At the forefront of Clients on Demand is Founder and CEO Russ Ruffino, a marketer and business professional in his own right. His mission is to help coaches, consultants, thought-leaders, and service professionals realize their business ambitions by teaching them a combination of entrepreneurial skills, marketing strategies, and mindset techniques required to thrive in today’s business world. We spoke to him on how entrepreneurs in today’s business world can overcome challenges and succeed.
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What inspired you to launch your business?
All over the world, there are business owners who are amazing at what they do, but who don’t know the first thing about digital marketing. To me, that’s a tragedy, because you can be brilliant at what you do, but if you don’t know how to market yourself online, potential clients will never find you.
And even though there are plenty of people teaching how to use digital marketing to grow your business, almost none of them are providing consistent results. That’s because there is a huge difference between providing information, and providing transformation.
Most courses and coaching programs don’t provide a step-by-step strategy to achieve results, and most companies don’t have the bandwidth to provide the in-depth coaching most business owners need to succeed. That’s because these programs enroll hundreds, if not thousands of people at a time, which makes it pretty much impossible for the coaches to work with anyone on a personal level and offer them world-class support.
So that’s where I saw my calling. I saw the need for high-quality, transformational coaching that really gets results, and I went out there and took action. That’s how Clients on Demand was born.
Right from the get-go, I decided to charge a premium price so I could work with fewer clients. This allowed me to provide the absolute best experience possible for them, and I became obsessed with getting results for the people I worked with. We’ve also passed that philosophy on to our students - the majority of them raise their prices to $5,000 - $15,000 or more.
Is it hard to scale a business which is so individualized? Would you recommend that to others?
Even though we provide individual attention, we do it in a very leveraged way. It’s not about trading time for dollars. By serving your clients in small groups rather than one-on-one, you free up your time. And by delivering your service online, you give yourself freedom of location. Thus, you have a business you can run from anywhere in the world.
At Clients on Demand, we have 34 team members and everyone works remotely. Our coaches are all over the world - the USA, UK, even Eastern Europe. This allows us the ability to leverage a global talent pool rather than being limited to one tiny geographical area. I believe this makes scaling much, much easier.
What is the most vital change which separates today's environment from when you started?
The need for what we do has gotten more urgent. The COVID pandemic has forced businesses to transition into more of an online model - this left many companies scrambling to figure out how to do that. Even small business owners were deeply affected. For example, if you’re a marriage and family therapist seeing clients in your office, what do you do when there are lockdowns and restrictions? People had to move very quickly to transition their client attraction and their service delivery online, which is exactly what we teach our clients how to do.
Do you have any habits or routines that are central to your success?
From my experience, achieving success is a lot to do with incorporating good daily habits and routines to help get you there. Even if you have the most phenomenal business strategy in the world, it won’t count for anything if you don’t have the daily habits to back it up.
I like to start my day with a very clear intent to prepare my mind and emotions, and for the day to come. That way, I can consciously set the tone for the day and make sure I approach any problems and opportunities I encounter with the right frame of mind.
That’s why every morning, I get up, and I take a few moments while I am in the shower. I usually begin with being grateful for everything that I currently have in my life. Shortly after that, I then begin showing gratitude for the outcomes that I want in my life that haven’t happened yet. That one small practice alone has made a monumental impact in my life.
What are your top tips for entrepreneurs starting their careers?
I believe the number one thing that entrepreneurs can do is to visualize who they want to be and where they want to be in the future. You need to be very precise with knowing what you want and why you want it. Willpower and determination will only get you so far, but if you truly understand your why, you will have a much better chance of actualizing your dreams.
Take some time out of each day and visualize the human being that you would need to become if you were to achieve those goals. Then walk around as if you are that person each day. Ask yourself, what would the ultra-successful “future you” do when presented with the challenges and obstacles that you experience throughout the day, and then tackle them with deliberateness and confidence.
After all, success starts in the mind, so you need to train it to work in a positive and empowering way in order to fulfill your ambitions.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Remember that every life or business challenge is there to help you grow. If you’ve set aggressive goals for yourself (and you should) you are going to encounter obstacles. Be grateful for those obstacles - they show you what you need to change. The secret to rapid success is to encounter those obstacles, extract the lesson to be learned, put it into practice, and to do all of that with a minimum of emotional turmoil.
And remember - every business challenge you have right now, someone has already solved. That’s the true power of coaching and mentoring. We’ve scaled our business to the 8-figure mark, so any challenges our clients run into as they pursue that goal, we’ve already solved again and again. Leveraging our expertise is the best shortcut they can possibly have.
