Episode 97 Transcript
Heather (00:01.13)
Rick, welcome to the show. How's it going?
Rick (00:04.651)
Heather, it's going awesome. I'm so glad to be here.
Heather (00:07.394)
I'm so glad as well. You guys that have been listeners for a while, sometimes you know I'm kind of selfish. I'll bring on guests and I'm like, I know the conversation is gonna be so good, but I'm gonna have to just share it with you and hit record on some of that conversation. So that's what Rick is gonna be, I think, to you guys and myself in this conversation. So wow, Rick has the most amazing backstory, which we will get to as we go through the session. But as you guys know, I always start out with some tangible little tactical tips. And Rick.
Rick (00:17.787)
Hehehehe
Heather (00:36.806)
You have had an amazing business journey. So I know you've had moments of overwhelm and stress as you've been growing your business and even now potentially with your new venture. So I'm curious, do you have a couple of tips or tactics that you do personally to manage the moments of overwhelm in growing a business?
Rick (00:57.971)
I do. And this is I think this is something anybody can do. It's I I'm remiss that I started doing this later on. But I think the biggest one and I hate to sound cliche like, oh, I've heard that before. But I got to do it. It's saying no. It's honestly it's something I didn't know when I first started because I was so hungry to just go.
and drive and say yes to every single opportunity that came my way. And it wasn't until later that I realized there's this there's like this real power and saying no, and I know, again, it sounds very cliche to open up with that. And like, well, I've heard that before, but people, I don't think people do it. They don't realize that it's OK to say no to stuff.
Heather (01:41.77)
No. And do you have like an example of maybe an epiphany moment of when you realized that you said no and it was a good thing? Do you remember that?
Rick (01:52.043)
Yeah, so I'll most recently, so I'm a full time writer. I ghost write books and.
I'm very blessed is that I have clients who are referred to me. So I don't have to do a lot of marketing, but I have clients who referred to me. Sometimes I don't know so well, and it feels like it might be good. And it might even actually be good because the pay is pretty good. But I realized that something was off with the interview and a pre interview with the client and not good or bad. Nothing. Just to be clear, nothing good or bad. Just it wasn't not good in it. Not a good fit. But I kept thinking, man, but this would be a good payday. Honestly, it could be a great.
Heather (02:29.164)
Yeah.
Rick (02:31.237)
And I turned it down and turns out that just what I as information came in about somebody Not no names or genders or anything I'm glad I did because it turned out that it would have been an just an probably an awful experience for myself Yeah, glad I turned it down
Heather (02:49.818)
Yeah. Was that like a gut feel or intuition sort of thing? How'd you know?
Rick (02:56.191)
I think it's both. I think that it's instinct and anybody who listens there, you're a human and your first instinct is call it instinct, call it gut feel, but it's something that's intuitive. It's something that is innate because at heart we're mammals, we're animals. And we have that, the hair that stands up. That's so yeah, it was kind of both. It was innate. It was a gut feeling. It was like, something's not vibing right.
Heather (03:23.45)
Okay, thank you for saying that I wanted to give context to that to help that advice of saying no stick with people so that that's good. And what else what are what other things can you recommend to do during those moments of crazy overwhelmed or high growth?
Rick (03:38.659)
Um, I've experienced fast growth. Um, maybe we'll touch on that later, but a company that went from zero to something, um, pretty astounding. Uh, and, uh, and I kept, kept going. You keep driving, you keep moving, you keep sprinting, you keep, you just keep going. And at the expense of anything else, because entrepreneurs and hustlers, if you will, we put blinders on and.
Heather (03:44.376)
We will.
Rick (04:05.235)
I think the biggest thing I learned, and I should have known this, I think a lot of people should know this, is especially if you've done, been on recess as a kid, or you've run a marathon, or you've done something, is you can't run and run and run and run. You have to rest. You've got to stop. And of course, the phrase is that every athlete goes and sprints, but they rest to recuperate. But as entrepreneurs, for whatever reason, we shun that. It's like, I can't rest.
Heather (04:19.073)
Yep.
Rick (04:31.387)
I have to be in continuous motion. So the second biggest lesson I've learned and I practice even more is on myself, is on rest. It's on recuperation. It's on me time. It's on getting personal with things that matter to me that have nothing to do with business at all. And yeah, I didn't pay attention to that in the early days. And I don't know that it was a bad thing. I don't know that I, I'm sure there's, life would have been different, but can't look back.
Heather (04:59.102)
Yeah. And now for rest, do you actually schedule this into your calendar or is just something that innately comes to you? Hmm. Yeah.
Rick (05:07.187)
I schedule it. I actually put it. I do. I put on the calendar. I put date night with the wife because we share a calendar now. We're worried for each other's checks and balance. But yes, I absolutely put it on my calendar because my calendar also goes out to potential clients. And that's time that's blocked. They just won't ever see it.
Heather (05:15.275)
Yeah.
Heather (05:27.614)
Yeah, I'm exactly the same. I have to put it all from my Pilates classes to lunch with a friend to driving time, all of it's blocked into the, the calendars. I know I it's so important. And then you also hold yourself accountable that way too.
Rick (05:42.636)
Yes, exactly.
Heather (05:44.402)
Any other tips that you have for us? Moments of growth.
Rick (05:48.489)
Um
I did.
I do a lot more of it now and that's outsourcing. I know that there's things I'm really, really good at and there's things that I know I'm bad at. And in my early days, when I was a solopreneur, before we had a team and lots of employees, I felt like I had to learn to do everything from accounting to books to sales to marketing because I'm the guy, I was the person, I was the tip of the spear. And I always knew that I was really good at certain things
Heather (05:56.053)
Ah.
Rick (06:22.367)
What I learned was I, I doubled down on the things I was bad at. For me, it's the numbers part, the balance sheets, it's understanding the whole that's why accountants exist and bookkeepers. But I wanted to get real good at that. So I read books and I did all this and I increase maybe, I don't know this much. If if anybody's listening when I'm saying this much, maybe one percent, whereas.
Heather (06:46.027)
Yeah.
Rick (06:47.115)
The lesson I learned was if I had taken that same energy and put it into the things I was good at, I would have exponentially gotten better. And who knows what could have happened. So I guess the words that might resonate with entrepreneurs or people in the grind, so to speak, are our learning to outsource and to delegate things. And don't take it personal. You know, it's.
I think the mindset is I it's going to take me too long to teach somebody. Plus, they'll never do it as good as me. But the fact is, there are people who's that is their gift. The things you're bad at.
Heather (07:21.206)
I love that you said that. One of the biggest sort of phrases going around from a lot of entrepreneurs, probably been going around for a while is, don't focus on the how, focus on the who. Have you heard that before?
Rick (07:32.327)
I have it, but I love that I'm going to steal that. Yes.
Heather (07:33.966)
It's so good, right? It's something that I've been really focusing on in the last year or two in my life in business. It's like, yeah, in the past I'd buy courses and I'd try and learn stuff. I joined an accounting group as well to try and get my head around all that stuff that doesn't come naturally to me. It's not my gift. And then I overwhelm myself even more because I'm like, oh, I'm not good at that and beat myself up. So thank you for sharing that. So good.
Now you have quite the story and we're going to talk about that because you built a company up to, was it 600 employees? Oh my Lord. Okay. So Rick, okay. Tell us about your journey. Cause you just said at the start, you are a ghost writer and you're a writer. Um, but before that, what happened?
Rick (08:12.694)
600, yeah, yes.
Rick (08:28.452)
So I've been a registered nurse. And so I have my four year degree and I'm not sure if the same, I think Australia might have the same. I have a bachelor's degree in nursing and I got my degree almost 30 years ago. So I'm actually a nurse. By vocation, by training, by my career choice, I'm a nurse. And it's a good job.
Heather (08:43.342)
That's so cool.
Rick (08:52.095)
It can lead to a good career, a nice 20 years or whatever, 25 years and you punch out and you retire in golf and that never sat well with me. I couldn't imagine a life where, again, great job, where I had to punch in, punch out and get a 401k and get the accrue my PTO and time off and go on vacations and blah, blah. Even saying it's like, ee.
Heather (09:02.503)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (09:18.562)
hehe
Rick (09:19.859)
So I realized that it was this whole dollars for hours conundrum I was stuck in. I could never.
make more than a facility wanted to pay a nurse. And I could never make more based on the number of hours I could work, which is 40 in a week. Or even if I work seven days a week, I was still trapped. And so I thought, how can I do better? Because I wanted more. Not a matter of selfishness or ego, I just knew that there was more out there. And so I became a contract nurse. And I became a contract nurse, which meant I didn't work for a hospital, I worked for an agency that, and it's the same concept
is in any other industry. An agency, when an employer or a short staff, they call an agency, and the same applies to hospitals. And because we're usually called at the last minute, we get paid more. And I'm like, I'm making more money. But I was still trapped by dollars for hours.
And I thought, how can I do better? And so I started doing travel nursing and travel nursing is a big deal. And then I became a strike breaking nurse. So nurses go on strike and my hourly rate would increase, but I was still trapped. I still had an employer and I still had the number of hours I could physically give.
Heather (10:28.866)
Right.
Rick (10:34.527)
So one day I was walking out of a contract, not walking out, I was leaving my shift and the director of nursing was coming across the sky bridge and she said, hey Rick. And I said, yeah. And she goes, we wanna renew your contract. And I said, okay, sure. And I had just finished night shift. She was all, you know, coming in all fresh and coffee and I'm like, okay, sure. And I said, but I'm switching companies. And she said, no problem. Just have us send them over, send over the contract, no big deal. And I got into my car and I'm like, there's no company.
Heather (10:52.464)
Yup.
Rick (11:04.559)
There's no other company. Why did I say that? What the hell? But it just came out. I went home, didn't sleep, went, I'm not recommending anybody do this. I went to LegalZoom.com and formed an LLC. And I had a friend who knew something about law and said, let's help me, I need a contract. And we cobbled together a contract, I sent it over there and the director of nursing said, hey, got the contract, looks great, send over the rep. And I said, I'm the rep.
Heather (11:16.834)
Oh my God.
Rick (11:33.651)
And she's like, excuse me. And I said, I'm the rep. And she goes, even better. The contract signed. I was then making as much as a physician. My hourly rate then exponentially increased. But here's the thing, Heather, even though it was my own company now, I didn't realize I was a company of one. I was still, it was exciting. Don't get me wrong. I was now in business. I was like, whoa, they signed a contract. My rate increased by five or by 10.
I was making more, but I was still trapped. I couldn't work anymore. And then here was the epiphany. And entrepreneurs already know this. I didn't know anything about entrepreneurship. The hospital then said, hey, we're short staffed. Do you know any other nurses? And I'm like, all I know are nurses.
Heather (12:05.133)
Yeah.
Rick (12:20.387)
In fact, my girlfriend's a nurse. And they said, can she come work? And I'm like, yeah. And so I called my girlfriend up, and she was a nurse out my window at a hospital here in downtown. And I'm like, saying, you want to come do a shift? And she goes, sure, how much are you gonna pay me? And I gave her a number. She goes, well, that's double what I make. And I said, yeah, I know. I said, but I knew what I was billing the hospital. And so the story I tell is she went to work for the company that was now in existence.
And we doubled in size overnight. And we literally did. And the hospitals, the hospital said, Hey, do you have any more nurses? And I said, yes. And then we had called two more friends and then two more. And suddenly I realized that I was going into a hospital to work with eight of my friends and that was the genesis of the company, basically other learned a lot.
Heather (12:51.267)
You did.
Heather (13:03.598)
KATHRYN
Heather (13:07.886)
Oh my god.
Rick (13:09.599)
Learned a lot about having to pay them, payroll. Learned a lot about having to get my message to other hospitals, marketing. Learned a lot about having to contract negotiations and things that I never thought I'd have to know as a nurse, which are the basic tenets of entrepreneurship. So.
Fast forward is my skill, my gift was I was able to converse with directors of nurses. Plus, I was really good at my job. And so word got around that there's this new company, there's these nurses, they're in there, they're hustling, they know their stuff. And my phone started ringing. I'd go in and talk to the director of nursing, D.O.N., and they'd sign contracts. So I was signing contracts at hospitals all over the city. And that meant they needed more nurses.
Heather (13:38.054)
Okay. Yeah.
Rick (13:55.247)
and then more nurses and then the cities neighboring us wanted nurses and they heard about us and I was like, oh wow. But that wasn't even where we start. That was where we got where we got our first traction and started growing. But where we really grew was working with the federal government. And I don't know what it's what it's like in Australia, but in the US, the government outsources pretty much everything. The government outsources desks, paper clips, pencils.
Heather (14:13.454)
Okay.
Rick (14:24.743)
human capital personnel, especially doctors and nurses. And so one day I knocked on the government store. That's another long story. And they said the Department of the Air Force needs one nurse. They need one nurse at one facility to take care of one patient. It's a very special case. And I'm like, okay, so how do I do this? They said you have to submit a bid. And so I learned to write bids because I had to. And so but it's these things entrepreneurs are faced with.
Heather (14:33.198)
Gosh, wow.
Heather (14:48.07)
Oh my goodness, yeah. Huh? Yep.
Rick (14:56.977)
The only way to get over a problem is through it. I'm like, I got to figure out how to do this. You either figure it out or you don't. Somebody was going to get the bid. We won the bid. And it was just one person, one FTE. And we performed on it. And then they said, can you do one more? And then all of a sudden, the government was knocking on our door.
Heather (15:02.966)
Yeah.
Heather (15:08.038)
Oh.
Heather (15:17.055)
You're in. Yeah.
Rick (15:18.731)
And so the government was huge. So we ended up either shutting down, shuttering our private work, meaning commercial hospitals, and went 110% all in on federal work. And that's where the exponential growth then happened because we focused on government. Now, to be clear, we could have focused on our commercial stuff and not done government and probably still done really well.
But the government provided a unique opportunity because the work was guaranteed. The government, for the most part, pays. And this was just before 9-11. So. 9-11, yes, 9-11, all of a sudden, no pun intended, and I don't mean this in a negative way, but business exploded after that because we went to war in America. So, yeah.
Heather (15:53.731)
Okay, okay, give some context.
Heather (16:06.742)
Absolutely. Yeah. Um, so that's, that's huge. So how long did this growth happen from the time you started, you, you know, got on and formed the LLC to the time you actually were like, wow, I have 600 employees. How many years was that?
Rick (16:22.395)
Easily 10. It was it was a decade of growth. Yeah, it was not it was the what I just explained in a few minutes was literally years and years of dark times and highs and highs and very lows and lows on the things that go with growing a business. But easily 10 years and.
Heather (16:24.354)
10 years, decade of growth.
Rick (16:42.591)
Yeah, 10 years, I would say was the time where like, okay, we're, we're actually cooking with gas now we're, we're in motion. You know, we are a locomotive now and you know, we're, we're doing things.
Heather (16:55.358)
and you exited the business, yeah?
Rick (16:57.867)
Yeah, it was about five years, probably about year 15. We had won some really, really big contracts here in the US and we were on a lot of radars, not just the government and that we could perform, but private equity, big companies who were looking to add to their portfolios. And we had at that time won one of the largest federal healthcare contracts in the history of the US. And that put us on just all kinds of radars.
Heather (17:01.282)
Yep.
Heather (17:27.008)
Yeah.
Rick (17:27.861)
thought about it. I never thought about being anything other than the company guy at that point, but until the day you do, you know?
Heather (17:36.978)
Yeah, yeah. I have a question for you. So two sides of the coin. What did you like most about having such a large business?
Rick (17:46.815)
Ooh, I never, that's a good question. I've never been asked that. I think reflecting back, Heather, I think it's the doors that it opened. If I think of, if we think of life as this corridor and at the very end is the light, proverbial light at the end of the tunnel that we're all gonna get to, we're all going there. Everybody's headed there.
Heather (17:48.919)
Ha ha ha!
Heather (17:52.706)
Throw one at ya.
Heather (18:13.559)
Yeah.
Rick (18:15.339)
Many times I believe that, and a lot of famous authors have written about this, how we meander through life, not really living it. And if life is this corridor, all of a sudden being the founder and CEO of now a company that was on a lot of radars, in that tunnel in my mind's eye, doors were opening. And I never knew doors were there. These were doors I never knew existed. These were doors of...
Rick (18:44.511)
friendships, opportunities, growth, just things that, when you're in a different, if you're thinking of climbing in Everest and you're at the, almost to the peak, everything changes. It's the view's different, everything's different. And so I think that's it. It's, I think what I, the question was what I missed most or what I, I think it was that. It was, yeah.
Heather (19:06.19)
What did you like most about having? Yeah, the doors.
Rick (19:13.051)
I was born in East Los Angeles, which is not a very, very good place here in the U.S. It's so it's a lousy place to I'm Hispanic by birth. And so this was gangbang territory. And so knowing where I had come from, all of a sudden realizing that these doors have always been there. I think that was it. It's it was incredible.
Heather (19:15.006)
Yeah. Yeah, I know it.
Rick (19:35.639)
It's like, which one do I want to walk through? Which which one do I want to open or kick down or now that I know they're there? And then even more so is what other doors are there? You know?
Heather (19:36.15)
Mmm.
Heather (19:47.17)
These doors have always been there. That is gold, that right there.
Rick (19:49.483)
Yes, they're there for anybody, anybody.
Heather (19:55.732)
Ooh, flip side of the coin. What was the most challenging or hardest thing about running a company that size?
Rick (20:07.575)
I'll tell, I'll give you a story as an example. This was probably about six years into our growth. We had a small office staff. I had an office, my wife's, I'm trying to remember my wife's office. She was office with our recruiters. So there was like four people in one room and nurses would come in and pick up their checks because we were doing, we would do a daily pay. And I'll never forget is that a nurse walked in and,
We had a lot of employees. My wife knew them all because she was not only our lead recruiter, she was our operations. She did an entire part of the business at to this. I digress, but she's being recruited for to this day. She was my girlfriend that we got married as a business group. But yeah, and.
Heather (20:48.822)
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, nice.
Rick (20:56.055)
It was about six years in and I wore a suit and tie to work. And I was in my office and I heard the door ding and the nurse walked in, pick up his check and my wife, I could hear them talking. And then he asked, he didn't know it was my wife. He just thought this was the operations, the business office manager. And he said, hey, how come we don't get free gym memberships? And I put my pen down and I kind of peeked my head over because I was like, that's an odd question.
And the person was saying to my wife, he says, I heard that the owner of this place owns gyms. And we did, we own CrossFit gyms. So we ended up opening it up other businesses at the same time. And so how come the nurses who work here who bust our asses for him don't get free gym memberships? And I thought, hmm, I didn't, even as I'm telling you, Heather, I wasn't sure how to receive that.
Heather (21:31.116)
Okay.
Heather (21:34.39)
Ah, okay.
Heather (21:40.814)
So.
Rick (21:48.331)
Should I be angry? Should I should I give them free stuff? You know, I mean, I'm a nurse, too. And I could tell just because I know my wife, she didn't know how to respond. And my wife just said, Well, what do you mean? And my wife doesn't pull any punches either. She and it was obvious he did not know he was speaking to my wife. And he said, Well, I heard that the owner is making bank off of us. And and you and you could tell there was a little bit of bitterness in the voice.
Heather (22:02.507)
Nyeh.
Heather (22:10.648)
Oh.
Rick (22:15.867)
And then my wife said, well, you know, he's a nurse as well. And that he started the company from, you know, nothing and he's built it. And he works as hard. He just doesn't work as much as a nurse. And he says, yeah, but still we deserve more because we're the ones out there. And the conversation went on for a while. And after a minute, he left, he got his check and he left. My wife came in and she's looked at me and she said something like that, son of a bitch. And I was like, I was I was actually I was hurt.
because I always thought that these were my people, that these were my nurses. I didn't build my backs off of them. I built it off my back for them. And I always had that mantra. I believe that was the reason why we grew so much is because I wasn't business-minded. I was people-minded. Our mission was we take care of people in beds.
Heather (23:04.364)
Yeah.
Rick (23:07.723)
When we worked with the government, we weren't a staffing company. And I told the federal government this. We're not competing with the other staffing companies. We're taking care of soldiers in beds and their families. That is my mission. And I was an army nurse myself. And that that's my mission to make sure that soldier has the best life ever because of the people who are working for my company. If you want a staffing firm, there's 50 of them out there. If you want somebody who gives a shit about the soldiers and their families. I said there's only one option.
Heather (23:21.624)
Wow.
Heather (23:37.503)
Yeah.
Rick (23:37.695)
And so that was my mantra. And when he said that, Heather, I was like, am I doing something wrong? I questioned, I questioned my everything that he, um, today it's different. Um, cause now I don't know whatever happened to him. Um, I, I never thought again about it until people ask like today, but, um, I let's here's the lesson and I forgot what the question was, but here's the lesson.
Heather (23:42.326)
that'd hurt
Rick (24:05.763)
is it's called the 80-20, the Pareto principle, right? Is we tend, we will spend an inordinate amount of time on the 20 and forget about the 80. It has to do with employees. We let the best employees do their thing and we focus on the bad apples and the best employees leave. And so I spent this incredible amount of time focusing on what this one guy was saying. And I forgot about the other hundred nurses who were doing a bang up job and doing living.
Heather (24:08.939)
Yep, that's the one.
Rick (24:33.159)
living the mission and doing the things because they knew who we were at our heart. And my regret was I spent too much time thinking about what that son of a bitch said, instead of saying, you know what, fire him, or you know what, he can go somewhere else, or you know what, he can whatever it is.
Heather (24:51.074)
There are so many people that needed to hear that story right now. So thank you for pulling that out and sharing that. And the question was, what was the hardest moment? So you answered that and then you give some great advice around the 80 20 rules. So thank you. We have to talk about the writing. Obviously that grant writing that you did bid or whatever you did, something about that, you're like, I want to write. No, I'm just kidding. But I do want to know like, how did you transition from nurse and running this huge company to being a ghostwriter? What happened?
Rick (25:04.448)
Yeah.
Rick (25:13.452)
Yeah.
Rick (25:21.791)
So, you know, they say follow your passion, love a work a day in your life, that's crap. If that was the truth, I would be sitting here talking to you with tequila and donuts. And I would have no future, no doors opening because my passion is good tequila and I love donuts. My passion was writing. Since I was a kid, I loved to read and write. I don't have any hobbies. My hobbies are books and the pen.
Heather (25:28.583)
Yeah.
Heather (25:32.75)
I'm gonna go to bed.
Rick (25:49.191)
And I loved it. I love essay writing as a kid in school. And then when it came time to grow up, it's like, what are you gonna do? And nursing was, I was also passionate about healthcare. Love the story behind that, but about hands-on and taking care of people at their best and worst. And writing kind of took a back burner. But when our company started growing,
Heather (26:05.995)
Yeah.
Rick (26:11.619)
I was the CEO. I could write whatever I wanted to. So I wrote our newsletters and people would say you can outsource that Rick. I'm like, no, but I like doing this part. So I wrote our newsletters. I built our email list built it to now. I realized the importance of an email list and love writing the newsletters love writing our daily emails love writing our blogs. I love that. So I always kept my foot if you will or my hand in that writing world and then.
Heather (26:16.084)
Ah.
Heather (26:19.648)
Yeah.
Rick (26:39.459)
towards the end of when we sold the business and I was in a kind of a lost space, not quite sure, I had no identity, started writing more, more personally, personal essays, got into writing some more for that. But really Heather, where I think it turned into a legitimate career choice for me, where we're in 2024 was March of 2020, COVID.
COVID shut down the world. So I've always written, I've always published. I published a book about my journey as a CEO, but ghost writing became a real thing for me probably. And.
Heather (27:04.854)
Okay.
Rick (27:20.103)
My first paying clients, like real, real pain, not people who pay me for an article, but real paying clients came when the world was shut down because remember all those doors that had opened. A lot of my circle were CEOs and founders. And these were people who suddenly did not have lunch meetings with people. They could not go grab a drink or a coffee because you couldn't. And so the questions were, hey, Rick, how do I maintain connections with my
Heather (27:42.082)
Yeah.
Rick (27:48.035)
customers, how do I continue marketing? And I'd say, send your emails or send your newsletter. And they didn't have it.
And so my first foray into ghost writing was I would ghost write on their behalf, on behalf of their company. Some people call it copywriting, but I would take on the voice of the founder. And that led to doing white papers and blogs for the founders. And they're like, wow, this is like thought leadership stuff. And I said, I can be you. I've walked in your shoes. And, and then one day a friend, client said, can you write a book for me? I'm like, what do you mean a book?
And they said, my book, like my story, my journey. So I saw your book about your journey. I want that too. And so that's where I am today is I found my footing into ghostwriting books for entrepreneurs and founders. And that's in a nutshell, that's how it happened.
Heather (28:37.191)
So what's the name of your book that you released?
Rick (28:40.303)
Oh my God, it's on, I have an Amazon author page. It's one of those things I look back on. I'm like, I cannot believe I actually, the book is very personal. The title, the cover, it's like, why did I do that? I would never advise a client to do what I did with their book. And that was my mistake. It's called the power, it's the word is B-I-N-K, Bink. And it's the power, it's life-changing moments. I can't even remember the title.
Heather (28:43.918)
Okay.
Rick (29:10.003)
It is, but it's actually, it's, it's still on my author page. Um, it's not all of that. I will say that to this day, Heather, that there's a company here in San Antonio and the founders of friend pieces. Rick, um, I just, a few years ago, he said, I just want you to know, he goes, I make every one of my new employees read your book. And I said, what? And he said, I do every new hire. I buy them a copy of the book and they have, we have it on our books. And he showed me his office. He goes, they have to read it. I'm like, why?
Heather (29:10.318)
What's that?
Heather (29:14.571)
Okay.
Rick (29:37.591)
He goes, because the lessons that you talk about, the trials and tribulations of building something, he says, these are real. And he says, because I know you, like I was there. He was a competitor, he was a friend. He says, I remember all those times. He goes, so I haven't read your book. I'm like, wow. Wow. So, yeah.
Heather (29:56.334)
That's so good. And we know so interesting is how you're hard on yourself about your own book. I find that really... We all do this weird stuff to ourselves, don't we?
Rick (30:03.021)
Oh, God.
Rick (30:07.255)
Yes. Gosh, I know. Like, why did I do that?
Heather (30:12.034)
So, okay, so now when you're ghost writing for somebody, what's the process do you do? Do you actually do the entire writing and then do you have a team around you to help publish the book? What's your role in the whole journey?
Rick (30:26.447)
I take the lead and I pretty much I'm the only point of contact with the client. So two answers. Yes, I do work with editors, but for the most part they interface with me all the time. I take it very personal. I want to be in their shoes almost literally. I want to know everything about them. So the process if I just extrapolate and give you this the peaks is first. There's got to be a good fit.
Heather (30:32.971)
Nice.
Rick (30:54.355)
And if you've ever gone, if you ever have a dog or if any of the listeners here have dogs, you go to the dog park. First thing dogs do is they sniff each other's butts. There's it's a butt sniff test. I get on. I there's no other way to explain it. It's immediately people know what that means. It's what we let off this conversation with Heather was instinct.
Heather (31:02.853)
Yeah.
Rick (31:14.827)
that first conversation, I have it has to be on zoom. I don't want to meet him in person because it goes into how's the family? Hey, you need some cream for your coffee? Then somebody walks in and it's, it needs to be me and the person. And I need to see their face. I need to see what's behind them. I need to know where they're at. I need to know if they're on their phone walking around an office or if they're actually sitting down giving a shit. Because if they are, it's all of these tiny, tiny nuances that start to feed me and let me know.
I don't know. All of a sudden this butt doesn't smell so good. You know what I mean? On the email they sent, it was all roses. It was like, this is a nice butt. But all of a sudden, let me leave that analogy alone now. Sorry. Okay. But you learn so much more when you're on a call like this because you...
Heather (31:57.27)
I'm loving it, it's making me laugh, it's so good.
Rick (32:07.183)
There's just more. Every sense almost is in play. And so it's gotta be a positive conversation. And then if it is, then we come to an agreement. And when that happens, then we start interviews. Interviews could be eight to 12 interviews, and that could be one to two months.
Once the interviews are done, then we go into the drafting stage, we meaning me. And I literally write, I write and I have hours of interviews and it's extremely, extremely tedious, but it is. And then I do a lot of research because during the interviews we get very close. Part of that initial dog in the park test, if you will, is
Heather (32:38.338)
imagine.
Rick (32:52.331)
I have to know that they're okay crying in front of me. I'm not literally making them cry, but it's a sense you get. Are they willing to open it all up? Because if they can't, their story isn't gonna be, it's gonna be the truth. It'll be a partial truth. So usually when we've, the clients I've worked with, they already know that they're gonna have to open it up, and they do.
Heather (32:56.126)
Yeah. OK.
Heather (33:11.778)
well.
Rick (33:20.167)
And sometimes they'll say things that they had forgotten. And that leads me to, when I capture it researching, and then when I research, I'm like, oh my God, I can read on Google, the good, the bad, and the ugly of that time they mentioned or the place they were at. And it just adds more and adds more and it adds more and things and all of a sudden, what was just a story they shared, all of a sudden became a book that's gonna be part of their legacy. So, but the writing part is many, many months long. And then...
Heather (33:44.235)
Oh.
Heather (33:48.174)
imagine it'd be huge. Yeah.
Rick (33:49.451)
It is, it takes a long time. And then the whole publishing part, we handle all that to include the cover design and the title, that's something I do not let them do on their own, they can, but I'm like, this is the mistake I made, go to my Amazon page. You don't want that, so that lives forever.
Heather (33:57.909)
Ciao!
Heather (34:05.514)
No.
Heather (34:10.524)
So you have the team and you help put together the cover and everything for them. And then...
Rick (34:14.795)
Yes, when they're when they are done, they they're this is what they get. They don't get this. Not this book. This is a friend of mine's book. And I'm not responsible for that. They don't get so. I keep this as an example. This is was my first my first book. This is what I got because I worked with the ghost writer. I did.
Heather (34:19.912)
Yeah.
full book. Yeah.
Heather (34:29.038)
Okay.
Heather (34:35.266)
Guys, this is just paper with like a paper clip in a folder. Just so you know, isn't it? You're a manuscript. Oh God, yeah, got it. So that's what you got.
Rick (34:38.407)
No, it's a real, it's my manuscript. It's my legit manuscript from my very first book. I worked with a ghost. This is it. I've kept it for, this is the book on my Amazon page. This is the actual manuscript. But the thing is Heather, is on most ghost writers, this is what they hand to you. This is what people want. They don't want this. They want that. And so we ghost.
Heather (34:46.462)
Oh, that's so cool. That's actually yours. Got it.
Heather (34:53.078)
That's so cool. Oh my god.
Heather (34:59.019)
Yeah, it stops there.
Yeah. No.
Rick (35:06.615)
We go all the way home. We cross the finish line with them.
Heather (35:09.462)
So you literally get it out there on Amazon published with Kindle, hard copy, whatever they want. Yeah.
Rick (35:13.815)
Yes, we will do all that unless they want to do it themselves. But otherwise, my promise to them is they will walk. They will have something that you give to mom. So.
Heather (35:23.05)
Love it. And do you help with any of the marketing or the launch behind it? Or is that another type of thing? Yeah.
Rick (35:27.723)
I can give him advice, but that's where kind of going back to the early part, you know, gifts versus like things that are painful. Yeah. So yes. Oh, no, no. No.
Heather (35:37.054)
I was hoping you were going to answer it like that. I was just, I was testing you, Rick. Um, that is, that's amazing. How many books have you written since you started this back in 2020?
Rick (35:51.427)
Total, let me put my screen up some. If it starts to get dark in here, let me know because I realize the sun's sitting behind me. Okay. I think total probably, I've never tallied them up, I'm looking at my shelf. I've written probably total of nine, three of my own and then actually four of my own and then probably about five for others and I have two in progress right now as we speak.
Heather (35:59.653)
We're good. Looks good. I can see ya.
Heather (36:20.298)
Amazing. So I can imagine you're particular by the sounds of it. You're saying no, as you said at the start and you're being, you're particular, right? You want to choose people that, like you said, the butt test, it worked. They work, you know, that they're going to be open, you know, they're going to be vulnerable and that you can actually do something incredible for them. Love it.
Rick (36:32.888)
Yes.
Rick (36:39.607)
Yes. Yeah, I take this as personal as I did when we started our first company 20 something years ago.
Heather (36:44.77)
Yeah.
Yeah. Oh, wow. What a journey you have been on. I mean, I mean, oh, no, I, and do you, is there anything else in the works? I mean, there probably is for you. Any other plans? Any other interesting ventures? Are you really solely focused on this for right now?
Rick (36:53.638)
It's not over yet.
Rick (37:06.539)
So yes and yes right now I'm focused on this and I say that because um a client might listen to this and go Focus on my book Rick, but no I'm focused right now writing is it for me? That's what I'm doing, but I also but I also believe that life should be a series of commas We should again going back to the I could have been a nurse for 20 or 30 years And then I would have been known forever and on my tombstone. He was a great nurse
Heather (37:09.048)
Okay.
Heather (37:19.735)
Yeah.
Rick (37:34.495)
I want to be a nurse and I want to be a writer and I want to be a whatever and I want to be a whatever. I want to be an entrepreneur. There's no rule book that says you can only be one thing. So this season of my life, Heather, I am just like I was when I was a nurse and when I owned my CrossFit gyms and when I was a CEO, I was a hundred and fifty five percent a CEO until the day I wasn't. So right now I'm a hundred and fifty five percent as a writer.
That's where I am as we speak today.
Heather (38:08.142)
And if you were to take on more clients for your ghost writing services and package that you do, what would that person have to be like?
Rick (38:19.971)
You know what, very candid. So as I've kind of made my way down this, so two things have happened. One is I've realized who my ideal client is for a one-on-one. When I work with one-on-one, my ideal clients are women. I didn't realize that until the day that the last few clients started coming to me were women. And...
Heather (38:33.762)
There you go.
Rick (38:50.859)
I recorded some calls, one of them's not a ghost client, I'm coaching her through her book, so I can mention this specifically. Because I asked her, I said, what was it? And she goes, I just feel very at ease. She said, I don't know if it's because of your background, it's because of who you are, because I've seen you on Instagram, whatever. She said, I can just talk, I can just say anything.
I feel like sometimes with guys, even though I may have known them and they come from very warm connections, maybe it's just me. It's just, it's harder. I don't wanna have to hammer through the shell. I want the shell to just, somebody to emerge from it. And so that's, now to be clear, I'm not excluding anybody. I'm just saying that.
Heather (39:38.974)
No, I'm not getting that.
Rick (39:40.971)
It's just organically happening that way. Even my wife said, you've always just connected better and easier with females. And just what it is. The other thing is I launched, I can only do one to ones. I can't do too many. And so I'm doing, I have a beta group right now. I'm not here to pitch anything, but it's, I've literally, I have a beta group right now and in the beta group, they're all women.
Heather (39:43.458)
Yeah.
Heather (40:02.21)
No, I'm asking.
Rick (40:07.003)
And it's a done with you because I can't, like right now I can't take any more clients until probably mid-year. But I'm like, going back to the nursing thing, I can't scale me. So how do I scale my process? How do I scale my systems? How do I build those so that I can take what I've learned with my one-on-ones and overlay the frameworks onto one-to-manys? And...
So I designed one, came up with one. I announced it to my email list and I got some people who responded. And I said, okay, I said, I'm gonna charge you. I said, I'm not gonna charge you when I do a ghost rate. I'm gonna charge you like pennies to the dollar. I said, but I promise you one thing, we're gonna finish your book. I said, my promise to you is we will finish your book. Your promise to me is not even about the money. You will commit. And so far, it's like I'm knocking on wood. They're hitting home runs.
And so I'm on the verge of publicly launching my, I don't have a name for it yet, my Ink to Impact. It's a done with you ghost writing program where I'm not ghost writing for them. In other words, if I was a ghost writer, I'd dig the gold for them. Now they carry a shovel and we dig together is the analogy I like to use. Yeah.
Heather (41:15.79)
together and you guide them. Brilliant. Where do people go and stay connected with you?
Rick (41:23.119)
Hmm. Um, selfishly, I'd like the best place would be to go. Um, I have this six step process where people want to write a book, like they don't have time to write a book. It's called ASAP author, like ASAP author.com. And it's, and again, selfishly speaking, they get a free download that I've designed and they get added to my email list and we get to talk on email. Um, unselfishly, they can just go to the Rick Martinez.com and it's just my website and they can just say, who is this guy? Okay.
Heather (41:37.72)
Nice.
Rick (41:52.679)
I like them, but I'm not interested in writing a book and move on with their life. But if they're interested in writing a book, whether it's now or later or sometime before they die, which most people do, then ASAP Author is a place where we can stay connected on a semi-regular basis.
Heather (42:08.526)
I think you guys should go over there and check it out and stay in touch. You said you have Instagram as well. Is that under your name?
Rick (42:14.423)
It is. It's no, it's not. It's under, it's, so it's Planet Boy Rick. It's probably too much stuff and Planet Boy is a whole different story.
Heather (42:27.698)
I know, I know, I know. We could probably have 10 of these interviews and not even still scratch the surface of your life. So guys, you should check Rick out. Like, and I get why you attract the people you do with your energy and your background and your very nurturing. So it makes a lot of sense that people be very willing to be open with you, the right ones that you're attracting. This conversation has been woven with
Rick (42:30.739)
Yeah.
Heather (42:54.386)
incredible business lessons and themes that have just continued to show up, whether it's saying no to finding your perfect client, to having rest and being in control of your time. I mean, I've written pages of notes and beautiful comments that have come along the way. And as we start to wrap up and say goodbye to everyone, are there, thinking back to you in those moments of stress and overwhelm, are there any comments that you would like to leave our listeners with?
Rick (43:24.423)
I would. And this came, I forgot how this came about. But as entrepreneurs, as I would imagine that the prototypical listener is, is there in the midst of building something, creating something or they're have a desire to and the letters ROI return on investment are going to just bang around in their heads. What's the ROI on that? Do I put money there? What's the ROI? What I'm going to tell you is screw ROI.
Don't think about ROI. ROI is going to be poisoned to you. What I want you to replace that with is ROH. And somebody said, what's that, Rick? And I was at a conference and somebody put their hand up and they had heard me say it. They had ROH written on their hand and they held it up and I was speaking and I looked at their hand and I was like, son of a bitch, people remembered that. It's return on heartbeats because your business is more than an ROI.
The moment we forget about why we're doing what we're doing, the people who we're doing it for, your shareholders might be people who invested, but your shareholders are your family. They're the people who believe in you. They're your kids, they're your spouses. Those are the ones we will forget when we're driving hard and driving and driving. ROH.
is I believe and I have adapted that and adopted that into everything I do. And you mentioned the word nurturing. I think that's really what comes forth is that your book isn't about an ROI. Forget about how many copies you're going to sell. I want you to focus on the ROH, the one heartbeat besides yours that is going to impact and that ripple will impact 10 more. And that ripple will impact 10 more. And suddenly the ROI you thought about.
and the ROH you focused on will impact the world. There's one guy, last thing I'll say, there's one human being about 2000 years ago who's like, how am I gonna impact the world? I've only got these 12 dudes listening to me. And those 12 dudes went and wrote a book and that book is now the Bible. That guy was Jesus. He had 12 people who listened to him. You don't have to be religious to understand that concept. ROH is the name of the game in business, in life, in...
Rick (45:37.267)
In my opinion, everything. And it's a lesson I've learned and it's changed everything for me.
Heather (45:44.226)
how I live and do what I do as well. I am so grateful for you to say that at the end of our chat and thank you for being here and being yourself very open and honest about your journey as well. It's been such a good chat. I've loved every moment of it and thank you again for being here.
Rick (46:00.195)
Thanks Heather, I appreciate your time.
