day with all the exercises done. And I gave him the book and I started to walk away and he goes, “Wait a minute, where are you going?” I said, “I did what you asked. What else do you want?” He goes, “I want you to go on to do chapter three. I want you to go through the book, one chapter at a time and do all the assignments.” And I said, “Oh, okay.” And then I never really asked him why he was doing that. I figured maybe he just wanted me to help him or something. I didn’t have any clue as to what was going on. I just did what he told me. And after the semester was over, he and I became friendly. And we had many, many serious talks together. And he told me that he saw an aptitude in me that he had not seen in other kids for a long time. And he wanted to basically cultivate that. And so by the time that course was over, I knew I would. And he told me, “Mitch, you will never fix a color TV set in your entire life. You belong in the computer industry.” And I said, “Oh, okay, great. Yeah, I’d love to do that. Because I love to build things. And I certainly would love to get to know computers better.” So he was right, basically, at the end of that course, at the end of that graduation, I was recruited by a computer company, I was one of two or three people who got all straight A’s the entire time I was there. And so I was recruited by a computer company in Massachusetts called Data General, they have far gone. They’re out of business many years now. But data General recruited me and I moved from Brooklyn, New York, to Marlborough, Massachusetts, where I went to work every day at a computer company. And so for me, the pathway was straight. It was sort of like, you know, when you trust, Christine, that the world is going to bring you exactly what you want. And you don’t really question what the next step will be. It just does. And that’s how I live that part of my life. Too many ways. That’s how I live my life today. I just know that the universe always brings me what’s in my best interest. And I happily and readily accept that even though sometimes I don’t think it is in my best interest. Because they know and I trust that these things come exactly the way they’re supposed to, even though I may not like the way it comes or recognize the opportunity at the time.

Christine Schlonski [14:40]
Hmm, that’s so interesting that you say that. So where does that come from? I totally believe that too. Sometimes you can’t see the path. But when you know where you’re going, then there is some kind of guidance, you find a book, somebody, support your mentors. You have new connections, you get an introduction, whatever it is, there’s always that next step, it’s waiting, but you don’t know before. So where did you learn that at such a young age to trust?

Mitchell Russo [15:18]
You know, I didn’t. Well, first of all, I’ll go back further. When I was 15 years old. My mom was a very curious woman all her life. And she still is to this day. She sat my sister and I down one day with a book she was reading. And she says, “I want to share something with you. Let me know what you think.” And of course, my sister and I were happy to sit and listen to mom talk. And she said, “I just want to let you know that this isn’t the only time you’ve been here.” I said, “What do you mean?” She goes, “Well, you as a being have been here many times, but in different bodies.” Now, remember, she’s talking to a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old. So I’m listening to this and wondering what the heck she’s talking about. But we kept talking. And then she was reading from this book, it was a book by Carl Jung. As you know, Carl Jung is a very famous psychiatrist who’s, who took a completely different stance than all other psychiatrists, he believed in the spiritual, he believed in the being as the individual more than the body. And it was in those early lessons with my mom, where she told me that, “I had angels all around me all the time, always guiding me in every way.” And remember it, as is your mom talking. When mom says something, in most cases,you kind of believe it, particularly if you trust your mom, which I did. It turns out later that my sister and I both got sort of launched into a spiritual journey. Because of that early time with my mom, for my sister, she had explored all throughout her younger years until she came upon the Indian guru Sai Baba, which she then became a devotee of, and to this day, her life has been nothing but a blessing. And as a devotee, she feels comfortable knowing that Sai Baba is always there watching her. For me, I’ve been on many, many journeys. And I’ve found that I get a little bit out of every single one of them from, from Judaism to Christianity, to Scientology, to the Sedona Method. And my very first exposure to spirituality was a course named the Silva method. Now it’s called the Silva method, it used to be called Silva Mind Control. And I went into that course with a completely open mind, willing to do whatever they told me to because after all, I paid $150 for the course. And that was most of my stuff savings at the time. And I really did want to learn what it is they claim to be able to teach us. And I did, and I got exactly the results that I had hoped for. And I loved it. So I think all of that comes down to the idea of trusting the universe will take you to the next place, no matter what you think or feel, because this is a friendly universe. And if you truly believe that, it acts that way.

Christine Schlonski [18:28]
Wonderful. Yeah. Especially when, I mean, when you look at your life at your achievements, and you saying that it’s so, so powerful because I totally believe that spirituality and running a successful business making a lot of money, so you can support others. I mean, you can’t give from an empty cup. Right? So that all goes beautiful together. And it’s just a statement of what you have accomplished in your life. So from the computer company, I mean, you started your own business in your garage, like, how did you get to your garage?

Mitchell Russo [19:07]
Well, okay, so I started out fixing computers at Data General. And I was disappointed that that was the job I had because it was boring as can be. And so an engineer at Data General, tapped me on the shoulder one day, and he said, “You don’t belong here. Your way ways, too smart to be sitting here, putting computers in boxes, and he testing them.” I said, “Yes, thank you. I know.” He says, “I want you to interview with a friend of mine, who runs a recruiting firm. And I think you’d have a better place for you.” So I did. And once again, you know, I just was open to that. And it came to me, I then went in to have an interview with a company called Digital Equipment Corporation, which turned out to be a three-hour interview, which was an enormous blast, lot of fun. I met a lot of smart people, a lot of top people at the company. And they were impressed and offered me a position in the engineering labs where I belonged. And I went into the engineering labs with no expectation other than to have a great time and really enjoy myself and expand my horizons, which I did. Then, Digital Equipment Corporation sponsored me into Northeastern University for an electrical engineering degree. And I love that and I went to school for what really was my chosen profession, which was engineering. But school was backward. So one of the greatest tips I got from another engineer was never let school get in the way of your education. And Northeastern University was getting in the way of my education, because I was designing microprocessor-based controllers, while going back to school and learning vacuum tube technology, which is already, you know, already obsolete, and yet they’re still teaching it. So I dropped out of Northeast and to the disappointment of my family, but I did so because I was ready to pursue my career. So I found other jobs in engineering. And I raised my position in the ranks and design some wonderful stuff, had a lot of fun doing it. When one day somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said, “How would you like to work for us?”, which was a semiconductor company. I agreed to work for them. The funny story around that is that I was very happy making $17,000 a year as an engineer. When this man approached me, he, we went through several interviews, and there were casual interviews like he takes me to lunch, and we talk. And finally, he says to me, “Look, I’d like to offer you a job. But we have a salary cap right now. So the best we can offer you is 60,000 a year.” And I’m thinking to myself, I mean, I almost like I almost fell over, actually. So I said, “Well, I think I could live with that.” Because as you know, it was ridiculous and crazy amount of race. But so it was because of that race, that I called my accountant and said, “What do I do here? I mean, I, I don’t need all this extra money. I’m doing great on 17,000 a year.” He says, “Well, you got to do one thing. And that makes sure that you shield yourself from taxes. So you should buy yourself a condo.” Now condos were very expensive back then, they were like 70 to $80,000. And I said, “Well if I could buy a condo, why don’t I just buy the whole building, and then live in one of the apartments and rent out the others.” But I didn’t know how. So I was at lunch one day and decided to spend a little bit of my lunch break at a bookstore. And when I go to the bookstore, a book practically fell off the shelf and hit me in the head was called, Nothing Down, which is a book by Robert Allen, on how to buy real estate with nothing down. So I picked up the book and said, “Well, this is great. I have plenty of money in the bank. So I should probably get this book because it’s even easier if you have money.” So I did. I bought the book and I started buying real estate. So I bought a couple of buildings in Boston, Massachusetts in Charlestown. And eventually, I decided that I wanted to buy more real estate. So I did. But while I was doing this, I was also working as a marketing, a field engineer for Mustique Corporation. And in that process, I was out there helping a lot of people at companies use our products. Well, what ended up happening is that the salesman would bring me into the company. And with that introduction, I would then help the company. Now I still made my, my salary of my salary didn’t change. Occasionally, there’d be little things they would do to give us a little boost. But for the most part, my salary was my salary. But the salesman was making quadruple what I was, if not more, and I said, “You know, I’d like to be a salesman.” And this becomes the moment that changed my life. So I go to the head of the sales company that we worked with. And I said to him, “Bill, you know, me, I’ve been working with you for the last couple years, I’m ready to transition to sales. And I’d like to work with you. I’m sure I could do as well as anyone of your existing salespeople. And because of my engineering background, I can get into places that most salespeople can’t.” And he sort of laughed the very condescending laugh and turned to me and says, “Mitch, great salespeople are born that way. And you are not a great salesperson, a great salesperson. So just continue doing what you’re doing. I felt this anger will up in my body. And I got this reaction, I got three words that came to mind three words that were seared into my mind for a decade. Those words were, “I’ll show you.” I quit that job, I went to work for his competitor and became the third most successful salesperson in the entire business. It was weird that I was doing that during the day, I was consulting at night programming microprocessors, and on the side owning a portfolio of real estate, while pursuing my passion, which is photography, all at the same time. So I was busy, of course, I was banking money constantly. And I had this idea one day, and I went to a neighbor who’s just moved in. And I said to him, “Look, I got this idea. What do you think?”, and I described to him a software product that I thought might be useful and he thought so too. He’s a programmer, I’m less of a programmer than he was. He’s an award-winning program, actually. And so he surprised me by six weeks later, literally building a prototype of the idea that we had had together. That became Timeslips Corporation. So I went from being an engineer to being a marketing person to being a salesperson, to now starting a software company. And because I had saved up so much money, we didn’t have to raise any money. I had my living expenses covered for the next several years easily. And I had just bought a home and a new car. So I had everything I needed. And my expenses could be nice and low. And so I agreed that we would do that. And that’s how my first company really got started by knowing that this was brought to me for a reason. And I just decided to do it.

Christine Schlonski [26:48]
What a great story and just decided to do it, right? Stop just dreaming, act now and trust the process. Trust what’s coming your way and see yes, to the right things. Being open, having an open mind. And you know, observing and taking opportunities that help you to move forward. I have so many more questions. But unfortunately, we are already out of time for this episode. And I’m so happy that we have another one coming up. So I just want to send people your way. Because I mean, it’s everything is in the show notes. But you have just written a book. It’s called, Power Tribes, which is an amazing, amazing book. People can go to https://powertribesbook.com I’m going to put all the resources we talked about in the show notes as well.

Mitchell Russo [27:42]
Great.

Christine Schlonski [27:43]
Thank you so much. And I’m really looking forward to the next interview because I have so many more questions. I’m really excited about that.

Mitchell Russo [27:51]
Thank you, Christine. Happy to be here.

Christine Schlonski [27:53]
What a wonderful journey that Mitch shared with us. And I hope you really really are inspired. I love how he took the nudges of the universe. And yeah, took massive, massive action, how he really listened carefully, to what mentors have seen him to really know what they see potential that he might not be able to see and to execute on that to create such outstanding results because of following his heart. If you want to follow your heart, hop on over to https://christineschlonski.com/ I have a wonderful new course for you totally free of charge called the Sales Journaling to Success, where I provide you businesses journaling prompts, that I have used to sell millions. That I have used to shift my mindset from a sales mindset to a sales success mindset. Also, when you’re over there, https://christineschlonski.com find the podcast tab and find the page to this podcast with all the links connecting to Mitch with the resources he has shared. All available, just one click away. So hop on over to https://christineschlonski.com Have fun, get what you need, and have a wonderful, wonderful day wherever you are in this beautiful world. And I’m saying bye for now.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai