John Ruhlin, the #1 distributor for Cutco and founder of the Ruhlin Group. John’s an expert on high-level gift giving, and accessing CEOs and top executives. Tune in to hear about why gratitude is so important, how to make your relationships work for you, and the secrets of effective gifting. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Give and Take What CEO do you follow? — Gary Vaynerchuk Favourite online tool? —Hatchbuck Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—No If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?—I wish I understood that I didn’t have to do it all on my own Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:10 – Nathan’s introduction 01:30 – Welcoming John to the show 01:56 – Interned with CutCo and created their corporate gifting program 03:00 – Made around $10k over a summer aged 20 03:50 – Sold about $35-40k in his first summer 04:25 – Sold over $500k in his best year with CutCo 05:20 – “We help leaders not suck at saying Thank You” 05:50 – John speaks, writes, and coaches on corporate generosity and gratitude 06:20 – Worked with the Chicago Cubs on gifting 07:20 – They were remodelling a stadium - so John suggested using the wood from the old locker room to create 400 custom speakers for their most important relationships 09:20 – 8 people in John’s team and a strong relationship with his suppliers 10:08 – “I really try to appreciate everyone in our circle...I don’t have a business without those people” 10:40 – Almost lost the business on 2008 because of embezzlement by his accountant 11:25 – Published Giftology through Book in a Box 12:40 – Book in a Box cut down around 90% of the work related to creating a book 13:30 – Execution, launch and publicity are all being managed by John’s company 15:00 – Aiming to hit the Wall Street Journal bestseller list 15:20 – The best way to sell a book is to create a great book and have a tribe who’ll promote it 17:50 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: You are as strong as the people around you. Create strong relationships with your team, your suppliers, and your partners. You don’t have to do everything alone. Say thank you. Relationships thrive on gratitude and appreciation Be humble and be honest about your weaknesses, and you’ll find people to help you balance them out Resources Mentioned: Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives