From Ditch Digger to Success: Ken's Blue-Collar Cash Journey

ken (00:18.516)

There we are.

Chris Kiefer (00:19.282)

How's it going? All right. So I'll just two quick things. And then if you have a question, feel free to ask. Um, I always ask three book recommendations at the end, um, favorite movie and your preferred method of contact. If someone wants to get in touch with you. Um, so I think that's, did you have any questions for me?

ken (00:33.748)

You got it.

ken (00:38.068)

No, you know, I've, do we hook up through Nick at Book Thinkers? Is that where we got together at?

Chris Kiefer (00:44.594)

I honestly am not 100 % sure.

ken (00:47.636)

Okay. The only reason I say is because I always like to know that and I'm pretty sure we did. And I think you're episode number 226 for me. So we can just rock and roll. I'm ready to go.

Chris Kiefer (00:58.002)

Sweet. And you, as far as topics, I see what I was told is the author, obviously you are an author, Blue Collar Cash, KenRuss .com and VeteranSuccess .org. Is any one of those more top of mind or interesting to you right now?

ken (01:10.516)

That's right.

ken (01:17.62)

You know, it depends. I mean, it depends on your audience, but blue collar cash is obviously something that anyone, blue collar, white collar, anybody, young and old, they can benefit from figuring out what they want their life to look like. That's great. The course I built was a course that so that the book didn't become, what do they call it? Shelf help instead of self help, right? I made this course so that people can actually force the issue and make their lives better from day one.

And it's not expensive. It's 179 bucks. You get a free book with it and I donate all the money to charity anyway. So it's not like a money maker thing for me. But the foundation is cool because I help veterans that are returning from battle to figure out what they want their life to look like. And I'm trying to catch them early on in that process before they even deploy. In fact, I'm giving my first speech tomorrow so that when they come back, they're not lost. Like now what? What do I do now? You know? Yeah.

Chris Kiefer (02:12.498)

That's awesome. Well, let's I'll go we'll go ahead and start and then that sounds like a great place to kick off. And if I introduce you as an author, is there any businesses or anything else if veteran and author? Is that the right way?

ken (02:26.548)

Well, I'm actually not a veteran. This is my way of giving back to veterans. My father was, and he's since passed away, but this is my way of giving back to them. I'm what you call a blue collar entrepreneur. That's what everybody calls me. I don't know why, but I have a bunch of different construction companies. I started when I was 15 as a ditch digger, still do that today. We have a couple hundred employees, so it's kind of a blue collar route.

Chris Kiefer (02:45.746)

Awesome.

Chris Kiefer (02:51.986)

Sweet. Welcome back to another episode of The Pursuit of Purpose. My name is Chris Kieffer and today I am here with Ken Rusk, who is an entrepreneur, author, and I guess you could say a serial entrepreneur. And now he's got some cool organizations giving back to veterans and a new book called Blue Collar Cash. So first of all, Ken, thank you so much for coming on today. I'm excited to chat today.

ken (03:18.004)

Thanks Chris, appreciate you having me.

Chris Kiefer (03:19.858)

So what you just were chatting before recording here, and you mentioned that this book is, you've been a blue collar entrepreneur your entire life, and the subtitle of the book caught my attention, Love Your Work, Secure Your Future, and Find Happiness for Life. So tell us a little bit about what was the origin of wanting to write this book, and what are you hoping that people get from it?

ken (03:48.628)

Well, you know, it all started when I mean, I've been a ditch digger since I was 15. I literally came out of high school and I had the option to go into college or continuing to work. We started franchising this ditch digging business that we had. We fix old rotten, wet, smelly basements and there's a lot of ditches involved in that. So when it came time to either go to college or keep working, they decided to open franchises of that and they sent me out across the Midwest to open these companies.

from scratch. And so that was kind of my college. At 23, I opened my first business in Toledo, where I was tired of living out of a suitcase and traveling. So I opened, put down some roots in Toledo, Ohio. We started in 86 with six people, and I think we have 220 employees today. So it's been a heck of a ride. And during all that time, Chris, I've probably hired a couple of thousand people or interviewed that many at least, you know, to fill those positions. And a lot of them are younger workers.

between, you know, 19, 20 and 28 years old. And, you know, you become almost an involuntary life coach when you're hiring that many people, whether you like it or not. You know, you're helping people with their first car, their first credit cards, their first checking account, their first apartment. And so I got really good at helping people focus on what their future could look like for them individually, because everybody's different. And so the more I did that, the more successful it got.

The more I started doing it outside the four walls of my company and the book was a natural progression from all of that.

Chris Kiefer (05:18.738)

And what is the, like the financial, secure your future, what do you mean by secure it?

ken (05:29.172)

Well, most people don't realize this and they don't teach it in high school. And it just it cracks me up that they don't. But, you know, if you're 19 or 20 years old, they don't they don't tell you that if you save 60 bucks a week in a 401k for 10 years, you can stop saving by the time you're 30 and you're going to have a million to in your account when you retire. So nobody nobody tells you these simple tricks.

to use the power of compounding money. Every seven years, the double thing, we've all heard that, but no one tells you how early you should start doing that. And for me, my advice is if somebody offers you a job saying they're gonna pay you 50 ,000, I want you to look them right back in the face and say, thank you for paying me 47 ,000. Because the first 3 ,000, I never had it, I'm not gonna miss it, I can't spend it because I never had it, so there it is. I'm gonna act like it never was.

even there. And in 10 years, I can sit with my buddies at the bar over a beer and go, yeah, my retirement's handled. How about you? OK. It's it's you unlock these simple concepts. And if we taught our kids to do this, we would need half of the support systems that we have right now going going forward. You know, things like Social Security that people don't even think they're going to be able to count on. So, you know, some of the most simple things are the things we don't teach.

Chris Kiefer (06:52.402)

Hmm.

ken (06:57.076)

some of the most earthy, organic, effective things, we don't give to them. And that was just one way of me saying, stop, stop the madness here, okay? Let's not start thinking about our retirement when we're 40. Let's get it over with by the time we're 30 and then not worry.

Chris Kiefer (07:13.522)

And the other thing that I think about all the time obviously I'm the podcast called the pursuit of purpose I would say my personal mission is to champion the relentless pursuit of purpose and There's a lot of meaning in that but what I'm curious about is when you Love you say love your work And find happiness. I would say do you think that it is possible?

for people to love any job or like the classic debate of like, should you, you know, do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life? Or I've heard Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs, he's got a very different perspective, which I would say I tend to agree more with. But yeah, where do you, what advice would you give to someone that is trying to find a job that they love or trying to, or how would you help them love the work that they are doing?

ken (08:11.156)

Well, mine's a different spin on that. Mine might be in between some, between Mike Rowe and some of the others, but, and I love what Mike does. So I look at it this way. I'm a ditch digger. Okay. It was number 99 out of a list of a hundred things I thought I'd be doing when I was 15, 16, 17 years old. But it afforded me the freedoms to do a lot of things, to control my input, to control my output, to control the quality of that output, control my day, my time, my schedule, and my financial gain. Okay.

So it put me in charge of my own life, right? So when I think about someone's purpose, when I think about loving your work, I don't think it's necessarily, and this is controversial, Chris, okay? I don't think it's necessarily so important what you do for a living as much as it is what you do with what you do for a living. Meaning that if you align yourself with a job, any job,

that is creating the life that you see clearly for yourself. And that's something you need to draw out completely before you even put that first shovel in the ground. Okay? Or weld that first piece of metal or pound that first nail, whatever it might be. If that work is getting you towards your nirvana or the picture of comfort, peace, and freedom that you have for yourself, then you're going to love that work because every Friday you get a percent closer to the way you want to live. And...

I can love ditch digging. We make ditch digging fun here. And I know that sounds crazy, but it's not the actual act of the shovel that's fun. It's how we create wonderful lives for ourselves and our team members here. That's the fun part. So, you know, if you can look someone in the eye and say, hey, listen, I'm fully in control of where I'm going and what my life is going to look like. And I'm on the path to getting all the things that I want for myself.

Whether that path is a six month path, a 16 month path or a six year path, I'm in control of that. And therefore I love what I do because it's creating the life that I see for myself.

Chris Kiefer (10:16.306)

I agree with what you're saying. Where does this passion, the knowledge, the experience, who are the mentors or the books that you read or the people that taught you what you now know and believe?

ken (10:34.388)

Great question. So if I start with the book, I mean, it was real simple, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I mean, you know, the book is a perennial bestseller. It still is to this day. I mean, I don't know how the guy, he just keeps rewriting it or relaunching it and it keeps becoming a bestseller. It's just crazy. Just some simple, great techniques on how to live and how to be, you know, how to be effective. I mean, that's just a great book. Mentors, the guy that I worked for when I was 15,

He lived a really awesome life. He was a guy that loved to do great things. He loved experiences. He loved cars. He loved travel. He loved loving life. And he was a good mentor for me to learn from, and as was my father. My father took it a different way, though. My father was a pretty tough Marine, and he was successful later in life. And one of the things he said was, hey, I made it. Now you go make it. So he didn't give us anything, but he gave us the drive.

to go get these things. So between my first boss and my father, I would say those are the people that those are the people that probably made the biggest impression on me going forward.

Chris Kiefer (11:47.762)

You said, tell me more about this, your boss that you had. You said he lived a cool life. I don't remember exactly, but that's intriguing. Tell me more about this guy.

ken (11:59.38)

So, I saw my first Porsche when I was 17. In fact, I went to go buy it for him. He actually gave me the money to go buy it for him. I bought his first boat for him. I helped him throw his parties. I helped him do lots of things. I was kind of like an assistant, even though I was working so hard, you know, whether I was working in the summertime, digging ditches or in the wintertime in the office. But he was just a fun guy.

I mean, he was bigger than life. He loved life and he was, you know, he kind of like lived a non -musical version of Mick Jagger's life, I would assume. So he was fun to be around. He was fun to watch what he did and how he did it and how he treated people and how he motivated people. And, you know, he was one of those people where, you know, they say your goal in life is every time you run into somebody, you should leave them better off than when you got there. He was one of those people who you were better off.

Chris Kiefer (12:55.41)

Hmm.

ken (12:58.1)

once you interacted with him. And just gave you an enormous amount of confidence, no matter who you were, no matter how much confidence you had prior, you could walk away standing a little taller. And he was a pretty cool guy to do that.

Chris Kiefer (13:08.914)

Where would you say that the entrepreneurial bug or did it develop over time? Because it sounds like, and the reason I'm so interested in this idea is how do you encourage more people to be entrepreneurial is something that I wonder or think about. And I feel like there's an aspect of belief, people have to believe that they are capable of doing, of starting a business, running a business, hiring people, leading people. And I also don't think everyone,

can or has like should, but I think a lot more people should than do, if that makes sense. Do you feel like there was an element of that that you like picked up or he like believed in you or told you that you could run a business before you thought you could?

ken (13:44.596)

Yeah, so.

ken (13:55.188)

Well, I think there's two pieces to that and that's a really great question. So my father instilled a little bit of that go get in me because, you know, I had four brothers. We lived in a 1400 square foot house in Amherst, Ohio, and he was making $14 ,000 a year as an assistant produce manager at a grocery store. So we didn't have enough. We didn't have a lot of anything. Okay. But we were clothed and we were fed and we were sheltered and we had basic fun and we hung out with each other and we

ran around the neighborhood and did our thing. But if you wanted something more than he had to give you, like I remember I wanted an aluminum bat, a baseball bat, because I wanted to play baseball. Well, I had to go find 30 bucks for that thing. So I had to go find a job to get that 30 bucks to get the bat. And I was always intrigued by the fact of, okay, so I go help you out for a few hours and you give me money and then I can go buy something that I want for myself. So that was kind of like the risk reward thing that started early with me.

And then when I got to work with my boss, it was kind of like that kind of on jet fuel. I mean, I could kind of see how people were succeeding and growing and controlling their futures and their destinies. And when it comes to entrepreneurs, you know, there's a thing I talk about in blue collar cash a lot, which is there's an entrepreneur, there's an intrapreneur, okay? I think everybody has the ability to be...

or at least they have the characteristics to be an entrepreneur, they just need something to push them to do it. And that's why I talk about early on in the book, you better be able to draw perfectly clear what you want your life to look like. You need to be able to create the brochure that is your life, hang that up on the wall and look at it once or twice a day. Because when you do, then all those characteristics that I talk about in the book, you know,

persistence, resilience, innovation, faith, courage, vision, humility, charity, all those things come out in you when you have a real serious reason why. And I know you always hear about, well, what's your why? Yeah, but let's take it to the nth degree here. Let's make this visual thing live on your wall because...

ken (16:17.62)

As Tony Robbins said and his son, Jerrick, who I've talked to, the more you see something visually with reticular activating systems and all that, the more these electrons just start firing in your brain and the closer they get, the more you see something and you own it to the point where your brain actually thinks it does own these things. And then it sets your body off into this almost involuntary journey to go bring those things into your life. And

you know, again, I don't want people to think it's all about the things because it's not about the car or the boat or the hot. It's about the memories that you create with those things, because at the end of the day, I think our lives are measured by our love for our families and the memories we create with and for them. And that's truly the measuring stick. So, yeah, I think anyone could be an entrepreneur or an entrepreneur. I think you're right. I think more people should endeavor to try.

Chris Kiefer (17:13.906)

What is the, I just lost my train of thought.

ken (17:25.236)

You might want to ask what was the difference between an entrepreneur and an entrepreneur.

Chris Kiefer (17:30.578)

Yeah, I'll do that and I'll have happy cut this. So what would you say is the difference between an entrepreneur and entrepreneur?

ken (17:33.748)

in

ken (17:39.38)

Well, it's just a little bit of risk, okay? There are people, like you said before, that maybe shouldn't be entrepreneurs, okay? Maybe they feel comfortable in a big setting with a lot of people and a lot of structure and a lot of security, and that's fine. But you can still operate like an entrepreneur within that organization. Maybe those people aren't gonna go out and take the risk to buy 42 dump trucks like I have to do, okay? Or worry about, you know,

workers comp or labor laws or all the things that I have to worry about safety and health and, you know, occupational, all those things. But they do want to run their own division. They want to run their own department and they want to be in control of the financials and the purchasing and the profitability of those things. And they want you to share with them in their efforts. That's an entrepreneur. You're you're really working as an entrepreneur within another organization. That's just as important.

and just as powerful because as the ultimate person myself, gathering all these people up, if I create a group of entrepreneurs that surround me, man, get out of the way because your company is going to go way further than you can drive it yourself.

Chris Kiefer (18:50.322)

Yeah, I mean, I completely, I think that I had opportunities. I feel like at my past job, well, first of all, for me, I started, got an engineering degree, tried out engineering, hated it, went and bought a drone. This was about 12 years ago. Left the engineering job and started like figuring out, I was like, oh, I was always wanting to run a business. I wonder if I could do this. Started selling aerial photos and videos and stuff. This was before drones were mainstream. So it's still novel.

And then hired some people, but I never really had experience or took classes or got coaching on how to run a business. And so we, you know, the business struggled. We were having fun. We just weren't charging enough and making money for it to support kids and family and stuff. So I left and went and took like a quote unquote real job as a marketing director. And I would say that I feel like I had that, um, the, my boss was basically like, here's the objectives, you know, let me know what you need for me.

And it was like, I, not everyone would thrive in that situation, but I loved it. I was like, sweet, like, okay. And I would, you know, make mistakes and like, he's be like, all right, what are we going to do next? You know? So like that we were going to, we're not going to hit grand slams every time. And that, I think then like that autonomy and the refreshing aspect of that was like, Ooh, this is, I want more of this. And then I went back to the entrepreneurial world after that.

ken (20:18.068)

Yeah, that's a typical track. I mean, if I had a nickel for every time I heard that story, I'd be a rich man. That's a very typical and it's an honorable way to do it because how you learn to have the confidence to go out on your own doesn't matter as long as you eventually feed that want, right? So for you, bouncing around a few times and just finding your way and then saying, okay, now I can launch now based on this experience.

You know, there are so many companies, Chris, in the world today. And I have friends, probably half a dozen of them. These are guys that are 55, 60 years old that are working these jobs, these companies that are maybe they're trucking or maybe they're, you know, stonemasons or they're people lay floor tile or they build things, whatever.

They have these companies that they're making two, three, 400 ,000 a year in, and they have nobody to leave them to. So they're literally going to shut them down and just retire. And I think to myself, man, if there was a 21 year old guy or gal out there who is like, you know, I'm going to spend five years working under this guy's wing, and then I'm just going to take this company. He's going to let me have it. Okay. I'm going to pay him what it's worth. And then I have an instant customer base, instant demand. I have instant everything. I mean, there's no...

There's no guessing anymore at this, right? There's so many.

Chris Kiefer (21:44.562)

I just talked to somebody another three or four episodes ago who literally, I can't remember there's a term for this, but it's the silver something generation or like business. But there's like, this is like an economic thing that people are beginning to talk about that there are thousands of businesses that are exactly like what you're saying and the opportunity to buy.

an existing business with an SBA loan and just like you're saying, you reduce the risk like incredibly compared to just like striking out on your own and trying to build something from nothing.

ken (22:22.068)

Yeah, and again, the challenge to all of that stuff is how powerful is your reason for doing that? And again, the problem is right now, most of us live very reactive lives. It's cold out, put on a jacket, it's raining out, get an umbrella. It's this, it's that. We react to all the stimulus to the point where all we're doing is reacting to life. And I'm saying,

Let's start pro -acting to life. And I know that's another buzzword that you hear all the time, but life is either gonna happen to you or you're gonna happen to it. And that's why I think if we can teach people the power of their own vision, and it's free, it requires no training, all you need is some crayons, a poster board in a dark room for a couple hours to figure out what you want your life to look like, involve your family, make it a puzzle.

get this thing settled, put it up on the wall, and then march toward it because there are a hundred different pathways to get to that eventuality. And here's the thing, nobody ever rolled up into my driveway and looked at my house and my cars and whatever I've accumulated, my memories and my family and said, hey, dude, what degree do you have? I mean, no one's ever done that. They might say, well,

How did you grind this life out? And I'm happy to tell them that, but it almost always starts with, do you have a powerful enough reason? And do you believe that you have the ability or the control to go get those things? And my premise is, if you sit down and talk to yourself about it and you design the life you want the way you see it and no one else, you're going to have a powerful enough reason to have those characteristics come out and then go make that stuff happen.

Chris Kiefer (24:18.386)

How do you help with the belief piece?

ken (24:22.612)

By having them just, I did this with a group, believe it or not, I did this with a group of female prisoners in Sarasota, Florida. I just finished this class. And I just asked them, what do you want? Tell me what your perfect life could be. Forget about being a rap star or having 15 cars and a McMansion and a yacht and an influencer. Forget about all that. What is your perfect nirvana? Tell me about it.

in perfect detail. Well, man, you know what? I'd like to have a farmhouse and the farmhouse would be, you know, gray and it'd have a white picket fence in front. And I'd have maybe just some animals around. And I'd like to have my own painting business because I think I could be good at that. I have friends that I could hire to help me do the painting. And then you keep going. OK, now once you had a few bucks in your pocket, let's say you had a hundred dollars you had to give away. OK, what charity would you give it away to and how exactly how would you do it?

What vacations would you take? What kind of pet would you have? Dog or a cat, what color, what would you name it? What sports or hobbies would you do? Okay. Vacation, the whole thing. Draw it out and say, that's my life. Man, if I could live like that, Chris, that would be so cool. There's your belief right there. Because as soon as you have that driver, your brain clicks into a whole nother gear and gives you the confidence to say, now I gotta find a pathway.

to go get those things.

Chris Kiefer (25:53.266)

Okay. I got an interesting, uh, dichotomy. I'm curious here take on this. So I've been, my grandpa's 96. I've been interviewing him every week and just asking him questions about his life. And, uh, I asked him what goals did he have when, with he and his wife, uh, my grandma, uh, before she died like 30 years ago. So he's lived single as a single man for 30 years now, now at 66, she died. Um, and, uh,

ken (26:20.18)

God bless them.

Chris Kiefer (26:21.938)

He, you know, he's very active. He has a garden and still like is just lives by himself. And he's it's such a simple life. And I asked him what like dreams goals, like where did they want to vacation to? What were there like when they would talk about what they wanted to do when they retired and stuff. And he said they never had, he's like, it was like, it was like, I was asking him, you know, how often did you guys talk about visiting Mars or something? It was like, why would we do that? I don't know. It doesn't even make sense.

And I don't know, I thought that was interesting that like, I have grown up in this moment, I call it like the Tony Robbins world of just like visualize what you want, make, be super clear about what you're like, where you're going and define your future and then just go towards that. And I feel like that's a more modern thing, which is good. I enjoy that, but I thought it was interesting that not even a century ago.

You have somebody who was just basically like he was a logger. That's what he did. Saved money. You know, he had hit in this case, his social security was what they invested in, you know, and now he's like, that's, that's been it. And he's never really had anything crazy. The one thing that he was able to tell me that he had always kind of wanted to do was to go to Germany, which he had gone to in the war. And then he hasn't been back since then. So we're taking him to Germany in about three weeks. Um,

ken (27:48.212)

Good for you, that's fantastic.

Chris Kiefer (27:49.33)

But I'm just like, I don't know, what do you have to say? What are your thoughts on like the balance of being driven? Cause he's a very happy, he's a great man, super loving. He's like the magnet for our whole family, but he's like in a totally different realm than I am where I'm like goals, like just gunning and, and trying to grow and become the best version of myself. And I would say he's very much just like,

Yeah, you just live and you have a good time and you see where life takes you.

ken (28:24.244)

So the answer to that is simple. He lived through some really, really challenging times. He lived through wars. He lived through financial disasters. He lived through depressions. He lived through all these things. So his goal was just to live a simple and happy and calm and supportive life where he doesn't have a lot of things. See, that's what I'm saying. You can draw this picture any way you want, and it doesn't have to be a super fancy picture. I met a guy at Club Med.

25 years ago, I don't even know his name. I had a whole group of people from my office that we took there. I know he was from Minnesota, and this is in the book. So I call him the grass cutter from Minnesota. And I asked him, like, when you go to one of these places, they give you a little wristband and the color tells you what week you're supposed to be there and what day you're supposed to leave. He had like seven or eight of these wristbands on his wrist. And I said, what's with all the wristbands? Did you like get those from other people?

He goes, no, no, no. He goes, I have this deal where I make with myself. I have a very small one level ranch up in Minnesota. I have a small barn in the backyard. It has two pickup trucks with a bunch of equipment like grass cutting equipment, landscaping stuff. I have one truck I drive every day. The other truck goes in the barn in the winter time. And he goes, me and my buddies, we bust our butt from April through December and we...

cut grass and we mulch beds and we do landscaping, we just go crazy. Okay. Um, come January, I come down to Club Med for 90 straight days. So here's a guy who works a deal where he doesn't pay full rate. Okay. Because he's a resident for 90 days, he gets it like at 30 % of the normal cost. And his world is just wearing a pair of sandals and a bathing suit and just

walking around to different club meds for 90 straight days every winter. So his world was amazingly simple. I'm going to work nine, I'm going to take off three. Those three are going to be amazing. I'm going to keep my life, my costs. I'm going to keep my things to a very minimum. And I'm going to paint this picture of my perfect Nirvana. And that's what it was. So he's not too different from your grandfather in the way that he lived through some challenging times. And he said to himself,

Chris Kiefer (30:42.098)

Hmm.

ken (30:49.332)

If I ever got to the point where I could just have a nice, calm, steady life, that's going to be good enough for me. So, he's got it. He wins.

Chris Kiefer (30:57.65)

That's awesome. What are your three book recommendations?

ken (31:03.764)

Well, I told you about the first one, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I also like, you know, the Spencer Johnson, the short books, you know, where they like Who Moved My Cheese, Gung Ho, those kind of books, because they're really good at making, taking real technical, thick concepts and boiling them down to something you can employ this afternoon. Okay. So I like to read books.

that I can immediately plug something out of and start using today, which is why I built the course around my book, because I wanted people to understand that you can change your life this afternoon. This isn't a someday thing. This is a right now, today thing. And so yeah, I kind of lean towards those kinds of things.

Chris Kiefer (31:53.426)

Who would you, speaking of your course, who would you say is the, like who's the target when you, I don't know if you did this, but if you were to do it now, who's like the avatar of the person that you created this course for?

ken (32:07.38)

I've had people that have taken it that were in Afghanistan that were 17 at the time. I've had people take it when they're 35. The goal of this course is to set your mind in a way that you give yourself permission to plan and control your future. And you really have to deprogram a little bit with emotions. You have to deprogram a little bit with who you think you currently are. And you have to give yourself, you have to congratulate yourself.

and you have to give yourself a break for where you've been thus far and then say, okay, clean slate, tomorrow's a new day, I'm gonna draw this out, I'm gonna figure out what I want my life to look like and I'm gonna go get it. So, you know, pretty much anybody that's starting out that wants to figure out, you know, their best path forward is a candidate for the course.

Chris Kiefer (32:55.922)

And what is your favorite movie?

ken (33:00.244)

Oh my God, I was asked this the other day. I have so many of them. You know, I love war movies. I don't know why. I mean, you know, movies like Black Hawk Down and Hurt Locker. And, you know, I like all those movies where there's underdogs and they come out, you know, fighting at the end and they have to, they're fighting for our freedoms. I like patriotic stuff. I love helping veterans. And so anything that is advancing the cause of freedom, I think is a movie that I enjoy watching.

Chris Kiefer (33:29.458)

And what is the preferred method of contact for someone to get in touch with you if they would like?

ken (33:38.612)

Pretty much if you go to KenRusk .com, you'll see what we're doing there. You can get the course there. You can get the book there. You can see what we're doing to help veterans there as well. Yeah, it's a pretty cool thing. I'm pretty proud of it. You'll see what we're up to there. I mean, I'm also on Facebook at KenRuskOfficial. I'm on all the socials that way. I have people help me do that because I'm not a young guy like you, so I don't understand all that stuff. I just show up and...

and try to give some wisdom if I can. It's incumbent upon people who have been down the road a bit and been successful, turn around and help those that follow and shorten the learning curve to entrepreneurism. And that's kind of what I'm trying to do.

Chris Kiefer (34:19.73)

That's awesome. Well, Ken, any parting words or thoughts or things that you came here wanting to share today?

ken (34:27.412)

No, it's just that I really need people to understand that it all starts with what you want. It all starts with what you see for yourself. And don't listen to all the other noise out there. You and only you know what your favorite color is, your favorite vacation is, your favorite everything is. So grant yourself the power, give yourself a break, tell yourself that you can do it, be confident.

draw that picture out and then find a way to go get it. I'm sure you'll make it happen.

Chris Kiefer (35:00.626)

Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on today and sharing the new book with us and everything. This was fun. And I know that we will be in touch.

ken (35:11.124)

Great, Chris. Thank you. I appreciate it.