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Listen "Circuit of Success | The Art of Gifting: Leveraging Technology to Win Big with John Ruhlin"
Episode Synopsis
This week on The Circuit of Success, Brett Gilliland interviews guest John Ruhlin. John shares his background growing up on a farm in Ohio and his initial plan to become a doctor. However, a mentor's generosity and the power of meaningful gifting changed his trajectory. He became the top rep for CutCo knives by gifting high-quality knives to CEOs and building strong relationships. The conversation touches on lessons learned during the pandemic, including the value of remote work and setting boundaries. John mentions his strategy of leveraging technology and being selective about in-person engagements. Tune in for insights on John Ruhlin's journey and the Giftology approach.
The Circuit of Success
Brett Gilliland: [00:00:00] All right. Welcome to the Circuit of Success. I'm your host, Brett Gilland. Today I've got my buddy John Ruhlin. And John, what's up dude?
John Ruhlin: Thanks for having me. How you doing, dude? I'm great. Did you
Brett Gilliland: throw up, punch anybody today
John Ruhlin: playing basketball? I did. I, I throw, uh, Scotty, so I did. I felt so bad, and then he drained to three and I'm like, I didn't, I didn't throw.
Chop 'em hard enough. Exactly.
Brett Gilliland: Didn't hit you hard enough, man. Well, uh, you are John Ruland. You are the author of Giftology. You are an advisor, you're a speaker, man. You're going all over the world and, uh, you're making some things happen, man. It's been fun to watch. Well,
John Ruhlin: it's, uh, I've been very fortunate. I got a lot of people in my corner,
Brett Gilliland: so.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, that doesn't just happen by accident, so we're gonna, we're gonna get that out of you today. I know you're a humble guy and you won't wanna chat about it, but it's my job to make you talk about it. You can, we can go anywhere you want to go. All right. Well, uh, if you can though, man, uh, we, we did this about five years ago, maybe five and a half years ago, right?
When I was starting the podcast, God, probably almost six years ago. And, uh, now here we are again, but for those people that don't know John Ruland, man, give us a little backstory. What's made you, the man you are today, kind of your upbringing and, and kinda get us [00:01:00] to where we're at now and what we'll talk about here
John Ruhlin: in a little bit.
Yeah, so I didn't grow up in any, you know, any of the cool towns, LA, Austin, Nashville. I grew up in Ohio Farm kid. 47 acres, you know, milking goats every morning. Uh, so learned what I didn't wanna do the rest of my life. Yeah. Although ironically, we just bought 40 acres. I think I was talking to you about land early on.
Um, and just got 20 chickens and it's kind of going back to my roots Yeah. Of, uh, of, you know, the farm, the, the, uh, baling hay, all that kind of stuff. And, uh, I thought I'd go make my mom proud and is gonna go be a doctor, uh, chiropractor, do some something holistic, functional. And, uh, God got ahold of my life.
I had had a, a mentor who is a law firm owner and he, when you're poor, you grow up poor. You notice some people are generous, like that just seems weird. And he was always doing things radically, generously. And because of that, he was the most light, trusted and top of mind dude in town. Yeah. Every deal came his way, every referral.
And I saw how seeds he had planted 30 years before with no, like, wasn't like [00:02:00] an expectation or like strings attached, like. He would love on somebody, do something. 30 years later, they're in a position of, you know, inherited real estate or whatever it was. And who did they call? They called Paul. Why?
Because of the relationship. So I was interning with Cutco at the time, desperate to pay for med school, uh, hoping it would last this summer in my fourth appointment, I pitched Paul the knives and, uh, which is, you know, everybody thinks they have hard, like selling insurance, financial services like pro sports, like.
Selling knives to your girlfriend's dad, right. The most weird, awkward, but Paul didn't make me feel weird. He's like, John, I, uh, he bought a set for himself and his three unmarried girls, daughters. And then he comes back to me with this question, which, like, who asked this? John, I wanna help your, your goals.
