John Corcoran 4:26
And you hadn’t had a conversation with him but not had the conversation.
Warren Rustand 4:28
None of us want to talk about a writer Yeah, head down trying to do the best we could for the vice president. And he heard those words. And he turned immediately and said, have the following six people here at 7am tomorrow morning for a transition team meeting. He not only thought about it, he knew precisely who we’re going to be as close as advisors. The next morning, that transition team met I was taking some notes. And I would then wonder, did he have a plan and out of his suit coat pocket, he pulled about five pages. He’d not only thought about it, he had a plan for transition and two and a half days later. I had the good fortune to lead him into the East Room of the White House, where he was sworn in as president of the United states. And it was an amazing transformation of power. It was peaceful. It was civil. It was all the things we hope in the domestic democratic republic that happens as we transition from one office holder to another. And it was a phenomenal thing. And then about 30 days in John, I came to the realization I wasn’t smart enough to be there. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that realization. I’m just not smart enough to be here. The guys I was hanging out with and the people I was hanging out with a timer. You know, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Bob Gates, Brent Scowcroft, Henry Kissinger, that was sort of the senior team. And I wasn’t as experienced. I’m a member of this farm kid from Minnesota, right. So I wasn’t as experienced. I wasn’t as knowledgeable as I hadn’t been in government before. And I was afraid I would do something because I was managing the president schedule, that I might do something that would embarrass him. And when you embarrass the President, as you know, it frequently becomes public, and therefore, it humiliates the President, I didn’t want to be that person responsible. So we had a meeting of those people in the Oval Office. I hung around as everyone drifted out after the meeting, I said, Mr. President, I speak with you. You said, Yeah, sit down. So I sat down, I said, I’m not smart enough, not political enough, don’t have the experience, etc. Here’s my letter of resignation. And he looked at the letter, but he swiveled his chair and looked out across the South Lawn of the White House, and then the Rose Garden for what seemed six or eight hours, probably only about 10 seconds at the time. And he turned to me, he said, The very fact that you have said, This qualifies you to be here. The fact that you’ve been transparent, vulnerable and honest, means that I can trust you. And if I can trust you, then you are qualified to be here. And in the world of politics, trust is a big thing. And basically, after that experience had been this feeling that he could trust me, he trusted me with information and trips on his behalf and representing him and so forth over the next few years that no 29 year old farm good should ever had. So I was pleased to have that opportunity.
John Corcoran 6:56
Well, and you became appointment sec, Secretary. That’s how long after that, did you become appointed secretary said alright. Because you resigned now you’re appointed secretary?
Warren Rustand 7:05
No, as he had already appointed me as appointment secretary. Okay. I was appointment secretary and cabinet secretary. My office was right outside the Oval Office in a closet that Warren G Harding had used and, and others of us I had room for a desk and a phone. And proximity is power
John Corcoran 7:19
around the house.
Warren Rustand 7:20
Well, I assure people in and out and that was really interesting. It was
John Corcoran 7:23
Yeah, what was it like? Now, for those who don’t know what appointment secretaries do? Explain what that is, because that is, it’s a very critical role.
Warren Rustand 7:31
So I made all the recommendations for his schedule. So you know, invitations would come in from kings and queens and prime ministers and old friends and new friends and congressmen and senators and all kinds of people. And he got about 325 invitations a day for his time. And so we could only execute about a half of 1% of those invitations. And so it was necessary to formulate a schedule, have him sign off on that schedule, and then execute that schedule. And that was a really interesting time, because everybody has power or consequence, ultimately passes through the oval office if they have a big issue to talk about with the president, or for our country or other foreign countries. And so I met some amazing people and wonderful people, and, and it really helped me understand and create a perspective on the world that I simply didn’t have growing up in Minnesota and California. I just didn’t understand the world in that way. And it benefited me for the balance of my life.
John Corcoran 8:22
And, you know, probably the most common question I’ve gotten throughout my life is what was Bill Clinton while I worked in the White House, I’ve had the fortune now of being in the presence of three different Presidents Obama, and Biden as well. And people ask me all the time, what was so and so like, so what was Ford like, and specifically, in the context of leadership, were a few more than leadership lessons you learn from them?
Warren Rustand 8:48
Well, like you, I had the opportunity to be exposed to multiple presidents and so you can compare and contrast their style and qualities and traits of leadership. Ford was a Midwestern guy from Michigan, he was an all American football player who had a law degree from Yale, very smart. But he spoke in that slow Midwestern way. And so I people, people maybe thought he wasn’t as bright as he was. But he chaired the House Appropriations Committee for years, he really knew the federal budget really understood the financing of the federal government. So he brought those skills into the White House, which is really good. He also had all those years in Congress. So he had relationships on both sides of the aisle that had been built over three decades. And as a result of that, he could go to members of the Congress, both the house in the Senate, and they could sit down and work out details and compromise around details of legislation, which was good. The qualities he brought to the office in a personal way was number one, he was really committed to his marriage and to his family. And he spent time with them and whenever they were around, he wanted to be with them, which I found to be very admirable and very important. So that was a high priority for him. The secondly was he had a group of close friends and they would regularly visit the Oval Office and they were informal advisors but again, that trust and Lloyd loyalty of friendship over many years was really critical. I was always pleased. And thank you when he was working with a staff. I never heard him curse. He was never profane. He never denigrated other people. Yeah, he thought highly of all people, cultures, religions, races. And so he just was never one of those people who, who had to put other people down to make himself feel important, comfortable in his own shoes, self assured, confident, and a quiet sort of way, a humble sort of way. didn’t think he was the Savior of the world, he really thought he was doing a job that he had never run for he never sought. And his job was to do the best he could for the American people. So there’s much to be admired in what he brought to the Oval Office.
John Corcoran 10:40
What are your reflections on the state of politics today, which is, is in many ways, I mean, I’m not breaking any news here to say that there’s a lot more partisanship, there’s a lot more division, what you just described in terms of people having great relationships, and being able to work collaboratively seems to be missing in many ways.
Warren Rustand 11:01
Well, I think you and I would agree, John, that politics has always been adversarial. And it’s been up and it’s been down. If we think back to the Lincoln Douglas debates, there were some nasty things said between the two, right? I’m often asked, and maybe you too, John is this the worst time in American history? And I say not by a longshot. We had something called a civil war where brothers shot at brothers and killed each other. Hundreds of 1000s died during the Civil War. You know, we had the civil rights movement when I was in college and university, we were marching in the streets in the civil rights movement, right. Martin Luther King was leading that we had the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, people died in the streets. We had the Vietnam War when the American National Guard troopers shot for students on the Kent State campus and killed them. Is this the worst time now it’s just a time. If we look at the continuum of American history, over the last 300 years, there have been good and bad times politics have been up and down. We shouldn’t over-exercise. this is somehow the worst time in American time, we will pass through this time, things will get better over time. If we keep a perspective about it, right? Just keep a perspective about it. So is there a rank or Yes? Are there disagreements? Yes? Is it identity politics? Certainly, is it the canceled culture, it’s all of those things. But those just happened to be a moment in time in American history. It wasn’t long ago that we had the Twin Towers come down in New York City. And at that time, we were adversarial. Remember the Gore, George W. Bush election, decided by the Supreme Court, it was not a good place. But we rallied and came together as a unified nation, post 9/11 911, rather. And as a result of that, I think we will see some things that may happen, that will bring us back together again, and I’m very hopeful that I’m always very positive about this republic. And I believe it’s the greatest form of government in the history of the world. And I think we’re gonna be okay.
John Corcoran 12:58
I couldn’t agree more. You know, there’s a lot of focus and attention on bringing private sector skills and abilities and experiences into the public sector, but not as much talk about the other way around. And what’s interesting to me, is that you and I kind of take the same approach, we took some of what we learned in the public sector, and then applied it to the private sector. So for you in your years, then in entrepreneurship, and board leadership, serving as CEO of billion dollar companies, talk a little bit about how you then took those lessons that you learned working at the White House with President Ford into the private sector and all the entrepreneurial pursuits that you were involved in?
Warren Rustand 13:35
Well, there’s the subtlety and nuances of politics, which you and I have a better understanding of because we served in the White House or just that knowledge is helpful. I think also the knowledge of public policy, and the impact that public policy has on the private sector. So as we lead in the private sector, having that knowledge of how do you access public policy? How do you influence public policy? What are the ramifications or meanings of certain kinds of public policy, all of that helps us in the private sector, I think there’s a lot to be gained. And I always encourage, particularly young entrepreneurs, spend some time in government, run for office, be appointed to office, serve in campaigns, get to know politicians, well understand how they work and operate that will help you in the private sector. I think sometimes we have such disdain for what we see in the public sector, that we want to stay away from it. I’m not so sure that’s true. Maybe if we embraced a little bit more, maybe if we gave them some of our thinking as well as learning from their thinking, maybe a collaboration could make us better as a nation. So I always encourage entrepreneurs to have that side of them refined and fleshed out, because that public policy may come back to bite you if you don’t understand it.
John Corcoran 14:45
Right. And of course, you shared a public policy conference in Washington DC when you are involved with YPO and WTO. called public policy in the private sector. You did that for 30 years. If you’re doing that today. What would you be focused On, is it what you just described or anything additional?
Warren Rustand 15:03
Yes, I’d want to bring people together that want to work with other people, people who want to collaborate around a common interests, right, we can always get the extremes that are extreme left and extreme rights are always will be, and the pendulum is going to swing back and forth between those extremes. I think that good policy and good legislation, good activity really has to meet somewhere in the middle that sort of 60% of the electorate, right that that operates a little closer to the middle, both for Republicans and Democrats, libertarians and others independence. I think if we can bring together those people, then we have a wonderful opportunity to do better things with our government and to encourage better people to be involved in government. I think something we’re missing right now is we have so many people who see this as their career, they want to spend their life in elected office. If you read the Federalist Papers, it was never designed that way. our democracy was never designed that way. It was to be citizen patriots to come for a period of time to serve in government, then return to our homes and our families and build our communities. Right now we have an elite form of career politicians who want to stay forever. And that’s okay. But I’m not so sure. That was the design and intent of the founding fathers.
John Corcoran 16:17
You’ve done so many things in your career and the book, The Leader Within Us: Mindset, Principles, and Tools for a Life By Design, why write a book now?
Warren Rustand 16:30
Well, people have been asking me to write a book, I would guess, for 20 years and a while back 10 15 years ago, I was giving a speech. And there were some editors of Forbes advantage books and so forth in the audience. And afterwards, they encouraged me to write and it still took me several years. And I say, I suspect probably because I want to put my ideas down. But how do we live a life by design, the tools that we need, the thinking that we need around designing the life, we actually want to live, I suspect too many of us, John are caught up in living lives by serendipity or chance or luck, as opposed to saying, This is what I want to do. For instance, when my wife and I first got married, I extol the virtues of growing up on a farm and I said, I’d like our kids to grow up on a farm. And she said, Well, I think that’d be great, too. So we went out and bought a farm. And it just happens to be in the middle of the city of Tucson, Arizona, but we have a farm. And we have goats and pigs and sheep and chickens and all that kind of stuff. And so our children and our grandchildren, because we now have three generations living on the farm, all 32 of us can live there. So it’s an opportunity for us to have those fundamental values of hard work and effort. Right. And, and I think those are values that helped me on the farm that I learned from the farm and my dad, mom. And so I think this is a great opportunity to do that. So I think there is opportunity in life by design. I know when I was 19 years old, at the University of Arizona, I was playing basketball, I was taking a philosophy class, and it was about looking at your future. And while I looked at my future, there were some things I wanted to do. So I sat down and wrote a list of 100 things that I wanted to do. And I have it in my desk drawer right behind me, I look at it once a week. And when we look at the things we want to do with our lives every week, we tend to do them. It’s a reminder, right? This is what I said I want to do now let’s go do it. Of those 100. I’ve done 98 of them in my lifetime. And I was making enough progress. So about 20 years ago, I made another list of 100. And I got about 50 of those done. These two things I think probably never get a chance to do. But other than that I’ve accomplished most of that list. 90 100 Okay,
John Corcoran 18:30
I gotta ask what the two. It’s got to be like being on Mars or something that’s really hard to do.
Warren Rustand 18:39
Well, the first one was, I want to travel to every country recognized by the United Nations, but countries keep getting divided names change, it’s moving target, so but I have traveled to about 190 countries. So I’ve been all over the world close, then j second. The second is that I wanted to be president of the United states. And maybe if I ran four years ago, I had a better opportunity. But I think that boat has sailed. And I’m not gonna have that opportunity. I got to work for one and some others. But you know, so we set our lofty goals, let’s go pursue them. And when we do, even if we don’t get there, we’re better off for the distance we’ve traveled than if we’d never got on the journey.
John Corcoran 19:14
Alright, so I’m going to be devil’s advocate here. Let’s say I’m listening to this. I’m watching you talk. And it’s like, yeah, sure, Warren. It’s easy. You got your farm, you’ve been really successful, and your family can live there. But let’s talk about you know, being a leader in the midst of your career and how to maintain that type of balance in the midst of it. I mean, did you have that kind of balance where family was living on a farm when you were in the midst of your career busy running billion dollar companies? Or is this something that you were able to build later? How do you maintain that balance while you’re in the midst of running companies and scaling them up?
Warren Rustand 19:53
Yeah, I think it’s a great question, John. I think first of all, I think we have to decide what our priorities are early in life. Then we have to live by those priorities. Stephen Covey once said in his book seven habits of highly successful people said, there are three moments of truth in a person’s life, when you discover your core beliefs and values, when you commit to those core beliefs and values, and when you act on your core beliefs and values. So we decided early on my wife and I, that our family was our highest priority, and that I would change whatever is necessary to be sure I was there. And I think our children would reinforce that, that I was there, I was at the ball games, I was at the performances, I was at the theater, I was doing what they were doing. And so that’s our highest priority. The second is, I think your question presupposes that there’s a balancing act as if we operate in separate verticals of work, and life and community itself. I believe all of those are integrated into a company, a holistic piece. And it’s our job to find the rhythm and pace of that for each one of our own families and relationships, it’s different for all of us, we have to find the one at work. And there are times when business is the most important thing I have to be doing. And there are other times when family is the most important thing. And it’s relative to each other. Right. And it changes throughout our lives. It’s different today with adult children than it was with little children. And so I think we have to find that rhythm and pace. And I think life is about finding our own music, and what works for us in our marriages, in our families in our relationships, and make that the priority. And when we do that, then we tend to live a happy life. Right? We tend to be happier, you know.
John Corcoran 21:29
I love to ask people about who was so who was the most influential on them, who imparted the lessons there, who helped them along the way. And your father had a big impact on you, especially growing up on the farm in Minnesota, to talk a little bit about what you learned in terms of leadership from your father.
Warren Rustand 21:47
Well, I was the only boy and so I was always with my dad, right? We were mucking out the manure, and we were feeding animals, and we were cutting hay and all that sort of stuff. So I got really close to him, obviously. And I was really interested, one of the things he learned is the first principle in the book that I write about clarity of vision, before he would go plow a field or harvest the grain, he would stand at the edge of the field. And I’d be by aside and I recall so vividly, he would say now, what is the outcome that we want here? What do we want this to look like when we get done? That was really my first understanding of having a vision for something right, having a precision about what we’re thinking about. And then he would put that in his mind. And then he would go out and do that in that field he did with the animals we had with all kinds of things. He was a great influence on me around clarity of vision. And then once he had that vision, the second great principle certainty of intent, he would act with intent on that vision every day. And by doing that he built the life he wanted to build and drag me along. Unfortunately, he died at a relatively young age. So I didn’t have him my whole life. He didn’t get to be with me when I was in the White House and doing leading companies and doing other stuff. But he was a wonderful influence on me.
John Corcoran 23:00
Let’s talk about leadership lessons from a crisis. And as we record this in March of 2021, we’re coming up on the one year anniversary of when the world’s top spinning on its access and access. And we had the COVID crisis. What takes us back to a year ago, March 2020. And What went through your head as that crisis started to unfold and I know you recorded a series of interviews, for example, you did some training at the time. But you know, how did you approach it?
Warren Rustand 23:35
Yeah, so we, I was traveling in China. If you go back 14 months ago, I was traveling in China, Vietnam and Thailand with our second oldest son. And we heard about this little bug that they had in a place called Wu Han in China. But nobody was paying attention to a little bit of an epidemic, but it was no big deal. By the time we got back in early February, it was a big deal. And by early March, we were talking about lockdown and all the prescribed issues that we’ve been talking about for the last year. So we gathered our family, all of us together on our little farm, we gathered our family and we said this is likely to become a pandemic. If it is it will affect our lives. The last one in 1918 and 1919. The Spanish Flu had an enormous impact killing 500,000 American 20 million people worldwide. If it’s a pandemic, this is going to be important. What should we think about this? And we collectively talked about it for a while. And then we decided let’s take a two year time horizon from March of 2020. to march of 2022, that was the time horizon. We didn’t think it was going to be over in a few months or a few weeks. This was going to be a long term haul. Because there’s no vaccine for anything like this, right? And so we took a two year time horizon, we decided how we’re going to buy our groceries, how we’re going to associate with each other and how we’re going to avoid getting the disease to the greatest extent possible. It’s never perfect. So they were in all of the four categories of life, family, business, community and self. We established three priorities in every bucket. In family, the first was protection, how are we going to protect our family? The second was security. How are we going to secure our family? with honor on our farm? How are we going to do that? Alright, and the last one was, how are we going to organize our family to get through this? Because it’s going to be different than we were organized normally. Then we went to business, okay, what are we gonna do in our businesses? Because we are behind me in this office, I’ve got three boys who are CEOs of their own companies. And so how are we going to organize the business? The first is cash flow, get to hoard cash, you have to recognize that cash is really King during a crisis. The second is revenue, you have to pivot your company if it’s exposed, right, or you have to change directions, but you have to create more and better revenue. And then the last piece of that is people. If we don’t take care of cash and revenue, we can’t take care of people who work for us. So we had to do that. So those were the three things we decided to focus on. And then what about the community, which is our third highest priority, we’re very involved in the community here in Tucson. And we knew that was going to be impactful. So what we did was, we said, there are three things that we need to do. Number one is we need to serve the community, no matter how big or how bad it is, for us, if we go serve somebody else and be servant leaders, we will be better for it. The second is we need the idea to share with other people in the community about what could happen, what some remedies might be. And then last, we decide we need to partner with elements of the community to make the community stronger. And we’ve done all three of those, and then was self, what would we do in the crisis to protect ourselves. One is we have to work out every day, you have to be physically strong, to where they eat well, nutrition. And three, we had to get decent sleep. So we had to protect our bodies, we had to protect our minds. So we were ready. So I apologize for the long answer. I hope that’s helpful to you. But that’s how our family approaches that’s how we thought about and we think those lessons can apply to almost everything we do.
John Corcoran 26:50
No, it’s amazing, you answered like fully completely outlined answers like this with multipart stew. It’s amazing. I love the answer. And as we look towards 2021 2022, you know, we’re in the midst of the vaccine rollout. Interestingly, the economy in many ways, you know, parts of it are on fire other parts, obviously, some parts like restaurants are hurting. You know, what are you focused on? Or how do you see this future for all of us playing out as the vaccine is rolled out over the next year?
Warren Rustand 27:30
I think it’s really important that we put our minds in the current state and future state, and stop whining and crying about what’s happened to us. Because that won’t get us anywhere. If we’re always looking upstream to see what’s coming at us. We never get to see what’s downstream from the opportunity that comes from crisis. So focus on the current state and take care of ourselves. And the second piece of that is, let’s look downstream, there are some huge opportunities being created by this crisis. If we think John back to 2008, nine and 10, during the financial crisis, we think about the big companies that were created that came out of that crisis, right, so huge. Yeah, Uber, Lyft, Spotify, Shopify, Airbnb, all came out of that crisis, I believe there are 11 or 12, big trends that are occurring right now before our very eyes that are going to be a part of our future in a big way. And so we need to be focused on those kinds of trends and take advantage of those. That’s what’s downstream. That’s what’s ahead of us. And if we can lift our eyes to the future, rather than focusing on what’s happened to us, we have an excellent chance to come out of this in a better place.
John Corcoran 28:32
Any final thoughts on leadership and what types of leadership will be required as we move towards those new opportunities?
Warren Rustand 28:41
John, I feel that all of us have a kernel of leadership in us in different ways. And that might be leading a little league team, it might be leading Boy Scouts, or Girl Scouts, it might be leading our neighbors in some way. I think all of us become leaders, when we’re moms and dads, husbands and wives, I think with siblings, with extended family, with friends, we all have it within us to lead. And that’s why I really wrote the book is for all of us to wake up and realize that we have a gift to give. And it might be small, or it might be large, but our obligation is to give him the gift of leadership to help others right along the path. And I was asked one time, what are we doing here on Earth, and I said, we’re just walking each other back home. You know, we’re just wanting each other back home hand in hand, we’re just trying to get there together, life is tough. It’s hard, big challenges. But if we can hang together, if we can love our neighbors, if we can help in a community, if we can serve others, then maybe we can all get there, right? We can all just take that long journey back home, wherever that is for anybody. And so I think the lesson of leadership is that all of us have the opportunity to be leaders in different ways. And all of us have the opportunity to live the life that we want to live if we have clarity of vision, certainty of intent, and recognize the power of our values.
John Corcoran 29:55
final questions Warren first, as you look around in your peers and contemporaries are such a well connected guy three years in YPO. WPO, eo, who is there? What peers, what contemporaries, what other speakers, what other authors? What other thought leaders? What other business leaders? Who do you respect who you admire?
Warren Rustand 30:16
Well, respect and admire huge numbers of people. Because remember, I’m that farm kid who just has been fortunate in my life. But the guy that has really set himself apart as a friend, and as a role model is Bob Gates, the former Secretary of Defense. He’s an extraordinary man, he’s led three of the most complex organizations in the world, and never with a hint of scandal or problem, right? He’s brilliant. He’s a good guy. I met him in the White House, in 1973. And, and we’ve been friends ever since he wrote the foreword to my book. Yeah, and, and he’s just a man of enormous integrity, really extraordinary in that way. And I consider him a good friend. And we’ve traveled the world together. We’ve been everywhere, it seems like and we’ve had a lot of fun together, we laugh a lot. But he is very purposeful, very dedicated. He’s written four great books on leadership. And I think anybody would be blessed to read. So I hope that’s the case another person speaking of politics, another person who really stood out was George HW Bush. He was my tennis partner at the White House. And we played a lot together. But we also had a lot of good conversations. But the one thing that always struck me with him and his family was almost always the most important. His relationship with his wife, Barbara, was essential. They talked multiple times during the day and talked to his kids all the time. He raised a great family with his wife, Barbara. And he always referred to his family in critical situations. And I found that to be very telling and very important, which was very helpful to me as I found my own value set right around family. But he could lead a life, many arguably would say he was the most qualified man ever to be president, given the positions he held. And yet it was always about his family. And so I found that to be really noble and really interesting. And there, I could go down unless there are scores of others just scores of others who were exceptional.
John Corcoran 32:10
Yeah, yeah. And the Bushes built their own family compound, much like you have, which I’ve been family connections, Kennebunkport. So I’ve seen him before at the other end of the country from you. Yes, that’s right. Yeah. And then, you know, last question, let’s pretend we’re at an awards banquet, like the Oscars or the Emmys, something like that, where you’re receiving an award for lifetime achievement for everything you’ve done up until this point. And we all thank our family and friends, of course, and you’re welcome to do that. But in addition to that, especially looking back in your career, looking at your childhood, you mentioned your father, who are the people that you would acknowledge have been mentors who’ve been, you know, compatriots who have been with you in the journey hooved, who’ve been coaches who’ve helped you along the way.
Warren Rustand 32:54
Well, first among those, and I say this often when I’m asked, right, it was my wife, we’ve been married 56 years. She’s an extraordinary woman, smart, strong, beautiful, intelligent, tough. And she’s just raised a great family. I was just sort of along for the ride. I mean, she’s done a great job with the children and grandchildren. And they seek her out when she asks them to do something they’ve never said no, even before we get it, they respect her so much and love her so much. She’s amazing. Among those also would be a wrestling coach in high school. In high school, I got the feeling pretty good. My ego was pretty strong. And I thought I was about the coolest guy in the entire world. I was student body president first in my class, you know, a great basketball player, all those things, right? It goes to our heads. And I was reflecting that and, and it wasn’t very good after a government class. One day, the wrestling coach who taught that class, and a man I greatly admired sat me down, said, Warren, you’re a jerk. And if you don’t stop being a jerk, you’re not gonna have any friends in this world. He went on to explain to me what I was doing. And for a man that I admired that much at that time in my life, 18 years old to have the courage to step up and have a difficult conversation with me. It really changed the course now, do I have a strong ego? I’m sure I do. But at the moment, I’m in the moment. It was a powerful learning moment for me. And man, it took my breath away. And I’ve thought about that for days and weeks. And I began to adjust and I found that I had better relationships when I was less full of myself, and then every once in a while, maybe some of us get to feeling like we’re pretty cool and pretty good. And I just have to step back from that and, and my wife and he kept me in place, then my college basketball coach Bruce Larsen. There are people like that who have been a huge influence in my life.
John Corcoran 34:38
The Leader Within Us: Mindset, Principles, and Tools for a Life By Design by Warren Rustand. And Warren has been such a pleasure. Where can people go to learn more about you and connect with you?
Warren Rustand 34:48
Warrenrustand.com there are about 18 episodes of Facebook Live on a variety of topics or stuff on YouTube. There are all kinds of stuff out there if you want to just sit back for a second and listen None of it, but hopefully some of it will be inspirational for you and some things you can do to alter your life and live a life by design. John it’s been great to be with you. Thank you so much. You are such a good questioner and you have such a great show and an influence across many, many people. And we really appreciate that.
John Corcoran 35:15
Oh, man, I really appreciate that. Warren, thank you so much. Thank you.
Outro 35:19
Thank you for listening to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast with John Corcoran. Find out more at smartbusinessrevolution.com and while you’re there, sign up for our email list and join the Revolution. And be listening for the next episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast.