← Coffeez with Joe Shalaby
Coffeez with Joe Shalaby
Revolutionizing Mortgage Lending ft. Alex Kutsishin | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby Ep. 60
00:41:42
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
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B
What's up, everybody?
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A
And welcome to another episode of Coffees for Closers where we're gonna dive deep with some of the industry disruptors who have shaped the entire future of the mortgage industry. Today's guest is no stranger to game changing ideas. After a successful exit from Sales Boomerang, a top borrower intelligence platform, he's now back with a brand new venture that's setting the industry on fire. Fuel. Designed to revolutionize how businesses grow and scale. Tune in as we explore the strategies behind his success and what's next for this powerhouse entrepreneur. Please welcome Alex Kutchin Joe. I butcher that last name.
- [00:51]
B
That's all right. Everybody does. Typically, typically my last name becomes the name of the company I'm in right now. Alex from Sales Boomerang. Alex from Fuel. That's it. Because it's like, yeah, the, the, the last name is too hard pronounce last name. Just Kuzu.
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A
Yeah, yeah, I knew the pronunciation.
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B
There you go.
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A
I'm good with pronoun.
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B
I'm telling you like this. In high school, they stopped saying my last name. There were several Alexes, but my name got called a lot. And at some point it was just Alex come to the office. And the teachers were like, even if there was another Alex in class, they knew exactly who they were talking to. Go. I was like, okay.
- [01:26]
A
All right. So I like to start this show off with, with the same question I asked everybody, which is, what is your morning routine?
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B
Oh. Oh, I love this. Oh, man. My morning routine is special because it just transformed recently. So I am, I, for the longest time, didn't like routines at all. I loved the truly following the flow of anything that's happening. Which is why I have a jellyfish tattooed on my arm. Because jellyfish can't fight the current. They go with the flow. Right? Going with the flow. And so, which is a good lesson in life in general. Go with the flow. My morning routine is I wake up every morning. I have, I have breakfast with the kids every morning. Doesn't matter if I'm in town, of course. So breakfast with the kids. My wife then takes them to school. While she takes them to school, I do about an hour of breath work and meditation followed by a shower, usually some yoga. And all that happens before 9:00 in the morning. And that's how that happens. And sometimes, sometimes I go for a walk, sometimes I go for a run. Sometimes I'll just do some kind of workout. But it is a physical activity that follows a breath work meditation session. That's how I start every morning, every morning for the last going on year. Yeah.
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A
And that breath work meditation you're doing, just deep breath work, you're doing like, like what is your breath work? Like routine.
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B
So it is about just being present, just coming right here into this moment because we know tomorrow never comes. Right?
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A
Right.
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B
And since we are only here, my breath work typically is just noticing my breath, nothing else. Just noticing it. And then affirmations. I am here. I am here now. I am present. I am safe. I love myself. All these things start to bring yourself down into a place where you are exactly where you're meant to be, which is always the case. You're never in a place you're not supposed. You're always exactly where you're meant to be. And so in that moment, it's after like 10, 15, 20 minutes of just breathing, there's an out of body experience nearly every time because you're so present, you're no longer thinking about anything. You're just right here. And so all the possibilities become possible because the power is in the unknown. And so when you just breathe and thoughts come in. Oh, you got to make a phone call to Joe. Thank you. Thank you for that. Not right now. I don't tell them not to. I don't stop thinking. I don't want the thoughts to stop coming in. Please come in. That actually is a recognition of what is truly important to your, to your psyche and your body. Those things will come in. But sometimes it's just the ego, sometimes it's just a fear. And it's great. It's nothing wrong with it. Don't, don't make it wrong. It's. Oh, you forgot to send out that contract. Okay, thank you very much. Thanks. But not right. Awesome. Not right now because I'm just dying to be here. I'm not trying to think about anything after like a good 10, 15 minutes. Sometimes it happens in three minutes. What happens is, that's it. All the noise is gone, just quiet. And all of a sudden you start hearing things that are not part of your daily trying to predict the future or remembering the past, which is what we're stuck in. Most people are stuck in trying to predict the future. Right? The predictable future. Like for instance, you can predict that you're going to leave here and go to a meeting with Sam soon. Right? Predictable future. So your mind will be thinking about that. Do we have time? Do I have gas in the car? Do I look good? All that good stuff. Once you quiet that down, then the universe starts to talk. To you. Right. And then that's where the magic is, is just you're so present and you're starting to just hear your self without the filter of the ego trying to tell you something is more important than where you are right now. And so that's where all the, the beauty lies, is in this moment. But to get to this moment, you got to shut out the future and the past. And so that's. That' Morning practice. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty deep. Thank you. Well, it's. Yeah, deep but yet simple.
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A
Yeah, but it's deep, but it, and it's hard to do. It takes years of mastery. So.
- [05:40]
B
Yeah, over a decade I've been practicing breath work. Go. Yeah.
- [05:44]
A
Yeah. So next question for you. I would like you to basically give like a 20,000 foot overview.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Of what you do currently and, and what Sales Boomerang, you know, is still doing.
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B
Was.
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A
And still doing.
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B
Yeah. So Sales Boomerang is trust engine now. It's a borrower intelligence platform. You know, the platform we, we kind of let the cat out of the bag in 2017 in inventing a category called borrower intelligence. Today, there probably isn't a lender in the United States that isn't using a version of borrower intelligence in their platform, getting notifications and all kinds of things so that we're no longer selling but serving. Like in mortgage and finances. I believe salesmanship is overrated because I believe there is something that's valuable for a consumer and something that's not valuable for a consumer. And if it's valuable for a consumer, you don't really need to sell it. You just need to make sure they understand it and you serve it up properly. And so fuel, Fuel Sales Boomerang was invented to decrease the amount of spam and just salesman stuff like, you don't need this loan, but I'm gonna sell you on why you. We don't need that. Like, that's why in 2019, over a billion dollars a month in overpaid mortgages were in existence. Over. People were overpaying by over a billion dollars a month because somebody sold them something rather than serving them what they need. So fuel. Sales Boomerang was invented to help bridge the gap of trust, which is why the new name is Trust Engine, because all consumers want from their financial friends. And I don't know if you ever saw me wearing this shirt. I had a shirt that said financial friends with benefits. Right.
- [07:22]
A
I saw that.
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B
You saw you. Okay. Financial friends with benefits. Why did I say that? Because you don't want to just be a financial friend. You want to be a financial friend with benefits for your consumer. And your consumer actually wants that too. They want the benefit. What's the benefit? The benefit is you're going to give me what I need, not what you want to sell me. Right? That's the benefit. And you're starting to see this more and more where it's your, the, the, the consumer. It's, it's about making it clear and transparent consumer to make the best decision. There's lots of little companies coming out now to make sure that the consumer feels like they understand the decision that they're making so they can be confident and trust the decision they're making. So that's Trust Engine. It's, it's, you know, we merged with mortgage coach in 22 again to just fulfill, continue to fulfill the, the mission of making it very easy for the lending institutions to provide extreme value to the consumer at exactly the moment they needed and then be able to walk them through. And Mortgage Coach as you know, makes it very clear what their options are and things like that. So that's so Trust Engine, it's continuing to expand and grow and doing great and very excited, very proud, very, very proud that, that we took something in one of the biggest industries in the world and presented an idea and people were like, oh my gosh, no borrower left behind. I'm in. That makes sense. I mean, so that's, that's Trust Engine and Sales Boomerang, currently fuel. So look, I have a tattoo. A few of them. I have a tattoo on my body that says always doing what I love. Always dwelling is what I call it Always dwelling. Anyone out there highly recommend it. If you always love doing what you love. Get the tattoo. Dwelling. Always dwelling on yourself. We'll have a whole dwelling party one day. So in Fuel, the reason I brought that up is I get a phone call from Todd, Todd Duncan in April of 22, just moved to Colorado. And he calls, introduces himself, which I was cracking up. I was like, thanks for the introduction, Todd. I know exactly who you are. I said, what's the reason for the call? And he's like, look, Sue Woodard said, hey, you should talk to Alex. You have an idea. You should talk to Alex. And I said, great, let's talk. And we got on a call like a few days later and he shared this vision for me and he started by saying, education is broken. He's like, alex, I've been doing this for 30 plus years. It's broken. I get off stage, people run to me and say, are you coming back next year? And my only thought is, this is what Todd is saying. He's like, my only thought is, what are you going to do tomorrow? You're asking about next year. How are you going to implement? What are you going to do tomorrow? He's like, I have a responsibility to figure out how to help people on a daily basis rather than once a year when I come to their conference. And so that's where Fuel was born. Fuel is the first performance as a service platform. It is the Netflix of personal and career development, and it sits on top of a performance analytics platform. That is the most profound approach to understanding who on your team is a habitual underperformer, who on your team is a rising star, and who you should be putting your efforts into and who you shouldn't. Because one of the most devastating situations we find in business is we put our efforts into the wrong people. And then it's like, I know I felt something. I didn't know, but I felt something. And this person's been here for an extra four or five months. And I knew it five months ago. But you didn't know it. You had a feeling.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Fuel makes it clear, makes it tangible. Who's habitually underperforming and who is going to be rising? That's the analytics platform it's built on, but it's designed specifically for performance. So what's very important for everybody to understand is that there is an unlimited amount of knowledge and information out there. Unlimited. I mean, as much information as you want to consume, it's available to you. We don't want to give you information. We want to give you the ability to build a skill. The only way to build a skill is by performing it. So everyone that's listening here, 5% of everything you and I are going to talk about today, 5% they're going to remember from this call, from this, from the show. Just 5%. 10% of what people read, they'll remember. 10%, just 10, 75% of what you practice, you retain. This is a practice platform. Practice the skills. And Fuel is a platform that puts out. We learn from the best. We learn from TikTok. We learn from Instagram. Why are they such great platforms? Why are so many people addicted to them? Fuels a positive addiction. We'll talk about that in a second. But why are they addicted? Two reasons. Number one, novelty. TikTok and Instagram realized that if they're not producing novel content every single day, people are going to Stop being interested. And so what do they do every day? New content goes up every day. The other thing that they've mastered is if I grabbed your Instagram and I used your Instagram, Joe, for 45 days, when you'd come back to it, you'd be like, what the heck is this? EDM and tattoos and soccer and what is all this stuff? I'm not interested in any of this because it's not designed for you anymore. Instagram is like, oh, Joe changed his mind of who he is. Okay, let's recalibrate to make Joe happy. He seems to like tattoos all of a sudden. And then when you came back 45 days later, it would recalibrate when I got there, like, oh, I'm not interested in any of this stuff. So what makes him special? Novelty and hyper customization. Hyper personalization. That's fuel. Every week, new content. And every, every day the system is recalibrating based on the learner and where they are based on their performance analytics.
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A
How are you getting new content every single day?
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B
You know?
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A
Yeah, tough thing to do when it's like performance content.
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B
I gotta tell you something, Joe. It, you know, you know, most people want to hear a struggle story like, oh, he struggled. This was. And of course it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a challenge, but not. But. And you know what? When there's serendipity involved, if you've ever had this experience like this was meant to be, I'm sure you have a million times like, oh, this is. I'm meant to be here. Right? Whatever that moment was, that's how Fuel has been from the very. From the first phone call In April of 22nd, everything just started to the world serendipitous. Oh my gosh, the entire way. So how do we have over 100 instructors? Our goal was to have over just 25 this year. That's all we wanted, was 25 instructors. This year we have over 162 contracted and another 50 something sitting. We're trying to figure out what we're going to do with them. How did this happen? One person who is. His name is Mac Anderson. He was a founder of Successories, plus a few other things. And Todd, he had published two or three of Todd's books. Todd just called him, said, Mac, here's what I'm getting into. Meet my co founder Alex. Check out our vision. And Mac was like, I gotta help you here. And so we said to Mac, we're looking for people who are heart forward they have wisdom that they want to leave here. They don't want to take it with them. They want people to have what they know and they have proven content. And Max, like I got it very first intro. Brian Biro, the breakthrough coach. Incredible. Don Jaeger, one of the most recognizable people in sports writing. I recognize the name incredible, right? And John Murphy. Those are the first three. And then it became a snowball. They were like, those people are like I know people. I, I and that's it. It literally in a matter of months we got the first introduction on March 13th and by May I think we had over 50 instructors. And they all want to produce this content. So it's been a blessing. It's been a blessing. And they keep referring people, they keep referring. I just spoke to somebody from Indonesia yesterday that got Referred by Anne O'Neill. Ann O'Neill is a WNBA star with a focus on neuroscience of performance. And so she gets called by NBA, literally NBA teams come in and do your neuroscience of performance practice and courses with us in the mba. We need more of that. So she, she does, besides being an analyst and she's on ESPN and other places as a commentator as well. Well, she finished the course and she shared it with, with someone and we get a phone call like hey, I have courses. Here's what I do. I'm helping, you know, this one guy Paul is helping kids all over the world get education. He's found a way to break to, to lower the cost of education for third world countries to $10 a year a year per student. It's remarkable. And so we're excited to work with him and give him fuel to give to those people as well. But that's how the content is, is that's how we have so much access to content, is we have hard forward people. And so they're not in it for themselves. They're not ego driven. They're, they're driven by giving and they're just amazing, amazing partners in wanting to do this. They're it's been beautiful and that's how the content's coming together. We have content already created all the way through April of 25. Wow. It's just rolling it out.
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A
Okay, so let's go, let's take a step back here. Because you entered the mortgage industry, what you were, you're a tech guy, you were a tech founder.
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B
Yeah.
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A
What made you want to get into the mortgage space?
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B
So I'm a serial entrepreneur. So it my parents came to the States, they brought me from the Ukraine when I was seven in 1990. By 1993, both my parents had their own businesses. Learned a language, found out that you can actually make a living here, and no one's chasing you. Don't have to look over your back. It's like you can make a living. And I saw them grow their businesses. And at age 20, I launched my first business, which was in the medical space. Completely different then the printing supply space. Then I own a couple nightclubs, an apparel company. And so I've never repeated an industry, not once. Everyone has been in a new space. That's part of the artistry. We talked about art before. That's my art. That's my sport. I don't want to just be pigeonholed into one place. I've always been inspired by people like Richard Branson and. And from. From Twitter and. And Square Jack Dorsey. Right? Twitter, Square. Completely opposite mega success.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And so I've always been inspired by that. So why mortgage? It's a very easy thing. I had a friend of mine, my mentor, come to me, and after I had sold my shares in. In the mobile software company, I opened up a consulting practice so I can watch the kids grow up. One of my things, I didn't want to be as a CEO. That said, if I could only change one thing, I would spend more time with my kids when they were younger. Didn't want to be that CEO. So I took the next two to three years to build a consulting practice so I can watch both the kids grow up. And I could be there for the first words, first steps, all that good stuff. And my mentor Ken contacted me and said, hey, I. I need you to do some consulting for my mortgage marketing business. They own Monster Lead Groups or monst. I don't know if you ever heard of them.
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A
Yeah, I was supposed to have a call with the CEO of that company as well.
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B
Brandon or Ken. One or the other. It was Ken. Ken. Ken Bart. Yeah, that's my buddy. Co founder of Sales Boomerang is Ken and Brandon. And so we got together and I'm looking at their platform, helping them make changes to the Monster brand and changing some things there. And Brandon's like, hey, we're working on this new thing where if you don't close a deal, you should come back to it later because there's a reason why you didn't close a deal. It's not like they don't want a mortgage. It's just their equity isn't where it needs to be or their rates are already low. So it's not that they don't want to do a mortgage. It's maybe not the best time now. And I want everyone that works with Monster to know that they have all of these later leads. That's what he called him. And I said, hey, does this only happen with Monster or does the industry have this problem? Like, oh, it's an industry wide problem. And right before I was consulting for them, I consulted for a company by name of Rain King. Have you ever heard of company Rain King out of Bethesda, Maryland? They were acquired by Zoom info for over 100 mil. Rain King would make it rain. Okay, what did they do? They were able to predict with such high accuracy when a Fortune 500 company, a department in a Fortune 500 company was going to be needing a new piece of technology.
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A
Wow.
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B
Before the RFP went out, before the rfp.
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A
Talk about data predicting models there.
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B
It was incredible. And so I land here and I'm like, this guy can predict when an accounting department in Microsoft needs new accounting software. Why can't we tell when a borrower needs a loan and is actually qualified for it? And that's how we got into the mortgage industry. Curiosity. It's like, why you're telling me everyone, this is broken for everyone? Yes. Why are we fixing it for Monster? Why aren't we fixing it for everyone?
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A
Yeah.
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B
And so that's how I got into the mortgage industry. It wasn't, that wasn't the plan.
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A
It's just Mortgage guy.
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B
No, no. But, but I, but I understand. I'm a people guy. I understand people. I understand what, what drives change, what, what, what inspires people. What, what would make me enjoy an experience better probably is going to help millions of others have that same experience. And so not a, not a mortgage guy, but I'm also not a, you know, I wasn't a printing supply guy, I wasn't a medical guy, I wasn't a nightclub owner, I wasn't an apparel guy. Right. It's. I'm a person that likes to build teams that build businesses together. And the more we just talked about this too, the older we got, the more successful we got. Our life started to change and my dreams got bigger. That's all. You know, helping thousands, then ten tens of thousands. Now we're on a mission to help millions, or maybe a billion can, can fuel impact. A billion people love it.
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A
What do you think inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
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B
My parents 100%. I just saw, you know, I see two, two people that, as refugees take their two kids and 18 pieces of luggage and Travel across the world to an unknown place and within a few years they are owning their own businesses. And you know what I saw? I can articulate it now. Hopefully I don't cry. I can articulate it now. Although crying maybe get, get, get good views and, and repeat and shares. I saw joy in their life. First time I think I ever saw that was when I was probably 10. I was like, they look happy all other times of their life. I think they were stressed or at least it felt that way to me. And within three years of being here, I'm seeing my parents with bigger smiles on their faces less. And I'm like, wow, what changed? And only now I realize they put their destiny in their hands. They started building their own businesses and they said we're going to do this. And so my very first business was a spin off of my parents business. I asked him, I said why don't we open a medical office in D.C. because my uncle who came to the United States after us, uncle in law, because he married my, and, and so when they came to the States, my aunt told my mom like, hey, my, my husband is genius with his hands. He's a physical therapist but he can't commute, he can't talk. Like he's not good at that part, but magician with his hands. And so my mom's like, well I'm, I'm great at communicating to people. Why don't we open up a practice? You do the medical, I'll bring the patients, the clients. They built a huge practice that way. And so when I was helping my mom with sales in that practice, I met an attorney that said, do you have a, a business in any business in Washington D.C. because we were living in Baltimore at the time. And I, we said no, why? He's like three times more business in D.C. so I went to my mom, I was 19 at the time. I said, ma, let's open up an office in D.C. and she's like, we can't. We have a partnership here. We, we have a, you know, we have to stay within a certain range. He can't drive to. It's, it wouldn't work. And I said but there's so much business there. And she goes, look, we actually have somebody that's been wanting to open up an office with us, but because we're in this partnership, we couldn't. If you're willing to be the person that runs that office, we'll make the introduction. But this is, this is what you're doing now. So I became a 33 partner at 19 years old in a medical practice. Three years later, three offices later, $3 million a year later, we're running a business. And. And that was my first entrepreneurial kind of experience. And then it just went off from there. Like, literally every three years, something new.
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A
You know, you're so driven, and. And you got such, like, such an allure about you. You know, your personality is just very captivating.
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B
Thank you.
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A
What do you think, like, really is the source of your mindset?
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B
That's a great, great question. I. I don't. I just love life, man. I can't even say it any other way. I think I'm just super grateful for. To even be here in this. In this country and having this kind of opportunity. Because when I asked my parents, did you ever imagine this? They're like, imagine this. I didn't imagine leaving my town. Imagine this.
- [24:47]
A
They're like, village.
- [24:49]
B
Exactly. Like, we didn't even imagine for a second that we'd ever leave wherever we were. So to this, every day is. Is a. Is a gift because we didn't expect to be out of there. Right. You know, my mom tells me all the time, and she does this through tears. Like, you would have been in the army. You would have been in war, like, at 18. Like, you would have been gone. I don't know if I'd ever see you again. She's like, so. She's like, I'm just happy that I get to see you at 40, right, and see my grandkids and all that good stuff. So I'm just. I'm just inspired by life. I. Like, I've just recently adopted a new way of thinking about life. And that is instead of expectations. Live with curiosity. No expectations. Expectations is what is a driver of stress as a driver of disappointment. But curiosity is just openness.
- [25:38]
A
Yeah.
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B
When you're curious. We talked about this. The powers in the unknown. What does that mean? It means if you can predict it, that's limiting. Watch this. This is something I bet nobody's ever heard or some. Maybe some people. Your imagination is limiting. Think about that for a second. Your imagination is limiting. Why? Because the only thing you can imagine are things from the predictable future or the past. So I ask everyone, look back at your life, Joe. Did your life turn out exactly how you planned it?
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A
You know, I would have never imagined the amount of success I would. I've attained and never even dreamt of it.
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B
You know, like, never even think. That's because your imagination is limiting. Trust in the unknown. Allow the unknown to unravel I always trust in. Yes. Well, that's why you are where you are.
- [26:30]
A
Yeah. I just roll on fate, dude.
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B
And you're so chill and you, you know, like, Cool Joe. I don't know if that's a thing anyone's ever called you. Like, you're, you're, you are fast paced, get things done, but you're just cool. You're just like, let's. What? Let. Come on.
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A
I'm like the jellyfish.
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B
You are. You're going with the flow and that's it. And. And you're.
- [26:50]
A
We're vibing, bro. That's why we vibe. That's why we vibed over the.
- [26:53]
B
Instantly. Yeah.
- [26:54]
A
Like, yeah, it's like. Because I immediately recognized a very similar personality, you know, and that's why I love these circles, these panels that we had, these people that are coming on my podcast.
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B
Yeah.
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A
We all kind of suffer from the same problems and have the same personalities and.
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B
Yeah.
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A
You know, it's a pretty, pretty unique circle to just associate yourself with other founders and CEOs, because it's like a bunch of, like, long lost siblings.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Each other.
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B
A bunch of artists. Yeah. Right. A bunch of artists that. Crazy artists. Yeah.
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A
Who just. Who are.
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B
A passionate work ethic. Like, like, it's not like, oh, and.
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A
They'Re all poverty, like, came from dirt.
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B
Yeah. Most. Yeah. Right, right, right. Every story. Every.
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A
I haven't had one rich founder.
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B
What's the, what's the worst poverty story you've had on the show so far? That's like, what. You came from that man.
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A
Everyone comes from, like, you know, whether their parents beat them or they're abused or they, you know, it was Clinton Sparks who said, you know, he was, you know, that was the hardest one. It was Clinton Sparks when he was like. Because he needs. It's okay because I. He said it on my podcast.
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B
Yeah.
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A
You know, he was abused as a kid. He was molested as a kid. His father was a drunk and beat him. And so. And now here he is, multi Grammy nominated, you know, dj.
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B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then.
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A
But he's not just. That's just, that's the beginning, you know, he's completely sober, never drinks, never nothing. And he, you know, he's produced for Eminem, 50 Cent, you know, everybody. And he's got multiple businesses, has multiple exits, multiple IPOs. Now he's starting the Global Gaming League. And, you know, he came from nothing and abuse and molestation and, you know, just crazy, you know, and then. And he uses that as his power.
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B
Yes, of course.
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A
He's a very thought provoking intellect. He is. And for a DJ to be at that level.
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B
Yeah.
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A
A world renowned. You don't think like a dj, just like Greg Lesson when he came on our panel yesterday, gets up, you got a world famous skateboarder just talking about real estate and investing and LLCs and property acquisitions. Like, that's a skateboarder up.
- [29:05]
B
Right. You know, it's like, and that's again, we go into the unknown. Yeah. There's no way he could have predicted that he'd been standing on that stage and had the success he had when he dropped out of high school and said, I'm going to be a skateboarder.
- [29:16]
A
Yeah.
- [29:16]
B
You know. Yeah. And so that's a, that's a, that's a, that's an important, you know, with your show, I think that's such an important takeaway for people is be okay with the unknown. Don't try to control and predict everything that's going to happen. Just get curious. What, here's, here's a question for you that you can ask yourself every single day, possibly every moment. I said it right before I sat down here. I'm curious what the most fun, most enjoyable podcast experience can be like. That's all I asked. I didn't come in here like, oh, I got a plan, I'm gonna kill it. I'm just curious, right? I'm curious what the best possible conversation could go like with my borrower. I'm curious what the best possible outcome could be with all the follow ups I'm gonna do today. I'm curious what the, what, what the ultimate referral partner relationship could look like. Just curious. Instead of trying to make it, just be curious and then watch what happens because the universe comes to you. You don't have to do anything. Right. We're just observers here, right. We're looking through these lenses, but life is happening. Just like I asked you, could you predict to be here. You said no. So life is happening anyway.
- [30:20]
A
Just be curious now, Alex, I want to dive into this because, you know, we're both immigrants, we're both, we both grew up poor. We both grew up with like, you know, a fire under our ass to just act now we both have kids. How are you as a father instilling that same level of grit that you had to build everything you've built, you know, knowing that, you know, your, your kids, they're growing up in total abundance and affluence and you know, their dad had big exits and, you know, how are you instilling that same level of grit in your kids.