What else can I do for you? That's literally how he led his life. So I rack my brain. I'm like, Paul's always giving things away. Clients, employees, all of his, all of his clients were like CEOs of million and billion dollar companies, and they're all into the outdoors. So I pitch 'em, the pocket knives are like a few hundred dollars.[00:03:00]
And, uh, so a week later before church. Weird, you know, but he didn't make me feel weird. He said, John, I don't wanna wear the pocket knives. I'm like, I, I understand. He's like, I do wanna order something though. I'm like, What's that? He's like, I'm gonna order a bunch of these, you know, the chef knives, the pairing knives, like you wanna give a bunch of CEOs of like million and billion dollar companies, like Kitchen Tool Y.
And he said, John, the reason I have more referrals and deal flow and access all these outcomes we want in business is I found out if you take care of the family and business, everything else seems to take care of itself. So that was the lightning bolt moment. I started to, instead of buying beer in college, I was buying knife stats for CEOs of big insurance companies.
And Coco's worked with about 2 million reps in 70 years, we became their number one rep in the history of the company. Wow. By, you know, we call it Giftology, but really it's, it's how do you show up in powerful, unique, memorable ways for relationships, whether that's your employees, whether that's your clients, your suppliers.
And so I put med school on hold and started this little business around it, and that was 23 years ago. Amazing.
Brett Gilliland: Absolutely amazing. So now what's [00:04:00] the, uh, what's the vision with your 40 acres? What, what do you see there? Yeah,
John Ruhlin: well, I mean, it's, uh, the goal is to slow down. I read a book recently, a venture of mine's been challenging me to, to shift my thinking.
Actually, Matthew's one of the guys that's been challenging me to like, Matthew Kelly. He's like, you know, book's done well. It's sold a hundred thousand copies, you know, as a self-published book, multiple languages. Like that's, you know, average business book sells four or 500 copies, and then it fizzles out.
So I'm grateful for that, but he's like, you're, you're only leveraging your IP like 3% of what it could be. Mm. And uh, and then the other book that I read called Becoming a King talks about how as men, we've kind of outsourced everything and all we do is think and we don't get our hands dirty and it's not good for our soul.
And so like, I've been like things on a, on a spreadsheet that normally I'd be like out, you know, delegating, like mowing the lawn or picking up a chainsaw or a weed eater. Yeah. All those things I've gone back to. And I've noticed it connects me to my girls. It connects me to nature, it connects me to like my faith.
It's like it's been a [00:05:00] shift, but it doesn't make sense on paper. Yeah, right. And so for me, part of the 40 acres was to be more intentional about slowing down. And everybody says they wanna slow down. Everybody says they wanna be less busy. But a lot of times, myself included, our priorities are not geared towards where I'm putting boundaries in place and shifting things and actually doing the things I say I want to do.
I'm just talking about it. Yeah. My wife will call me like, You're good at talking. Are you like, are you, you really
Brett Gilliland: slowing down? Yeah. You're really good at at
John Ruhlin: talking. Like, are you really gonna follow through on these things and actually do the things with the girls? And so we got chickens, but like I drug my feet cuz I was like, man, that's gonna be time and energy and effort.
It's like, dude, clean up all this stuff. Yeah. If you're. You know, talk about slowing down and, and getting your hands dirty and then just like talk about it for five years, which I did. I did, I talked about it for a long time, but like once we bought the land and now like actually doing it, I'm like, man, like it feels good.
It's one thing to get a workout at the gym, it's another thing to go out and freaking work in the sun with the chainsaw. I've worked muscles. I haven't worked in [00:06:00] 40
Brett Gilliland: years. I, you know, I like it, man. I, we have some land as well, but I like being out there and I like my boys knowing how to work a chainsaw and a knife and an ax and all that stuff too.
And I think. For me, it is fun to get out there and just kind of take it all in, man, take in nature and, and enjoy that stuff. And I'm sure we could compare stories. You've got four girls? I do. I've got four boys. You know, Different worlds at our houses. Very,
John Ruhlin: yeah. I, Michael Hyatt has five girls and he, and he jokes that he, you know, he consistently has estrogen poisoning.
Exactly. And, uh, and so like you have, you know, plenty of testosterone running through the house. There's
Brett Gilliland: there's plenty of it. There's plenty of it. No doubt. Let's, um, one of the, I usually like to ask it at the end, but it, it's been on my mind a lot lately, is what did you learn from the pandemic Man? We were, you know, we're shut down for all this time.
What was some of the biggest learnings that you had as a leader? You are, and the people you surround yourself with? Some thoughts you can share with our listeners on that? Yeah,
John Ruhlin: I, I mean, I think, I mean, we're fortunate, we've been virtual for 14 years, so all of our employees outside of a videographer are out.
Inside the area. I'm the only [00:07:00] one that's here. Yeah. Um,
The Circuit of Success
Brett Gilliland: [00:00:00] All right. Welcome to the Circuit of Success. I'm your host, Brett Gilland. Today I've got my buddy John Ruhlin. And John, what's up dude?
John Ruhlin: Thanks for having me. How you doing, dude? I'm great. Did you
Brett Gilliland: throw up, punch anybody today
John Ruhlin: playing basketball? I did. I, I throw, uh, Scotty, so I did. I felt so bad, and then he drained to three and I'm like, I didn't, I didn't throw.
Chop 'em hard enough. Exactly.
Brett Gilliland: Didn't hit you hard enough, man. Well, uh, you are John Ruland. You are the author of Giftology. You are an advisor, you're a speaker, man. You're going all over the world and, uh, you're making some things happen, man. It's been fun to watch. Well,
John Ruhlin: it's, uh, I've been very fortunate. I got a lot of people in my corner,
Brett Gilliland: so.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, that doesn't just happen by accident, so we're gonna, we're gonna get that out of you today. I know you're a humble guy and you won't wanna chat about it, but it's my job to make you talk about it. You can, we can go anywhere you want to go. All right. Well, uh, if you can though, man, uh, we, we did this about five years ago, maybe five and a half years ago, right?
When I was starting the podcast, God, probably almost six years ago. And, uh, now here we are again, but for those people that don't know John Ruland, man, give us a little backstory. What's made you, the man you are today, kind of your upbringing and, and kinda get us [00:01:00] to where we're at now and what we'll talk about here
John Ruhlin: in a little bit.
Yeah, so I didn't grow up in any, you know, any of the cool towns, LA, Austin, Nashville. I grew up in Ohio Farm kid. 47 acres, you know, milking goats every morning. Uh, so learned what I didn't wanna do the rest of my life. Yeah. Although ironically, we just bought 40 acres. I think I was talking to you about land early on.
Um, and just got 20 chickens and it's kind of going back to my roots Yeah. Of, uh, of, you know, the farm, the, the, uh, baling hay, all that kind of stuff. And, uh, I thought I'd go make my mom proud and is gonna go be a doctor, uh, chiropractor, do some something holistic, functional. And, uh, God got ahold of my life.
I had had a, a mentor who is a law firm owner and he, when you're poor, you grow up poor. You notice some people are generous, like that just seems weird. And he was always doing things radically, generously. And because of that, he was the most light, trusted and top of mind dude in town. Yeah. Every deal came his way, every referral.
And I saw how seeds he had planted 30 years before with no, like, wasn't like [00:02:00] an expectation or like strings attached, like. He would love on somebody, do something. 30 years later, they're in a position of, you know, inherited real estate or whatever it was. And who did they call? They called Paul. Why?
Because of the relationship. So I was interning with Cutco at the time, desperate to pay for med school, uh, hoping it would last this summer in my fourth appointment, I pitched Paul the knives and, uh, which is, you know, everybody thinks they have hard, like selling insurance, financial services like pro sports, like.
Selling knives to your girlfriend's dad, right. The most weird, awkward, but Paul didn't make me feel weird. He's like, John, I, uh, he bought a set for himself and his three unmarried girls, daughters. And then he comes back to me with this question, which, like, who asked this? John, I wanna help your, your goals.
What else can I do for you? That's literally how he led his life. So I rack my brain. I'm like, Paul's always giving things away. Clients, employees, all of his, all of his clients were like CEOs of million and billion dollar companies, and they're all into the outdoors. So I pitch 'em, the pocket knives are like a few hundred dollars.[00:03:00]
And, uh, so a week later before church. Weird, you know, but he didn't make me feel weird. He said, John, I don't wanna wear the pocket knives. I'm like, I, I understand. He's like, I do wanna order something though. I'm like, What's that? He's like, I'm gonna order a bunch of these, you know, the chef knives, the pairing knives, like you wanna give a bunch of CEOs of like million and billion dollar companies, like Kitchen Tool Y.
And he said, John, the reason I have more referrals and deal flow and access all these outcomes we want in business is I found out if you take care of the family and business, everything else seems to take care of itself. So that was the lightning bolt moment. I started to, instead of buying beer in college, I was buying knife stats for CEOs of big insurance companies.
And Coco's worked with about 2 million reps in 70 years, we became their number one rep in the history of the company. Wow. By, you know, we call it Giftology, but really it's, it's how do you show up in powerful, unique, memorable ways for relationships, whether that's your employees, whether that's your clients, your suppliers.
And so I put med school on hold and started this little business around it, and that was 23 years ago. Amazing.
Brett Gilliland: Absolutely amazing. So now what's [00:04:00] the, uh, what's the vision with your 40 acres? What, what do you see there? Yeah,
John Ruhlin: well, I mean, it's, uh, the goal is to slow down. I read a book recently, a venture of mine's been challenging me to, to shift my thinking.
Actually, Matthew's one of the guys that's been challenging me to like, Matthew Kelly. He's like, you know, book's done well. It's sold a hundred thousand copies, you know, as a self-published book, multiple languages. Like that's, you know, average business book sells four or 500 copies, and then it fizzles out.
So I'm grateful for that, but he's like, you're, you're only leveraging your IP like 3% of what it could be. Mm. And uh, and then the other book that I read called Becoming a King talks about how as men, we've kind of outsourced everything and all we do is think and we don't get our hands dirty and it's not good for our soul.
And so like, I've been like things on a, on a spreadsheet that normally I'd be like out, you know, delegating, like mowing the lawn or picking up a chainsaw or a weed eater. Yeah. All those things I've gone back to. And I've noticed it connects me to my girls. It connects me to nature, it connects me to like my faith.
It's like it's been a [00:05:00] shift, but it doesn't make sense on paper. Yeah, right. And so for me, part of the 40 acres was to be more intentional about slowing down. And everybody says they wanna slow down. Everybody says they wanna be less busy. But a lot of times, myself included, our priorities are not geared towards where I'm putting boundaries in place and shifting things and actually doing the things I say I want to do.
I'm just talking about it. Yeah. My wife will call me like, You're good at talking. Are you like, are you, you really
Brett Gilliland: slowing down? Yeah. You're really good at at
John Ruhlin: talking. Like, are you really gonna follow through on these things and actually do the things with the girls? And so we got chickens, but like I drug my feet cuz I was like, man, that's gonna be time and energy and effort.
It's like, dude, clean up all this stuff. Yeah. If you're. You know, talk about slowing down and, and getting your hands dirty and then just like talk about it for five years, which I did. I did, I talked about it for a long time, but like once we bought the land and now like actually doing it, I'm like, man, like it feels good.
It's one thing to get a workout at the gym, it's another thing to go out and freaking work in the sun with the chainsaw. I've worked muscles. I haven't worked in [00:06:00] 40
Brett Gilliland: years. I, you know, I like it, man. I, we have some land as well, but I like being out there and I like my boys knowing how to work a chainsaw and a knife and an ax and all that stuff too.
And I think. For me, it is fun to get out there and just kind of take it all in, man, take in nature and, and enjoy that stuff. And I'm sure we could compare stories. You've got four girls? I do. I've got four boys. You know, Different worlds at our houses. Very,
John Ruhlin: yeah. I, Michael Hyatt has five girls and he, and he jokes that he, you know, he consistently has estrogen poisoning.
Exactly. And, uh, and so like you have, you know, plenty of testosterone running through the house. There's
Brett Gilliland: there's plenty of it. There's plenty of it. No doubt. Let's, um, one of the, I usually like to ask it at the end, but it, it's been on my mind a lot lately, is what did you learn from the pandemic Man? We were, you know, we're shut down for all this time.
What was some of the biggest learnings that you had as a leader? You are, and the people you surround yourself with? Some thoughts you can share with our listeners on that? Yeah,
John Ruhlin: I, I mean, I think, I mean, we're fortunate, we've been virtual for 14 years, so all of our employees outside of a videographer are out.
Inside the area. I'm the only [00:07:00] one that's here. Yeah. Um,
In God we trust