Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 00:33 – John is an “Ohio farm boy” who became the greatest seller in Cutco’s 68-year history by understanding the value of gift-giving and relationships
- 01:22 – John’s “Brooks Brothers experience” opened more doors than $10M in advertising could ever do, and his principles of generosity led him to sell the largest deals of Cutco history out of 1.5 million reps and distributors
- 02:30 – He was gifting knives but also speaking around the country to sales and marketing teams about how to sell and build relationships in unconventional ways
- 02:39 – He teaches about focusing care on the executive spouse, assistant, and kids
- 02:44 – Ruhlin Group started in 2000 and broadened gifting and strategy; how and what to give as gifts
- 03:09 – His team has created gift packages for large companies and pro teams; they serve and help mid-sized privately-owned companies to take them to the next level
- 03:20 – They have a proven process
- 04:13 – Everyone wants to be “green,” but putting your logo on a bunch of stuff from China that’ll end up in a landfill isn’t very green
- 04:45 – The book Giftology
- 05:20 – Story about John’s engagement
- 06:08 – John had a rough spot in 2007-2008; he got engaged to his girlfriend at that time
- 06:30 – He decided to recreate The Notebook; she was living in St. Louis, he was in Ohio
- 07:11 – The Notebook summary
- 07:45 – He wanted to recreate The Notebook; he dressed as an old man and knew her flight so he’d be on it while she was reading his recreated notebook on the plane
- 08:37 – She was supposed to get the notebook from his brother, who was also going to film the whole thing, everything was going as planned until John collapsed
- 08:47 – There was blood everywhere, they thought he was acting, FBI showed up because he was in disguise, he was unconscious, his girlfriend was watching
- 09:20 – They couldn’t stabilize him; they shocked him and took him to the ICU, he wakes up the next day
- 09:58 – He got a low blood sugar seizure because he had cut out carbs; 4 years ago he realized that his wife doesn’t like surprises and his “awesome” engagement story was more for himself than for her
- 11:18 – Moral: Most people give gifts how they’d like to receive them, not the way the other person would like to get them
- 11:25 – How did Cutco put their best salesman onstage?
- 11:38 – Cutco is more of a sales training company with a culture and personal development component
- 11:58 – Top performers are put onstage to extract knowledge and learn; personal development training and growing took Cutco to another level
- 12:22 – At first, Cutco thought his success was fraud and he was getting audited; once they saw it was real they thought “What if we could have 100 John Ruhlins?”
- 13:04 – They still own a distributorship and move massive amounts of Cutco; he’s still directly related with Cutco despite running Giftology
- 13:31 – They (Giftology) use product to drive revenue, sales, and loyalty
- 13:40 – In college, he was doing 1000 times more than the average Cutco rep; he went to companies that bought large amounts of product
- 14:38 – What triggered the idea to go to businesses?
- 14:50 – His mentor (his girlfriend’s dad) was an attorney, connector, and very generous; he had his hands in everything in the community
- 15:32 – He pitched him to buy knives and dropped $2,000-3,000, and wanted to buy paring knives for all his clients
- 15:58 – Why paring knives?
- 16:17 – He said the reason is that “if you take care of the family, everything else in business seems to take care of itself”
- 16:27 – Paul was a master relationship builder and John realized he could use knives/gifting as a unique way to stand out and build relationships and drive revenue
- 17:05 – Use gratitude as a competitive advantage in business
- 17:12 – John is a true farm-boy; he milked goats, split wood, baled hay, etc.
- 18:05 – John’s parents got divorced when he was young, his mother got remarried when he was 7, and his step-dad helped on the farm
- 18:22 – His step-dad was a water engineer, tree trimmer, and ran the farm
- 18:45 – John’s relationship with his real father
- 18:50 – He’s been in the hospital for 4 years, his father worked for him for about a decade selling Cutco; he especially loved working with the Amish
- 20:13 – What drives John?
- 20:16 – Dad wounds, fear/pain or opportunity; there are definitely some deep-rooted things that have caused him to double-down or go the extra mile
- 20:52 – What is the Proven Process?
- 20:58 – A repeatable process year-round and establishing who you want to appreciate in your business
- 21:40 – Grow relationships by knowing who you are sending gifts to and the value of those people; gift accordingly
- 22:32 – He met with someone in banking who manages $50 billion dollars in relationships and they gave their clients a box of chocolates; the gift didn’t match the value of the relationship
- 23:23 – Boiling down the Proven Process
- 23:23 – Identify the value of your relationships as strategically as you do any other part of your business; it’s all about people and showing them that they matter
- 23:43 – As leaders, one of the most important things we can do is engage people with gratitude and appreciation; in gift form, it’s a tangible reminder of that appreciation
- 24:08 – You need to tap into that emotion; we all make decisions emotionally then back it up with data and logic
- 24:35 – Don’t send generic gifts
- 25:08 – How to do it
- 25:10 – Take your top 20% and determine what to reinvest (5% of net profit); concentrate your effort to do one really nice thing
- 26:24 – Tie in something that is important to them and connects to their circle (family/assistant/pets/spouse); the paring knife example
- 26:48 – Know your people and their circles; sometimes pleasing the wife is a better way to leverage a “common hot button”
- 27:40 – Last year he spent $300,000 in gifts and $200,000 of it was knives; he sent knives to wives knowing that if he gets the wife, he has the husband, too
- 28:20 – Something original, thoughtful, and strategic creates a deeper impact; it acts as a trigger
- 29:15 – Gifts that aren’t thought out can even have a negative consequence
- 29:54 – Gift for listeners: 10 Worst Gifts to Never Give
- 30:16 – In the Giftology book, he goes over great gift ideas like knives, leather portfolios; it doesn’t have to be the sexiest gift, but it can be crazy-thoughtful
- 31:38 – It’s not about the spending or the gift, but the thought behind it
- 32:10 – If you are interested in a story mug or making an order, contact John directly at john@ruhlingroup.com
- 32:42 – Cameron Herald’s Brooks Brothers experience
- 33:08 – John offered Cameron dinner and a basketball game; Cameron wanted to shop at Brooks Brothers while he was in town
- 33:54 – His flight was delayed so he couldn’t go shopping; John ordered one of everything at Brooks Brothers to have in Cameron’s hotel room when he arrived, a $7,000 tab
- 34:32 – He went to the Ritz and they merchandised his whole room; he didn’t want to go to dinner or the game at first, but after seeing it he was ready to talk/do anything
- 35:25 – He got John his first $15,000 keynote and is John’s advisor, friend, and mentor
- 36:10 – He connected the dots and figured out what John had done for him; it was silly, ballsy, and crazy…but it worked
- 36:50 – Cameron appreciated the experience and the thoughtfulness but didn’t want John to buy it; the entire experience ended up costing $0
- 37:35 – Boxers or Briefs
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