- [30:55]
B
That's such a beautiful question and such a difficult question. My son, 12 year old, told me just the other day when we were in an argument about something about grit, actually is. He said to me, he said, papa, why do you keep comparing your upbringing with what is happening here? Me and my wife are like, whoa. And he's absolutely right. Why are we comparing? He's like, you keep telling me, your parents, you have to clean the house all the time. You have to do things all the time. And every time you ask me to do one thing and I don't want to do it, you tell me, oh my gosh, when I was your age, I was doing a mill. He's like, why do you do that? And he's doing it, he's asking this question through tears. He's crying because we were just in an argument about something that had to do with grit. Like we're asking you to do this. We don't ask you to do a lot of things, just do it. And we of course compare like it happened there. And so how do we instill grit? It's a very interesting question. The way we started to do it recently is I heard a story about this project called the Biodome 2. Look it up. It's really interesting project. It's a project that wanted to, wanted to prove and as proven that they can create the perfect living environment for vegetation. All vegetation. How can we perfect it right? And they did it. They things grew faster, more lusher. It's all of it but trees. The trees would grow faster and taller than trees outside of this dome. But the minute they hit full maturity, fall. What? Fall. What? Why? This is weird. No adversity. There was no wind, no rain, no hurricanes, no crazy conditions. The bark was weak, the roots weren't going down low. You look like a beautiful tree. And then you just tumble over. Because you've had no adversity, you've had no reason to be strong. You've been in perfect conditions. And so I shared this with the kids and it really hit them. And now we say this all the time. We're like, this is the wind to get your roots to go deeper. This is the adversity to experience.
- [32:58]
A
That is a fascinating story. So true. And we just need to somehow put adversity in these spoiled kids lives, right?
- [33:08]
B
And it's not their fault that they're spoiled. We, we actually growing up, I bet you said, I'm gonna give my kids a better life.
- [33:14]
A
Yeah, of course.
- [33:15]
B
And here we are. And now we're punishing them for it because we're giving them a better life. We're like, I had to do so much stuff, and you have to do. No.
- [33:23]
A
What's a mantra in your mind that plays like, what is your mantra for your life?
- [33:28]
B
Dwelling, doing. Doing what I love and doing what I'm good at. So, like, I. I'm always looking for reasons for joy, curiosity. My mantra is just truly being. Being joyful. Because that is a choice. Right. Pain is part of life. Suffering is optional. Right. And so joy. I mean, I. I do everything I can. As a matter of fact, there was a time in my life where I wanted to write a book called Reach for Joy. Just reach for it. Just. Just constantly reach for it. Because it's. It's not something that's here forever. It's. It's like that wise tale where the king was going to kill everyone because he was so angry, because he couldn't find happiness in his life. And these wise men said, what if we could solve that for you? And he's like, you can make me happy. Let us try. And overnight they made a ring. And in the ring it said, this too shall pass. It's all said, this too shall pass. And so good moments and difficult moments. The message is the same. This too shall pass. And so reaching for joy just says that you're constantly on the lookout for things that make you happy. You. You will touch joy. You'll be like, oh, I feel joy. But that too will pass. That will pass. Oh, ow. Terrible experience. That too will pass. Right. It's all. Everything is transient. Everything. This. This whole life is transient.
- [34:57]
A
Yeah, we're just sojourners here.
- [34:59]
B
That's it. Yeah. And so that's. That's my. That's kind of my mantra in my. In. In my life all the time. And, you know, a lot of people. You mentioned this, you know, earlier, too. My. My personality is that of. Of raising the. The. The energy in a room because it's selfish. I like high energy. I like happy people. I want to be around people who are laughing and smiling and having a good time. So that's what I bring.
- [35:23]
A
Yeah, yeah, you just bring the noise.
- [35:24]
B
That's it. Bring the joy. Bring the joy.
- [35:28]
A
A couple last questions I have for you. It's a. What's the personal goal that you have for yourself? A family goal that you have for the family, and a business school.
- [35:36]
B
So cool. Personal goal for myself. Let's see. What is a personal goal for me? It might be tied to family and business. For me, it's, it's peace. Living, living with more peace. I'm a very passionate person, as are you, which I'm sure if I don't know about you, but for me, that could mean those moments where I'm, you know, this too shall pass, but it's a moment of like, high stress. It doesn't seem like it passes fast enough. And that's because there's no peace. Right?
- [36:06]
A
Yeah.
- [36:06]
B
And so for me, the personal mission is, is that peace and, and just knowing, just approaching life as that curious, peaceful person rather than trying to force something to always happen. I spilled some tea on your table. So personal goal is to be more at peace and, and, and live with less and less expectations, especially of people. Yeah, that's one of the biggest things. Just expectations of people. That's terrible, terrible thing to have, at least for me. So that's personal. Business wise, I want to, I want to see if we can impact a billion people. I want to be one of those organizations, one of those companies that has touched a billion people and made a positive impact on. If we can make a positive impact on all those billion. That's, that's, that's the goal. So, so business wise, a billion people impacted and family wise, I want to travel. I want to, I want the kids to experience the world in other countries. Like, I want to live in Europe for a few years. I want to live in another place for a few years, you know, or even a year, six months, doesn't matter. I just, I, I would love for the kids and, and myself and, and Cynthia, my wife, to experience other cultures and just, just see the world from other perspectives. Because United States being the best country in the world, we sometimes don't get that cultural experience they give. Like, you go to Europe and you bump into somebody from Germany and they speak Italian, they speak French, they, you know, they have all these wild life stories and it's, it's just because they can experience brand new cultures in an hour. Right. And so, you know, when you learn a language, it unlocks history in your mind because language is part of history. If you only know one language, you only really have connection to one piece of history. People are going to wonder.
- [38:06]
A
You're absolutely right. Because I know multiple languages and, you know, I understand culture and dynamics and dynamic. That's it, you know, and, you know, where people are from and like the whole Middle Eastern culture and you know, I understand African culture, I understand Asian culture, just because, you know, I'm, I'm cultured yeah.
- [38:28]
B
And, and, and I think not. I think. And I'd like, you know, as a goal, I'd like our. My kids to have that. To go have that experience.
- [38:35]
A
They don't have that.
- [38:36]
B
Yeah, they don't have that right now. They really don't mind.
- [38:38]
A
Mine too.
- [38:39]
B
Right. And it's. It's important. It's that adversity. We need a little bit of wind, we need a little bit of hail and rain.
- [38:45]
A
And I like the biodome explanation you gave earlier. My last question to you. When you're in front of the pearly gates, what do you think God's going to tell you?
- [39:01]
B
Mm, man, that's solid. What's God going to tell me at the pearly gates? I guess. Let's party.
- [39:16]
A
Welcome home.
- [39:17]
B
Welcome home. That's it. Let's party. Let's welcome home. Party's coming up. I think that's going to be what he's going to say. It's going to be great. Let's go.
- [39:25]
A
You've changed so many people's lives. You've brought so much joy.
- [39:28]
B
Come on, let's party.
- [39:30]
A
Alex, if people want to get in touch with you, how do they do? So.
- [39:33]
B
So. LinkedIn Alexis K U T S I S H I n on LinkedIn getting ready. I've never done the Instagram and the Tick Tocks, but I'm getting ready to jump into all that since fuel is is. It's got it.
- [39:47]
A
We got your back, you know, and.
- [39:50]
B
So that way, Alex, at MyFuel IO, they can just reach out. I. I love connecting with people. One of my favorite stories about building a business is that of Airbnb. When they were in Y Combinator and the two founders are sitting in California and grinding, grinding, grinding, and the founder of the Y Combinator comes over to them. What are you guys doing? Like, we're working. Like, why are you here? Like, what? Like, where are your customers? Like, well, we have them in New York. Why are you here? You are never going to get a chance to meet your customers ever again. Go meet them. And that one trip to New York changed the entire airbnb history. Did you hear about this? No. The first person they met with who was already renting his apartment to people on Airbnb. When they walked in, he had a binder four times the size of that with a road map for Airbnb. He's like, I got something to show you guys. And they're like, wait, you just wrote this up for yourself? He's like, yeah. He's like, that's our road map for us. Talked about all the things he would do for customers and how they would experience. And so why do I bring this up? And why did I just share my email on this, you know, amazing podcast that's going to get millions of views and listens is because of that. Like, I want to talk to our customers while I can. I want to talk to them because it definitely happened at Sales Boomerang. I did. I did it. Then you get too big and you can't talk to everyone. And so that's, that's one of the major reasons why I always give out my phone number and email. It's like, I want to hear from you. I want to know what's on your mind. Like, it's, It's. It's important to. To be on the ground floor while you can be on the ground floor.
- [41:21]
A
So I'm always on the ground floor. Alex Katushian, make sure you follow him. And Fuel, Inc. Is next level. It's going to change the game. Thank you guys for watching.